How to Get Into Modding!

[Kaltagesta]

Any chance a Mod could sticky this? I'm PM a few to make sure it catches you're eyes!

Basically, there seems to be a lot of people asking recently about how to get into modding, so i thought it would be nice for us with some experiance to have one thread to give tips and ideas in to others, instead of dotted about a lot of different threads. This is, of course, the same thing is always post when someone asks, but it covers the basics of modelling fairly well, i think:

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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.

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.

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!

[Mouse]

Also some other good tutorials can be found here http://tutorials.moddb.com/16/

They are VTM's and take a while to download but i think it's worth it.

Basicly it just shows you how to model a beretta 9000 in 3ds max 7.

[80083r]

I like to mod things - but I don't usually get into models. I like to change the numbers under the game. There are always a lot of tutorials (that go WAY over my head) about how to make models, skin models, etc. There are very seldom any good scripting tutorials.

What I would like is a description of what each object in the .tweak files does, and a list of the things exposed in the python scripts. Anyone?

[tF-voodoochild]

Yeah, so far this seems to be more about how to get into modeling as opposed to modding.

Currently I am trying to figure out if it is at all possible to make a custom menu, or modify their menu (doubtful since it is all a swf :\ ) to fit better with the rest of the modifications I have made to the menu video's and music.

And to stick with the helpful nature of the thread, here is a little tutorial that I did to help people replace the ogg sounds found in bf2.

Sound Replacing Tutorial

[Sir. HackerX4]

Yeah, so far this seems to be more about how to get into modeling as opposed to modding.

Currently I am trying to figure out if it is at all possible to make a custom menu, or modify their menu (doubtful since it is all a swf :\ ) to fit better with the rest of the modifications I have made to the menu video's and music.

And to stick with the helpful nature of the thread, here is a little tutorial that I did to help people replace the ogg sounds found in bf2.

Sound Replacing Tutorial

Us at the Wild West Mod have found ways to replace certain menu items. The .swf files that you all see are there test menus, which they were planning on doing. Like in one, you had CLAN HQ along with BFHQ. CLAN HQ would have been a greate thing to have, just that they thought it was to much for them to handle (So far, the whole game is too much for them to handle). Im the lead coder for the Wild West Mod, and beleve me, its not that easy to learn to code. But there are some good tuts out there, you just have to look reallly realllllllllyyyyyy hard. BTW the sound tut helps alot, even though i don't do sound, i still code, and therefore it concerns me. If the menu really turns out to be a .swf file, you could possible reverse engineer the file to see the steps ea did to make it, but the raw data that they have would take a couple days/hours to complete.
(Looks on your faces )

[imported_shadow2k1]

this is an excellent thread thanks guys

[Kaltagesta]

Yeah, so far this seems to be more about how to get into modeling as opposed to modding.

Thats why i'm hoping some others will post :p As they have!

[Jammydodger]

HackerX4 you say you can find tuts if you look rearly hard, well any chance you could save us the hard work and give us some links so we can educate ourselves? .

Cheers

[tF-voodoochild]

Us at the Wild West Mod have found ways to replace certain menu items. The .swf files that you all see are there test menus, which they were planning on doing. Like in one, you had CLAN HQ along with BFHQ. CLAN HQ would have been a greate thing to have, just that they thought it was to much for them to handle (So far, the whole game is too much for them to handle). Im the lead coder for the Wild West Mod, and beleve me, its not that easy to learn to code. But there are some good tuts out there, you just have to look reallly realllllllllyyyyyy hard. BTW the sound tut helps alot, even though i don't do sound, i still code, and therefore it concerns me. If the menu really turns out to be a .swf file, you could possible reverse engineer the file to see the steps ea did to make it, but the raw data that they have would take a couple days/hours to complete.
(Looks on your faces )

Well, I found a few images that are used in the menus, but using a swf decompiler I found one that I am certain is the menu they used (also saw the fun test menus from dev.) Take a look at Menu_client.zip/External/Flashmenu/mainMenu.swf

I'm not anywhere near good enough with action scripting to recreate the menu from scratch though :hmm: