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Modelling an new area!

Quanon

By Quanon
in Holowan Laboratories

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TriggerGod Newbie

TriggerGod

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3ds Lax Bible! o_Q *Max

 

There is like a book for each version of the program, it comes with cd/ dvd packed with small tutorials to teach you about the differant tools and gizmos in the program.

There is a book for a lot of major programs, isn't there? I have like, 3 Photoshop books :p

 

I'll be fair, it takes time and practice to get a good grasp of the modelling... thing... to find your work flow :)

 

It took me a serious 2,5 years to get to a point where I'm sort at "ease" to model small objects.

While working on another flow, I was able to model small objects at ease in about 6 months. It all depends on how you work. And if you have any good tutorials to help you through the process.

 

I got a sort of "click" moment when I did a tutorial on modelling a car.

Its a good way to get to know all the extruding, connecting etc...

I'm still trying to figure out how to model bigger models (ie cars, head models, bodys, etc)

 

Anyway, you can't rush art ;)

Tell that to the people who rushed The Last Dinner. :p

 

If you want to really get into the inner workings of 3dsm, try doing their free tutorials on their site

Or, what I did, was download great 3d models off of sites (usually in OBJ format, because back than I only had GMax. Now I download OBJ, 3ds, and max files. I sometimes still do this) and study how they did their models.

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Malaksjaw Newbie

Malaksjaw

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If you want to really get into the inner workings of 3dsm, try doing their free tutorials on their site

 

I thought about doing that first, then I decided to post here to see what ppl would suggest =) AWESOME mod your working on by the way...

 

 

3ds Lax Bible! o_Q *Max

 

Sweet. Really appreciate your input.

I'll check that one out next time I'm at Borders ^^

 

Anyway, you can't rush art ;)

 

Believe me I know. I've been learning Photoshop, nonstop, for a few months now and I still have a long way to go...and modeling is more complex imo.

 

Or, what I did, was download great 3d models off of sites (usually in OBJ format, because back than I only had GMax. Now I download OBJ, 3ds, and max files. I sometimes still do this) and study how they did their models.

 

Great idea. I might just do that.

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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While working on another flow, I was able to model small objects at ease in about 6 months. It all depends on how you work. And if you have any good tutorials to help you through the process.

 

I consider my area models small :xp:

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to model bigger models (ie cars, head models, bodys, etc)

 

Most of these need guides/ templates, you can't really just start out of nothing and expect to end up with a great result, unless you've done it a hundred times :p

 

Anyway, practice, practice!

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Malaksjaw Newbie

Malaksjaw

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Hey guys I got my first problem...well more of an annoyance. When I either rotate or pan my camera view, the color of objects disappears. As soon as I cease panning or rotating the camera object colors come back. When I say colors I think they are the actual Polygons. So I can only see the wire frame? Dunno if that's what its called =P When I watched your tutorials I noticed that doesn't occur to you.

 

An example with the room I'm building following the tutorials...

 

So this is what I see when ever I pan or rotate my camera:

 

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7955/badbix.jpg

 

This is how it looks when I'm not doing anything:

 

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3848/14337616.jpg

 

As you can imagine its kind of annoying. Is there a setting for changing it? Or is it video related?

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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As you can imagine its kind of annoying. Is there a setting for changing it? Or is it video related?

 

Hmm, whenever I rotate I do get that effect now and then, perhaps less then you ofcourse.

 

But the object stops being wireframe after you rotated?

 

It could be I've set the render quality of my Perspective to high, allthough I can't actually remember where this is set... o_Q

 

It could be your PC doesn't want to render because it takes to much power and memory.

 

I don't know what you're trying to do really when you're moving the camera, I never model and move the camera at the same time :p

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Malaksjaw Newbie

Malaksjaw

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It could be I've set the render quality of my Perspective to high, allthough I can't actually remember where this is set... o_Q

I guess I'll start fooling around with the settings then and hopefully find such a setting.

 

It could be your PC doesn't want to render because it takes to much power and memory.

I though about it...mainly because I'm on a laptop with integrated graphics. GeForce 8200M G. Umm but I still don't know. I have 2gig of ram.

 

I don't know what you're trying to do really when you're moving the camera, I never model and move the camera at the same time :p

 

Not trying to do anything just posted pics to explain. I don't move the camera and model at the same time either but it is still bothersome for when I'm building rooms...kinda hard to move inside and every time I do I can hardly see changes I make. Anyhow its enough to irritate me :¬:

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disbeliever Newbie

disbeliever

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I followed the written tutorial and when I load it up ingame its just black and all I can see is my character. What did I do wrong. Do I need a lightmap file or something?

 

Did you add the auroradlights? and the auroratrimesh i believe. One is the fake lights that simulate lights, while the d lights make the actual light. You need to make a wide radius for the d lights based on how big your area is.

 

Also, are you sure your character is spawning inside your area? I do not know if it is possible, but maybe your spawning outside your area somehow. Check the x,y,z

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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where can I get 3ds max9? I can only fin 3ds max 2010(30-trial is what I'm using), and it doesn't have the auroratrimish.....or NWmax.................(no version for 3ds 2010)

 

Like HK said NWmax is not a part of 3Ds Max.

