I Offer My Help As A Modeler - Buildings, Props......

[Springheel]

I think the last shot looks great and has a good polycount. Can you save them as .lwo or .ase files and send them to me at eric at mindplaces dot com?

 

I'll talk to the other leads about setting you up as a contribtor.

[Mz3D]

I made the last change on the texture orientation of the long stool that Dram told me, here is the last update.

 

one question before sending you the models,

the stools are composed by different object (legs, planes..) , is this a problem?

[Mz3D]

I can save the models as .ase files, but i heard that there are some problems whit the .ase files in the d3 editor.. or not? how can i save them as .lwo files? is there some exporter plugin for 3ds max?

[OrbWeaver]

There is nothing wrong with ASE files. Use whatever is most convenient for you/your modelling app.

[Mz3D]

ok, i have to send you the texture too? i used one texture taken from a free textures archive on internet. On the website it's written that the textures can be freely used for any purpouse..

[Springheel]

I prefer .lwo if you can do it, but .ase will work as well. Please send the texture as well.

 

one question before sending you the models,

the stools are composed by different object (legs, planes..) , is this a problem?

 

Not quite sure what you mean. Each stool should be one separate model.

[Mz3D]

you've got a new e-mail...

[Springheel]

I've got them, but I'm having trouble getting them working. I can't open .ase files, so I'm trying to modify them manually so they point to a material rather than a .jpg. I'm not used to seeing the following lines in any of our ASEs:

*MAP_SPECULAR

*MAP_SHINE

*MAP_BUMP

 

That information is usually done in the material file, but I don't know if that's what is causing them not to load.

 

If anyone else wants to take a crack at them I'll put them on the FTP.

 

Do you know anything about making material files?

[Mz3D]

in max? you mean to save a .mat file? sure..

if you need the .mat file of the material i used, just tell me

[Mz3D]

mmhh... maybe it's a problem with the specular, bump and shine maps (maps to make the material look realistic in max).

If you want, i can modify the models and use only the "diffuse map", the basic information of the material, and remove the bump, shine and specular map.. then i'll send you again the models, ok?

[Springheel]

I don't know what this means, but I'm also getting an error when trying to import them into a map:

 

Unknown token "*MESH SMOOTHING" while parsing MESH_FACE_LIST

[Mz3D]

ok, maybe i've understood the problems, i'm correcting the models and then i'll send you the new ones

[Mz3D]

i've sent you the corrected models, try with them

[sparhawk]

The models should not have multiple materials. The safest way is to UV map them with a single texture. I think there are some ways to do multiple materials in Doom 3 but I'm not sure how exactly that works. There are limitations in D3 with the ASE format.

[Mz3D]

so do the new models work?

[Dram]

Now they look perfect

 

Hopefully we can get it working soon.

 

I think we should set him up as a contrib no?

[Springheel]

I haven't had time to try the new ones--I should be able to tonight.

 

edit: just tested them. They work and look great! You should be seeing more forums shortly.

[PinkDot]

The models of stools look fine, but IMHO the texture could be better. Why not inspire more and make the textures look like on that picture:

 

http://www.galleryc.net/images/chinese32.jpg

 

 

I think that the more people contribute to this mod the more attention we should pay to the consistency of our assets. The look of these stools doesn't match the look of that table on Springheel's screenshot.

[Mz3D]

wow! it's great to see one's models at work...

 

anyway.. just let me know if i can model something else! (maybe something more important... i've got nothing against stools but..)

[Mz3D]

The models of stools look fine, but IMHO the texture could be better. Why not inspire more and make the textures look like on that picture:

 

just find me a similar texture and i'll replace the old one

[SneaksieDave]

As self-appointed polygon police (not really), I'd say you could take the polys even lower if you make the legs angle-on rectangles (I'm assuming you still have a 648 count?). It may look too obvious in the modeling app, but when textured properly and lit in Doom3, it'll appear to be round. For a very small piece of furniture like this, I'd recommend no more than 400 tris, and that's pushing it, even.

 

Remember the characters themselves in all their detail generally have less than 5000 polys, so decorations should be the absolute minimum they can be. I learned this the hard way, as I recently made a bell (I'd post a link if I could find the link to our internal model site) for the mod which is about 500 tris, despite being very large (which exaggerates edges), round in multiple axes, and having a wheel.

 

Just a suggestion though. They do look good. And ASE format rocks!

[Dram]

The models of stools look fine, but IMHO the texture could be better. Why not inspire more and make the textures look like on that picture:

I think that the more people contribute to this mod the more attention we should pay to the consistency of our assets. The look of these stools doesn't match the look of that table on Springheel's screenshot.

We can always make skins Pink. It's UVmapped, that's the most important. At least for something this small, a better skin would take no time at all.

[Springheel]

anyway.. just let me know if i can model something else! (maybe something more important... i've got nothing against stools but..)

 

More sophisticated models will need a highpoly model first. This is used, by Doom 3 or another tool such as ORB, to generate a normalmap. Then you make a lowpoly version. The normalmap is applied to this to fake all the details of the highpoly version.

 

Remember that texture sizes need to be saved in powers of two: 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, etc. Doom 3 meshes generally have a 512x512 texture, but larger objects can have larger textures.

 

So, aside from the normalmap, what do you need for the skin? You need a diffusemap (this is like a standard texture, just colour and value information). Don't paint any shadows on this; that's done more or less in realtime. Then you need a specular map. This defines the shiny areas, and is greyscale. White = very shiny, black = matte.

 

I'm not sure how easy it will be to do all this without having D3 to be able to test your models and material, but we'll see.

 

How about this next?

oil lantern

http://www.countryporch.com/lamps/images/d...an-oil-lamp.jpg

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/download/store...__1_3_0_img.jpg

(something similar to those references--feel free to improvise)

 

For textures, don't make the glass transparent--it should be a frosty grey opaque, burnt at the top (as if unlit). I'll add a lit skin to it afterwards using our default lit glass texture.

[Domarius]

one question before sending you the models,

the stools are composed by different object (legs, planes..) , is this a problem?

No it doesn't have to be all one connected mesh. The "pauldron" armour on the City Watch shoulders are seperate meshs - geometrically speaking. Of course when we export this as one "mesh" file, we talk about it as being a single "mesh", even though its full of geometrically unconnected peices.

 

Basically, you'll find out all the things you need to do differently when you try and export into Doom 3 and get errors or strange results

[AluminumHaste]

The models of stools look fine, but IMHO the texture could be better. Why not inspire more and make the textures look like on that picture:

 

Don't you mean "aspire" ??? lol, the models look much more realistic with the textures aligned in the correct direction. Nice work.