Any need for weapons or Items

[breteas]

Added:

Could we get on Msn? We've 2 modellers and a painter. I could use realtime feedback.

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

Hey bretas, glad to see you back. Unfortunately calling me a modeler is a bit of an overstatement. What I am is a newbie to modelling, but still a quick learner. So I'm afraid you may be teaching me a little more than I would be teaching you. But I'm definitly still up for msn and the sharing of info, that's definitely the best way of doing things.

What I've been doing is grabbing premade models off the web, some free, some paid for, and exporting them IG.

One thing I could really use a tutorial for is applying walkmeshes to models. I see you did it with the stairs, yet I'm having a really hard time finding a tutorial on how to do it.




Edit: figuring it out... I see its in the exporting through exportron. MDB Utility.

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

OK I have that covered. Now, I'm having more issues with dds files.

For instance converting a 233kb jpeg creates a 3MB dds texture file. If I throw on a form of compression while saving with gimp, it takes it down to 1MB, which is still very high. How do you create manageable dds files that aren't overly massive?

Another thing is the saved dds files always seem to be in incriments of 1MB.
ie, 2.00MB 5.00MB exactly. Never 2.34MB or anything like that. So it seems its not doing a very efficient job.

[breteas]

Textures I am using are 512x512 or 1024x1024. Anything larger than that will likely be an issue for the engine, and I probably have to lower the resolution on my textures as well.

Are you using to large of an image to convert?

[Aelcar]

This is an awesome job you're doing man . Thanks for the effort you are putting into it, and can't wait to see the new buildings in the dark, purplish environment of The City

[tooley1chris]

WHIPS!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~ *carack!*

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

Here's a set of spiral stairs I've managed to model on my own. Fist model ever!

Been wanting a spiral staircase in the toolset for a loooong time now.

Just having issues with the camera mesh atm.


(scale is off, it wont be that big. Shrinking the walkmesh in 3ds max breaks it, so I have to import it at that size :/ )

[breteas]

You can't go full circle on spiral stairs.

Otherwise.. Looks nice man. It really does!

[breteas]

Btw, you can scale all you want, then apply the "Reset Xform" modifier, and re-convert to "mesh" and you should be good to go!

[breteas]

Alternatively, you may try to reset "Pivot point" or "Scale" to "World".

Edit: Make sure when you do that, that your object is at 0,0,0

[breteas]

Damn. Now I have to get active again! Damn you Death! Damn!

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

You can't go full circle on spiral stairs.

Otherwise.. Looks nice man. It really does!

Sure you can, you just can't walk all the way up.

I could have made it spin around itself three times, but the walkmesh would still only be 2/3 up the first spiral.


And I'll give those a shot then for scaling as opposed to using the scaling tool.

[IAmDeathComeForThee]

Damn. Now I have to get active again! Damn you Death! Damn!

Holy post spam batman! j/k Yes get your arse in gear man, you're falling behind!

[Sceer]

OK I have that covered. Now, I'm having more issues with dds files.

For instance converting a 233kb jpeg creates a 3MB dds texture file. If I throw on a form of compression while saving with gimp, it takes it down to 1MB, which is still very high. How do you create manageable dds files that aren't overly massive?

Another thing is the saved dds files always seem to be in incriments of 1MB.
ie, 2.00MB 5.00MB exactly. Never 2.34MB or anything like that. So it seems its not doing a very efficient job.

Just dropping in my two cents here.
* For .dds texture files, you don't need an alpha channel if you do not have transparency (e.g. a texture of a window pane). That will save a lot of the size space.
* There are compression settings that can help you drop the texture size down a good bit. * The Aurora engine uses certain compression types. I'll try to find that info. for you.
* A 256kb texture file will go an amazingly long way if you design it to be repeatable. Judge how much surface space your object(s) actually show from the player camera perspective. For example, A rusty sword can get away with an amazingly small texture map compared to the side of a building.
* The normal maps can be set at a mipmap level lower than the base texture resolution and still come out just fine. Obsidian did this with the character normal maps.
* Big tip here. Reuse Obsidian maps. That way, the textures don't even need to be included in a hak. They are already loaded in the vanilla game. Saves on hakfile size and memory requirements for the object if that image is already loaded into memory from another object.

Hope this helps.


EDIT: As promised. My notes on dds texture settings for NWN2 engine



NWN2 Texture Settings


DXT1 can be used for any diffuse, tint, or glow map that has an all white alpha channel. The game adds an all white alpha during runtime to any texture that doesn't have alpha data. It's recommended using DXT1 over DXT5 if you do not require an alpha. DXT1 is identical in compression to DXT5 in regards to the Color channels, the only difference is one stores a 256 grey alpha channel the other doesnt.

DXT3 can be used for any diffuse, tint, or glow that has a strictly black and white alpha channel.

DXT5 can be used by all the different maps, but it's necessary for normal maps in particular.

Alpha maps and Normal Maps

The alpha channel is used by normal and tint maps. The alpha of the normal map file is the specular highlight mapping. (White is blindingly shiny; black is matte; shades of gray are in between.) The alpha channel of the tint map governs which parts of the texture pick up the tint. (Black ensures the area receives no tint; white gives it 100% tint; and values in between let you apply a partial tint over the original color in the texture.) The specular strength alpha in the Normal map texture does use a full 256 colors grey alpha.

Alpha Maps and Glow Maps

The alpha on the glow map controls the intensity of the glow color, with white being fully on, fading down to black being fully off.

[tooley1chris]

Did I already mention whips? Oops, sorry.