 

I believe Disbeliever is using 3Ds Max 2009 with the latest version of NWmax avaible ,0.8 or something of the like IIRC.

 

It seems to work properly for him.

 

I guess its save to use the 2010 version, often there isn't that much difference between these versions.

 

Well the jump from Max 9 to Max 2008 & 2009 was kind of big :lol:

 

@Canderis: Disbeliever beat me to it but I'll try to sum up what could have gone wrong:

 

- do you have a .lyt file?

 

- Have you set a high enough value in the Sunambient& SunDiffuse Structs found in the .are file?

 

- Add some AuroraDlights, they're found in Create=>Helpers, not to far from the AuroraBase button ;)

 

- Check you're spawning point in the .ifo file, perhaps its misplaced?

 

Hope this helps a bit.

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disbeliever Newbie

disbeliever

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0,0,0 is always a good place to start, assuming you followed Q's tutorial and centered the area at 0,0,0.

 

Otherwise... hmm I guess you would have to guess :)

 

I am using 3dsm 2009 with the newest version of nmmax, and it all works perfectly for me. I am running it on one of the beefiest laptops available though. I do not know if processing resources slows things down or causes weird issues.

 

Id go back and make sure you added the fake lights, set to full white color(brightness) and then the auroraD lights with a high enough radius to show the area. Depending on how big your area is, it may be set to small. For comparison my middle city is over 15000 centimeters long, so each of my lights I set to 10000 radius :)

 

I downloaded gmax last night and will look into your texture issue soon fyi and not to ninja hijack this thread ;)

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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How do I get accurate entry co-ords?

 

Just make a box in Max, doesnt matter much which dimensions it has.

To be save make it like my MAN-BOX.

 

Put it where you want the player to spawn into your area.

Once it's set look for the X Y Z numbers at the lower mid section of the screen.

 

The numbers are there, you only need to do a small "convert".

 

Example X Y Z in Max: 300 20 0

The numbers you need to set in the .ifo file: 3 0.2 0

 

The files contained in the module all work with m(eters) while Max works with Centimeters.

 

100cm = 1m so you need to shift 2 positions to get the correct numbers.

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TriggerGod Newbie

TriggerGod

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where can I get 3ds max9? I can only fin 3ds max 2010(30-trial is what I'm using), and it doesn't have the auroratrimish.....or NWmax.................(no version for 3ds 2010)

 

3ds Max 9 is continued in 3ds Max 2008, 2009, and 2010. Since you can't find a [legal] copy of Max 9, just go with 2010.

 

(note: all the 2000 3ds Maxes are compatible with the latest nwmax. Although I haven't tested if 2010 works with nwmax)

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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I got the entry co-ords right now but its still black, do I need more than one d-aura light? What number do I set in the Sunambient& SunDiffuse?

EDIT: it is defiantly the sun fields, they are both at 0, what do I set em to?

 

 

To easily get some good colour values for the Sunlight I use GloveMasters little program.

 

Kotor uses somesort of 3bit code... so this program lets you use a handy colour picker like from windows paint and then gives you the 3bit value.

 

LINKY

 

Put that value in those Sun fields.

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SNIPESTORM Newbie

SNIPESTORM

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hey guys,

hi from Australia again,

 

--bumpity bump--

 

thought id get back on the scene after exams were done, but decided to start before.

been trying this for a while, and am having some of the same troubles;

 

[[DONT THINK IVE READ AND TRIED ENOUGH OF THE FIXES BUT WILLL FINISH THIS POST ANYWAYS]]

 

the resulting loaded module has the player, but has all other objects within the room are BLACK, ie no colour. there appears to be something going on in the room, as when the player is moved, he clips against some black object (probably something wrong there), but that at least proves this is working.... i think

 

using 3dsmax 2009, NWMax 0.8, and followed the "ModellingAnArea.doc" in the "AreaModTut.zip"

 

btw; video01 link is dead

 

 

 

so if anyone got this working, it would be great to know

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

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hey guys,

btw; video01 link is dead

 

:confused: I checked my links to Part 1, it seems to work for me... :confused:

 

Do any other peolpe have trouble with the mentioned link?

 

 

@Topic question: Like Canderis mentioned, follow the same advice.

 

Look in the .are file for the SunAmbient & Diffuse slots, use the handy colourprogram from GloveMaster to get a good colour value.

 

The links are few posts up ;)

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SNIPESTORM Newbie

SNIPESTORM

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ok, that part01.wmv is now working... it seriously wasnt before... weird.

 

anywho, im obviously doing something wrong,

i've taken a look around for the .are and .ifo and have no clue what they are (besides you guys telling me (us) and explaining it here.

in another tut you linked us to, explains extracting it from the original kotor files, but find it hard to assume you can do so for your own custom modules.

 

so bare with me a little while longer, and maybe explain where i should be looking to find these steps,

explain these steps here/or in a PM,

or just yell at me for not following the instructions properly... (havnt watched the vids yet, just followed the tut)

 

thanks guys... off to an exam now... *yay*

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TheProphet Newbie

TheProphet

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Oooooohooohoooo a video tutorial for Area Model Editing, very shnazy, I like it Q. I love doing area models, well.... I love when they are finished. Doing them can be quite a hassle, its nice to see that it will be much less of a hassle to everyone else ;).

 

Good work!

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