how to add new guns

(carnage) #1

Ive been dooing a bit of reaserch into how new weapons can be added in Q3 and then looked at ET to see its pretty similar. So i no a few ppl in the forum are trying to do this so i though i might post my finiding here

Most of what a learned came from here http://screenshots.rq3.com/bird/exporting_guide/guide.html so if my explanation doesnt clear it up this might

So the first set to create your gun moddle and texture it. I think this is where most ppl get to before getting stuck

to make the work easier further down the line dont conect all the vertices to make one mass, leave the ammo clip separate and anything else you want to move, e.g. on the mp40 there as a little bit sticking of the side used to cock it that moves

at this point me using my primative milkshape would do a regular save because i will want to do several things with this moddle

Ok now the easy bit make a copy of your moddle and connect all the vertices in this one so its all a solid mass, there will be no need for moving parts. I dont no how to make character animation files so its best for me to use 3rd person animation files for existing guns…

so say i was using making a smg similar to the mp40 ide find the existing file in pak0 moddles>weapons2>…

import this into the open file, scale you gun to fit the points where the player would place his hads. Then in third person you can just use the same animation files, remove the gun you just imported and you ready to export you 3rd person moddle

ok, now for 1st person moddle, this is bit more complex… open the file where you gun is still in pices… now the tricky bit

you have to go though the pak0 to find moddles with hands atached to them… to get the hand it pretty simple as the gun and hand are grouped separatly. Hard bit it that ET seems to use lots of different moddles to make up 1 gun… best reaon for this i can think of is to speed up fps by not dealing with unveiwable moddles

but (not tried and tested) if you make everyhting in one file then make the other files e.g. barrle4.mdc a blank moddle you will still get it to work

whne you have the hand holding you gun in do not move it, scale you gun and place it in the hand. bring up the other hand place it so it dost look like it will look add the the camera and shape it around you gun

now if you kept you moddle grouded correctly this is the part it will pay off. You have to make one long animation file of everyhting you gun does, reloading shooting etc try not to make it too long remeber the file size

now in the same folder as where you would place there moddles you wil fins .cfg file, copy and past one from a different moddle then alter it for your gun… as you see it states the start and end frame of each animation section, so when the code need to make the gun reaload it no what frames to play, also the third colum is how many frames per second to play the animation at

well i think that about cover the moddleing side of it… saddly i dont no anything about programing ET so ill leavit it here… btw dont wory if you cant export to the same format as defualt weapons as ET still has md3 format… it not quite as nive file size but easier to play with

this is just what i ahev worked out and may be wrong, correct me if i cam… but i though it was worth a try

(carnage) #2

sorry for double post but i have been doing some testing and found a few extras that need fixing adding

ok first up is the in the pk3 for your mod look int the weapons folder… you see a .weap file

for my test sice i cant code i replaced a gun… 1st i repaled the luger moddle v_luger.mdc with v_luger.md3… nothig happend… after some long thinking i remebered how textures are set up, they search for a .tga before they look for .jpg no matter what file type is specified

so i though the defualt v_luger.mdc was overwriting my v_luger.md3
so i changed the name to my_luger.md3

then in the luger.weap file i updates i to look for my_luger.mds rather than v_luger
also i game my blank moddles that take up the files like barrle2 new names to my_barrle2… so the game would not overwrite them and put inwanted parts in as wel

so i tested here is the result…

i didnt bother to add a skin and the gun placement in the had doest fit but it was only intened to se if it would work

also this is a non animated file but the principle would be the same for a animated .md3

BIG NOTE… when i first did this i though no moddle had been found as there was no 1st person moddle being drawn… in the .weap file make ur 3rd persrson moddle the same as you 1st person moddle and you can see if the rotation is correct

it turned out mine was facing to the left thas why i couldnt see it in 1st person… when back to editor rotated it and hey presto it was there

happy adding weapons ppl

(Shanks) #3

You should NEVER make your first person and third person models the same…unless you want to have some abnormalities:

  • When using the first person model in both views you’ll have an arm attached to the weapon in third person view, the weapon will be huge, and parts may be missing.
  • When using the thrd person model in both views, you’ll have no arm attached to the weapon in first person view, the weapon will also be tiny.
(carnage) #4

i think you shoudl read more closely

i said do this if you cant see your moddle in 1st person view. if you moddle is there but on the wrong rotation seting the 1st person moddle to the 3rd person gun lets you see in 3rd person mode whith direction ur gun is facing

alowing you to correct it in the editor
then chage ur 3rd person gun back to its own moddle

(djmels) #5

I’ll read this now. Seems to be what I’m looking for. Thanks!

