misfit modeler

by sloppytaco on 02/19/2006 05:22, 53 messages, last message: 02/23/2006 01:54, 39739 views, last view: 05/18/2024 19:36

Hi,

I have gotten some static meshes imported into sauerbraten md2 format from 100% free software.

would you like a tutorial to inlclude with your saurbraten game engine?

I start with wings3d or blender 2.41, export to .OBJ ,
and export texture (skin.jpg) to the saurbraten/models/myfolder
then use misfit modeler...misfit modeler is a bit tricky...
it does not like the materials that are included in the OBJ file format, I delete the material info from the .mtl file with my trusty text editor....
import the OBJ into misfit modeler... (making sure that the texture is visible on the model).
then I add an animation to the model.... named _stop.... I add 1 frame to the animation (very important)
then save as tris.md2

add :
mapmodel 1 1 0 "myfolder"
to the mymapname.cfg file.

the tutorial I am planning will be in your choice of HTML or PDF.
the tutorial will be done with the "noobie" in mind, with lots of pictures...

also,
If you need any game content please let me know, I am a professional CG artist, and I donate stuff to various open source projects in my spare time.

thanks again for Sauerbraten, it is a very neat game engine!

have a nice day

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#14: ..

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 19:35

makkE....

that is just me being sloppy :)

thanks, I need to do some more work on that skin (like smooth the jaggies you are talking about.)

some of the UV's need to be rotated so I am not painting diaganal lines..

yea, btw... it is just prefrence that I use other modelers...

I can do it in misfit ,q2 modeler, and milkshape from scratch.... BUT WHY!! :)

To me it is like getting a job to cut down a tree,
and useing a pockett knife rather than a chainsaw...
sure it is possible to do it with the pockett knife, but the chainsaw makes it easyer and faster to make a nice smooth cut, in a fraction of the time..

Thanks for your comments everyone :)

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#15: ..

by makkE on 02/19/2006 19:45

Hey just seen that tower, looks nice.
But I sort of doubt sauer will have a need for modelled environment like that.
I think one would be rather supposed to do it with cubes, and create custom textures for that if neccesairy. Mind sauer is not a bsp engine where environmental models can easily be included.. and models in sauer are more designed towards props than environmentals I believe.

This might need clarification from someone closer to the code than me.

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#16: ... :p

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 20:04

makkE ,
you are totally right...

the way sauerbraten is now, big objects do not light properly...

I did the tower to break that rule... it will be in a before dawn, or just after sunset (twilight?)...

the player is going to be in a brightly lit courtyard, and above will be the towers,fog and the skybox (rendering now in Texture-maker)

the tops of the Saurbraten blocks will be unlit and so will the model, so the textures match, and the painted on shadows will look O.K. (I hope).

from what little I understand about saurbraten, the cubes do not cull the models not in vision yet (occlude?).

Hopefully in the future we can zone off areas, or set anti-portals to cull off parts of the map.

Are there ways to occlude off parts of the map with blocks? portals or anti-portal properties to blocks?

the only way I see to tweak the models visibility is a LOD radius ...

in the future I am going to stick with modeled windows and doors.... modeled trees.. and other small things......

going to stick with small maps too, focused on 4-6 players... I am going to throw a LAN party soon :P we are defiantly going to have a saurbraten Custom map match! (yes we are all geeks invited)

anyways... I am off to think of my next model.... perhaps a statue or a gargoyle...

thanks again for the comments :P

have a good day everyone !

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#17: oops

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 20:06

what is the ambient light setting called in sauerbraten?

I would like to change color and strength.

some editors call this worldlight, or world_ambient.

it is the constant light in the maps...

thanks in advanced

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#18: ..

by makkE on 02/19/2006 20:33

Slow down man!
I would strongly suggest you read all the docs first, and get to know sauerbraten better.
Take your time and read the "sauerbraten developement thread" and the "sauerbraten timeline" thread, and generally all things concerning it (all the docs you find in cube and sauierbraten folders)

If you really want to contribute, you´ll need to know what this is about.

Plus I find it a little weird how you rush your stuff...

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#19: OBJ exporter!

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 20:40

Neato!

