Modeling
From Code43 Urban Warefare Wiki wiki.code43.net
Contents |
Creating Map Props/Objects
Introduction
Map props take the least amount of time to produce with good quality than the other 2 types of models. Unlike both weapons and player models, map props do not need to be animated.
The steps to creating a map prop/object go as follows:
- Modeling the Low poly version and the High poly version
- UV Mapping, Baking and Texturing
- Exporting and Compiling
As will be continually noted, this wiki will not cover all aspects of the first 2 steps as they are mostly 3D modeling commonplace.
Modeling the Prop/Object
Unlike weapons and player models, map props do not need to be overly detailed. At this moment, there is no set triangle limit on map props as it is more at the modeler's discretion. Obviously, the smaller the model the lower the triangle count should be and vice-versa. Also, with the help of normal maps you can achieve greater detail with a lower triangle count. For static mapobjects use ASE models and for dynamic MD5. All mapobject models have to be stored in ~/models/mapobjects/devname where devname is name of the file owner.
UV mapping, Baking, and Texturing
With texturing it is noted that you should use texture maps that are powers of 2 and also create your texture maps at a high resolution and then scale them down to the best resolution for the model. Like the triangle count, the resolution of the texture map is at your discretion and it is noted that the larger the map, the greater affect on the performance of the engine. Basically, the larger the texture map (ie - 2048x2048) the slower the engine will go and vice-versa. Therefore we suggest that map props, in general, shouldn't have a much higher resolution than 1024x1024 texture map. For more information please refer to the Texturing. Textures can be stored either in the same folder as their model, or in ~/textures/devname_models/ folder.
Exporting and Compiling
To Do
Creating Weapons
Introduction
Creating weapons for Code43 is a long and tedious process. Usually involving creating a high poly and lower poly version of the same weapon in order to bake a normal map. Although this can be skipped and go straight to a low poly model, it is not suggested. Normal maps allow for a greater amount of detail to be added to the model without affecting the weapon's overall polycount.
The basic steps are as follows but can be done in any order.
- Modeling the Low poly version and the High poly version
- UV mapping, Baking and Texturing the Low Poly version
- Animating the Low Poly version
- Exporting and Gathering/Compilation for Ingame
The first 3 steps will not be covered in detail in this wiki as they are not engine specific to Code43 but rather general 3D modeling procedure. But certain parts/tidbits that pertain the MD5 format and/or Xreal engine will be noted.
Modeling the Weapon
We suggest that you aim for at the most 5,000 triangles in your low poly version. But for smaller weapons like pistols and grenades, there will obviously be much less. For your high poly, you can go as high as you want. It is suggested that you go with at least 10,000 triangles in the high poly version, but you can go with more if wanted/needed for the amount of detail you wish to use.
UV mapping, Baking and Texturing
Note that for baking normal maps, you ONLY need to UV map the low poly model, and not the high poly version.
Also note that the Xreal engine does not allow the use of ambient occlusion maps (AO) The only way to use AO maps is to combine them with the diffuse maps (texture) of the model.
Xreal does support both normal and specular maps for all models. Xreal also supports parallex mapping for models. The only drawback is that while parallex mapping creates better detail, this hurts the FPS (frames per second) of the lower end computers and would get turned off/disabled. Therefore, we suggest using ONLY normal maps as they work well from the lower end to the higher end range of computer hardware.
We suggest that you create your textures at a high resolution (like 2048 or 4096) and then reduce them to around 1024 or 512. This is because it is easier to decrease resolution than it is to increase resolution. Also note, that like most engines, Xreal supports texture maps (meaning diffuse, normal, or specular maps) in any dimension. But, we highly suggest that you only use texture maps of powers of 2. Not only is this the usual convention but it also allows for simple scaling. Powers of 2 means 512x512, 1024x1024, 1024x512, 256x2048 or 4096x128 and etc.
For more information on the texture creation and materials, please refer to the Texturing.
Animation
It is suggested, that if your specific program does not have MD5 support that you find a program that does. Especially for this stage as it can be hectic at times to get bone animations to export and import into another program to do the final MD5 exporting.
Also note that your animations MUST be bone animations if you are using the MD5 format. If you wish to use the MD3 format (which uses vertex animation), you can, but we highly suggest the MD5 format because its a lot easier to set up, use and export properly.
Exporting and Compiling
To Do
Creating Player Models
To Do
