rocket

I think you might have 3DS Max confused with something else. It not only has over a hundred different shapes you can place, including spheres, cylinders, planes, etc... but also through the use of nurbs you can make extremely complex (or very simple) curved surfaces. 3DS Max and Maya also support individual vertex placement the same as O2, and creating faces from that. Indeed thats how I started, until someone taught me the amazing "Shift + move" method of extruding edges.

True, I think it is possible to make good models by vertex by vertex. However, I have not met a single game artist at my work or other studios we work with that does this method. The artists at my work, too, detest using 3ds Max and hence use Maya for nearly everything. I'm not sure which version of Max you last used, but I certainly wouldn't call it "primative" in terms of 3D modelling. Without all the mathematical modifers, O2 is next to useless for me in creating advanced fuselages. I'm just starting the mesh for the B-1B, and I would say it would be impossible to get the fuselage of that aircraft right in O2. There is much, much that O2 cannot do - such as rendering to texture, baking ambient occlusion, and the hundreds of advanced modifiers that make your models work. As Burts just starting out, I think its really good to have instant visual feedback on things like "normals" so that you can rapidly see when somethings wrong. I think the best thing to do, is to go out there and get a "learn 3d book" (I got one that came with a demo copy of a 3d program), or use a trial mode and find tutorials. So to anyone starting out, my two cents opinion would be to get the basics of 3D modelling totally right first - and THEN launch yourself into O2. The same applies to texturing, do texturing tutorials online first. Otherwise you'll find months of frustration. Learning 3D directly in O2 is not ideal. Probably the best tool to start on to really have maximal control is Maya, as it allows you much more control over normals and the geometry, but then... max has all those modifier stacks! As we head into ArmA2, all the advanced shaders used on NextGen hardware become increasing important, meaning that there is a real need to bake out textures.

We should be okay. In the "real world" I'm actually a Producer myself, and I've been specializing in managing artists ... hence my learning all this art stuff! I'm happy to help review the art assets and provide ambient bakes of everything. Regarding source files, I don't think it matters too much if they're PSD's or not, so long as we ensure the source files are always kept in the same place.

Then use Blender, its free, and it exports to 3DS. You can even use GMax as there are scripts out there that let you export 3DS from GMax. You can also get trial versions of 3DS and Maya. I think its important that those starting out modding see O2 for what it is, its great for fine tuning and getting your model ready for use in game - but I shudder to think of making a serious model in it. Using O2 often requires you to have a good working knowledge of 3D rendering as you go, so its not the best place to learn 3D.

I'm considering my next mod project. Â Would appreciate thoughts on either: - E-2C Hawkeye - P-3 Orion (Probably RNZAF's P-3K2 Orion upgrade) - DDG / Frigate - Aircraft Carrier - A-4K Skyhawk (RNZAF) - B-1B Bomber - B-2 Bomber - F-15 - F-16 - F-35 - NH-90 (again RNZAF) I prefer doing the fast small jets (faster turnaround in modelling), but I note that many have already been done. Â I'm keen to hear feedback from people as to what would be more useful. Â At this stage, I am probably leaning towards the B-1B Bomber but I don't know if this will be of practical use.

Can we still request SVN access? I would prefer to do my work and check into SVN, and I will be doing it in two places.

Its probably the edges, you want to turn the edges so they aren't close together. You want your triangles to be rendered as open as possible, and not all bunched up. Here's an example from 3DS Max of what I mean... First select the object in max... 1. Select "edges" mode 2. Select "turn" 3. Click on the edges to turn them I wouldn't recommend modelling directly in O2, I would model in Max or Maya and then export as a 3ds into O2.

