Mr.VdHeide wrote:Since I already had quite a lot of experience with Solid Works, which is a more technical type of 3D modeling software used by mechanical Engineers, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to get used to 3DS MAX. So I just started to create some basic things get familiar with the software's functions/commands.... and they turned out to be very different from those used in Solid Works....
CAD and Modelling software, while some use the same basic principles, are totally different things.
I also started off on CAD software too since I studied Mechanical Engineering before getting into modding, mainly AutoDesk Inventor which is somewhat similar to SolidWorks from what I can tell, thou I've never used SolidWorks and while in a few cases the actual creation process may not be that different (although in many cases it is very different), the biggest difference that took me a few years for my subconscious to fully get my head around, was the totally different approach to making things.
- In CAD you are trying to make something as accurate as possible, with as many details as possible, regardless of anything else.
- In Game Modelling, you are only trying to make something "look correct" and as good as possible, while keeping it optimized, where accuracy isn't necessarily a priority. But your main aim is to have something as optimized as possible and that will work with the game engine, while also looking as good as you can within the limitations of keeping your object optimized.
As I said above, these are totally opposite ways of making something and it took me a few years to really get my head around that aspect, as the actual modelling part wasn't hard, it was making things optimized and making them work with the game engine.
Mr.VdHeide wrote:1. How do I create the cabin and cargo bay? Can I just make a cabin and model: seats, a stearin wheel and perhaps some other items inside of it? Will a player be able to just enter the vehicle like that by pressing E? Or is it totally different? Are there specific things I have to take account with when modeling this truck?
Your best thing to do is go and look at other models and see how they where made and take into account how they where made, and any mistakes that where made in them which you can learn from.
A few previous posts that might help:
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f596-m ... ost1978973
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f388-p ... ost1879048
[quote=""'[R-DEV"]Rhino;1978973']Best example off the top of my head is probably the Zhi-9 and Panther chopper series, although TBH I could do much better now with its UVs and its texture sheet setup but it was my first vehicle UV
For example I didn't need both the Zhi-9B (transport) and Zhi-9WA (attack) 1p textures on the same sheet, I really should have spilt them up into two different sheets and also should have had the 1p passenger area on its own 1p sheet, with its own "medium detail" instruments panel on it and if I did all that then the UVs would have had a much higher pixel ratio and I could have only had the pilots or passengers loaded what they needed to see in high detail instead of the pilots having to load a load of high detail textures for the seats behind them which they are quite far away from and hardly ever look back to see
The rear passenger area of the 3p is quite large since it can easily be seen into from the outside etc but the basic principle of the 3p using a flat instruments panel, with its diffuse, normal and spec baked from the 1p textures/model is the main thing to take in here.
3p:
1p:
Also the Panther CLV (Not to be confused with the Panther helicopter) also has done its 3p interior textures right, other than they look to be manually textured on rather than baked and the 3p model interior is a little miss matched and possibly a little high detail in places and I would have had the left side of the vehicle flipped upside down and stitched onto the roof like the right side is rather than under it, then put the rear down there etc which would have also worked better for the rear's texture bleed but a small detail:
3p:
1p:
[/quote]
'[R-DEV wrote:Rhino;1879048']No what you should look for (in relation to this vehicle), for 100% optimization is:
- 3p Hull and any visible interior (interior best to be baked down from 1p model/texture) - own uv sheet
- 3p Turrets + any other parts related to different weapon setups that are not common among multiple versions and only too that weapon version - Own UV sheets, 1 sheet per weapon setup.
- 1p Cabin - own unique sheet, nothing of it should be used on the passenger lod, or 3p lod, assuming the passengers can't see that area, if they can then need to talk about that.
- 1p Passenger - own unique sheet, nothing of it should be used on cabin lod, unless the drivers can somehow see the passenger area, but they should be prevented from doing so unless critical for how the vehicle works/immersion...
You need to aim for using as few unique sheets as possible (each sheet counts for a new material, which in turn, counts for a new draw call) while also keeping it optimized with not loading textures that aren't being used (wasted texture space essentially if your loading textures for a turret which isn't being used on the map, or isn't visible to the player since the APC with that turret version is on the other side of the map). This is why its important not to have 3p interior textures on their own sheet, as this costs a needless draw call, when there is no reason for it either.
any visible exterior in the 1p views generally uses the 3p sheet, shouldn't be any need to have a "1p weapon texture", but that very much depends on how your going to view the weapon, but for all the tanks etc out there, the barrel/exterior is the same 3p texture on the 1p model, just the barrel is much more rounded (with more tris) etc in most cases.
As I'm sure I've already posted in this topic once before but I'll do so again, the 1p interior textures should be baked onto the 3p after they are textured, with their normal maps etc, so that you minimise the tri count and texture space, with also having no zfighting errors which from the outside, look pretty much the same especially from a distance, and you can see both the Z-9B and Z-9WA cockpit bakes on the 3p textures I posted above if you look closely, Z-9B's on the middle left of the first sheet, and Z-9WA's in pretty much the centre of the second sheet.
3p:
1p:
Although the Z-9 isn't a perfect example, it dose have many errors I wasn't able to correct before exporting it without major rework, it is for the most part on the ball.
[quote="Mr.VdHeide""]2. How do I create the windows correctly?[/quote]
2D double sided plane with a transparent texture applied to them.
Mr.VdHeide wrote:3. How do I create the wheels? Though I think I will manage to model them I have no clue what to do with them. I am pretty sure I can't just weld them to the trucks chassis, but I wouldn't know what else to do with them. I guess that must be the difference in between a static and a moving object.
Each moving part needs to be totally separate from the main mesh.
Mr.VdHeide wrote:4. Last but not least: Is it achievable for a beginning modeler like me to create a truck? I have a very minimum amount of experience and I read somewhere else that creating a vehicle is kind of hard. So what would you guys advise me to do? Perhaps I should make some useful statics before I start on this???
I hope you guys can help me finding my answers.
A truck is a pretty hard place to start, but then again statics are not a walk in the part either and require a different skill set from vehicle modelling since the way you model and texture statics is totally different to how you would a vehicle/weapon and you also need to learn basic exporting and coding etc for statics too.
However there is this tutorial here which covers most areas of making a static in quite a bit of detail, only really misses out full details on the texturing/UVing side and also custom Lightmap UVs but other than that covers all the other areas:
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... cture.html
But the simplest area you can really start in is making a bomb or missile IMO as they are very simple meshes where its easy to learn all the basics and any mistakes you do make along the way can be easily corrected
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