Help Needed - Mob Modeling

[GeorgeS]

I'll be looking forward to the help file.

So far, here's my progress:

1) 4 Froglok's done some with weapons (not sure if you need them equipped...)
2) 4 Snake models - done
3) 2 Spectre models - done, still being textured
4) 5 Rats fully textured - done
5) 3 Bat models - not done yet
6) 12 spiders several different ones made all textured - done
7) several Beetles - currently doing these
Lion/Tigers in queue
9) Human models (still thinking how to best do these)
etc..

Still would need to know a few things

Where do you prefer the axis center of each model? (Feet level, body level)

Size - I gues I can scale these to a given metric

Quads? - I box model using quads only. No one uses tris anymore, except for game output since most games only accept tris, or at least triangulate. What's your thought?

Textures must be in .png .bmp? in x^2 X y^2 I resume?
What's the largest texture size you can use(512x512)?

What about the export format? (I can do .3ds, .obj, maya/wavefront, .cob, .x, etc..)

As you can see there are many work flow things I would need first so when I create the exports, the models are almost ready for you out fo the 'box'


GeorgeS

[Scorpious2k]

Originally Posted by GeorgeS

So far, here's my progress:

1) 4 Froglok's done some with weapons (not sure if you need them equipped...)
2) 4 Snake models - done
3) 2 Spectre models - done, still being textured
4) 5 Rats fully textured - done
5) 3 Bat models - not done yet
6) 12 spiders several different ones made all textured - done
7) several Beetles - currently doing these
Lion/Tigers in queue
9) Human models (still thinking how to best do these)
etc..

WOW!!! Awesome!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing all this

[Windcatcher]

Wow, that's amazing!

I don't need mobs carrying weapons, as the rigging process will place phantom bones at the hands, the shield point on the arm, etc. The client looks for bones with special names to figure out where to place things like weapons and shields and how to orient them.

The axis center should be at feet level, though it isn't all that critical. When I rig it to the skeletons the skeleton base will be the real point of origin. Quads are okay, but bear in mind that OpenZone will convert everything to triangles when it exports. The file format requires triangles. As for export format, it has to be something that Anim8or can import. Other than that, I don't care which format you use. Likewise, size isn't all *that* important as I can rescale in Anim8or. I think my half-elf model is around 55 units tall, if you need a rough scale (OpenZone scales everything down by a factor of ten when exporting creatures, so 55 units in Anim8or will become 5.5 units in-game -- the reason for this is because of the way Anim8or handles bone thicknesses).

Textures need to be a power of 2 on each side. I'd prefer that they not get too big so as to not use too much texture memory when used in-game. I don't know if you're using a single texture for entire models or multiple textures, but I'm much more concerned about total size in bytes of all textures than the size of individual textures. I'd definitely recommend not going over 512x512 in any case as I want the client to run on older hardware. Also, textures need to be able to be loaded by Anim8or. I know it can't handle 32-bit .BMP textures, for instance, though it loads 24-bit just fine. I prefer .BMP or .TGA in any case, but I don't know if Anim8or can load .TGA (I've only tested it with .BMP files).

One thing to bear in mind is how the client handles variants. For instance, if you look at my goblin model, it has four variants, but the important thing to take note of is that they all use the exact same mesh -- only the textures differ. The client requires this if you want to have a creature race have several variants (body types). The Sony client is the same way, by the way: if you use a different mesh then it has to have an entirely different race ID (such as how Kunark goblins differ from old-world goblins).

Another thing that I should mention involves texture filenames. They should follow the same general naming convention as live textures use: for instance, a lion texture might be something like lioch0101.bmp, where the first three letters denote the model, the next two denote a body part, and the last four denote player faces (only used on special player models), texture variants, pieces of body parts, etc. My creature textures that come with OpenZone should serve as examples, and somewhere in its help file is an entry that describes what each of the numbers mean. It's not a catastrophe if you don't use this naming convention, but it means that I'll have to rename each texture and do it myself (and if you're using a single texture for the entire model that's fine, too, but you *have* to use separate textures for separate variants or it won't work).

[GeorgeS]

Here's a link to show my progress. I made a few more so far.
http://66.159.225.58/eqemu/oz/work_to_date.html


I'm working on a few more lower (very low) poly bats and then it's off
to make beetles, lizardmen, all sorts of winged creatures etc..
Some of these take a few hours, others like the specs took me a whole weekend to model.

I think I'm pretty late in the game to rename the textures as it's pretty hard to just get this far. My goals are to provide a very comprehensive monster set to you, and then you can go from there.

I predict that by sunday nite, I will send you as many as I have.

Enjoy the pictures.
GeorgeS

[Scorpious2k]

AWESOME!!!
<begins to drool>

[Windcatcher]

GREAT! One thing I should point out is that it would be a good idea if hands were modeled clenched, so it would look natural if they're holding a weapon. The client doesn't support different arm meshes based on whether a creature is holding something or not (the live client can't do that either). Otherwise, everything looks terrific.

My player models (human, wood elf, dark elf) come with a full set of robed textures, and the mind flayer has some of its own as well. Robed models are VERY hard to rig, but they're possible (the most important rule is that polygons between the legs must NEVER have vertices in the center but must always have them at one or the other leg instead). Of all the textures I made with CorelDraw, I think the robed ones came out the best.

For the spectres, it's a tough call as to whether or not to remove the weapons. If you leave them it's ok, but they'll never be able to carry anything else. Maybe there should be two variants, one with a scythe and one without?

Another thing I'd like to mention is that we are in no way limited to eqlive's creature races or race ID's. SimpleClient has its own XML file that links the three-character race mnemonic (e.g. ORC) to a race ID. Aside from mnemonics having to be three letters, we have complete freedom here.

[GeorgeS]

Ok, I kept as many of those requirements as possible. I checked Blender's website, and decided to DL a copy. I also finished round 1 of the modeling.

So there are around 90 models made, and all are textured. You can do as you want with them now. I think you will need to rename the textured to your convention. My modeling workflow is not condusive to the afformentioned naming however, but you can do this in blender manually. If there are any that will not work, let me know the issues and I can work around them if possible. These all load into my 3D game engine nicely, so I know they're ok there. In fact I may very likely make a demo 3D previewer...

Poly's were kept low but I decided to go slightly higher with a few key models. Most modern PC's should handle EQ2 quality models, but mine are around a median of 750 tris. Some have a single sub-D, others not. You can SubD any - it's your call.

I'm sending you the link to the models as these are just for you.

GeorgeS