3D Max question, I'm a green Moddler trying to learn

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

 

I'm making a roof section for an Elven style building and have managed to get a curved look

in the ridge's of this vert steep pitch roof, the top point of the ridge is out quite a bit so that

it slopes back down to the base (which would be where the ceiling would be) which forms a

triangel looking from the side. My question is can I take two edge's ( /\ ) and make them bezier

cures so I can bend them so tha cuve back and down fron the apex, or turn each edge temperaly

into a spline to manipulate.

 

I haven't found a tut showing this as yet.

 

Thanks in advance for any help given

 

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f78/Kiwi-Hawk/RoofDemo.png

[jet4571]

I hope you are working on just one side of the roof then clone it and mirror. Makes it easier to do both sides at one time. Anyway Myself I usualy just make it an editable mesh and manualy move the verts to where I want them.

[Twizzler77]

Hey Kiwi,

 

In addition to what Jet4571 brought up (which is great advice, no reason to build something twice when you can get copy and mirror), I would be more inclined to manually place verts and build the curve by hand. Typically, bezier curves will create many more polygons than you will want/need and you will end up spending time cleaning up messy geometry. On top of that, the more geometry you have, the longer it takes to UV (generally).

 

Personally, the only time I use splines is when I am creating wires/hoses/tubes, etc. The rest of the time I just start with a plane and start extruding edges. I would also try experimenting with FFD modifiers (2x2, 3x3, 4x4). For this example, a 3x3 FFD should give you the control you want while keeping polygon counts manageable.

 

Hope this helps!

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

Thanks Guys, so I guess it's the same process I had to use to get the Ridge where I liked it, if I select both edges and connect (using the wee box) + say 3 or 4 will that add  the vertic's only without adding edges?

BTW this is inspired by Meo over at TES Alliance. he did an Oblivion Castle set he put up as alpha for people to play with but said not to publish cause it's
alpha, was called CastleKeep ALPHA and has some choice roof pieces in it, no good for Skyrim tho sadly

[Twizzler77]

Hey Kiwi,

 

Connect will add the appropriate edges too. I use it constantly.

[hardarg]

Also, You can remove excess edges by selecting them and pressing "CTRL" + "Backspace". ;)

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

 

Found divide, selected the edges and clicked where I wanted the vert, maybe not a accurate but it's looking dood and has

that organic feel of not being total geometric, which doesn't always look right a

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

 

Is there a current upto date tutorial on creating collision with the latest importer/exporter

[jet4571]

If it still looks somewhat geometric use the mesh smooth modifier on it, start small and check how it looks in the game rather than in the render window. You would be amazed at how clunky some things can be and not be noticeable in the game with a good texture and normal map.

 

I dont know of any tutorials for collision boxes, never made anything that i couldnt use exhisting lol. I would import and have the collision checked and reverse engineer it to see how it was made, If anything like Novalogic then its just a box with the correct name so the game knows what it is.

 

Some tips that are probably worthless...

 

When you get to making the walls, dont hesitate to make them twice as tall as you need, nothing worse than placing a building like oh any from Whiterun on a 1 foot tall hill outside Whiterun.

 

If you are going to make the interior kit for it, Please do modders a favor and do the ceiling, floors, and walls as seperate objects. The kits Bethesda made were made for one and only 1 setup so doing something like making a fort that is 3 floors tall is impossible with the interior wall parts because they all have the cieling and floor attached so you have to jury rig other parts to make it, plus the tallest wall is only 2 story and not 3. And god forbid you want to make a 3 story farmmhouse by adding a basement to the 2 story farmhouse exterior. plus think of the ease of adding an indoor pool lol.

 

Interior room dividers that have NO missing faces, this causes more geometry to be added rather than saves any because if you want half the room seperated by a wall you have to find another object to cover the hole rather than dropping a single divider in and calling it done.

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

 

Is it important to convert these to editable mesh's before exporting or does it not matter