If you crank the specular up, you can see she really is pretty lego in a few places! I tried to cut down the polys pretty majorly, but I think I cut a little deep and got a bit too fond of the relax tool. I'm going to keep a note of that, and see what I can do for Beta. I want to get onto a new project soon. A bomber I think. I want something that doesn't have a cargo hold (which I am doing right now, and have NO polys left to use). And that blows things up! I might see if I can model something on to at least hide the lego-ness of the main area. Maybe you might want to take a look at her for some pre-alpha testing RKSL? Imagine you are busy but if you have some free time...

Whoops, didn't catch that one! How does this look now? Â While I've been in a C130 quite a bit, I never took much notice of the flaps...

Big updates: C130 flying on lean mixture (no trails) ----------- Major progress in pretty much all areas. I've remodelled the flaps to include the inner flaps. They are independently animated, and move backwards and angle downwards at the same time, to ensure the effect is similar to what I have seen when researching the C130. C130 getting ready for takeoff, notice the two sets of flaps deployed ----------- After no joy getting exhausts to work on the engines through the engine (appears to only work for vehicles and ships), I decided to script my own in. C130 with flaps down and engines at full power ----------- I have nearly finished my base textures, in grey USEC markings. I will be producing variants for camo and etc... if I have time but I won't let it hold up the release. I have Specular, Normal, and Detail mapping on the body. Detail shot showing rendering of engines and textures up close ----------- The cockpit is fully animated, I am modelling the gauges with as much attention to detail as I can (including rotating numbers in the altimeter). I will be rebaking it once I have finished modelling. I am animating all gauges that I am putting in the cockpit ----------- The cockpit provides great visibility, and I am hoping to have a rudimentary VOR/NAV script in place that allows you to place VORs and use them with the HSI I have put in. The navigator will have the ability to set this for the pilot. This may not be in for Alpha. The USEC C130 is going to be very much a multi-crew vehicle

Agree here, Mudbox really is the way to go. I use UVLayout for mapping my UV's. Its a great program for getting everything sorted, then I do my painting in Photoshop and Body Paint. Any organic mesh i need to sculpt I do it in Mudbox. Thats how I did my Snow units you see in Spirit's Watkins map.

I'm really with RKSL's comments on this one. I was given the advice some time ago, by one of the artists at the studio I work at, to buy the plastic kitset models of what i wanted to make. Now, I'm not an artist by trade - I'm a Producer - and if I can learn how to model then ANYONE can! Hands down the best advice I have ever received, was to work from plastic model kits. It has made all the difference.

Looking good, always plenty to do with a model. Be sure to consider whats really important for the model to be acceptable in game, or you will be optimizing and editing forever. I ask myself questions like: "how many of these are likely to be used in game?", and then optimize accordingly. If large quantities are likely to be present, I spend more of my time getting the textures down and showing detail in normal mapping. Perhaps you could do a massive poly version, and then bake a normal texture out from this for, say, the tyres? Could be a good way to add detail too it.

Well, good news or the bad news? Good News: - File binarizes a-ok, at ~35mb - Considerable progress made, with animations, textures, and interior Bad News: - Best I've got at downrezing my textures is 4 x 2048^2 for external, and 2 x 2048^2 for the interior. Any less and I personally think the resolution is not acceptable. I may be able to get the exterior down to 3 ^ 2048. How you can help - Should I do two versions? A Hi-texture version and a low texture version? This would be simple for me to do. Keen to hear thoughts on this, particulary from hosting sites (whats the mechanics of hosting two versions of this, will it be confusing to users, etc...). - My config settings for the C130 flight envelope aren't right. Anyone have any suggestions? Any ex-C130 pilots want to take a stab at testing it? Here's tonights fruit, got the cockpit in game for a flight test Binarized!

We've gone for artofwar at USEC for some time now. We found it had the best average ping across all the timezones we use. We have members on the server from NZ, Aussie, UK, Europe, USA, Canada, and Asia without problems.

