Alright, hello. I just joined the forum. I got started by modding Fallout 3 with Bethesda Softworks’ G.E.C.K. program. I quickly got bored of just changing weapon behaviors with that and wanted to change models. So that led me to NifSkope where I could swap components, but the .nif models they use are usually all one piece so that was extremely limited. So from there I found blender where there don’t seem to be any limits to anything you can do at all. Did I see something about programming game engines using Blender in here? This is insane and I am in way over my head.
In any case, I altered a lot of models using Blender. Put scopes on rifles, suppressors, computerized scopes on laser rifles, made carbine versions of rifles with barrels shortened down just long enough for a hand sized grip.
But I ran into a lot of problems. In spite of exporting everything with the “Fallout 3” > “weapon” texturing options selected, everything came out way glossier than the original models that were imported, the reflective texturing of scope lenses was ruined. I also tried to change the game’s red laser model to green and that was a complete disaster. Nothing worked at all. I think the cause was a shade which I have no idea how to edit. So originally I was coming here to post about all these problems.
But now that I am here, slightly numb with shock, mind blown at all the amazing things I see people doing. I’ve decided to try to develop some skills from the ground up, rather than just trying to trouble shoot those problems with things I kind of tried by starting in the middle. I’m going to start by just diving into an attempt to make my own weapon model!
I think it will be inspired by the FAMAS/G36 I’ve always loved weapon designs with huge carry handles for some reason.
So I’ve downloaded some youtube tutorials I found here. I’m going to go home tonight and give it my best shot, then post up whatever I come up with, and hopefully with this community’s help, eventually hone it into something I might be able to use in Fallout!
If anyone has any suggestions, tips, advice of any kind, at all, please let me know!
you should try asking in one of the support sections about the export issue. i’m not sure which one, though. probably materials and textures. or you might see if you can find a thread in python and plugins section relating to the release of that export script. blender does many things. it has a game engine, a video editor, animation, fluid, smoke, ocean, and cloth simulators, lots of modelling and sculpting tools, texture painting, and a whole lot more. probably best to start by familiarizing yourself with the basic modelling tools, of which there are a lot. currently, the workflow for making a game model goes like so: start by making a fairly high poly model, with not too much concern about the topology, and then give it a multires modifier, and sculpt in some nice details. then build a low poly version over it using the retopo tools. UV unwrap the low poly version, then bake the normals of the high poly version onto the low poly version, called ‘normals baking’. there should be a few tuts out there on it, but other than modelling, definately learn UV mapping / unwrapping. if you do this, your low poly models will come out looking quite high poly.
Yes, I was browsing the forum and found noticed that textures support forum, I actually brought some screen shots to post up there today. Thanks for the general breakdown and tips! I appreciate the input. Now I just need to learn specifically how to do all that stuff haha! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work on a model yet because the tutorial videos I downloaded didn’t work, apparently this site interferes with it somehow such that once the file is downloaded it doesn’t play, IF I download from a youtube video embeded in this site. Anyway, I got home and found the videos weren’t working so I just sketched up some ideas instead. Today I opened the same videos directly on the YouTube site and downloaded from there, I’ve tested them, they’re working so now I’ll be able to start. And hopefully at least have a first attempt to post on Monday. In the meantime I’ll jump over to the support forum and start posting about the problems I mentioned earlier…
Thanks again!
Alright, so I abondoned my attempt at making a concept weapon and decided to model a MK17 7.62mm rifle instead. Mostly just because I already had a good reference image for that. And I just finished it yesterday. Well, at least I just finished the basic model. I still need to do a lot of detail work, and then animate and texture it. Ultimately I want to test it out in Fallout 3.
Do those work for Fallout? Could’ve used some input on the actual model by the way. What’s up with these forums? I’ve got three posts up with technical issues, several hundred views and no responses to or help with anything, after a week or something…
Maybe the answers are travelling from Now to the past blender days in which your version has been used I would do an update and enjoy incredible new functions !
To your issue-threads, If nobody knows an answer to your issue why should he reply? To tell thats everythings fine ?
Someone will tell you when he´s got a clue
I don’t know anything about getting models into Fallout, but I’d be surprised if the old versions of Blender could export any better than the new ones.
As for your model, you could put some more work into rounding the edges. It’s a too cube-like on the stock and handle in that last picture. You should probably find out about how many polys a weapon model in Fallout should have and aim to have around that many.
Also, your gun is missing the ejector port and bolt. I don’t know if those are visible in game, if not, don’t waste the polys.
Anyway, yeah I guess I hope so. It seems like a whole lot of people who don’t have a clue though for a forum where you’d think everyone would know the basics, and it’s probably a really simple export setting I’ve got wrong…
I was asking about it on Bethesda’s GECK forum before I downloaded Blender and I someone said something about at least one newer version not working for Fallout. Which is the only game I have that I would know how to import the model to. Actually Bethesda’s GECK makes it impossibly easy to.
I felt the same way about the corners on the grip, I don’t know how i would do that though. They actually have insane amounts of polys on the Fallout models, which I suppose is exactly what you need for a first person shooter.
Yeah, they’re visible. Like I said, this is my very first time making anything in Blender myself. And it’s not actually completed. It just felt like an accomplishment having the basic shape of the model completed! But yeas, I do need to go back and start working on all of the detail, which is going to be the hard part. Then I’ll have to animate everything too!
Not to mention texturing. So maybe this is actually only 20-30% but there it is. Thanks for the input!
