Well this was the first (and so far only) model I've made much progress on, I've been busy with other things for the past few months but I plan to start learning how/getting better at modeling now and get it up to decent quality. I know it looks not-so-great now, but thats probably to be expected for a first model. I'm not really sure what in particular on this needs work, since its already just at the triangle cap and it still has a lot of visible hard edges. The texture also shows up as way too shiny in-game, but at least that can be worked on by fiddling with the alpha channel (I think). Most of the other renders posted here look much cleaner, If thats just due to my poor technique and not some setting (like blenders subsurf feature) that im not using I'd really appreciate any advice. I know my model needs work, I'm just not sure what kind of work. Its a revolver replacement for the spy, and as of yet I haven't made any changes from the first time I posted it, I'd like to hear any suggestions, even if they are just that It'd be best if I just started from scratch.
Nice crowbar! Can't believe I didn't think of that before...
@Lachtan, maybe you could get Sparkwire to do some animations for you if he's interested. It would be much better if it had an animation relevant to it with a particle effect.
That is a pretty nice crowbar, Im not a big fan of the way it changes from red to blu though in the bottom screenie. Dunno if thats just a particle error though....
Ive redesigned the wrench. Its now based off a thrumscrew torture device, combined with other wierd shapes. Heres what came out:
Sorry for the bad screenshot, i've been pretty busy lately, and most of the time i'm doing about an hour max on it.
So I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a weapon compiled correctly and in-game, and try as I might, I can't find a reference that explains any of it. I try to follow tutorials or reverse engineer decompiled weapons, but I'm obviously missing something vital here and there. The closest I've ever gotten was crashing tf2 when I tried to load an mdl in test_item.
Does anyone have a list of steps or a checklist or something for exporting and compiling weapons and NOT hats, especially what I need to skin bind and how to write the .qc? I would GREATLY appreciate it, because I'm obviously tf2-modding challenged...
That is a pretty nice crowbar, Im not a big fan of the way it changes from red to blu though in the bottom screenie. Dunno if thats just a particle error though....
Ive redesigned the wrench. Its now based off a thrumscrew torture device, combined with other wierd shapes. Heres what came out:
Sorry for the bad screenshot, i've been pretty busy lately, and most of the time i'm doing about an hour max on it.
I'm really liking where you're going with that. I think you could probably make the join between the handle and the upper part a little more elegant. It might be worth bulking up some of the shapes a little bit too.
Keep at it. You've got a genuinely original looking design going there, with a little more work and a good texture, I reckon you'd have a good chance of getting in game.
Nice one, but the animations doesn't seem to fit. !
Do you like my crowbar?
I was considering that but in a different context, because of the turtling strategy in tf2 and because of the razorback i was going to make designs for Teenage mutant ninja turtles style for pack weapons for four of the classes Sniper,scout, engi and spy representing the 4 turtles
Sniper= leonardo the cool level headed one, a sword dubbed the Outbackatana
Engi = obviously donatello but since a bo staff obviously isn't a tool i would have to base it on something work related so i was going with an elongated crowbar with a purple tape handle called the Bo-bar
Spy= Raphael give him a sai called the Sailent Killer
Scout= Michealangelo nunchucks closest thing i could come up with was Numb-chucks
hey wondering if someone can throw me a little hint been spending some time working on a solly hat and weapon but sofar have just been compiling as a basic static prop so i can see it in the model viewer and am trying to figure out what i need to do to get it to work as a hat on the solider.
so far i imported the solly model into my 3d package and deleted all but the head bone and parented my hat's reference and phys model to it, and after that i dont got a clue what i have to do in the QC file for the compile.
hey wondering if someone can throw me a little hint been spending some time working on a solly hat and weapon but sofar have just been compiling as a basic static prop so i can see it in the model viewer and am trying to figure out what i need to do to get it to work as a hat on the solider.
so far i imported the solly model into my 3d package and deleted all but the head bone and parented my hat's reference and phys model to it, and after that i dont got a clue what i have to do in the QC file for the compile.
So I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a weapon compiled correctly and in-game, and try as I might, I can't find a reference that explains any of it. I try to follow tutorials or reverse engineer decompiled weapons, but I'm obviously missing something vital here and there. The closest I've ever gotten was crashing tf2 when I tried to load an mdl in test_item.
