various pieces of info

[Silentdances]

is there any way that the info for various scripts and such could be stickied (is that even a word?) for creating facings with ones own models.. also the suggested software (not that I need that part, but a newbie would likely find that pretty useful).. or even possibly start a new section that has to deal with that.. (could include such things as how to do animations, guides.. etc)

[Periculi]

We are working on an extensions and script reference section, and should be getting some help for you on those topics as well.

3D modeling is a little world of it's own, however- you can find a lot of threads that offer some advice by searching the forums for:

Blender
Wings3D
Graphics
Ship Facings
3D models
Textures
Playership (not the best search term for this)

and other similar terms.

[Silentdances]

er.. woops.. sorry about that.. that pm was meant to be a reply

[Aury]

If you have any questions, I might be able to help.

1) To create facings render each angle in a full 360 rotation that you plan to use (20 facings would be 0-18-36-etc.etc.)
This is very easy in 3dsmax since the renderer can be set up to output from # frames and you only have to create every 4 frames in order for it to all line up right
2) Blender is free, and it works. Personally having been "raised" on gmax, I find 3dsmax to be FAR superior to Blender.
Animations and facings in a file:

You have a file and it's a rectangular bitmap composed of squares each X units high and wide.
The forumula for size is:
height = X*facings
width = X*frames
For say, a 20 facing ship with 3 animations the boxes would be layed out like: (#=facing degrees, letter=frame No. in animation)

Code: Select all

000A 000B 000C
018A 018B 018C
036A 036B 036C
054A 054B 054C 
072A 072B 072C 
090A 090B 090C 
108A 108B 108C 
126A 126B 126C 
144A 144B 144C 
162A 162B 162C 
180A 180B 180C 
198A 198B 198C 
216A 216B 216C 
234A 234B 234C 
252A 252B 252C 
270A 270B 270C 
288A 288B 288C 
306A 306B 306C 
324A 324B 324C 
342A 342B 342C 

[Silentdances]

1) To create facings render each angle in a full 360 rotation that you plan to use (20 facings would be 0-18-36-etc.etc.)
This is very easy in 3dsmax since the renderer can be set up to output from # frames and you only have to create every 4 frames in order for it to all line up right Very Happy
2) Blender is free, and it works. Personally having been "raised" on gmax, I find 3dsmax to be FAR superior to Blender.
Animations and facings in a file:

grew up on playdough (DOS), currently use wings3d.. using blender makes me want to set my machine on fire.

You have a file and it's a rectangular bitmap composed of squares each X units high and wide.
The forumula for size is:
height = X*facings
width = X*frames
For say, a 20 facing ship with 3 animations the boxes would be layed out like: (#=facing degrees, letter=frame No. in animation)

At this moment there aren't any animations. (have ideas for things later on, that will require that though) it's just getting the graphic to get it all down pat. I had thought I had run across links for scrips that I could use with blender, that would have given me the correct renders (I might be able to do it in wings3d, but I'm lacking the information on how many degrees to rotate the model in order to have the correct look.. like say.. viewing from top down). also missing the information for the degrees for the lights.. and lastly, not sure if its the size of the graphic or something else within the game that sets the size of the ship in-game.

[Aury]

If you're using wings 3D-
model in wings and texture/render in bryce 5.5 (recommended by digdug)

ask him for more information since those are the programs he uses.

[dvlenk6]

Blender would a good app. It can do everything that you need in one app; except maybe you might find painting textures easier with a 2d editor.
It is free, and has quite a few free sophisticated GI renderers that integrate well with it, if you find it's default scanline renderer to be inadequate.:
Kerkythea
Indigo
Sunflow
And others besides...

Wings3D - I use that a lot, it's a free, quick, and easy to learn polygon modeler. It can only polygon model, but is very good at that. It has some integration with certain renderers (POV-Ray, mainly); but I never render directly out of it. I'm a mentalray junky.
Bryce 5.5 for free. It was like $90 when I bought it. Easy to use, no GI, somewhat slow rendering. It's more for landscaping, but you can do than that with it.

Here are some Bryce renders from 2006 and earlier. Some of those were with B4, some with B5. There's a B6 now that can use IBL and has some other ding dongs thrown in. Nothing too much different than B5.5 though.
Most of the models in those are made with Wings, except the people figures, those are Poser figures.
Might want to look at DAZ Studio, if you are interested in rendering people. It's free, and a sort of watered down (but being quickly developed) Poser, and the people that make it are the dominate figure vendors. They give away a lot of free stuff...Free stuff for Poser (and D|S) is everywhere.
Same people now own Bryce, and Carrara (a more advanced 3d package).

[digdug]

yeah, I use Wings 3D because it's very easy to use.
Following the included tutorial (a dog house!) was easy and i learnt that way all the basic functions in a few hours.
Te interface can be switched between noob and pro, making the learning stepwise.


and I use Bryce because it's the only package that I know how to use a little. (place tha camera, create a light, import model, render)

Blender is still a mistery to me, but I'm (slowly) trying to understand and use it, because i can clearly see that is a powerful complete package.

[Silentdances]

picked up bryce.. currently learning it. I am curious (because I can't find any information on it).. is there a way (hot key/key command) to get bryce to show the models in solids, rather than wire frame (other than rendering it)

different question..
if I have a player ship.. and I want to make a turret (not automatic), that pointed in the direction that the shots were fired (I'm guessing it would have to be dead center of the graphic).. is this possible.. or will the game see them as two different objects.. .. is something like that even possible?

[digdug]

different question..
if I have a player ship.. and I want to make a turret (not automatic), that pointed in the direction that the shots were fired (I'm guessing it would have to be dead center of the graphic).. is this possible.. or will the game see them as two different objects.. .. is something like that even possible

not sure i understand your question, you want a weapon that can shoot like an omnidirectional weapon and that can lock on the direction of the target ?
(shooting always behind for example ?)

mmhhh I have an idea on how to do that. (involving the switching omni/non-omni laser i made and part of the code of the tractor beam)

[/quote]

[Silentdances]

not sure i understand your question, you want a weapon that can shoot like an omnidirectional weapon and that can lock on the direction of the target ?
(shooting always behind for example ?)

mmhhh I have an idea on how to do that. (involving the switching omni/non-omni laser i made and part of the code of the tractor beam)

actually meaning the graphics side of it.. say you have a ship.. it has a visible turret.. a separate image than the player ship image.. as your weapon tracks targets and fires.. the turret moves with it .. eye candy.. making it look like there's an actual turret firing ..

[dvlenk6]

picked up bryce.. currently learning it. I am curious (because I can't find any information on it).. is there a way (hot key/key command) to get bryce to show the models in solids, rather than wire frame (other than rendering it)?

You supposedly have to be using OpenGL video drivers; but my directX9 and DX10 both work with shaded previewing for Bryce.

On the right hand side of the main viewport there is a column of icons. Click and hold the Cube icon for a few seconds. You'll get a menu of various viewing modes:
"Smooth Shaded" gives you a neutral gray material w/ shading in the viewport.
"Textured Shaded" shows the actual texture w/ shading.
"Wire Textured Shaded" overlays the wireframe on the textured shading.
If you just click the cube icon, the viewport will toggle between rendered and wireframed; but will never go to shaded views.

HERE are all of the keyboard shortcuts and easter eggs.

[Silentdances]

ohh.. thank you thank you thank you