[WIP] Cerberus Protect Gear: Armour

[OpposingFarce]

I hear angelic singing.

 

 

I can't wait. Plus, Heroin Zero has made high quality MP44 and MG3 (which is really just an mg42) weapons. Excellent.

[Baelkin]

I hear angelic singing.

 

 

I can't wait. Plus, Heroin Zero has made high quality MP44 and MG3 (which is really just an mg42) weapons. Excellent.

 

Great - I was actually planning on making the weapons to go with it provided no-one else had done them, but I guess this information saves me the trouble. Means I can begin work on the backpack and a female version sooner than I otherwise had planned. :thumbsup:

[Baelkin]

I just started rigging the model and butted my head into another problem - the goddamned Pipboy.

 

Due to the retarded way Bethesda has designed this wrist-worn atrocity, I have to go back and tweak the model to accomodate this piece of junk such that the player can actually access his inventory and vitals while wearing the armour. I hope Bethesda gets a prime spot in hell for this invention as it really makes making new models a whole lot more difficult compared to if they had made the Pipboy more akin to those of the previous games in the series (ie. a flippin personal computer you carried in your pack/belt instead of a piece of wrist-garbage).

 

Guess I'll just rig the basic armour and see if I can get it in-game and then worry about decapitation and Pipboy compatibility later. :rolleyes:

[BombermanX]

This is a rather interesting thread, thought I'd poke around a bit. I'm wondering what kind of modeling program you used to create your armor. I've created some models for commercials and figured I'd like to see some in video games- one being some bose headphones I made a few years back. Thought it would be a nice accommodation to the game.

[Baelkin]

This is a rather interesting thread, thought I'd poke around a bit. I'm wondering what kind of modeling program you used to create your armor. I've created some models for commercials and figured I'd like to see some in video games- one being some bose headphones I made a few years back. Thought it would be a nice accommodation to the game.

 

Personally I'm using 3ds Max 9 but any 3d package that can export models to .nif files will work for Fallout 3. I think the majority of the modellers around here use either Max or Blender for most of their work as these can export directly to .nif with the correct plugins installed. In addition you'll also need to learn basic use of NifSkope to get the models in-game, as this program is used for setting up the model for in-game use. The "mini tutorial" in the stickies of this forum section contains the basic knowledge you need to get something working in-game - it's rather brief and probably a little dated, but it's a good start if you are new to game modding.

[Baelkin]

After messing around a bit with rigging the model I thought I'd try an export of the rigged part as a .nif file just to check what it'd look like in NifSkope. While the exported part itself looks exactly like expected, I came across something unusual which has to have happened during the export process.

 

Instead of everything exported being the same NiTriStrips element, it was split up in three different NiTrStrips blocks - one for the "cloth" part of the pants, one for the sabaton plating and one for the sabaton straps on the back of the leg. I can't for the life of me figure out why this happened, but it has to be something with the export settings that somehow splits the model into "related" bits. It doesn't seem like it affects the model, but I think it will make it a bit more difficult getting the model ingame if I have to duplicate NiTriBlocks, as that tends to significantly increase the risk of making errors.

 

The problem is illustrated on the images below. As can be seen, everything I'm exporting is a single element in Max but when inspecting the resulting .nif, the model has been split into several NiTriStrips:

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/Pants-single-element.jpg

 

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/Pants-split-element.jpg

[Andersh]

hi Baelkin,

 

I dont know if it helps you, but the Blender export script splits the models depending on the assigned material/texture for each polygon. Maybe it is in 3dmax the same.

[Baelkin]

hi Baelkin,

 

I dont know if it helps you, but the Blender export script splits the models depending on the assigned material/texture for each polygon. Maybe it is in 3dmax the same.

 

That might be it. Thanks for the heads up - that idea hadn't crossed my mind, but now that you mention it I think the parts in question actually do have different materials assigned to them. I'll see what happens the next time I export, but I think you nailed the problem. :thumbsup:

[Expresate]

Oh wow. This is going to be finished? Woo. Hope you get that problem worked out.

[Baelkin]

hi Baelkin,

 

I dont know if it helps you, but the Blender export script splits the models depending on the assigned material/texture for each polygon. Maybe it is in 3dmax the same.

 

Just wanted to say that this was indeed the issue and I can't believe I made such a "newbish" mistake. :whistling:

 

Anyway, I'm finally done rigging the model to the Fallout male skeleton though I don't really know if I've done it "right". Guess the only thing to do is to test it and see what happens.

 

Edit:

 

Well... The test went unexpectedly well - my system didn't crash, but the polygons of the model have *no* idea where they are supposed to go, so I gather I didn't setup the rig or export the model correctly or a combination of both. Guess I'll go back to proverbial drawing board and see if I can find some decent tutorials or threads specific for Fallout 3 on the topic of rigging, that aren't just "quick and dirty" but teaches the subject from the bottom up. :confused: