Hi, I'm brand new to modeling and have hit a snag in blender. It's a tf2 item, I was hoping you guys know what I'm doing wrong and would tell me how to fix this.
the part is a 12 sided cylinder, it is also curved vertically. Ambient occlusion ray tracing simply refuses to consider the sides smooth. yet, it has no problems shading the bend as smooth.
Both ray tracing with constant jitter, and approximate show no such problem, but they looks bad in certain other parts so I want to use ray tracing with constant qmc.
the blender version is 2.66, the setting for bake is ambient occlusion, ray tracing, constant qmc, object shading is smooth, the lamp's deleted, this is the only mesh with rendering turned on, both bake and world tabs were changed to ambient occlusion, edge split modifier has edge angle unchecked and I manually marked sharp edges. no, those edges were not marked as sharp. the distance of attenuation doesn't help any, nor does amount of sampling. Checking and unchecking the normalized option in bake doesn't help either. yes, i removed doubles.
@heinous
So I don't know much about baking in Blender, but if it were me I would just throw in some extra edge loops and bake from a higher poly model
Just doubled the edges, the the lines just got thinner because the polygons are narrower, but the shading is just as heavy... :poly127:
If they get doubled again, each polygon is going to be just about 2 pixels wide...
It's gonna show up in game when people look up close. Maybe I should just bake both approximate and ray trace AO's and then choose the good ones from each in photoshop?
@Sexy Robot
I absolutely love this knife design. The only thing I would say is the front hand guard seems it might be a tad close to the hilt, but it may just be the angle throwing me off, cant wait to see it finished!
@heinous
I would not get to caught up on the just the flat AO. Me personally I start with flat colors and see how my AO looks on that. With something smooth this this you may not even need the AO on the curved part, and you can mess with it in photoshop. Also dont get in the mind set you can do a one and done with an AO. Personally I will usually use several different AO's with different colors, layer effects, opacities , etc, and use layer masks when needed to edit out unneeded parts of some of the AO's. It may help to get a better idea of the desired result if you show us the whole model, so we have an idea of what it is.
@heinous
I would not get to caught up on the just the flat AO. Me personally I start with flat colors and see how my AO looks on that. With something smooth this this you may not even need the AO on the curved part, and you can mess with it in photoshop. Also dont get in the mind set you can do a one and done with an AO. Personally I will usually use several different AO's with different colors, layer effects, opacities , etc, and use layer masks when needed to edit out unneeded parts of some of the AO's. It may help to get a better idea of the desired result if you show us the whole model, so we have an idea of what it is.
Thanks, if multiple AO's is the norm, I think I'll go that route then. I managed to get everything silky smooth using a subdivision surface modifier set to 4, but of course any sharp corners ended up having a beveled see through AO since they get subdivided too. At least then modifier can just be undone with a click, so maybe I should do an AO with it on, then with it off, and use one for smooth surfaces and the other for corners? What are colored AO's used for and how do I make them? It's probably a stupid question.
It's a flamethrower, the parts in question are just long metal pipes, I have seen on the degreaser the smoothness that I should probably be shooting for, because I know I'm new but I don't want to be one of those countless sorry and miserable submissions in the workshop either...
@heinous
Don't let the heavy hitters scare you off. Hell nrek was my roommate when he made the croc 'o style set, he sets a pretty high bar on any thing he does. You gotta start somewhere. When I refered to a color AO it would basically be taking an AO and overlaying some color in photoshop. When I do something like that it is usually pretty low opacity and can help give some more life to the object. For example I might use a darker brown shaded AO on a wood surface, or darker blue on a metal surface, etc. There is nothing wrong with using multiple AO's and mashing them up, like one for smooth sides combined with one to give nice edges on a corner. Layer masks are your friend here. The same technique can be used with normal maps, doing a cage bake and a cageless bake, lne for details, one for nice edges. At least with TF2 most cases a flat normal is just fine. Also keep in mind this is how I work, some may find my workflow back asswards, others may find it lagit, but in the end it is what works for me. Hope this helps
Thank you, I think I have a somewhat acceptable AO now...
anyone have pointers on replicating the chipped paint effect? what brush, settings, etc? particularly on edges? as well as for edge/corner highlights from this post? I tried dabbing a spot of grey and then smudging but it always ends up either too swirly, too wide, or blurry.
Not sure how I missed this. I think the colors work, and I like the design. That being said I would see something like this getting flagged as incompatible by Valve due to everything that would be required to get this in game.