Does anyone have a list of steps or a checklist or something for exporting and compiling weapons and NOT hats, especially what I need to skin bind and how to write the .qc? I would GREATLY appreciate it, because I'm obviously tf2-modding challenged...
I think going through all the .qc commands articles on VDW helped, but I'm getting the mins/maxs error when I try to load, so I think I have a mesh problem. MORE TROUBLESHOOTING.
@passerby: As long as the appropriate bone is enveloped to the mesh properly you shouldn't need to do much different to a prop (for a hat anyway). Here's an example QC of a soldier hat I made a while back:
This builds the entire MDL from one SMD named "soldier_jeepcap.smd", I can't remember which hat I used as a basis for this so I can't tell you where the physics lines are borrowed from. This is enough to compile a hat with no team-textures. If you're wondering where the hitbox stuff comes from, the lines for them can be generated by the modelviewer.
@mutatedjellyfish: When you say weapons and not hats, does this mean you've successfully compiled models that aren't weapons? I can give you a run through making a weapon QC based around a decompiler QC but if your models are breaking the game you have a problem that needs sorting out before any of that will help.
---
More progress on the rifle:
The scope is now doubled up to 32 sided, and the scope mount has been redesigned and beefed up somewhat. Otherwise it's nearly ready, I've just got to decide what to do about this bloody laser. Oh yeah, another one of those is on this one too. :poly142:
@Elbagast, I like that laser a lot better than the last one. I'm not sure that you need that many sides on the scope, but if you're still fairly low on triangles then it doesn't matter.
@passerby: As long as the appropriate bone is enveloped to the mesh properly you shouldn't need to do much different to a prop (for a hat anyway). Here's an example QC of a soldier hat I made a while back:
This builds the entire MDL from one SMD named "soldier_jeepcap.smd", I can't remember which hat I used as a basis for this so I can't tell you where the physics lines are borrowed from. This is enough to compile a hat with no team-textures. If you're wondering where the hitbox stuff comes from, the lines for them can be generated by the modelviewer.
@mutatedjellyfish: When you say weapons and not hats, does this mean you've successfully compiled models that aren't weapons? I can give you a run through making a weapon QC based around a decompiler QC but if your models are breaking the game you have a problem that needs sorting out before any of that will help.
---
More progress on the rifle:
The scope is now doubled up to 32 sided, and the scope mount has been redesigned and beefed up somewhat. Otherwise it's nearly ready, I've just got to decide what to do about this bloody laser. Oh yeah, another one of those is on this one too. :poly142:
quick question about jiggle bones, I want the back of my wrench to rotate only a few degrees, and not just wobble loose like, is it possible with jiggle bones?
OK, so I think I'm done with the model for the Detective's Alternative Argument (or Magniknife). I also made a simple texture for now, just to get a feel for how it's going to look like in-game. Here are some pics:
I'm not sure whether I should make it smaller or not. It fits fine now, but the lens clips through a couple animations. >.>
Also, those pictures were made when I had a small problem with the phong and stuff. Here's one with improved shininess:
Could anyone who works in Maya add me on Steam and chat with me for a few minutes later this evening? I have some questions about smoothing groups and how to handle that in Maya (since Maya doesn't have smoothing groups per se). The lighting on my model is all wonky.
Could anyone who works in Maya add me on Steam and chat with me for a few minutes later this evening? I have some questions about smoothing groups and how to handle that in Maya (since Maya doesn't have smoothing groups per se). The lighting on my model is all wonky.
Maya has two smoothing Groups, either hard or soft edges. to change an edge simply select it, and under the polygons menu set, Normals > Soften Edge or harden edge
Maya has two smoothing Groups, either hard or soft edges. to change an edge simply select it, and under the polygons menu set, Normals > Soften Edge or harden edge
Ah, well on my model, I have some hard and some soft edges, but I was informed that the weird shadows on my model in-game were due to improper smoothing groups. All I've done is select all the edges I want smoothed and do the Normals thing, and leave the hard edges hard. Is this all there is to it? If so, I'll focus on tweaking the vmt.
Just up on weight for heavy:
I guess I will submit, unless someone have some suggestions for improvement.
