I started this model some days ago to learn the modelling basics with Milkshape. It’s my first model, so don’t be too hard with me Before I try to skin this monster, I’d like to ask if an experienced modeller would have a look at it before I’m doing something wrong. I would mail the source files later then. The model has 474 vertices and 903 triangles at the moment (don’t know if this is overkill) - maybe it can be optimized. The propeller is animated and I’m thinking about a mounted gun behind the cabin.
Thanks A horsa glider? :eek: Box map (1024³) --> insert horsa model --> box map filled --> map finished The horsa looks much easier than the Arado. Maybe you’ll get it. Depends on what I think about modelling after finishing this one
@Higgins
Thanks, I’ll PM you later. I’m still at work
Lighting: There are two ways in which your model can be lit. “Vertex point value”(misc_model) and “surface normals”(misc_gamemodel). On your model you’ll see there are dark shadows where there should be none. This is because the value been used is for the adjacent face/vertex which is in shadow. The edges on the engine cover need to be chamfer’ed, this will give you the verts/surfaces needed for a smooth transition between the light and dark areas. Where you have sharp angles like where the wing meets the body the mesh should be split. Q3 only lets you have one smooth group, so hard edges need the mesh to be split into two at that point.
Small round objects like the prop centre, only need to be 7 or 9 sided, where as the body, where a smooth shape is important, should have 16 or more. Also the front edge of the wings needs more mesh to give it a better shape. The wings should taper down to a point, getting the shape of a model right is important, if the shape don’t quite look right, it wont matter how good the texture is, the model will still look not quite right.
When making a model never loss sight of the fact that at some point you will have to u v map and texture the object. Lots of small/tiny poly’s are going to make this fun (there is one small lie in this sentence).
You have the legs merged with the floats, there is no need to cut the float to match the leg, you should break the mesh at this point and fill the hole in the float, then remove the un-needed edges and verts. Also make the legs more wing shaped. And stop trying to make the whole thing out of one mesh/object.
Detoeni, I always make models out of one object, well, I might make parts, then weld them on to the main piece. But I wouldnt do it for ET models, unless it was a still model.
That should work fine in max, it surports 32 smooth groups. Its the quake 3 engine that ET is built on thats the problem as it only allows one smooth group or none per mesh object.
I thought you might had been spliting the mesh automaticly to match uv splits when compiling, which is another way to do it.
Iam using max 5 right now, and iam sure I was using 7 before my pc broke down. But I cant find 7 any where, but i have 6, my dad found it after i installed 5. I should install that to work on instead
Thanks for your long response Detoeni! Let’s see if I understand it
Omg! I never really cared about how models are lit… Now I know that it would have been better So is it a good way to first do the shape and to refine the mesh (by adding some extra verts) later for a good lighting?
Q3 only lets you have one smooth group, so hard edges need the mesh to be split into two at that point.
I’ve made several meshes to apply textures/materials later. One mesh is the body of the plane. If I get you right here, it could make sense to split the body again into meshes to get rid of hard edges. So meshes are primarily used to mark out hard edges and secondary for getting good UV maps / texturing?
if the shape don’t quite look right, it wont matter how good the texture is, the model will still look not quite right.
understood
When making a model never loss sight of the fact that at some point you will have to u v map and texture the object. Lots of small/tiny poly’s are going to make this fun (there is one small lie in this sentence).
Ok, think I found the lie
You have the legs merged with the floats, there is no need to cut the float to match the leg, you should break the mesh at this point and fill the hole in the float, then remove the un-needed edges and verts.
Holy sh…! That’s what I had before I thought I had to merge those parts to avoid leaks.
And stop trying to make the whole thing out of one mesh/object.
I thought I had to merge those parts to avoid leaks.
Models don’t create leak errors like that.
If you look at Detoeni’s glider, it looks like the wings are just pushed into the mesh of the fuselage. The tailplane even more so. While this might give the engine some more work, the advantages outweigh the (very small) performance hit.
If I get it right, I should never weld overlapping vertices of adjacent meshes. Is that correct?
WRT Milkshape, kind of correct. Milkshape keeps adjacent meshes separate. If you try to weld vertices from adjacent meshes, it will average the normals of those vertices so that it “smoothes” the join. Hovever, they will still be separate groups (Milkshape’s term for mesh).
always try to line up the verts to each other, with a little gap, and use weld with units set at 1/1.5 so it welds them smoothly, and doesnt drag in about 500 other verts, making the model a big spiky ball.
My conclusion: overlapping and penetrating meshes don’t hurt
I made two separate wings and tried to adjust each with the verts of the fuselage. It would have been a lot easier with one single wing mesh piercing the fuselage :moo:
WRT
Erm, sorry?
I think it’s not possible to adjust the welding in Milkshape, but I believe MS does a good job
Thanks for our help! I’ll try to put all your hints into practice now
Make the plane body, every thing that wont animate, into one object, splice it down the middle, mirror the halfed plane, and weld the two parts togther. Now you have a mirror matching model thingy, I forgot what to really call it.
I think it’s not possible to adjust the welding in Milkshape, but I believe MS does a good job
No. He’s talking about Max.
Make the plane body, every thing that wont animate, into one object
Er, No. That’s a sure-fire way to get nothing show up because you’ve broken the MD3 vert/poly limits.
You can mirror individual groups across the axis in Milkshape (something I still can’t figure out if Max can do). This will allow you to keep the model in separate groups, which means you stand less chance of violating the 1000 vert per group limit.
Note: The entire model vert/poly count CAN break the limit as long as the model has groups in it that don’t (maximum number of groups is 32 I think).
Before I try to skin this monster, I’d like to ask if an experienced modeller would have a look at it before I’m doing something wrong. I would mail the source files later then. The model has 474 vertices and 903 triangles at the moment (don’t know if this is overkill) - maybe it can be optimized. The propeller is animated and I’m thinking about a mounted gun behind the cabin.
The horsa looks much easier than the Arado. Maybe you’ll get it. Depends on what I think about modelling after finishing this one 
