How to Model New 3D Units [Archive] - Page 2

Burns

05-22-2006, 15:27

Do you mean with the texture on? You have to do that in the Material Editor. Basically you have to load a texture and assign it to the model.

As for myself Im still having a bit of a hard time scaling down some models. I know Im not doing something right. I tend to weld verts to reduce polies but often the texture becomes very awkward (particularily the face). I need some tips.

snevets

05-24-2006, 03:30

3DS Max is an Autodesk product; it lists for $3495 (ouch!). I think that's reason #1 why modelers are so rare. A 30-day trial is available.

Hmm thats not exactly top quality info guy- for RTW modelling you can use anything version 4 and up (5 and up is best though). You can get 7.5 through rosesoftware for around 350. Thats not so bad when the alternative is 3500 according to Atilius. If its any consolation you're pretty much automatically a modeller if you buy it. On the other hand you can still get gmax 1.2 through turbosquid.com . You can't export your models from gmax but you can convert them to a quake format which 3ds max can import, then export them from there. What that means is if you have gmax and make a model, then send it to someone with 3ds they can export it for you.

IrishArmenian

05-27-2006, 02:15

Is there a way to get this free? 3 American Dollars are costly here.

BHCWarman88

06-04-2006, 04:19

I can't download it.. 120MB,I got 56K,meh,I guess I won't be Modding anytime soon :-( :-(

Shadowspawn

06-23-2006, 12:38

Hey hoggy i'm a bit new to all this modding stuff but i followed your tutorial word for word and when i get to the part when i have to weld the vertices together it gives me an error message saying "No vertices within weld threshold". Could you help me with this?
Cheers.

Rand al'Thor

06-23-2006, 16:09

Hey this is the same guy as shadowspawn i was just using a different account cos this one wasn't working. Can anyone help me please? :help:

Thanks.

Bwian

06-23-2006, 17:54

To weld vertices, first, you must have more than 1...

The 'weld threshold' is the distance setting paramet in the weld part of the toolbar. It tells Max how far away from each other vertices can be to weld tham automatically. Otherwise you need to select the verts you want to weld. Set it too big, and it will weld stuff you don't want welded!

Rand al'Thor

06-24-2006, 15:05

K thanks i kinda get u but why does hoggy say to weld the vertices in a radius of 0.00001 if that's a way too small radius and i tried welding the vertices in a radius of 5.0 and i still get the same error message.
Could u or anybody else explain a simple way to model units with gmax?
Thanks for your help anyway.

Rand al'Thor

06-24-2006, 15:25

Oh and another thing how does everyone take all those pics of the programs they're running? If i knew how to do that i could show u what's wrong.

Rand al'Thor

06-24-2006, 15:28

Rhyfelwyr

12-23-2006, 21:46

I just read this whole thread from Page 1 and I thought there my problems were solved when I read that last post, but there was no reply to it. I'm having the exact same problem as mentioned by Rand al'Thor. I selected all the vertices, but when I went to weld them, I got told "No vertices within weld threshold".

Could anyone help me with this?

:help:

Neeley

12-31-2006, 21:17

Hey I have a question or more or less I wanted to hear others opinns. I understand the concepts behind modding units and such. Since iI am a junior member i wanted to know if you think i should try and mod units or something. I'm real good with computers and stuff im not some kid who just think he can mod. Yes or no anseres are fine dont mind if you say no it'll just save my time if thats how it is.

Caius

01-02-2007, 16:09

Nice guide.

But i am lost in gmax :help:

Roman_Man#3

01-02-2007, 18:21

Yes, I am lost as well in gmax. Could someone just simplify it a bit, I am hopelessly lost.

RM3

ps. Caledonian Rhyfelwyr, you need to draw a box around the model with the selection tool to grab the vertices, and then you hit the weld selection button.

tofu_san

03-15-2007, 17:46

Hi,

I am a bit lost too. I get the basic idea (like most computer stuff, all pretty logical).

One basic question. I have created a carthaginian archer unit (based on easter archer unit) and after a bit of fiddling, in custom mode everything looks good, except that the carthaginians won't fight!!

By that I mean, I think the basic archer unit has a knife whilst the skeleton I have used is is for a sword. (Does anyone know what the hc is for in the skeleton name e.g hc_swordsman is it cavalry based?).

What do I need to do to get a weapon in their hands (which is easiest):-

1) Change the archer skeleton with 3ds Max so he has a sword?
2) Change texture with Photoshop so that he has a sword.
3) Change a file some-where to point some-where else. (I got an error when I tried skeleton hc_fast knife)

I am guessing it is option 1?

Cheers.

Squid

03-15-2007, 17:51

IIRC If you want a model to use a different weapon you'll need to change the model. Then you'll need to change the texture, then you'll need to change the animations (which is sounds like you've already done).

Just as a note: If you're moding vanilla, there is a carthaginian_archer model already in DMB, and there is a texture for it in the pak files that isn't in the default game. If you implement it, it will work like the numidian archer (i.e. dagger not sword as secondary weapon IIRC)

tofu_san

03-15-2007, 19:13

You're right, I did use the numidian archer file that was already there.

But I guess the program doesn't know that a model with a longer weapon is a sword compared to a shorter one, so I'm still not sure what to do here. There must be a way to link the weapons, no?