(djmels) #6

I have 3DS Max 7. Are there any IMporters for MD3 files yet? I have got hold of an EXporter, but no importer yet…

(Jaquboss) #7

Lol , i thought that you are warning before my favorite lazy way , creating first person model , and cutting detailed thingies and using as thirdperson model too ( of course with all ‘barrels’ merged )
However i am getting out from stock ET way , i want to use better things in FalckonET so i use for example skins defined in characters , not in thousands skin files , also it is better to use vertex anim too , it doesnt look bad ( see TCE )

(djmels) #8

Lol , i thought that you are warning before my favorite lazy way , creating first person model , and cutting detailed thingies and using as thirdperson model too ( of course with all ‘barrels’ merged )
However i am getting out from stock ET way , i want to use better things in FalckonET so i use for example skins defined in characters , not in thousands skin files , also it is better to use vertex anim too , it doesnt look bad ( see TCE )[/quote]Read the last line of this post before the rest

Let me sum up what carnage said about replacing MDC from the game. The first person model of, in example, the knife is an MDC. To replace this without having an MDC exporter on hand, I would do the following:
-Import the current first person model, i.e. the knife’s with an MDC importer. Example: Chris Cookson’s MaxScript (you can mail me if you can’t find it anywhere else, mels [at] xs4all [dot] nl).
-Export the edited first person model (i.e. just delete the old object(s) and place your new model into it). Export it as either an MD3 file (I really prefer this!) with an MDC exporter (see mail address before, I have one for 3ds max for v7, 6 and probably 5), or as a 3ds file.
-Import the objects from this exported file into NPherno’s MD3 Compiler, check check doublecheck, rebuild the normals if you wish, and export to the final MD3 file.
—Here comes the magic—
-Assuming you’re in the folder where u extracted the whole pak0.pk3-
-Open up weapons/knife.weap (select the right file for your weapon!) with notepad.
-Look up the section marked firstPerson {
-In there is a line

model		"models/multiplayer/knife/v_knife.md3"

(should be the first line of this section, don’t worry if it isn’t though). You replace this line with:

model		"models/multiplayer/knife/new_knife.md3"

As you see here, the script originally contained the line, ALREADY with a .md3 extension. But, the ET engine looks at this string, forgets the extension, and looks for any .mdc first and THEN for an MD3. The pak0.pk3 will always supply the engine with a v_knife.MDC file, so you can’t do anything about that. What you can do, is make the fileNAME different. Then, the engine will look for a “new_knife.MDC” first, but won’t find one (because no paks contain one), and will continue looking for an MD3 file.
This can be really tricky, post here if you have any problems with it.
-Next, you just pack up the whole thing in a PK3 file. There are SO many tutorials that tell you this, so I am not going to explain THAT :wink:

woops, mistake. The knife’s FIRST PERSON MODEL is actually already an MD3 file. I meant the THIRD person model. It’s exactly the same story, but my apologies for a slightly confusing story.

(carnage) #9

i use for example skins defined in characters , not in thousands skin files

dont, use skin files, they are low memory and have lots of advantages, for example when a cov ops nicks a uni the legs get made bare, this is done by changine the skin file the moddle uses rather than having to create a new moddle

for another example, in the Venoms-studios current mod we have an idea in discusion where if a player dies from a flamethrower there skin file changes to make them look burned

(Jaquboss) #10

yes , i have simple logic to load skin for part ( barrel , or main part ) from character definition, which is saving much time… , and it also works properly with covert ops…

(carnage) #11

ah, sorry i misunderstood you…

ime not exactly experienced at moddeling and i though u were setting texture by making them defult for moddles eliminating the need for skin files

but your method is much better… using your method it would be posible to change the glove and coat texture on the weapons dependant on class?

(Jaquboss) #12

of course carnage , that is all point of that method :slight_smile:
However it is not friendly to multiple model mods , but have you ever download any new model for ET ?
I dont think then that anyone will make model for FalckonET only , if there arent any stock ET ones …
Biggest problem are with skin files , because most begginers dont know how to attach shader to model surface and export it properly… :skull:
Skin files are removing this only for first person

, anyways i use this method , skin file has patch defined within character file , and it acts like normal skin file

				part 2
				{
					tag		"tag_barrel3"
					model	"models/weapons2/sten/v_sten_barrel3_falck.md3"
					useCharacterSkin
				}

of course DONT USE THIS WITH UNMODDED ET i dont want to explain why it conplains about unknown token :slight_smile:

(carnage) #13

k thanx for clearing that up

good luck with ur mod