[UTRP] "UT 2341" port into Unreal Tournament

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Torax
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[UTRP] "UT 2341" port into Unreal Tournament

Post by Torax »

As UT Community SDK development continued, i told that i will work for improving visuals of default UT weapons.

Here's some "working in progress". During the work, i trying to keep in mind original design and let the whole updates fit with it. It is not easy, so anyways, design will be slightly different but much more better.

Currently remodelled Sniper Rifle and it's ammo. Things left to do for this one - apply textures, create animation and stuff should be ready for import.

In cause that Shadow have no any guesses about when the SDK will be released with all new stuff it must have, i will release new content for use in standart UT as progress will go.

Keep on it.
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UT99_Rifle_New_Persp2.jpg
UT99_Rifle_New_Persp.jpg
UT99_Rifle_New_Left.jpg
Last edited by Torax on Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Radi »

yay! looks very good by now :) With skinning should looks fantastic.
You seems to be skilled with modeling. I have a little question, in blender it is possible to paint directly on the mesh surfaces (like painting with any 2D image manipulation program, like gimp/paint) ?
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

Tnanks! Seems i better now skilled in modelling than texturing :mrgreen:

Well, drawing directly at model it is impossible on Blender. I'd found once a program that allows to import model and using various paints, brushes and patterns draw directly on the model. But it is fairly old and not updated since 2004-2006 year.
If i'l found it, guys will be reported in the related topic.
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Radi »

I always thought that skinning is a madness and hard thing to do, I dont know why these modeling programs do not allow simply painting, only this ridiciolous UVmapping/groups. ehhhhh
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

Painting directly on the mesh is also pain in tha ass.
UV mapping is easier really, in cause that you can draw in 2D. Only thing that it is hard to make RIGHT UV unwrapping, to make then easier drawing textures
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Feralidragon »

The model is looking interesting so far.
I tried Blender some time ago, but when I saw that it was troublesome in some critical things (bad exports and troublesome way to animate things), I quit on it (the one I am going to try next is 3DSMax).
Radi wrote:I always thought that skinning is a madness and hard thing to do, I dont know why these modeling programs do not allow simply painting, only this ridiciolous UVmapping/groups. ehhhhh
I like the way you use the word "simply", as if it was the most trivial thing to do.... lol
Well, that's why you have "modelers" and "painters", as in the professional realm these things are generally targeted for (and even in the hobbyist) both are separated.
If you want to paint directly in a model, I heard that Photoshop already supports that, but only 3DS files I think, and it's not fully stable yet (to show how "simple" it is to implement, even for engineers specialized at it).
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

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Feralidragon wrote:The model is looking interesting so far.
I tried Blender some time ago, but when I saw that it was troublesome in some critical things (bad exports and troublesome way to animate things), I quit on it (the one I am going to try next is 3DSMax).
Tnx.

Blender became quite useful mostly for making specific things automatically (through holes for example). And not so hard in learning as nearly anybody thinks. I even get used to it more than to MS3D.
Abot exporting..yes, it needs more third party programs to put stuff into UT and it's more related to animations. But i will try correctly put things using skeletal anims. It'll also help to eliminate (as i think and i hope) "bubbling" effect that appears at models which use vertex animation.
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by papercoffee »

UV-mapping is the easier way for machines and technical stuff. Direct painting on the model (in PS-CS6) is better for organic issues. As you can see here... http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?p=57476#p57476

@Torax
But keep in mind to make a low-poly model for the pick-up and the third person view.
Looks great ...I was shocked how fast you've learned compared to your first Fifle.
This will be an awesome weapon-pack.
And this will fit much better with NW3 when you use Random-Arena. :mrgreen:
Torax wrote: It'll also help to eliminate (as i think and i hope) "bubbling" effect that appears at models which use vertex animation
Ah yes the old wobble effect ...I notice them a lot in Quake based games (King-Pin has nearly jelly like weapons :lol2: )
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

papercoffee wrote: @Torax
But keep in mind to make a low-poly model for the pick-up and the third person view.
This model have 1972 tris itself. So adding around 500-700 tris for hands, that will not be too expensive for UT's engine. Ferali's models have around, 2000 polys nearly each one, and the biggest amount - something like 3000-3500 polys. So i have enough place to leave detalisation at highest levels. Not more than 3-4k of polygons.
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Feralidragon »

Torax wrote: Blender became quite useful mostly for making specific things automatically (through holes for example). And not so hard in learning as nearly anybody thinks. I even get used to it more than to MS3D.
Abot exporting..yes, it needs more third party programs to put stuff into UT and it's more related to animations. But i will try correctly put things using skeletal anims. It'll also help to eliminate (as i think and i hope) "bubbling" effect that appears at models which use vertex animation.
Well, as a modeler Blender is great (from what I tried so far some time ago), and the MS3D modeling nightmares are no more, however the animation is harder to do, but what really put me off is the fact that the only existing psk exporter for it (made by another developer) is not working at all (at least for the latest version), plus I would downgrade and try the exporter again, if it wasn't for the fact that from what I researched it seems that the Blender developers are like Android an Python language developers, their versioning is far too fragmented for the plugins to keep working properly from one version to another.
So it's very likely that I will use 3DSMax instead for my next things, since it at least has official support from Epic to export things (through ActorX).