When I do paint or surface wear I will have my base metal color, and the paint/finish on a layer above that. I would then use a layer mask to paint the wear on the paint/finish to expose the metal underneath. For all my TF2 textures I pretty much use square brushes including the one in Swizzle's post
I have a problem, if i attach my modelisation to an armature in Blender, i select the modelisation only and export it and the bone does not appear in film maker.
Just started my next item. I am doing some 1911's for the Engi and the scout, I want to do 2 styles, one WWII style and one with some modern parts on it, still tons of work to do on it:
There are plenty of knives on the workshop, probably more than above, since I don't think any single contributor can lay claim to the concept of an army knife.
I don't think items have ever been combined before. The general outcome of a scenario like this is generally that Valve would be to pick the best one out of the lot; like when the executioner hood for Halloween went in - there was competition between two variant hoods from different contributors.
It tends to become friendly competition between the most of us - we're almost all friends to an extent anyway. It'd be childish to bicker over something like this.
@Sexy Robot
That is beautiful I love the whole set, but that knife is just so good. You have my thumbs and favs as soon as they are uploaded
@heinous
I do not remember the exact syntax of the line in the workshop eula, but there is a statement saying that you agree that other users can make similar items, or take your idea and make a better version. If I find the line I will update this comment.
Section 3 Line A:
You also acknowledge and agree that other users, and Valve itself, may create other works that are similar to Your Valve Game Contribution(s), and that Valves payment obligations under this Section 3 only apply with respect to the distribution of actual copies of Your Valve Game Contribution(s).
i asked because i saw someone kind of being called out a few pages ago while going through this thread about some other weapon. it's definitely a grey area especially for the knife, considering as mentioned that it's a concept of an army knife.
i see why so many people submit hats now, since there are more variety of them.
all things considered, would it be more beneficial to submit non-real weapons? the "art style" of tf2 definitely can accommodate it, and there will be less chance someone would make up the same fake weapon you happen to have made up. then again, if the eula says similar submissions are ok regardless of intent then it's kind of a moot point.
but I am still doing my 1911's anyways. I am a huge 1911 fan, so I want to make some that are not missing any pieces, but still fit in TF2. I see no harm in similar items unless it is blatant copying of an item
i asked because i saw someone kind of being called out a few pages ago while going through this thread about some other weapon. it's definitely a grey area especially for the knife, considering as mentioned that it's a concept of an army knife.
i see why so many people submit hats now, since there are more variety of them.
all things considered, would it be more beneficial to submit non-real weapons? the "art style" of tf2 definitely can accommodate it, and there will be less chance someone would make up the same fake weapon you happen to have made up. then again, if the eula says similar submissions are ok regardless of intent then it's kind of a moot point.
It's not really a moot point. Valve might pick one, if yours is better you MIGHT have a better chance.
So far pretty much everything I have submitted has been put in game... Valve's own version of course.
And just because someone else makes an army knife (or whatever) doesn't mean they own that weapon/idea.
however it sucks doing things like an exposed engi brain (fairly original idea) then seeing valve put on in game later.
All i can say if you want a model in game is make it very very good and Have GOod goood good good goood luck.
If you aren't doing it soley for the love of doing it it is pretty much a complete waste of time and effort.
It's not really a moot point. Valve might pick one, if yours is better you MIGHT have a better chance.
So far pretty much everything I have submitted has been put in game... Valve's own version of course.
And just because someone else makes an army knife (or whatever) doesn't mean they own that weapon/idea.
however it sucks doing things like an exposed engi brain (fairly original idea) then seeing valve put on in game later.
All i can say if you want a model in game is make it very very good and Have GOod goood good good goood luck.
If you aren't doing it soley for the love of doing it it is pretty much a complete waste of time and effort.
Yeah, that's why I wondered about the reactions you guys might have when you see a similar submission in the workshop. I guess doing it out of enjoyment is probably the best attitude to have, since the final call is up to valve and you have no say. On the other hand I do see a benefit to their policy. By allowing similar work to be submitted, people don't have to "beat each other to the punch" to the submit button, and can post their progress without a care in the world like in this thread, which by the way, I'm really enjoying seeing all the progress as they get worked on day after day. I'm loving that knife and 1911 right now, for example. :thumbup:
Modeling on style 1 is pretty much done, smoothing groups done, I may just need to re-triangulate some faces. Now time to do the second style, then its off to unwrap!
I was thinking of starting to get into this how often do you guys sell items? Or do you just do it for fun
I have not had any items accepted, I do this because its great exposure and it is really fun to do. The chance to make money is just the cherry on top.
I have not had any items accepted, I do this because its great exposure and it is really fun to do. The chance to make money is just the cherry on top.
