Game Development Community

Player, Weapon, and Vehicle Model Preparation

by Jim McLuckie · in Artist Corner · 04/16/2002 (1:08 pm) · 3 replies

I'm no modeler, nor much of a programmer, but I've been wondering...Are there any tutorials or documentation out there which lists steps or something similiar that need to be taken before a model can be considered complete and ready to be coded? Meaning, when does the modeler stop and programmer start? Things like mount points, animations, etc. For example, with an MP5, what types of things need to be modeled/animated? The player needs a recoil animation, the gun (and player?) needs a reload animation, and then it's ready to be exported? How about vehicles...different vehicles have different kinds of seats...do we need different animations for each kind of seat so that the player looks right sitting there? Any help would be appreciated.

#1
04/16/2002 (1:20 pm)
Joe Maruschak's DTS Exporter Documentation pretty much covers everything that a 3D artist needs to do for a model to be ready for Torque. You should read it, it covers every question that you are asking and probably more that you are thinking of.

Logan
#2
04/16/2002 (1:33 pm)
Although this is mostly relevant, you're assuming that a person is using 3DSMAX, which I am not...

What about those of us attempting to use Milkshape?

The MAX2DTS tutorial works well, but I still have one major unanswered question... how would one export multiple animations from Milkshape?
#3
04/16/2002 (2:08 pm)
Due to the wake Milkshape is designed, you have to do things somewhat "hokie" to get multiple animations exported. Take a look at the Milkshape Exporter Docs. At the end you'll find everything you need to know about animations.

I'm not familiar with player nodes, but you should be able to find everything you need for a vehicle in the same scripts in the racing mod (specifically car.cs). You'll need nodes like: eye, camera (1st and 3rd person view), wheels, etc. I'm pretty familiar with most of the vehicle nodes, but not all of the animations. However, just check out the car script file. It explains them.