As for the skeletal animation, yeah, it eliminates the bubbling effect completely, to not mention that you can reduce the amount of frames as well (for example, rotating animation takes between 24 to 40 frames for vertex to look somewhat smooth, in the case of skeletal it would only take about 1 to 4 frames (depending on how the engine normalizes bone rotation).
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Radi »

I never created a model outside of Ued. This is my first attempt to create model with skin (Milkshape 3D & LithUnwrap).
Skin is a little misaligned and I dont know why :) ehh (black borders visible). Still do not know how to properly make groups for better result. hard learning curve ;)
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

Feralidragon wrote: existing psk exporter for it (made by another developer) is not working at all
I think it may work now.
If not, i have Blender version 2.49 or something and few plugins, provided for me by Blade Sword (the guy from Runestorm). He said that this is all that i need to make models for UEngine based games. As Ballistic Weapons were created in Blender, means exporting plugin was fixed. If no, i will find another ways to put stuff into UT. Same MS3D. It is an automated step - modelling in Blender, throwing it into MS3D with best format to save model and it's anims itself, and then dump model into .3d or psk\psa files.

About 3D Max...i thought about it. But it's too expensive.The only freeware (or hacked, no matter) build that i found was version 6 or 7. I don't know what abilities it can provide.
And in other side, it will be impossible to jump from Blender to 3D Max instantly - i will waste a lot of time learning the basis...

EDIT***
@Radi
Not so bad for the first time :wink:
Also if to take fact that you imported yours model into UT correctly :tu:
I think black borders visible in cause that UV images where you applied textures were rescaled or something...

@Feralidragon
Can you explain please a bit about reducing of the frames amount? It's important for me in cause my target is to make as slight animation as possible.
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Feralidragon »

Torax wrote: I think it may work now.
If not, i have Blender version 2.49 or something and few plugins, provided for me by Blade Sword (the guy from Runestorm). He said that this is all that i need to make models for UEngine based games. As Ballistic Weapons were created in Blender, means exporting plugin was fixed. If no, i will find another ways to put stuff into UT.
That sounds cool. I have 2.64 (the latest is 2.69), and I think the tool I tried back then (and some others) is broken from 2.5x and above (if I remember correctly). But, if possible, could you post up those plugins so I can try them out?
Torax wrote: Same MS3D. It is an automated step - modelling in Blender, throwing it into MS3D with best format to save model and it's anims itself, and then dump model into .3d or psk\psa files.
Hmmm, that's a clever way to do it.
Torax wrote: About 3D Max...i thought about it. But it's too expensive.The only freeware (or hacked, no matter) build that i found was version 6 or 7. I don't know what abilities it can provide.
And in other side, it will be impossible to jump from Blender to 3D Max instantly - i will waste a lot of time learning the basis...
I didn't try it yet, but I heard that the learning curve on 3DSMax is a lot easier than the one of Blender. Having that said, I didn't find Blender difficult (although I still didn't understand how to make the skeletal animations properly).
Torax wrote: @Feralidragon
Can you explain please a bit about reducing of the frames amount? It's important for me in cause my target is to make as slight animation as possible.
What I meant was mostly that by doing skeletal animation you save a lot of frames right from the start.
Take my UltimaProtos for instance (or the Vulcan): they both have rotating animations to fire, and for each 360º of animation I have dozens of frames to make the transition look smoothly (to avoid what you mentioned as "bubbling" effect), as they're vertex animated.
However, if the same exact animations were made through joints and bones alone (skeletal), all it would take to make a smooth 360ª rotation would be to rotate the bone to 360º, and thus inherently reducing the frame count from dozens to just 2 in this case (the start with rotation 0 and the second with rotation 360º).
But, since a 360º may get normalized to 0º, probably even using skeletal animation you need at least 1 more frame for: 0º > 180º > 360º .
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

That sounds cool. I have 2.64 (the latest is 2.69), and I think the tool I tried back then (and some others) is broken from 2.5x and above (if I remember correctly). But, if possible, could you post up those plugins so I can try them out?
I have version 2.69. But i didn't played with animation and exporting plugins yet.

Sure you can have it. Blade shared it for everybody who works with UT. Here's the download link from ModDB:
http://www.moddb.com/members/blade-hunt ... ins-for-ut
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Re: UT Remodelling Project (UT SDK addon in closest future)

Post by Torax »

Okay guys and girls here's the new Hi-Tech Classic UT Sniper Rifle :agree1:
Ready for animating and import

The new appearance how it'll be.
Fully textured. Only need to texture bullet from above the clip. But it will only appear at ammo pickup, so should be finished later.
And maybe clip gradients make a bit darker.
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persp3.jpg
persp2.jpg
persp1.jpg
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