Well, it's at the point where I'm confident that it is at least not COMPLETE shit, so I guess I should post some eye candy as fruit sown from the help I received from this thread.
Someone in his or her infinite wisdom decided the trigger bone for the flame thrower should not rotate around the point where you click to select it, so now I have to go find the actual center of rotation and rearrange every damn thing to get the animation right. Should I even bother? The Phlogistinator doesn't even animate, so how important can it be?
Maybe someone who actually knows may chime in, but it seems that the bones on weapons are just used like sockets for the character animations. For example I wasted tons of time thinking that I messed up on the sniper rifle bolt, but looking at others the bolt does not move.
The bone does rotate on the point where you click to select it.
The problem is I imported the Degreaser model, and its trigger hinge does not match that bone. I assumed it does and simply placed my trigger hinge in its place.
In hindsight I should probably have imported the stock flame thrower, but my worry at the beginning was that it is so old it may not even have a c_model. Degreaser being newer, I opted to import it instead. Then again, maybe even the flame thrower doesn't have a working trigger.
But MINE does now :thumbup::poly142:
Currently in the process of fixing another problem I found, clipping:
Removed the spare faucet that was just lying around. Managed to knock out about 1000 tris in the process, and the whole weapon looks more stream lined now IMO.
Mirrored the trigger mechanism to the right side of the weapon to get rid of the deepest bulk of the clipping issue, it also happens to show off the trigger in a very visible way.
I've finished, unwrapped, optimized and refined this weapon here, and it's ready to be compiled... But so far, none of my efforts to compile ithave been successful.
I need to skin this weapon to 3 bones and then get it in-game. And I am a total, 100% noob at doing this.
It's been two days of me flailing about here, can somebody please contact me and help me out? This is the gun in question:
I thought the front panel looked kinda busy compared to the rest of the model. the new one looks a lot more "together." I miss the old ammo belt though.
Has anyone had any issues lately? Steam just made me convert TF2 to a new format, now after this my SourceSDK is not working, and studiomdl.exe throws errors about the gameinfo.txt, but nothing is resolving it
Has anyone had any issues lately? Steam just made me convert TF2 to a new format, now after this my SourceSDK is not working, and studiomdl.exe throws errors about the gameinfo.txt, but nothing is resolving it
thanks for the info. Adding ToolsAppId 211 to my gameinfo.txt seems to have fixed it.
I did. It still won't work. maybe it's in the wrong place? It says I need to give a file path, don't know how nor which path... can you walk through how you go from a qc file to complete compilation under the new format?
Edit. Well I just managed to compile an mdl by telling guistudiomdl to treat my qc as counterstrike source content instead of tf2... then I put them into a vpk in the directory tree, and it shows up in game, so I guess it works as a workaround. :thumbup:
I did. It still won't work. maybe it's in the wrong place? It says I need to give a file path, don't know how nor which path... can you walk through how you go from a qc file to complete compilation under the new format?
Edit. Well I just managed to compile an mdl by telling guistudiomdl to treat my qc as counterstrike source content instead of tf2... then I put them into a vpk in the directory tree, and it shows up in game, so I guess it works as a workaround. :thumbup:
Open your source sdk and change the TF2 game path to the new common\team fortress 2\tf folder. After I did this I could compile fine, but now I'm having other issues I need to try and sort out after work tonight
Replies
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=140326516
the part is a 12 sided cylinder, it is also curved vertically. Ambient occlusion ray tracing simply refuses to consider the sides smooth. yet, it has no problems shading the bend as smooth.
Both ray tracing with constant jitter, and approximate show no such problem, but they looks bad in certain other parts so I want to use ray tracing with constant qmc.
the blender version is 2.66, the setting for bake is ambient occlusion, ray tracing, constant qmc, object shading is smooth, the lamp's deleted, this is the only mesh with rendering turned on, both bake and world tabs were changed to ambient occlusion, edge split modifier has edge angle unchecked and I manually marked sharp edges. no, those edges were not marked as sharp. the distance of attenuation doesn't help any, nor does amount of sampling. Checking and unchecking the normalized option in bake doesn't help either. yes, i removed doubles.
I have also looked up this: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Lighting/Ambient_Occlusion but unfortunately qmc options don't have the bias setting.
Yes, I know it looks bad regardless, I know enough to be humble about this.
What am I doing wrong? I have a feeling it is something stupidly simple.
So I don't know much about baking in Blender, but if it were me I would just throw in some extra edge loops and bake from a higher poly model
Melee for the paratrooper set has been completely reconceptualized.
Just doubled the edges, the the lines just got thinner because the polygons are narrower, but the shading is just as heavy... :poly127:
If they get doubled again, each polygon is going to be just about 2 pixels wide...