For the grip, you could select all the faces on the back (the part across from the trigger), extrude them out a bit, and then scale them along the Z-axis. Do the same for the front and bottom, and then connect it all. That’s probably a good way for starters, and you’ll find better methods as you go. Or you could mess around the bevel tools, but I’d recommend learning to do it manually first.
Hope that made sense…
This looks considerably better than the first SCAR-H model I made already, btw, and that wasn’t even my first model.
Not only did it make sense but that actually sounds like a perfect way to do it! Thanks! The first thought I had was to place loops inside the existing cube, and then scale down the current face, and that would be a giant pain, and possibly exponentially increase the poly count. It felt like a terrible idea so I shook it out of my head and just said I have no idea haha.
I haven’t even looked at the bevel tools. Their name frightens me.
To be honest, I’ve never used bevels for game weapons, simply because it can skyrocket the polycount, but then again, I’m not an expert myself.
I would have recognized it anyway, but you did post the name earlier
Here’s my (now 3 yr old) model. You can see there’s no flash hider, and the stock has a bit less detail than yours.
That actually looks pretty good. True, you don’t have the flash hider, but you did pretty good on the gas block and sight! And you did the picatinny rails which I haven’t. I guess I got the top and bottom one’s but I didn’t do the ridges like that so they’re not complete. Is there a way I can place a loop, but just on one surface of the cube instead of all the way around? Because that would work well I think. Anyway, how did you do the rails?
Did you ever use this one in a game? What games do you make models for?
I’ve never done it before. But what is this “baking normals” from high poly models onto low poly models? I guess if you really needed to to get a model right, you could use bevels and then just do that and it might give it the look of being higher poly/more detailed than it is?
The rails started as cubes. I extruded up, widened, extruded again, and thinned them. Then they’re just duplicated down the gun.
No, I had put this in a Battlefront II mod, but I never released it (didn’t finish the mod, actually). Now I make models for fun or for games I make using Unity.
I’ve never baked either, I don’t take modelling seriously enough to put that much detail into my work. But baking normals means turning bumps on the model into a normal map.
Measured it. Actually, I probably eyeballed it on that model, but now I measure things. An easy way to place vertices precisely is to type in coordinates in the properties panel.
No, I just started working on my game a few months ago, and I wouldn’t use a model like that anymore. You can’t see from the pic I posted, but the edge flow is awful, in addition to its general lack of detail.
How would I place a straight edge across a face with vertices at the intersecting edges? Or just at a vertex to a particular edge? Because I’ve already made the base of the rails, I just need to raise the ridges up from the base.
I don’t know what edge flow means haha!
And as for the lack of detail, you did mention that you never finished it…
In any case here’s an update on how my model’s coming along:
I’d love to animate the stock collapsing and folding over like this, but I don’t know if there’d be any way for the player to actually control the position that the stock is in in game. I was thinking for Fallout three I could make a new aim animation, so that whenever the player isn’t aiming the weapon the stock is folded over, then when the player goes to aim it, their character flips out the stock. Just a possibility.
I don’t know if I will make those animations, I was just toying with the possibilities. Anyway, I added the charging handle.
Here I actually triangulated faces, saved as legacy mesh format, and opened in 2.49b to see if it would work, and it did. Don’t know what’s going on with the black texture because I hadn’t tried to texture it yet. Anyway, I imported a scoped version of Fallout 3’s Assault Rifle that I had made much much earlier just by cut and pasting the scope from another model. Then I pulled the scope off that and slapped it on my MK17 just to get an idea what I might do when I finally finish the model and put it in game!
And here’s the side by side! I have to say, for being a completely untextured first attempt, it doesn’t look bad with that rifle scope on there! Oh yeah, and to make the model go with the scope I flipped the iron sights down and raised the stock’s built in cheek rest!
I have a cool idea for the ejection port, on most of the weapons in Fallout 3, they do actually sink a hole into the model for the port, but then they just texture it and leave it otherwise un-animated. So what I want to do is texture the back of that recess non-reflective black so it will just look like a dark hole, then have a free floating face above that one that’s textured to look like the weapon’s bolt. Then join that free floating face to the charging handle as an object, and animate the set to move back and forth with each shot. So as a player looks into the breach in game it will actually look like the gun is cycling and the breach is opening up to eject shells. Where as all the Fallout 3 original models aren’t that detailed, and just spawn shells off the side of the gun. It should be low polly too, it’s just adding one face!
Lastly, if anyone knows much about transfering files between the current version and the older 2.49 (for scripts that allow export of file types used for specific game models) I could use some help. Because when I’ve done it after some small scale experiments with texturing, I’ve found that the UV image, mapping, and texturing doesn’t seem to transfer, and the skin of the model disappears! What’s up with that? Will I just have to do all the texturing in 2.49? Because I can’t find any good tutorials for it and I only know how to texture in 2.68
Also how would I go about saving textures as .dds as that’s the file type used by Fallout 3.
How would I place a straight edge across a face with vertices at the intersecting edges? Or just at a vertex to a particular edge?
You can use the knife tool to cut across a face. If you select an edge, you can subdivide it and it’ll add a vertex in the middle.
I don’t know about .dds files or going from 2.86 to 2.49. Are you sure 2.68 can’t export the right way? There are lots of export scripts in the addons. Go to File -> User Preferences and click the Addons tab, and then look in “Import-Export” along the left.
I would do an update and enjoy incredible new functions !