If it was possible I would suggest a dumbbell in each hand, however I assume that would probably clip horribly... so no, I'd say it's ready for submission :P
@Zipfinator: The detail is mostly just for first person, and at 32 sides I can drop the entire scope to 16,8, and 4 sided for LOD models with minimal fuss. Currently the whole thing is around 4100 tris while there's still optimisation to be done. I'm going to finish off this laser and do a version like this one and take them both into colour testing, since I want to find out if having that wire gives me the opportunity to do anything interesting with the colouring.
@Sparkwire: Having finally arrived at a design I like a lot I'm not inclined to build a new bolt mechanism.
Ah, well on my model, I have some hard and some soft edges, but I was informed that the weird shadows on my model in-game were due to improper smoothing groups. All I've done is select all the edges I want smoothed and do the Normals thing, and leave the hard edges hard. Is this all there is to it? If so, I'll focus on tweaking the vmt.
Thanks for the help.
Disregard, I found a helpful passerby who pointed me in a couple right directions. Thanks agin.
1.well it looks similar to early some explorer helmets used by the spanish conquistadors
2.looks fine to me
3. i guess it could, if we knew what it was exactly
also i found out i may be able to use the modding computers at my work and will be able to do models myself (hopefully) so if i can i am going to do a roman legionnaire helmet for the soldier (yes i know the legionaire's lid does exist in the game files) but i cant quite figure out which design i will use there were 3 types of roman helmets what do you think i should go with.
Just in case you didnt get all of the right directions :
You should be able to estimate from viewing your model within Maya whether or not your model has any weird shadows happening. If your model looks correct in Maya (shading wise) it is likely more to do with your VMT.
Incorrect normals:
The first thing I do before I ready a model to be exported as an SMD is set all normal angels to 30 degrees (Normals > Set normal angle) which gives a nice overall smoothness. The next thing I do is select any round faces (cylindrical, spherical) and soften their normal angle (Normals > Soften); and finally I may or may not select a few beveled / damaged edges and set them to hard but I use this sparingly. I should also mention if you dont see any changes being made within Maya, make sure that youve unlocked your normals.
Incorrect VMT:
Most likely caused by not having a Phongmask ("$basemapalphaphongmask" "1")
It looks like you have a ton of unneeded polys on that thing. On those side plates and the top piece for example. You could shave off at least 500 or so triangles easily by welding a lot of those verts together that literally do nothing to enhance the silhouette.
Sickmedic, looks good but you can remove a crapton of polys from it easily.
I've marked a few obvious edge rings and loops to remove, if a surface is flat, it doesn't need to be divided like that.
From what I can tell the sides are perfectly flat, so you can lose the two edge loops on them as well as collapsing most of the rings. Keep just enough to maintain the definition in the centre hole.
The box on the top as well looks like it has perfectly flat sides, so you can lose all those too.
Looks like you have unesseccery loops around each of the bolts as well, you can lose those too.
All in all you can probably lose 50% of the polys without changing the shape one iota.
Just in case you didnt get all of the right directions :
You should be able to estimate from viewing your model within Maya whether or not your model has any weird shadows happening. If your model looks correct in Maya (shading wise) it is likely more to do with your VMT.
Incorrect normals:
The first thing I do before I ready a model to be exported as an SMD is set all normal angels to 30 degrees (Normals > Set normal angle) which gives a nice overall smoothness. The next thing I do is select any round faces (cylindrical, spherical) and soften their normal angle (Normals > Soften); and finally I may or may not select a few beveled / damaged edges and set them to hard but I use this sparingly. I should also mention if you dont see any changes being made within Maya, make sure that youve unlocked your normals.
Incorrect VMT:
Most likely caused by not having a Phongmask ("$basemapalphaphongmask" "1")
This is awesome, thank you. I was getting confused as to the role smoothing groups played, but I get how to soften/harden normals.
Basically what's happening is shadows are appearing on top of the model when I walk under a light (instead of underneath the model as physics would dictate).
I thought that this was because I made the model and set my soft normals before I knew that Z had to be up, so when I changed that, I just reoriented the model and that the normals had been locked for Y-up, but I'm not sure how to fix this. Hardening and then re-softening them has no effect.