It's gonna show up in game when people look up close. Maybe I should just bake both approximate and ray trace AO's and then choose the good ones from each in photoshop?
I absolutely love this knife design. The only thing I would say is the front hand guard seems it might be a tad close to the hilt, but it may just be the angle throwing me off, cant wait to see it finished!
@heinous
I would not get to caught up on the just the flat AO. Me personally I start with flat colors and see how my AO looks on that. With something smooth this this you may not even need the AO on the curved part, and you can mess with it in photoshop. Also dont get in the mind set you can do a one and done with an AO. Personally I will usually use several different AO's with different colors, layer effects, opacities , etc, and use layer masks when needed to edit out unneeded parts of some of the AO's. It may help to get a better idea of the desired result if you show us the whole model, so we have an idea of what it is.
Thanks, if multiple AO's is the norm, I think I'll go that route then. I managed to get everything silky smooth using a subdivision surface modifier set to 4, but of course any sharp corners ended up having a beveled see through AO since they get subdivided too. At least then modifier can just be undone with a click, so maybe I should do an AO with it on, then with it off, and use one for smooth surfaces and the other for corners? What are colored AO's used for and how do I make them? It's probably a stupid question.
It's a flamethrower, the parts in question are just long metal pipes, I have seen on the degreaser the smoothness that I should probably be shooting for, because I know I'm new but I don't want to be one of those countless sorry and miserable submissions in the workshop either...
That puts any of my concerns to rest. The more I look at it the more I love it! I really can't wait to see the finished product!
Don't let the heavy hitters scare you off. Hell nrek was my roommate when he made the croc 'o style set, he sets a pretty high bar on any thing he does. You gotta start somewhere. When I refered to a color AO it would basically be taking an AO and overlaying some color in photoshop. When I do something like that it is usually pretty low opacity and can help give some more life to the object. For example I might use a darker brown shaded AO on a wood surface, or darker blue on a metal surface, etc. There is nothing wrong with using multiple AO's and mashing them up, like one for smooth sides combined with one to give nice edges on a corner. Layer masks are your friend here. The same technique can be used with normal maps, doing a cage bake and a cageless bake, lne for details, one for nice edges. At least with TF2 most cases a flat normal is just fine. Also keep in mind this is how I work, some may find my workflow back asswards, others may find it lagit, but in the end it is what works for me. Hope this helps
anyone have pointers on replicating the chipped paint effect? what brush, settings, etc? particularly on edges? as well as for edge/corner highlights from this post? I tried dabbing a spot of grey and then smudging but it always ends up either too swirly, too wide, or blurry.
Not sure how I missed this. I think the colors work, and I like the design. That being said I would see something like this getting flagged as incompatible by Valve due to everything that would be required to get this in game.
@heinouns
When I do paint or surface wear I will have my base metal color, and the paint/finish on a layer above that. I would then use a layer mask to paint the wear on the paint/finish to expose the metal underneath. For all my TF2 textures I pretty much use square brushes including the one in Swizzle's post
@kite212: i keep a hope.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=141262522
Have a mostly, but not entirely up to date shot of this stuff.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=122925781&searchtext=
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=140241062&searchtext=
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=140241062&searchtext=
There are plenty of knives on the workshop, probably more than above, since I don't think any single contributor can lay claim to the concept of an army knife.
I don't think items have ever been combined before. The general outcome of a scenario like this is generally that Valve would be to pick the best one out of the lot; like when the executioner hood for Halloween went in - there was competition between two variant hoods from different contributors.
It tends to become friendly competition between the most of us - we're almost all friends to an extent anyway. It'd be childish to bicker over something like this.
That is beautiful I love the whole set, but that knife is just so good. You have my thumbs and favs as soon as they are uploaded
@heinous
I do not remember the exact syntax of the line in the workshop eula, but there is a statement saying that you agree that other users can make similar items, or take your idea and make a better version. If I find the line I will update this comment.
Section 3 Line A:
You also acknowledge and agree that other users, and Valve itself, may create other works that are similar to Your Valve Game Contribution(s), and that Valves payment obligations under this Section 3 only apply with respect to the distribution of actual copies of Your Valve Game Contribution(s).
i see why so many people submit hats now, since there are more variety of them.
all things considered, would it be more beneficial to submit non-real weapons? the "art style" of tf2 definitely can accommodate it, and there will be less chance someone would make up the same fake weapon you happen to have made up. then again, if the eula says similar submissions are ok regardless of intent then it's kind of a moot point.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=80888384&searchtext=defender
but I am still doing my 1911's anyways. I am a huge 1911 fan, so I want to make some that are not missing any pieces, but still fit in TF2. I see no harm in similar items unless it is blatant copying of an item
It's not really a moot point. Valve might pick one, if yours is better you MIGHT have a better chance.
