Modelling for games

Submitted by Kris on
Forum
Artists

Hey guys,

I've recently started modelling for games, using Maya. At the moment, my attempts have been solely for UT2k3 and Static Meshes. Whilst I know pretty much how to build what I want to, what I don't know about it optimising, texturing and scaling.

For one of my UT2k3 meshes, I worked in 1:1 Scale and it was rather large in Maya, I figured some people must be working in a ratio along the lines of 1:4 and then scaling it up. Also when it came to UV mapping, I had more than one texture to cover the mesh, yet in the UnrealEd you can see they only use one texture for their mesh's.

Its these sorts of things I'd like to learn, so I was just wondering if anyone had any tutorials/articles that they know of, so I could read up on them.

Thanks :)

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 22/12/02 - 11:31 PMPermalink

Ah UT2k3 uses 2 textures for their characters
1 head the other body.
As for textures i think for the ut2k3 engine its 1024 x 1024 for body (png format) and 512 x 512 for head also png format i believe.
As for scale easiest way to do it is to import a character mesh and put it next to yours then scale it to fit next to it [8D]
As for optimzing simple. Less poly's the better, unless you animating the mesh. Then you need a little more so that it looks good when animated.
Check out the http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=114 post for stuff about ut2k3 modelling and stuff. It has links and has more info than i could give you [:D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Kris on Fri, 27/12/02 - 1:34 AMPermalink

Thanks Meatex, I checked that out before but some how I missed the most important one :) Although it helped me a bit, I'm not using MayaPLE and the unEditor plugin doesn't work for Maya retail :|

Guess I'll have to export my stuff to OBJ and import to 3DS instead...

Submitted by Fluffy CatFood on Sat, 28/12/02 - 1:26 AMPermalink

no you wont. Theres an actorX plugin for maya as well. http://unreal.epicgames.com/skeletal/utskelanim.htm . ActorX is the tool to export skeletal animations. As for texturing, I know with max if you have multiple bitmaps assigned you need to use a multi-sub-object material(Which is a material that uses multiple maps) Maya should have somthing like that so try it. With your static meshes, dont be too worried about scale in maya since you can scale it in the editor. Also static meshes support smoothing groups, animated ones dont.

Lead paint: delicious but deadly!

Submitted by Kris on Sat, 28/12/02 - 5:17 AMPermalink

Thanks Fluffy. I've figured out the texturing, so that isn't much of a problem anymore:)

As for ActorX - the only way I can get my meshes into Unreal is by exporting them as a brush instead of a mesh...

Posted by Kris on
Forum
Artists

Hey guys,

I've recently started modelling for games, using Maya. At the moment, my attempts have been solely for UT2k3 and Static Meshes. Whilst I know pretty much how to build what I want to, what I don't know about it optimising, texturing and scaling.

For one of my UT2k3 meshes, I worked in 1:1 Scale and it was rather large in Maya, I figured some people must be working in a ratio along the lines of 1:4 and then scaling it up. Also when it came to UV mapping, I had more than one texture to cover the mesh, yet in the UnrealEd you can see they only use one texture for their mesh's.

Its these sorts of things I'd like to learn, so I was just wondering if anyone had any tutorials/articles that they know of, so I could read up on them.

Thanks :)

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 22/12/02 - 11:31 PMPermalink

Ah UT2k3 uses 2 textures for their characters
1 head the other body.
As for textures i think for the ut2k3 engine its 1024 x 1024 for body (png format) and 512 x 512 for head also png format i believe.
As for scale easiest way to do it is to import a character mesh and put it next to yours then scale it to fit next to it [8D]
As for optimzing simple. Less poly's the better, unless you animating the mesh. Then you need a little more so that it looks good when animated.
Check out the http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=114 post for stuff about ut2k3 modelling and stuff. It has links and has more info than i could give you [:D]

It is infact ants who are the true rulers of this world!!!

Submitted by Kris on Fri, 27/12/02 - 1:34 AMPermalink

Thanks Meatex, I checked that out before but some how I missed the most important one :) Although it helped me a bit, I'm not using MayaPLE and the unEditor plugin doesn't work for Maya retail :|

Guess I'll have to export my stuff to OBJ and import to 3DS instead...

Submitted by Fluffy CatFood on Sat, 28/12/02 - 1:26 AMPermalink

no you wont. Theres an actorX plugin for maya as well. http://unreal.epicgames.com/skeletal/utskelanim.htm . ActorX is the tool to export skeletal animations. As for texturing, I know with max if you have multiple bitmaps assigned you need to use a multi-sub-object material(Which is a material that uses multiple maps) Maya should have somthing like that so try it. With your static meshes, dont be too worried about scale in maya since you can scale it in the editor. Also static meshes support smoothing groups, animated ones dont.

Lead paint: delicious but deadly!

Submitted by Kris on Sat, 28/12/02 - 5:17 AMPermalink

Thanks Fluffy. I've figured out the texturing, so that isn't much of a problem anymore:)

As for ActorX - the only way I can get my meshes into Unreal is by exporting them as a brush instead of a mesh...