Looking for someone to help with a mod...

[flakmonkey]

This is pretty much the very first thing i ever wanted to add to sh3 back in the day, but a lack of tools like s3d meant that at that time it just wasnt possible. But now with the right tools and a better understanding of the game not to mention a bit of time off work over the last week i thought id have a crack at it.

A couple of pics to to give you a clue what im trying to add to the game...





Its based on sh5s type7 engine room, and as such isnt as accurate as the stunning detail fest that is tomi_099s work on the engine room for sh4 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=153853), but id wager that the polycount is 50-100x less, meaning those of us with less than wonderful pcs wont suffer too much.

Id love to get this mod out there, hopefully before sh5 comes along but im going to need a little (read: lot) of help...
　


Righty then, for various reasons the 3d software i use and silent hunter 3 dont get along (mostly me being too cheap to upgrade to a newer version of maya). Meaning although i can make a very cool model to add to the game when i come to export it i find that my .obj export plugin doesnt support the .mtl (material) files that s3d needs to import a mesh to the game.


For starters, Im looking for someone who uses 3ds max or lightwave (or a newer version of maya) who would be willing to import my obj files into their app, apply the correct textures and lightmaps i supply and then re-export them as .obj files complete with their associated .mtl files.


Secondly, im looking for anyone familiar with animations who could help me animate a few things in game, im guessing this is something to do with statemachine but its waay over my head. Same thing for 3d clickspots and key bindings to navigate the area.


Most of all, be patient with me, i can be really thick sometimes!
　

I still have a few stages to go through before your help is needed, texturing/creating lightmaps and a bit of geometry tweaking to suit sh3s engine, stuff that should still take a week or so, but i thought id ask sooner rather than later in the hopes of drumming up some interest...

Thanks all, and Happy New Year!
　
　
　

[Task Force]

Sorry I cant help you... But it looks great.

[Tomi_099]

Look very nice, my friend, I would be happy to help you if I would not carry so much of myself back.

But I am convinced that if you continue here, we are posting meet again.
In any event,
you get a help from a good friend, as far as I can tell you.

[DivingDuck]

Moin,

@Tomi:
thanks for the introduction.

@FM:
sounds as if you are calling for me. LOL. I´m willing to help and claim to have a little bit of the knowledge you requested.


Regards,
DD

[DivingDuck]

Hey FM,

1. how many polys does the complete compartment have?
2. how many different textures do you use, if they are already in place?
   • do you think you can use the actual (stock, GWX, whatever) typeVII texture maps, so as to not introduce new maps and not to increase the size of the *.dat further
3. how many shadowmaps have you created for the compartment?

Regards,
DD

[flakmonkey]

Originally Posted by DivingDuck

Hey FM,

1. how many polys does the complete compartment have?
2. how many different textures do you use, if they are already in place?
   • do you think you can use the actual (stock, GWX, whatever) typeVII texture maps, so as to not introduce new maps and not to increase the size of the *.dat further
3. how many shadowmaps have you created for the compartment?

Regards,
DD

1, around 360`000 when triangulated (i seem to remember when i exported the viic control room model from sh3 it was upwards of 500k so by comparisson it aint too bad.) I could still cut that down a bit if i loose some of the silly details like coffee cups/oily rags and other unimportant stuff, the dent in that bucket is costing me an extra 20 polys!!!

2, right now im using half a dozen 4096*4096 maps, but when its ready for the game it should be just 2 or 3 1024*1024s.

3, Im still texturing so havent started baking shadows just yet but im thinking just a single big one for the entire room, 2048*2048, i figure its better than having 5 or 6 smaller maps.


Is it possible to import the whole room as a single mesh? I dont like the way sh3 seems to do it by breaking the room model up into lots of small parts, is that really necesarry?
Cant i just have one large obj file with the whole room that uses 2 or 3 textures and then a seperate uv2 mesh where the whole room and all its contents have just a single uv map and a lghtmap texture?


I`ll post some pics when im done texturing, not looking bad concidering im using pretty much 6 variations on generic rusty green metal!

+ Im having a little too much fun animating those engines, i know i cant use mayas keyframe animations in game but i still couldnt resist.

[DivingDuck]

1- 360.000 polys sounds like a fair count to me. We should give it a try the way it is now, with all the neat details.

2- 3 or even 4 *.tga at 1024x1024/24bit is better than expected.

3- 2048x2048 as a single shadowmap seems pretty big to me. I don´t know it for sure, but I reckon 4 1024x1024s will probably be handled with more ease by the GPU. But it would definitely be less work for me if the shadows would be put together in one map only.

If no interaction is intended with a certain object I too prefer to have as less objects as possible. But there is a limit with S3D. I faintly recall a post of Skwasjer´s regarding this matter. Therefore I guess the compartment will have to be split into several sets of objects. This however does not affect the number of maps used. I could give the untextured object a quick try.

Regarding the engine animation, I´m certain to find a way to import them to the game.

Regards,
DD

[Freakwave]

Very impressive! dont give up on it.

and a happy new year

[flakmonkey]

Just a little update,






And just for fun....
http://yfrog.us/0kanimz

[Kapitanleutnant]

That's gorgeous.

[DivingDuck]

Moin FM,

looking great.

How many polys do the animated parts have? To prepare for implementation of animation you should separate these parts from the others and save them as separate objects. Also separate the moving parts from the engine block ...


external link / YouTube

... and it should look similar to this.

Regards,
DD

[HanSolo78]

Really greta work FM!!!

I am looking forward to this project

[dcb]

I'm rating this thread 5 stars. It deserves it. Great work
*****

[Magic1111]

Originally Posted by dcb

I'm rating this thread 5 stars. It deserves it. Great work
*****

Me too !!!

Great project !!!

Best regards,
Magic

[Freakwave]

I hope it will be noisy in there!!