So far pretty much everything I have submitted has been put in game... Valve's own version of course.
And just because someone else makes an army knife (or whatever) doesn't mean they own that weapon/idea.
however it sucks doing things like an exposed engi brain (fairly original idea) then seeing valve put on in game later.
All i can say if you want a model in game is make it very very good and Have GOod goood good good goood luck.
If you aren't doing it soley for the love of doing it it is pretty much a complete waste of time and effort.
Not got any fancy promo image to post, so have a shot of LODs in a line.
Yeah, that's why I wondered about the reactions you guys might have when you see a similar submission in the workshop. I guess doing it out of enjoyment is probably the best attitude to have, since the final call is up to valve and you have no say. On the other hand I do see a benefit to their policy. By allowing similar work to be submitted, people don't have to "beat each other to the punch" to the submit button, and can post their progress without a care in the world like in this thread, which by the way, I'm really enjoying seeing all the progress as they get worked on day after day. I'm loving that knife and 1911 right now, for example. :thumbup:
Style 2 almost done!
I have not had any items accepted, I do this because its great exposure and it is really fun to do. The chance to make money is just the cherry on top.
thanks matt- its nick from school
Someone in his or her infinite wisdom decided the trigger bone for the flame thrower should not rotate around the point where you click to select it, so now I have to go find the actual center of rotation and rearrange every damn thing to get the animation right. Should I even bother? The Phlogistinator doesn't even animate, so how important can it be?
Anyway, you saw it here first.
The bone does rotate on the point where you click to select it.
The problem is I imported the Degreaser model, and its trigger hinge does not match that bone. I assumed it does and simply placed my trigger hinge in its place.
In hindsight I should probably have imported the stock flame thrower, but my worry at the beginning was that it is so old it may not even have a c_model. Degreaser being newer, I opted to import it instead. Then again, maybe even the flame thrower doesn't have a working trigger.
But MINE does now :thumbup::poly142:
Currently in the process of fixing another problem I found, clipping:
Removed the spare faucet that was just lying around. Managed to knock out about 1000 tris in the process, and the whole weapon looks more stream lined now IMO.
Mirrored the trigger mechanism to the right side of the weapon to get rid of the deepest bulk of the clipping issue, it also happens to show off the trigger in a very visible way.
It no longer clips when crouching.
Oh, it's gonna be gooood :poly136:
I've finished, unwrapped, optimized and refined this weapon here, and it's ready to be compiled... But so far, none of my efforts to compile ithave been successful.
I need to skin this weapon to 3 bones and then get it in-game. And I am a total, 100% noob at doing this.
It's been two days of me flailing about here, can somebody please contact me and help me out? This is the gun in question:
If you want to add me on steam, my ID is http://steamcommunity.com/id/Veerdinwraith/
And then I figured out jigglebones all by myself! GOLD STAR YO
I'm da best.
Okay, done boasting about my managing to accomplish something most of you do without thinking. Back to some real work!
it's almost like hlmv ignores the phong alpha layer. parts that are flat as they should be in the game are fully shiny in hlmv...
3D model: https://sketchfab.com/show/e7H7btRgz10kNj5g0AXRytMrWqt
Vidja of the Black Devil in action with early texture.
I thought the front panel looked kinda busy compared to the rest of the model. the new one looks a lot more "together." I miss the old ammo belt though.
Still trying to fix my sdk :poly142:
i knew it would cause trouble so i exported all the files i need before the update scheduled for today.
so i haven't tried decompiling yet, but now tf2 lags. it never lagged before. nice update meant to streamline the game...
Putting this here because I thought it was funny. I'm clearly the best at compiles.
Since been fixed, but still, hehehe... Also, hey! look! My new knife!
I did. It still won't work. maybe it's in the wrong place? It says I need to give a file path, don't know how nor which path... can you walk through how you go from a qc file to complete compilation under the new format?
Edit. Well I just managed to compile an mdl by telling guistudiomdl to treat my qc as counterstrike source content instead of tf2... then I put them into a vpk in the directory tree, and it shows up in game, so I guess it works as a workaround. :thumbup:
Open your source sdk and change the TF2 game path to the new common\team fortress 2\tf folder. After I did this I could compile fine, but now I'm having other issues I need to try and sort out after work tonight
Edit, highlighted in yellow
Here's my config settings.
When I try to compile to the new directory:
prease to be helping?