New to modding and developing.....

[Superman=ESF=]

I am new to the while modding community and was wondering what programs and tools I need to get started and to learn. Also any tutorials would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

[CXZAR]

well... the notebook its pretty great :P its the only tool we have until the official Modding tools are released!!!

[Doorstop[DCON]]

Super there are plenty of tools
there are the 3d modeling programs that we modders use.. Gmax which is a free version of 3ds max.. 3ds max 7 and Maya.. a good site for tuts would be www.3dbuzz.com great site with lots of video tutorials. Give me a PM or msn me perhaps I can help ya

[imported_dadofsam]

hey doorstop, which mod are you working with? havent seen you around much, also, what other tools are avaible bar notepad max and maya that you are using as i cant find any anywhere :o

[Djuice]

GMax for the noobs and if you can afford Maya or 3D max hen go for it.. for skinning you definitely need Photoshop, for code editing you need notepad and python interpreter

there should be various tuts out there for python and ps

[Doorstop[DCON]]

dado i'm the team leader of World Crisis Mod.. www.worldcrisismod.com

[Darksniper75]

GMax for the noobs and if you can afford Maya or 3D max hen go for it.. for skinning you definitely need Photoshop, for code editing you need notepad and python interpreter

there should be various tuts out there for python and ps

One word: WAREZ

[imported_dadofsam]

ahh, ok, i thought you said you had the editor though, where on your page your bashing EA for not being allowed to get it, i suggest if its been leaked to you, you name and shmae the person who did so, as leaking is worse than anything as it could give people the wrong impressions of somthing which may not be intended for public consumption etc. anyway,
back to notepad

[Doorstop[DCON]]

editor was only given to a select few.. my team was not one of them. Only the teams that went to mod day. So yep.. back to notepad with ya

[Darksniper75]

ahh, ok, i thought you said you had the editor though, where on your page your bashing EA for not being allowed to get it, i suggest if its been leaked to you, you name and shmae the person who did so, as leaking is worse than anything as it could give people the wrong impressions of somthing which may not be intended for public consumption etc. anyway,
back to notepad

Hum, so you are a moral knight? Wtf is wrong with you. Hell, I would be happy if he had it. It's already out tested as we speak. But hell, EA just shits on customers and forgets they promised us the goddamm editor for ages. It still will be buggy! Go pray in some church, and stuff ya notepad!

Cheers

[Doorstop[DCON]]

If only I had the editor.. I slammed EA on my site for what they have done.. Now Now Dark.. chill a bit.. dont get the mods mad. But its like this.. like POE or Rising Conflicts Or DC.. or my own team.. If we have it.. we all couldnt tell you. The notepad can do a lot for you as far as editing values.. I mean unless you model then the editor is of no use. If you just dont like the way stuff works then .con editing will do the trick.. look at frosty and company doing the realism mods.. All .con hackin and tweak hackin

[jonasnz1]

Heres a link to a really great skinning tool...

http://www.unwrap3d.com

Ive bought the full version, but there is a free demo...

Its a very easy to use UV mapping tool, with plugins for almost every popular game out there.
For my own use, I think its one of the best to use, and is well supported.

The buy price isn't bad either...

[Kaltagesta]

If you're going to use 3dms, make sure you get the Texporter plugin, so that you can export UVW maps (2d flattened versions of 3d objects that you "paint" over in order to give you're models colour) as images. I find the UVW mapping tool in 3dsm more than adequate, but if you dont get on well with it then jonasz1's suggestion is a nice alternative.

Here is a PM i sent to a friend when he asked me about getting into modding generally - forgive the mention of names you don't know, just replace each name you see and dont know with "this guy i know". Here!

Skinning is mostly all done in photoshop. What this involves is getting a 3d model, using the tools in the program (this varies with program - see below) squishing it down into a 2d image - like maps of the world are flattened images of the globe. Now, as you know, this doenst allways work since trying to represent spheres as flat images is impossible, so you have to make a few allowances here and there. This is my weak area, so my best advice here would be to google for "UVW unwrap tutorial" or something similar (UVW being the name given to the process of making a 3d mesah into a 2d paintable image). You'll see what i mean if you google around.

I use, as you mentioned, 3d Studio Max, though there are plenty of others to look into. I know Doobz uses the one available with the HL2 SDK, XSI. Other big ones include Maya and Lightwave, but i have never even touched them, so i really can't advise. Also, GMax is the free version of 3dsMax made by the same people for mods, basically. However, there is a free trial of the latest version of Max (7) on their site at http://www.discreet.com - i personally found this the easiest, but it was also the first one i tried. Some people, including Doobz found it quite difficult and prefer others - it's just up to you to find the one that you know best. Bare in mind, however, that i can personally offer my own knowledge on Max but nothing else, beyond basic, program wide modelling tips.

Speaking of modelling, this is the tutorial that landed me a job on the WDW team after only a day of using Max, and it's the first one i gave to Doobz and FM too. It requires zero previous knowledge of Max, and while some of the options and buttons are for older versions of Max, it's pretty simple to work out whats going on. Any problems, and feel free to PM me and i will do what i can. That link is...

http://www.fh-worms.de/~inf126/tutorials/lowpolymodeling/

I highly recommend it. It teaches you the basics of the program as well as modelling guns. From that you can experiment, try out other stuff, look at what other people have made and develop your own style. I like to think i have my own style, especially when it comes to rendering .

That's all for now, i will let you get on with that (young grasshopper... :p) but feel free to PM me if you run into any problems. I would add some more detail about basic techniques and whatnot, but it is nearly 1am and i have school tomorrow!

Anyways, i wish ye the best of luck, as it is truly a great and fun thing to be on a mod team, and it would be totally awesome not only to have another bohican around to help out, but if we could work on the same mod, that would kick ass. But, as i said about, the great thing is that you can leave it and not worry about forgetting everything and losing everything. It's all about patience and learning the program.

Hope that helps!