I've been trying several things to reset or normalize the normals in the mesh, but to no avail so far. Any hints would be awesome as the guy I was talking to before uses 3dsmax and doesn't know wtf when it comes to Maya.
have you tried the box trick? create a box, convert it to whatever format, attach you model, delete the box. that usually fixes most of my problems, including mirroring issues and lighting issues.
oh crap. maya. ummmm... there should be a box trick equivalent.
Replies
modelviewer-
no texture blender render-
my texture-
Do you like my crowbar?
[ame="
and a screenshot:
I was wondering if anyone will notice. It's all post in photoshop, done with topaz adjust 4. http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust/
E: Now I got this idea, maybe I could do texture pack for TF2, modifying textures with that plugin. In my opinion it makes tf2 look very fresh
@Lachtan, maybe you could get Sparkwire to do some animations for you if he's interested. It would be much better if it had an animation relevant to it with a particle effect.
Ive redesigned the wrench. Its now based off a thrumscrew torture device, combined with other wierd shapes. Heres what came out:
Sorry for the bad screenshot, i've been pretty busy lately, and most of the time i'm doing about an hour max on it.
Does anyone have a list of steps or a checklist or something for exporting and compiling weapons and NOT hats, especially what I need to skin bind and how to write the .qc? I would GREATLY appreciate it, because I'm obviously tf2-modding challenged...
Keep at it. You've got a genuinely original looking design going there, with a little more work and a good texture, I reckon you'd have a good chance of getting in game.
I was considering that but in a different context, because of the turtling strategy in tf2 and because of the razorback i was going to make designs for Teenage mutant ninja turtles style for pack weapons for four of the classes Sniper,scout, engi and spy representing the 4 turtles
Sniper= leonardo the cool level headed one, a sword dubbed the Outbackatana
Engi = obviously donatello but since a bo staff obviously isn't a tool i would have to base it on something work related so i was going with an elongated crowbar with a purple tape handle called the Bo-bar
Spy= Raphael give him a sai called the Sailent Killer
Scout= Michealangelo nunchucks closest thing i could come up with was Numb-chucks
so far i imported the solly model into my 3d package and deleted all but the head bone and parented my hat's reference and phys model to it, and after that i dont got a clue what i have to do in the QC file for the compile.
I believe the soldier has a helmet bone that isn't bip_head, which moves in taunts and stuff so you might choose to skin to that instead
I think going through all the .qc commands articles on VDW helped, but I'm getting the mins/maxs error when I try to load, so I think I have a mesh problem. MORE TROUBLESHOOTING.
Tried http://www.kathar.net/hl2modding/errors.php ?
$modelname "player\items\soldier\soldier_jeepcap.mdl" $model "Body" "soldier_jeepcap.smd" $cdmaterials "\models\player\items\soldier\" $hboxset "default" $hbox 0 "bip_head" -4.57 -8.59 -8.84 4.32 0.00 3.52 $surfaceprop "cloth" //$illumposition 1.028 0.000 79.229 //Corrected illumposition $illumposition 0.000 -1.028 79.229 $sequence idle "soldier_jeepcap" loop fps 30.00 $collisionmodel "soldier_jeepcap.smd" { $mass 7.0 $inertia 1.00 $damping 0.00 $rotdamping 0.00This builds the entire MDL from one SMD named "soldier_jeepcap.smd", I can't remember which hat I used as a basis for this so I can't tell you where the physics lines are borrowed from. This is enough to compile a hat with no team-textures. If you're wondering where the hitbox stuff comes from, the lines for them can be generated by the modelviewer.@mutatedjellyfish: When you say weapons and not hats, does this mean you've successfully compiled models that aren't weapons? I can give you a run through making a weapon QC based around a decompiler QC but if your models are breaking the game you have a problem that needs sorting out before any of that will help.
---
More progress on the rifle:
The scope is now doubled up to 32 sided, and the scope mount has been redesigned and beefed up somewhat. Otherwise it's nearly ready, I've just got to decide what to do about this bloody laser. Oh yeah, another one of those is on this one too. :poly142:
Excellent, thank you!
add a unique bolt and let me animate it.
yaw_constraint -15 15
pitch_constraint -15 15
these are the max and min rotation allowed for the jiggle bone
I guess I will submit, unless someone have some suggestions for improvement.
