3ds conversions

[Dragon_Master]

here's my first conversion that actually worked in game. Its the rapier class. Hp01 and hp02 are the cannon thingys and Hp03 is the engines. (i didnt wanna make anymore at 12:35 last night ) it is EXTREMELY HIGH POLY!!!! the only way i could send it was by compressing it 5 times with winRAR so youre gonna need winRAR. and i will add that due to the amount of time per conversion (2hrs) im going to shorten how many requests all do for now. i will only do 9 more federation ships, then the middle of next month ill do some klingon i guess.... the xtra ones that i submit that arent requested dont count in this 9


and some people need to look back at the maximum file size ill convert.. Excelisor is too big.

[Dragon_Master]

NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the stupid board wont take more than 2 mgs!!! the file is 3!!! anyone who wants the rapier is going to have to tell me their email...

[Major A Payne]

Its lovely to see that people actually listen to me.

Dragon_Master. Why don't you actually put down the poly count?? Your going to make a hell of alot of people unhappy if they find out what it is AFTER downloading it.

If you really want to, send it my way (mapayne@mail.com), or contact me via MSN/ICQ.

[blindeye01]

The Defiant C would be nice, and the only armada Centaur has a very basic sod.

[Dragon_Master]

well i have the kata class, prob is that its sod is 1.06 mgs... too much for anyone's computer..... hmmm..... maybe i should get rid of some things in the model........... but ill try the defiant c

[Major A Payne]

Well I've done the Kata and its in BI:VR but is one of those ships thats likely to be released seperately anyway pretty soon once I finalise the federation side.

As for the rapier. You were very lucky to be able to get the rapier working in game but a couple of things arise:

1) Did you resize the textures correctly and make sure they weren't compressed AND in 24 bit colour?? You appear to have just converted the JPG files and that won't work as much of the texturing is done as "embedded" in the model itself.

2) Readme file. If your planning on releasing this you MUST include a readme which details credits to the original author, where the model was obtained from and its poly count.

I'm saying this simply because if Andrew J Hodges (owner of Startrekaustralia.com) finds out what your up to, he does have a habit of leaning very heavily on someone. Finally,

What posessed you to convert a 67426 poly model to armada format and even think it'll be suitable for either game?? I mean how many people will download this anyway. Don't get me wrong, I mean its admirable that you've tried and partially succeeded to convert this model, but these are CGI models suitable for things like movies and image reproduction. If you really do want to do this then theres a longer but easier method which involves:

1) Using 3d max studio to render up images of every section at 1024*1024 or 512*512 pixels sized JPG files (these are used to build a set of good textures from if your not able, like me, to make your own).
2) Make several smaller (300*300) images which are of the complete ship (these are used as background images in MS3d).
3) Build a rough model, and then rebuild each section of the model to a higher definited mesh.

As I said it does take longer but at least you get a low poly game compatible mesh which people won't complain about.

Oh and to put my modelling where my mouth is (as I'm sure theres a few non believers out there who think, but may not say, I'm talking bollocks), I've give the rapier a go and post images and release a complete, ready to use model over the next couple of days.

[Kirgen]

67426 polies?

[Major A Payne]

.....and to emphasise the point I made. Heres my bare mesh. Its final count (baring in mind it'll have at least 3 texture maps (all 512*512 pixels)) is 1392 polys (which still being a little high and loosing aorund 20% of the actual detail from the original isn't to bad). Total construction time is around 4 hours.

Bare in mind that while the mesh does look very bare (detail wise), it is the correct shape.

[Operative34997]

Well, I don't have 3dsmax so I tecd to look at things from a more simple perspective. In regards to converting this 67000+ poly model, wouldn't it be easier to closely examine each section of the high poly model and create a low poly version of each and compile them together into one low poly model in Milkshape? It would probably save a lot of time. It would also eliminate the need to get permission to use someone's mesh. It would just be a matter of contacting the person that originated the design(which may or may not be a different person). With 67000 polys, I'm guessing that these conversions must be done with something other than milkshape, because I didn't think milk would even support that many. I've even done this for my own personal modding. Saw a ship that I liked, downloaded it and realized that it had way too many polys even for my taste. It didn't take me long to realize that it was faster to just make my own low poly version rather than try to reduce the original. It looked better than a reduced original as well.

[Dragon_Master]

well actually i have a high performence pc so my Milkshape 1.7.0 can handle it... and ive found a way besdies that to shrink poly size. i find that if i were to merely edit out the interior of all the ships, it wouldnt be so high poly. SOme of those ship actually have detailed interiors so ill remove those and release tommorrow my scorpion mk2 fighter conversion.