I got the map .OBJ dump to load in misfit modeler...

not wings or Blender yet...
here is the error:

Importing OBJ file: "z:\Huge_tits_and_Nipples!!\sauerbraten\sauerbraten\mie.obj"
file length: 41816
vert:31843 texverts:0 smoothgroups:0 materials:0
found 0 smoothing groups.
ERROR: found 316 faces reusing the same vertex. everything else went okay.
obj import time: 1.05385401865



Which is quite OK, I will find this vertex! and eliminate it with my trusty text editor!

looks cool... all the faces are the right direction in misfit modeler! and now I know the scale I need!!!

If I can port this over to blender would mean that you can make some of your blender game engine maps geometry with sauerbraten!! :)

it is not textured BTW....

anyways, back to the tests :p

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#20: thanks

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 20:51

@makkE

Thanks man!

I prefer to RTFM first, I did not know that any cube things where relivent in sauerbraten... cube is much better documented...

Thanks, i will try there :) I bet I find the ambient light settings :)

I read all sauer DOC files...

I will look for the development thread too...

you are not only helping me, you are also helping my students, and after I make the lessons I intend on shareing with everyone else too :)

thanks!

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#21: Re: thanks

by Aardappel_ on 02/19/2006 22:47, refers to #20

mr taco,

its cool you use wings3d, its the best modeller UI I have ever used (better than max and any commercial modellers).

However I don't think going via .obj is a valid way of creating md2s, especially if you make them animated you want to tweak the geometry afterwards and this will become very cumbersome.

I consider md2 and md3 standard formats, so how they are produced is not a sauerbraten issue. What would be good to include in the documentation is a list of all ways to produce md2/md3, and specific hints as to which software does what well etc.

also:
4 sauer units == 16 quake units == 1 Cube unit

lighting on models WILL change. They will cast shadows at some point too. When, remains to be seen.

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#22: thank you

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 23:07

Hi Aardappel_,

Ok,

I will investigate every way I can find to get a MD2 into sauerbraten.

you mentioned MD3! is this a valid format for saurbraten static meshes? I much prefer this format :) I think blender has a very well maintained md3 script floating about I may try... i also own milkshape, which poops out MD3 files with ease :)

Thankyou for the unit conversion! I will definately use that information :)

Have a nice day! :)

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#23: MD2

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 23:13

BTW

blender MD2 exporter will work with sauerbraten, but you must go VIA misfitmodeler to get all the trianges faceing the right direction...
just load the tris.md2 into misfit modeler, and then save as .MD2

the animations port to misfit modeler, I have not tried to port an animated mesh to sauerbraten (I dont know how to tweak weaponds or models yet... )

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#24: ..

by makkE on 02/19/2006 23:18

Afaik, ms3d, mm3d and q2modeller (of course) are the only programs that will give you working md2´s.
When it comes to animation, q2modeller and mm3d are the ones offering complete control (since they offer frame animation)

Ms3d only translates it´s bones and joints to frames.

Btw, just curious: Where do you work/teach, taco?

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#25: teaching

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 23:42

I teach in Hawaii USA,

I am a Freelance CG artist, I teach classes at local private schools, and I do home teaching for adults at night....
I also do free work teaching Linux at our LUG... sometimes i help recycling computers...


I am hoping to use sauerbraten to teach newbies basic mapping skills....I am sure now that I can use it for much much more! in both windows and linux boxes!
I am very excited that after we create our content in the class , that the students get to play against one and other.

the class will be to lure them into more advanced classes later. using reality factory and the blender game engine. The highest level will be scripting and coding classes... (DEV C++ and PYTHON, more than likely in a linux environment)

anyways..

thanks for your interests...

Talking about myself is one of my favorite things to do!

:)

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#26: other stuff

by stinky taco on 02/19/2006 23:57

Here is what happens when I spend time on my modeling and such....

some of my Zbrush work here..

http://s91842597.onlinehome.us/NEXTGEN/index.html

I will try to upload some more stuff later...