I'm not sure whether I should make it smaller or not. It fits fine now, but the lens clips through a couple animations. >.>
Also, those pictures were made when I had a small problem with the phong and stuff. Here's one with improved shininess:
And now, the animations. *gulp*
https://steamcommunity.com/id/mutatedjellyfish
Maya has two smoothing Groups, either hard or soft edges. to change an edge simply select it, and under the polygons menu set, Normals > Soften Edge or harden edge
Ah, well on my model, I have some hard and some soft edges, but I was informed that the weird shadows on my model in-game were due to improper smoothing groups. All I've done is select all the edges I want smoothed and do the Normals thing, and leave the hard edges hard. Is this all there is to it? If so, I'll focus on tweaking the vmt.
Thanks for the help.
@Sparkwire: Having finally arrived at a design I like a lot I'm not inclined to build a new bolt mechanism.
@ShakerSilver: That's an awfully big lens...
They're the default animations so that's why they don't fit, nice crowbar i i like how the bar bends around the finger
Hi :shifty:
3 issue:
1. You know what it is?
2. What do you think about this?
3. Is this for Medieval?
Disregard, I found a helpful passerby who pointed me in a couple right directions. Thanks agin.
2.looks fine to me
3. i guess it could, if we knew what it was exactly
also i found out i may be able to use the modding computers at my work and will be able to do models myself (hopefully) so if i can i am going to do a roman legionnaire helmet for the soldier (yes i know the legionaire's lid does exist in the game files) but i cant quite figure out which design i will use there were 3 types of roman helmets what do you think i should go with.
1.
2.
or 3
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1109465
Just in case you didnt get all of the right directions
You should be able to estimate from viewing your model within Maya whether or not your model has any weird shadows happening. If your model looks correct in Maya (shading wise) it is likely more to do with your VMT.
Incorrect normals:
The first thing I do before I ready a model to be exported as an SMD is set all normal angels to 30 degrees (Normals > Set normal angle) which gives a nice overall smoothness. The next thing I do is select any round faces (cylindrical, spherical) and soften their normal angle (Normals > Soften); and finally I may or may not select a few beveled / damaged edges and set them to hard but I use this sparingly. I should also mention if you dont see any changes being made within Maya, make sure that youve unlocked your normals.
Incorrect VMT:
Most likely caused by not having a Phongmask ("$basemapalphaphongmask" "1")
[ame="
[ame="
http://shwigityshwonshwei.deviantart.com/journal/37816769/
I've marked a few obvious edge rings and loops to remove, if a surface is flat, it doesn't need to be divided like that.
From what I can tell the sides are perfectly flat, so you can lose the two edge loops on them as well as collapsing most of the rings. Keep just enough to maintain the definition in the centre hole.
The box on the top as well looks like it has perfectly flat sides, so you can lose all those too.
Looks like you have unesseccery loops around each of the bolts as well, you can lose those too.
All in all you can probably lose 50% of the polys without changing the shape one iota.
1. It's Don Quixote's Barber's Bowl Helmet
2. Brilliant
3. Yes, or close enough to it.
mideval leatherface / executioner.
This is awesome, thank you. I was getting confused as to the role smoothing groups played, but I get how to soften/harden normals.
Basically what's happening is shadows are appearing on top of the model when I walk under a light (instead of underneath the model as physics would dictate).
I thought that this was because I made the model and set my soft normals before I knew that Z had to be up, so when I changed that, I just reoriented the model and that the normals had been locked for Y-up, but I'm not sure how to fix this. Hardening and then re-softening them has no effect.
I've been trying several things to reset or normalize the normals in the mesh, but to no avail so far. Any hints would be awesome as the guy I was talking to before uses 3dsmax and doesn't know wtf when it comes to Maya.
oh crap. maya. ummmm... there should be a box trick equivalent.
nice!! can we get a closer view?
It's on the right hand.
Heavy punches with right hand using the right mouse button.
Most people shoot and punch with left house button.
That is, unless you just want him to hold it...
Looks genuinely awesome and fits surprisingly well.
+1 for bigger image