Need help with model conversions and such

[imperistan]

This is the mod this model is going to be for: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/7040

 

Okay, so I have this model that I created in normal autocad, namely because I already know how to use regular Autocad very well and for what I was wanting to design its capabilities were more than adquate and saved me a lot of time. If I didn't use it, i would have had to spend hours i honestly didn't have (and quite frankly that I'm only getting to this model now after I've said multiple times that I was working on it should show the real amount of free time i have) learning Max, which is about as un-intuitive a program as ever, what with it relying on a bulky cluttered GUI.

 

But anyway I have a model, and thus far I have been able to import it into Max and scale it down to a proper size (and align it and all that) but this is where I get stuck. I'm not quite sure how to prepare the model so it will work in Skyrim as well as accept a texture. My attempts to just strongarm the thing into the game (and create some kind of texture for it) have proven rather disastrous. Any help would be extraordinarily appreciated, as I'll finally be able to move my mod closer to my dreams for it as I won't have to rely on anyone else's work (as far as the bare weapon itself goes).

 

 

Now, as for what I have, here's the .dwg of the hammer: http://www.mediafire.com/?2ngc1yhyedoiwrx

 

As I said above I can get it into max and set it up as if it were already ready to go (aligned properly using another weapon as a base and scaled to a similar size) but from there I'm at a loss.

 

 

(sorry if some of this seems a little garbled. I'm not very awake)

[imperistan]

bump

[ghosu]

The problem with this model...the UV map is really useless. So even if someone imports the model you have to exchange the mesh afterwards with one with a better UV map - atm you can't properly texture it, everything i marked red will be f*cked up - and the green area will be mirrored to the other side since only one side is visible on the UV map:

 

http://666kb.com/i/c92fvjyv0iib55yrg.jpg

Edited November 18, 2012 by ghosu

[Jennifur68]

I dowloaded your file and when I imported it to 3DS Max and applied an Unwrap UVW modifier what I saw was far worse than ghosu saw...

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z215/Jennifur68/HammerUVW.jpg

 

You'll need to properly unwrap the UVW or get someone to do it who knows how because what I'm seeing is never going to be texturable.

When I apply my grid texture to it I see this mess. Honestly it doesn't look like it would be terribly difficult to unwrap. Try reading this UVW unwrapping tutorial.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z215/Jennifur68/HammerGrid.jpg

 

Just using some very basic UVW mapping techniques I did this in like 5 minutes...cylindrical mapping on the shaft and flatten mapping on the rest brought it to something that could be refined into a useable UVW with some work.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z215/Jennifur68/HammerGrid2.jpg

Edited November 18, 2012 by Jennifur68

[zaty1]

To be honest, I would clean the heck out of that model, or optimize or tweak it or something before attemping to realistically use/uv it.

(Of course this is based off of my import/examination of it)

 

I'd slice it in half, and then I'd slice that in half, then I would clean up the lines and everything else and mirror it back.

(But that is me, I definitely am no pro at this) I simply picked this to mess around with to reaquaint myself with my programs

before I delve into a couple projects/ideas I have with my spare time.

 

( I will continue to peck at this however, perhaps something more immediately workable will come out of it)

 

PS- or someone(not me) could entirely redo this in all of 30 minutes just to be nice lol... /looks around..

[Jennifur68]

Its a lot higher poly than I tend to model and I agree it could probably benifit some optimization but then what I make tends to be used in real time rendering for IMVU and Second Life where you might have 20+ other human player avatars present in any given area so it needs to be efficient. My models for Skyrim tend to be the minimum poly count I can get away with as well and when I look at the vanilla skyrim weapon models some of them have six sided grips and minimal polys overall too so I'm not terribly concerned about making my meshes really high poly just to make super smooth rounded corners. Its all really about using the least you can and making squeezing the most out of it.

[zaty1]

Oh, I definitely agree. Nothing like loading someone's sword model and seeing a 100k poly... but hey... :no:

Perhaps its my import, I dunno. Maybe its the shape and I feel it should be symetrical everywhere and look clean

and I just see the model itself having a lot of variance. (Goes back to tinkering with it)

[imperistan]

I knew when I was trying to just strong arm the model into working that the UV is messed up and I'm currently working on it. This is what I have after about 5 minutes of messing with it.

 

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3871/wipsj.jpg

 

I'm going to play with it more.

[ghosu]

Keep in mind to keep the parts together as often as possible..."cuts" might produce visible seams, at least it's a bit harder to cover them when texturing so you might place them along edges, that are not visible (especially in 1stperson) or where different materials (wood/metal/leather) meet.

 

So normally the metal part below should be 1 part with less space since it won't be visible that often. Same with bottom handle, metal ring one part, for the upper part of handle i would use more space (but keep in mind, when you project material over the uv map, like a seamless wood texture, it will look different when the upper part of the handle takes twice as much space as the lower part since more details/space are projected on two parts with the same size). In this case it's not a problem but it might look strange in areas where both parts are directly next to each other and visible in 1stperson.

Edited November 18, 2012 by ghosu

[imperistan]

Indeed, thats what I"m working on with it right now.

 

Here's where I got:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?7fkkruj7s0sser3 (max file)

Edited November 19, 2012 by imperistan