detailed weapon models (attn. WardenMac)

[Quu]

I had a question about getting a highly detailed weapn model made and cobra6 said you are the one to talk to.  I made some really detailed models and most of the weapon doesn't get generated in the game.  I saw a picture of one of yours and it is awesome.  Thats what I'm looking for.  Cobra6 said something about it being in the textures you use.  I thought it was the models, but I know diddly, so what the secret?  Thanks.

[WardenMac]

They go hand in hand Quu. I only use cylinders, lines, and tubes to build my models. There are other shapes and techniques many people use. I only use those listed above. You can build the most detailed model, and if the texture is bad, the weapon will look bad. Also if you have a great texture and do not "shape" the cylinders, handguards, rails, scopes, etc, to fit the texture, it will look bad as well. But cobra is correct, we always start with big hi res pics of our weps, or in most cases we build our own.

[Quu]

That's cool thanks.  Two more questions though, what do you mean build your own, and what do you use to apply your textures.  Thanks again for the help.

[Quu]

My bad 1 more, what tut's would you recommend to get better at this?  Thanks.

[WardenMac]

Earl over at Baconbomb.com has a good tut, there are many others. Really depends on how knowledgeable you are on 3D Max. You can also look me up on Messenger, email is stephenmcadams@hotmail.com, I will be glad to walk you through some of the processes.

[Quu]

I'm decent at modeling, I've made my own, I just wanted them to look better than what they do.  Here's the only weapon I made.

http://web.nmsu.edu/~jon3z/ScreenShot7.jpg

 I was wondering why the lines between vertices showed up.  I looked up the tut's on baconbomb and they are very helpful thanks.

[bronto]

Since we're on questions, how do you combine a bunch of polygons into a single mesh in 3dsm?

[Quu]

If you mean make a whole bunch of object become one, I choose one that has a material, modify, edit mesh and go to attach list in the edit mesh menu.  the different shapes will become one sigle shape.

[WardenMac]

I'm decent at modeling, I've made my own, I just wanted them to look better than what they do.  Here's the only weapon I made.

http://web.nmsu.edu/~jon3z/ScreenShot7.jpg

 I was wondering why the lines between vertices showed up.  I looked up the tut's on baconbomb and they are very helpful thanks.

Its been so long since I looked at the export options screen, look at the export options window, and either check or uncheck the weld vertics section. Do the oposite of what its showing.  That will take care of the lines.

Also, ensure you size your textures correctly. It appears the one you used is not sized correctly, if not, the model will appear "blurry" and lack detail. I always use 512x256, 512x512, 800x600, or 1024x512 ( this is rather large though, the rsb alone will be 1meg). The sizes listed above are restrictive I know, the trick is to cut the weapon into pieces and texture them seperately. I do not like this method, it takes alot more time, but sometimes you have no choice. Many modders acutally prefer this method, they will take and texture each part of the weapon seperately, as stated, its more time consuming but better resuols can be achieved.

[WardenMac]

That's cool thanks.  Two more questions though, what do you mean build your own, and what do you use to apply your textures.  Thanks again for the help.

When I say build your own, I mean taking several pieces of different weapon pics and applying them to make one weapon. Piecing them together so to speak.

I do not understand what you mean when you say "what do you use to apply your textures?" Are you speaking of photoshop or max?

[WardenMac]

Since we're on questions, how do you combine a bunch of polygons into a single mesh in 3dsm?

Can you be more specific? What do you mean when you say combine? Are you speaking of taking several different sizes of cylinders and making, say for example a scope? If so I only use one cylinder to make scopes. I increase the amount of sides I need and use edit mesh to shape the cylinder. Let me know if this does not answer your questions.

[bronto]

Sorry, that was a noob thing for me to post, but i was confused at the time. The QOB converter wanter single mesh 3dsm files  

[WardenMac]

The QOB converter wanter single mesh 3dsm files  

? I have no idea what that means man, sorry

[bronto]

it means i figured it out myself, ty anyway.

[WardenMac]

Glad I coulb be of service  

[Quu]

Thanks for the help with the weapon modeling.  they came out much better after I turned the weld vertices off when I exported.  Now to figure out how to get the left hand and  the 203 to work right.  Thanks again.

check out the pics

[WardenMac]

Thats good stuff man. As far as the left hand goes, you do use the helper points dont ya?

[Quu]

Yeah I used the points, but when I move them around they don't seem to like it.  They work fine for the 203 and the tacgrip, but on the regular m4 hand guards the left hand always floats underneath, or is up inside the handguards.

[WardenMac]

You just have to play with them to get them correct. I only move helper points in the "top" and "left" views in max. Also only moving them using the x or y axis.