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#27: ? for stinky taco

by MitaMAN in the cave on 02/20/2006 01:21

first off welcome to the forums! your stuff so far looks real nice, i can see you've got talent (and that your not just a bunch of talk).
you seem to know your 3d apps, so i've got a question if you don't mind. i also do alot of (solid) modelling (manufacturing tooling/design) using AutoCAD and INVENTOR. i'm a wiz with those apps, but the models they create are very hi-poly. AutoCAD can export to .dxf and inventor can export to .igs, then i import those into into 3dmax to export them as .md2.
do you know of any way to turn a hi-poly model into a lo-poly model suitable for use in a game? some sort of "conversion app" or some way to do that in 3dmax?
i suppose i could just learn some of the software you spoke about, but i have so little free time to learn new apps (work, family, elderly parent, etc...). any help to point me in the right direction would be appreciated.

thanks in advance-MitaMAN

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#28: ..

by makkE on 02/20/2006 01:37

Mitaman, there´s some apps that can lower poly counts.. however that is not too suitable for low poly game stuff..
Most I´ve seen are rather for tuning 100k models to 30k or so.
What you can try is ms3d´s directX mesh tools.. move the slider and press that "save" icon. Though lowering might still require to touch up some places here and there, since automatic stuff won´t get you much control..

Can´t you tell autocad or inventor to "please keep a low poly count" ? Well maybe someone knows of a low poly app close to cad/inventor.

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#29: Re: ..

by MitaMAN in the cave on 02/20/2006 02:00, refers to #28

makkE, no, as far as i know there is no way to "control poly-count" when creating models in autocad/inventor. the poly-count can be lowered when viewing a model (for slow computers), but the actual model is always hi-poly. i guess the models are hi-poly because they are used to create actual precise machined parts.
i think also the way i model (in cad) is "different" then you guys are used to. it's more like extruding, cutting, turning material (like on a lathe or milling machine) instead of using "triangles" to create a mesh (surface?).
i'm just hoping to find an easy way to make map models using the apps i use every day.
thanks for the input-mitaman

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#30: ..

by makkE on 02/20/2006 02:12

Mitaman, extruding and doing boolean cuts and all that is also very common in low poly modelling.
Creating verts and faces by hand is just and additional way of doing stuff..
As far as I know max is really the closest to autocad (weren´t those companys related in the past?)
However every major modelling app seems to have poly reduction plugins, you might just try outr some (max, lightwave and blender have for sure).

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#31: ..

by sinsky on 02/20/2006 02:38

I think it's called "decimate" in Blender. To use it in the current version (2.41), select a mesh (right-click), enter edit mode (hotkey F9), click on modifiers => add modifier => decimate. Left-click on the decimate value and drag it left or right to change.

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#32: Re: ..

by MitaMAN in the cave on 02/20/2006 03:03, refers to #30

makkE, i guess my "problem" is i wanted to use apps (cad/inventor) for purposes they are not meant to be used for (game map models). cad/inventor are really meant for creating machined parts, and thats what their supposed to do. it would be a similar situation trying to use 3dmax or blender to make machined parts, those apps are not meant to do that.
yes, max, cad, and inventor are by the same company. but in their "great wisdom" the file formats for each app do not import/export properly between each other or into other apps without alot of extra work and conversions.
cad can export .dxf and .dwg 3d models, but inventor only imports 2d .dxf, inventor can export 3d .igs files but cad can't read them, and on and on. there are plugins available for inventor, but they cost thousands of dollars.
i was just looking for an easy way to use the apps i know how to use to make map models.
i'll just stick with making maps, and leave my modelling skills for making designs at work.
mitaman

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#33: SILO

by stinky taco on 02/20/2006 03:13

Hi MitaMAN in the cave ,

there is an application just for that called a Topography brush...

Right now the only place to get it is silo 3D (100$)....Silo is cool, like wings 3d, only not as many tools, and cost 100$...

I use the tool when I make super high poly Zbrush models...

it allows you to trace your model, and draw your desired toptgraphy (within reason)...

also as sinsky says, there is a Decimator tool in blender ,and other 3d applications. decimateing is a great tool! you just dont have much control over the output mesh.

Rhino, and Curvy 3d have a Shrink wrap feature, which is simular to a Boolean Union function... only you can do it to many, many many models at once...you select your desired mesh density, then surround the meshes you wish to make into one mesh, then the shrink wrapper will go around all your models, and make a "shell" with your desired mesh density.


Rhino will allow you to port directly from Autocad.

truespace 6 also has a Autocad importer.... i suggest staying away from Caligari products.... they are half baked and double priced.



Zbrush 2.5 will have a topography tool also in the near future...



well i hope this helps... :)

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