tain.totalcodex.net

i have looked in a few different places to find a guide to making a 3d model (building) and units. but found nothing helpful. if you know of any good ones or have any advice, post them here. thanks in advance.

Do you mean how to make 3D units in a 3D application? If so, which application(s) are you (thinking of) using?

If you have access to Poser there's an old Vista unit making tutorial on the myth graveyard or strangelet's unit making guide.

well i want to learn on the programs i have, auto cad and 3ds max, but if i have to i can get any other program

i don't know the application myself, but if you have 3ds max 7 it has the "character studio" plugin included in the software - which looks like it would make the initial unit making and basic animations a breeze.

Aye ultimately you can apply the techniques described in the tutorials to any model application you're familiar with, providing it's got the ability to add bones and animations.

The key things to get right are the camera angles (both vertical and view angles) and the lighting.

I believe the top rated tutorial over the years has been Strangelets Unit Making The Strange Way.

just to be 100% clear, if i wanted to make a simple 4 wall building, i would make it in 3d, have a texture on it (brick or whatnot) and take screen shots from front, back, left, right, and top. change to whatever they need to be to import into oak i assume and set it up in fear for it to have those textures?

No, you would need a classic Mac program called MeshWorks. There are other details, but I rather let someone who knows more about this answer. For units you do make renders from various views, index them, import to Oak, and do anything needed like hue changes and sequences.

i can't say i know more about than anyone else, but putting 'model' in the advanced-title-search box on mythgraveyard.mything.org got me a nice looking list of articles/tips about models.

http://mything.org/index.php?a=search&o ... ame&v4=all

of most relevance perhaps is this post from the old Vista forums (someone with more knowledge can address whether the limitations mentioned are still accurate):

http://mything.org/index.php?a=article- ... 0000000668

A little searching is a powerful thing.

===================
Document author : vista
Source : vista

Model must be a triangle mesh provided in 3DMF format from Meshwork or from FormZ with optimiser.

The textures must UV mapped and be no larger than 256 pixels squared.

The textures may only have dimentions that are to the power of 2 (2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256).

The model may not exceed 512 polygons (in reality myth crashes around 509).

Be careful of normals on polygons. In myth they may not be two sided, one side will be transparent.

There is a limit of 128 models within Myth. This limit also includes animodels.

There is a set limit of the number of frames an animodel may have. About 32 frames for all animodels on a map (I believe).

And you may not have more than 8 unique animodels on a map. From this you may conclude that models are a pain and that Myth sucks. I would agree. "

=====================

so in other words.. it would be easier to have a building "scenery" and not a model.

Depends on what you want to do. Models can be very large and can be passable and have animations. e.g. ramps and stairs and bridges are models, as is the windmill on willow creek, and the gates that raise and lower in the M2 solo level where you sneak the pathfinder duff into the baron's castle to lower the drawbridge/gate.

Point of view changes are much smoother with models than with scenery as models are drawn dynamically so you have 360 degree views as you rotate your view around a model, scenery rotations are limited to 1/4/8/16?(I forget what the max is) so the rotation is more jerky/less fluid.

If you really want to do models, there are ways of running old mac software on windows computers, if you search the forums I am sure you can find detailed instructions. OR simpler yet, would be to find a model that is close to the shape you want and just create the new 'skin' (collection) so that it looks like a new model. If you want to see what models are available in the standard Bungie SB & Chimera maps you can see them here. (there are also scenery galleries at that link if you are interested)

I'd arguably say myself and ozone know more about making 'environment models' as we call them, than any other person in the community today. In fact, I'd go so far as to boast we probably know as much or more than the original guys making models did back in the day... the guys who wrote the apps.

If you are indeed looking to make 'environment models' and not 'unit models' I can be of great assistance. Jon God recently mentioned to me that he wants some tutorial with Meshwork to make environment models. Perhaps we can coordinate a learning group session.

that would be great. is meshworks a mac or pc program? or both?

pyro wrote:...you would need a classic Mac program called MeshWorks.

steelaxe wrote:that would be great. is meshworks a mac or pc program? or both?

read up.

ps. "classic mac program" means it doesn't run on newer Intel macs, it only runs on older preIntel (aka PowerPC) macs.

Got Steel Axe running a copy of Meshwork through Sheepshaver on his Vista machine. Tutorial commences tommorow.