Thanks RKSL, I realised I made a MASSIVE boo boo with the flaps and have reworked them a little. Â I'll post some screens later today and if you could give me your thoughts, that would be appreciated. I've been doing a rough bake of the interior textures, currently 9 lots of 512x512, at a low sample rate. Â Here are some flat color (no shading, so shading is in texture) that will give an idea of how it will currently look in game. Â I'll be animating as many of the levers as I can. Â Anyone who's flown a C130 before, please contact me as I need some more info.

Yep, I kept the samples real low to get a quick render out. I'll be doing proper samples for the final bake to texture.

Some WIP pictures of the cockpit, ambient baked. I'll be baking ambient textures once I've finished the detail. Taking a bit longer than I wanted, as I had to wait for some plans from a mate of mine from my air force days to send me some engineering plans:

If you have the spare cash, they're great reference material. Â Personally, I have found the BEST way to make a model is too buy a Model Kitset (you know, the real plastic kind) of the model you want to make. Â I generally don't even make the plastic model itself, I just look a the plastic bits on the sprues and use the instruction/reference manuals. Â They typically only cost you around US$40 and you get all the detail you need to make a model. Highpoly reference models from Turbosquid and other 3d Libraries can be very useful for creating baked textures, where you bake a high poly model onto a low poly model, as a texture. A second tip: CUT EVERYTHING IN! This means your mesh should be joined up as much as possible, and faces should not intersect. This makes unwrapping the UV's much easier, avoids Z-fighting, makes creating Mesh LODs easy, and is game modelling best practice!

I've found binazing has a massive effect on FPS and load times. Particularly noticeable with dedicated servers.

Two versions, one cargo one pax. I'll have the interior screens tonight. Unfortunately my first pass at the interior was a bit much for ArmA, so I'm reducing the poly count significantly and going to put most of the detail into textures.

I'll be releasing texture source files for painters to make variants of the C130. However, the aircraft will probably only be released with USEC and USA textures.

RE: 2048x2048 textures. I've been preparing my model with the intention of lowering the textures. However, this is a HUGE aircraft and vehicle compared to other models in game. It looks very inconsistent to have this modelled with a few 1024x1024 textures alongside a HMMVW or such. My aim is to have this as consistently textured as possible alongside other similar vehicles in game. Hence it will have a Normal Map, Specular, etc... and should have a similiart resolution result. RE: MC-130 model. I have been making this from scratch (and already made one MASSIVE mistake re: the inside set of Flaps). I haven't started modifying this for another other aircraft as yet. RE: AC-130. Again, this project goes far beyond my intentions. I want to get this C130 done and then move onto something else for a while (probably finishing my Oil Rig).

About time for an update. I have had a considerable amount of PM's, and unfortunately I have not been able to reply to all of them yet. I will do in due time. I have opted to entirely redo the mesh, and textures. Currently I have the external mesh at around 9000 polygons, and I have run an ambient bake and done inital painting in "Body Paint". I am basing my model off reference photos, and I bought a C130 model kit which I am using also. Currently the exterior is textured with 4 2048x2048 textures, and this means it can run a little slow. I will probably realese it with 1024x1024 textures, but will see. I have been focusing on tidying up animations, such as the flaps, which now operate much like a C130 should. It is now stable, with an okay flight model, so I will be releasing it as an alpha within the next three weeks.

After difficulties getting my Nunivak Island I was developing (huge map) with the upgrade to v1.14, I decided to refocus my efforts. Hence I'm now modelling some units for Spirit to use with his awesome Watkins Island mod. I decided rather than doing unit retextures I wanted to recreate the entire model, so here's where I am at. They're ready for release with the next Watkins Island, but there are still a few bugs (can be seen in photos). I've also started retexturing weapons and am working on modelling snow vehicles. They are completely specular and normal mapped. I made them in 3ds Max from scratch, then imported them into Mudbox and made a high resolution model (over 1 million polys! and imported the OBJ back into 3ds Max, baked the texture onto the lowres one I made, and that made me my normal maps, specular maps, and ambient map to draw from. Here are the pics: