Questions about how to create models

niunia · Post by **niunia** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:45 am

No, not really, but since I got your attention I have some questions:

1. Which faction needs remodeling, higher poly (more "detail"), ship models (interceptor, heavy interceptor, etc.)?

2. Do I HAVE to use MilkShape? I installed it and its crap for me, I find 3dsmax simpler and more clear in poly-modeling.

3. Can the entire ship from start to finish be made in 3dsmax?

4. Is there a way to reverse the process ie - extract a .mdl file to editable file in some 3d editor?

5. Is there any concept artwork left from developers to be a reference material?

6. When using the MDLviewer zoom in/out is randomly on or off? WTF am I doing wrong?

7. MDLviewer has a "save to image" option. It causes some error, no picture is saved. Known issue or my PC issue?

8. Not really related, but MDLviewer displays the ships wit blinking lights. Why don't I have the lights ingame?

9. I have Alleg installed on an old laptop, CoreDuo2300, 2gb ram, intel gma950 chipset-integrated GFX. Can I use highres textures?

10. Also parallel to 9 - how much "detail", or IOW how much poly-cout-wise can a model have for the game to run shoothly?

Adaven · Post by **Adaven** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:52 am

I have no time, but search wiki for arisman codex. I think there are some .x versions of MS models in there maybe.

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:55 am

Cheap shot, niunia, you'll fit right in here. You just got the attention on every Admin here.

uh uh uh is a much better title than the former.

niunia · Post by **niunia** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:10 am

Exitus acta probat

MrChaos · Post by **MrChaos** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:16 am

It was funny, hell I even made a joke myself but i don't want to encourage a rash of this stuff.

No worries just Id prefer to use my time a bit more usefully, and why I edited the title

DonKarnage · Post by **DonKarnage** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:20 am

oh come on, now the first bit of the post makes no sense!

niunia · Post by **niunia** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:18 am

So I've failed to force an answers and instead I got responses. Fine, I'll just go ahead and MAKE it work myself (works 90% of the time).

1st tries will go to Gataran scout (master-super-extra-pro-oscar-winning-pixar-quality design).

madpeople · Post by **madpeople** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:02 pm

niunia wrote:QUOTE (niunia @ Feb 15 2012, 12:45 AM) 2. Do I HAVE to use MilkShape? I installed it and its crap for me, I find 3dsmax simpler and more clear in poly-modeling.

Milkshape has the export tool for allegiance.
There used to be a .ms3d exporter for 3ds max
I did once manage to get .x files ( .x as in direct x) to convert to allegiance format with the original tools. But my working tool train was lost in a crash. (3ds max can export .x too with appropriate plugins)

QUOTE 3. Can the entire ship from start to finish be made in 3dsmax?[/quote]
You can do everything, but you need to export it to a different format at the end to convert it to allegiance format.
Also, bones = joints.

QUOTE 4. Is there a way to reverse the process ie - extract a .mdl file to editable file in some 3d editor?[/quote]
Milkshape can open .mdl and export into a 3ds max compatible format (video fun)

QUOTE 5. Is there any concept artwork left from developers to be a reference material?[/quote]
Not sure about concept art, there are old textures, models which weren't used and an interview with a dev. I'm not sure what's in the Arisman Codex.

QUOTE 9. I have Alleg installed on an old laptop, CoreDuo2300, 2gb ram, intel gma950 chipset-integrated GFX. Can I use highres textures?[/quote]
Try it and see. You may want to stay away from the 2048*2048, maybe the 1024*1024. You may well experience allegiance pausing for a few seconds when it encounters a new texture for the first time as it loads it from disk (like viewing a new sector) unless the texture pack has been built (is there still the option to make alleg pack the textures?)

QUOTE 10. Also parallel to 9 - how much "detail", or IOW how much poly-cout-wise can a model have for the game to run shoothly?[/quote]
There used to be some vague guidelines about, small ships I think were 2k, caps 10k, bases 20k?

Forum search is your friend.

niunia · Post by **niunia** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:31 pm

madpeople wrote:QUOTE (madpeople @ Feb 15 2012, 08:02 AM) There used to be some vague guidelines about, small ships I think were 2k, caps 10k, bases 20k?

To be absolutely clear - 2k is 2000 triangles per ship? If so, why most stuff has much much less? Performance issue? I'm not going into 2k range per fighter, more like a couple hundreds for starters.

Thanks for help Madpeople.

madpeople · Post by **madpeople** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:39 pm

niunia wrote:QUOTE (niunia @ Feb 15 2012, 01:31 PM) To be absolutely clear - 2k is 2000 triangles per ship? If so, why most stuff has much much less? Performance issue? I'm not going into 2k range per fighter, more like a couple hundreds for starters.

Yes, triangles.
Allegiance still uses a lot of models from the original release. The original release was released when graphics cards weren't that powerful. Modern graphics cards can handle much more so we can push the poly count with new models (don't be lazy though we still want allegiance to need the latest hardware to play).