I don't mind the archers with either weapon. At the moment i think there is no weapon because of the confilct between the description (archer, secondary weapon is a knife) and the skeleton llokup description (weapon is a sword) I think, so not sure if changing the model or texture is the answer?

tofu_san

03-15-2007, 20:22

It's all hunky dorey now. I forced them to fight hand to hand and the knives do appear (sure they didn't first time I tried though?).

I think I was also put off by the fact that the bow is in left hand but their right hand is stuck out as if there should be something there, but I tested other umodded bog standard cav archer units and they all look like this (well they do with my lame graphics card anyway)

Squid

03-15-2007, 20:51

I meant there is a carthaginian texture for the archer (it just isn't used) it looks like the numidian one, but is in white. To change which animation a unit uses you need to change the skeletons in DMB.

You can use the carthaginian texture by adding this to the carthaginian_archer model where the numidian texture line is located.

texture carthage, data/models_unit/textures/unit_carthage_light_archer_carthage.tga

EDIT: The default skeletons for the carthaginian_archer should be fs_semi_fast_archer, fs_semi_fast_dagger if you use these when the unit does melee combat it will use its dagger. And as a note you can't just change the texture to add a sword its more involved then that. There's a tutorial for adding new units to the game in the tools section if you look it up it will give you better instructions.

tofu_san

03-16-2007, 11:01

Yeah,

I have already inputted that line of text. I see that for each unit available to a faction there is a separate texture lookup line.

I don't think the default skeletons you suggest were correct as I think (but not sure) that fs_blah_blah denotes a footsoldier and hc_blah_blah denotes cavalry mounted soldier skeleton, so when I used fs_archer... the unit was on top of a horse but standing without bent legs which looked a bit weird, like some-one sitting on the footpegs of a motorbike!

Changing to hc seemed to sort this out, but I couldn't change to fs_hc_semi_fast_archer and dagger because this returned an error of no such skeleton to look up so I went for fs_hc_archer and fs_hc_swordsman and this seemed to sort things out and the unit actually still fight with a knife. I would be interested to know why using the fc_hc_swordsman file I used didn't make the figure appear with a sword, does the texture file with the knife overide this or is it becauase the primary weapon file is a bow? I am sure I got the idea because that is how other archer units in RTW are set up
as well.

meliritos

04-05-2007, 09:57

Hello all. Recently I confronted the following problem. When i used cylidrical mapping to map a new model for RTW, although the mapping coordinates looke fine in 3d max, when i imported it as a .cas file the model appeared with a dreadful distortion. Wlesmana suggested that the .cas importer works in a simplified way, much simplier than 3d max, so i used only planar mapping and it worked without this distortion. But the problem is that only cylindrical mapping produces the results i want. Is there sth to do about it so that i can use cylidrical mapping without worrying that the outcome will be horrible? Has anyone else encountered the same problem with cylindrical mapping. And what does the Grand Master, Hoggy himself has to say about that? Help me master...

ole-warhammer

06-18-2007, 15:58

Any other programs than 3ds max? I have used it up :P

Aradan

06-18-2007, 17:06

Well, there is always gmax, but it certainly doesn't have the same capabilities as 3dsMax

ole-warhammer

07-16-2007, 11:44

When I import CAS files in BI, what CAS file? LOd 1, 2,3 or 4?

ole-warhammer

07-16-2007, 19:36

Sorry for double posting.

Plz help me. On me, it is not skin on it :(
https://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6684/202548pv7.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
The texture path is this:
D:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\models_unit

And do you use LOD 1, 2, 3 or LOD 4?

Makanyane

07-17-2007, 06:45

sorry no idea on the skin - I'm not sure you can view texture properly in gmax if that is what you are using now? (at least I couldn't work out how to make it do it either)

As far as the lod's are concerned, I think that lod1 is the 'large resolution' version, so logically you'd load that one and make changes to that. You can run game using only lod1 models, just replace the references to the other ones in the DMB file. If you wanted to re-make the smaller ones you need to search for 'making low-poly models' I think, and re-make them from your new lod1 so it ties up.

You'll have guessed by now I'm not a modeller so hopefully someone else will help....

Marcus Furius Camillus

11-18-2007, 20:51

say, I' can't find the .CAS extractor, can I dowload it with another link ?:help:

Makanyane

11-18-2007, 20:53

It's listed in various places, unfortunately so are some dead links! A working one is:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=141

Charge

11-19-2007, 18:05

нах, типа fixed

Marcus Furius Camillus

12-20-2007, 14:46

k, thank's

Seth Krn3ll

08-15-2009, 11:00

erm.. not sure what that is. Check you're importing into a clean scene ie one with nothing in it. Check you are not importing one of the .CAS files that says it's an older version. Check that you have the texture that is used on the unit unpacked... If it still doesn't work best to look here http://www.stratcommandcenter.com/forums/index.php?showforum=35
to see if your question has been asked by someone else.

Having the same error here, and well, it can't be an older .CAS given its a totally new model (a overlay scene actually). I took the scene root from the roman huge city overlay and created ex-novo all the other meshes.

here's the message:
http://digilander.libero.it/krnell/lotrmod/minas%20tirith%20export%20error.jpg

If anyone have suggestions I'd appreciate them, thanks.

Seth