howto make custom models?

[vonnis]

hi there. first let me say it was a hell to register here, it took me atleast 30 minutes straight entering those damn verification characters and numbers.

now my frustration is gone i can ask my question about Unreal Tournament GOTY.
im learning just for hobby a little bit of gamemaking/editing
i learned alot but i wanted to make more creative and complex things. but since Unreal Tournament3 is so extensive i figure i can better go back to UT the original.

i would like to make custom weapons and animation, so therefor i need to know how to import 3dmodels.
for instance 1 of my fantasy is to make the weapon Cerebral bore from the game Turok2. This weapon shoots a missile that locks onto the enemy's brain and on impact bores into the brain and then explodes. HAHAHA 

AWSOME Right!!

i know its alot of work but its a longterm goal to learn programming and more unreal editing, Awsome right?

[Hellkeeper]

Sorry for your trouble with the verification, it seems to be universally hated and problematic for everyone

As far as weapon-making goes, you'll need to model and animate your weapon in a 3D software, import this in the game and then program the weapon. I don't have a lot of advice to give you because this is not my branch. However, there's a nice resource for UScript on the OldUnreal tutorial list.

[iLikeTheUDK]

About importing the models - It depends what program you're using for modelling and animation.

[vonnis]

i have 3dsmax7, i found out according to this tutorial www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/coyote210/Docs/ArtImport.doc
that you need to export as .3ds and then use 3ds2unr to convert it to .uc and .3d and then use uccmake to create an .u file.

i think this will keep me going for a while. I need to learn 3dsmax some more now.

[iLikeTheUDK]

i have 3dsmax7, i found out according to this tutorial www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/coyote210/Docs/ArtImport.doc
that you need to export as .3ds and then use 3ds2unr to convert it to .uc and .3d and then use uccmake to create an .u file.

i think this will keep me going for a while. I need to learn 3dsmax some more now.

Versions of UT99 from 432 and up support skeletal animation. And as I said before, ActorX, made to export skeletal animation for UE2 and UE3 games, could probably be supported by UT99 as well.

[vonnis]

I think you are confused with another topic, you didnt say before
but i can find very little info about it, i dont understand why there is no udn for unreal engine 1 and unreal engine 1.5.
the only info i can find is the link i posted, and some info about how to use 3ds2unr here on the forum in the tutorials section from "The Complete Unreal Ed Reference Guide" in the scripting section.

any more info would be appreciated. for instance how to use skeletal animation and about the dxf import.

[iLikeTheUDK]

i dont understand why there is no udn for unreal engine 1 and unreal engine 1.5.

The UDN exists for game developers using UE to learn how to work with the engine. As you probably know, Unreal Engine 1 is discontinued as a platform for game development a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago. Now it's mainly used for mods. And the UDN is there for game developers, not modders.

the only info i can find is the link i posted, and some info about how to use 3ds2unr here on the forum in the tutorials section from "The Complete Unreal Ed Reference Guide" in the scripting section.
any more info would be appreciated. for instance how to use skeletal animation and about the dxf import.

What do you mean, how to use skeletal animation? And LOL, how the hell did we get to DXF? What does DXF have to do with this?

[Turboman.]

Since you're intending to make a weapon, i'd say 3ds2unr is the best way to go (personally i think vertex animation suits such a function better then skeletal animation), the tutorial you found explains the steps quite well.

3ds2unr is technically obsolete though, epic replaced it with the actorX plugin which works directly inside 3dsmax, but i found that plugin very cumbersome and annoying to use for vertex meshes (it's actually more intended for skeletal animations and is extremely limited in options regarding vertex meshes)

On the other hand DXF import is useful for mapping as unrealed can translate these into brushes, but it won't get you any closer to getting an animated weapon ingame.

Either way, good luck! the cereberal bore is one of my favorite weapons

[Hellkeeper]

i dont understand why there is no udn for unreal engine 1 and unreal engine 1.5.

The UDN exists for game developers using UE to learn how to work with the engine. As you probably know, Unreal Engine 1 is discontinued as a platform for game development a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago. Now it's mainly used for mods. And the UDN is there for game developers, not modders.

All you just said is true. However just a few precisions: in the days of UE2, there was a small UDN for the UE1 : most of it had been deleted, but there were a small bunch of articles intended for mod-making with UE1: I guess they decided to keep this for modders after they deleted the developer content (since they stopped selling the UE1 as a development platform).
Nowadays, all these resources have been pulled out.

[Turboman.]

About two years ago epic even dropped the ball on ActorX (the latest version is from 2011 or so), meaning official support for UE1/UE2 and its tools is really over by now.

[iLikeTheUDK]

About two years ago epic even dropped the ball on ActorX (the latest version is from 2011 or so), meaning official support for UE1/UE2 and its tools is really over by now.

I know, but someone released an unofficial update for it, which I linked to in my first post in this thread.

Since you're intending to make a weapon, i'd say 3ds2unr is the best way to go (personally i think vertex animation suits such a function better then skeletal animation).

As weird as that sounds, I actually prefer skeletal animation for weapons. I would skin a bone for every moving part, so I don't have to re-select the same group of vertices over and over again for each keyframe - I just select the apropriate armature for that part.

[vonnis]

does anyone know if its true that Ued 2.0 only allows weapons with 1 mesh? according to the tutorial im reading its says "All models must be ONE mesh, and ONE element" but if i look at the flakgun for instance i see 2 meshes, i guess when its loading up the next flak bullet that is a second mesh or am i wrong?

This really sucks btw, i think i just go along and model it in 3dsmax but i never made anything in 3dsmax, i cant model animate or uvmap at all.
So i made it in Maya and then imported as OBJ

http://img161.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=758537234_cerebral_bore_3dsmax_122_17lo.jpg

then i realised how stupid this weapon is actually, it looks almost like your holding a big old freaking camcorder

But okay i have more then enough to do now.
First find some 3dsmax tutorials and then im gonna shoot some imaginable noobs with my camcorder


  [URL=http://img161.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=758537234_cerebral_bore_3dsmax_122_17lo.jpg][img]http://img161.imagevenue.com/loc17/th_758537234_cerebral_bore_3dsmax_122_17lo.jpg[/img][/URL]
    


   

[Turboman.]

As weird as that sounds, I actually prefer skeletal animation for weapons. I would skin a bone for every moving part, so I don't have to re-select the same group of vertices over and over again for each keyframe - I just select the apropriate armature for that part.

On the subject of animating: Yes, i'd always suggest animating using bones, but when exporting it to the game? its largely unnecessary to export as a skeletal model, just convert it to vertex mesh and its easily done.

vonnis, the weapon doesn't look so bad to me for a first try with max, infact i think it looks pretty good, have to see the textured version though!

If the perspective looks odd, you might want to adjust your camera settings a bit (particularly the FOV). Oh and you can scale/stretch it ingame anyway if you export it as a vertex mesh

PS: my first gun was basically a rectangular box with another rectangle representing a scope, the skin was done in mspaint

[iLikeTheUDK]

according to the tutorial im reading its says "All models must be ONE mesh, and ONE element" but if i look at the flakgun for instance i see 2 meshes, i guess when its loading up the next flak bullet that is a second mesh or am i wrong?

No. Look for the Flak Cannon mesh in UnrealEd, you'll see that there is a lump of flak shells usually hidden from view, being slid into the flak cannon every time it loads.

[iLikeTheUDK]

And if I understood you, there aren't just 2 meshes, but 3. One for 1st Person view, one for 3rd Person, and one for pickup.