Stuck making a cycle model: SOLVED

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:25 am

I've read every thread and article I can find, but I'm still clueless. I made some 3D models several years ago using MAYA, but I've lost both the program and all the memories I have of making anything. So I'm starting from scratch in Blender.

And now I'm stuck. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm way over my head. If anyone wants to take a look at what I've got so far and dish out some advice, I'd love to hear it. I have a feeling I don't have enough experience to complete this.

hoop · Post by **hoop** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:43 am

nice, i like it
perhaps I'd try to make it so the central capsule will cover a part of the big wheel, dunno really.
I tried to make an arma model using blender a while ago and I couldn't make it due to plugin's issues. have you already exported a model succesfully?

ed · Post by ed » Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:52 am

Have you read about this to export aa model from blender?

Your_mom · Post by **Your_mom** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:27 am

ed wrote:Have you read about this to export aa model from blender?

Iirc that thread was about exporting to .mod the default* format not .ase the moviepack format. I can't remember anyone getting blender to export .ase though there is a link to an exporter that may or may not work somewhere in the forums.

hoop · Post by **hoop** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:04 pm

a coulpe suggestions:

the meshes have a lot of vertices, I guess it would decrease your fps a lot
and it's quite hard editing the shapes now.
if you didn't know, blender offers a smart solution for that: using modifiers to preview the final result.
i.e. in this case I'd use the sub-surf modifier so editing the mesh will be easier, then once I'm done I'd apply it.

anyway, I'd possibly keep the lower possible amount of vertices

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:23 pm

Hmm. I think I'll start over with a different approach. I really have no idea what you guys are talking about. I guess I need to read a bit more before I continue.

Lackadaisical · Post by **Lackadaisical** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:33 pm

Make sure it looks good from top/behind!

Your mom wrote: I can't remember anyone getting blender to export .ase though there is a link to an exporter that may or may not work somewhere in the forums.

Both Mysery and me were able to use the exporter on this site:
http://www.katsbits.com/htm/tools_utilities.htm#ase

hoop · Post by **hoop** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:02 pm

sinewav wrote:I really have no idea what you guys are talking about.

Misery · Post by **Misery** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:59 pm

Ah, Lack beat me to the punch.

The only thing I can suggest is try to reduce the poly count on your cycle. That way people that do not have high-end systems will be able to play with it still. If you need help, just ask. I'm pretty good at cleaning stuff up.

Edit: Nevermind. Hoop covered that. That's what I get for not reading all posts carefully. lol

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:29 pm

Well, I'm getting closer. You guys have been a great help so far. However, the .ase and it crashes Arma.

Code: Select all

gTextureCycle::ProcessImage(SDL_Surface*)
BytesPerPixel== failed

Again, I'm a total 3D n00b. I'm probably just missing something simple, like turning a button on. I'm still working on the texture too (almost done). So, if anyone tell me what I screwed up, that would be great. I've read the above links and didn't see what I needed.

hoop · Post by **hoop** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:34 pm

afaik a cycle model should have 3 shapes: the body and 2 wheels

plus, the front wheel is not symmetrical so it won't look nice when spinning

Lackadaisical · Post by **Lackadaisical** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:56 am

The moviepack cycle doesn't have spinning wheels. You can choose to use the regular .mod files but you can't really skin those well..

sine: I don't know if it's the reason it doesn't work, but that's one tiny little bike you have (or is the regular model ******* huge? who knows!). Here's a screenshot with a bikemodel i made imported (yours is the tiny pink glob).

Ah ok, I just resized the cycle so it was as large as mine, turned it around and exported it to .ase with the thing i linked before, and it seems to work (still using the texture of the other cycle so yeah..).

edit: Tried it with the texture you gave, but it crashed.. I got a vague memory of mystery having the same problem?

edit2: Changed the texture so it had some transparancies.. worked!

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 4:01 am

Lackadaisical wrote:but that's one tiny little bike you have

Opps. I forgot to rotate and resize. I remember reading about that here

Lackadaisical wrote:Tried it with the texture you gave, but it crashed.. I got a vague memory of mystery having the same problem?

edit2: Changed the texture so it had some transparancies.. worked!

I tried the same thing and failed. I read what you posted here, but it makes no sense to me. What is a "UV face select mode"? I only have "UV/Image Editor".

Right now I can get the model into Arma without textures. Nothing I seem to do works. Below is the finished bike.png

Lackadaisical · Post by **Lackadaisical** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:10 pm

Ok I see 248 doesn't have the UV face select mode, but I *think* the regular edit mode does the trick. Doesn't really matter because this time I didn't even do that, all I did was:

Open it
File -> Export -> ASCII (.ase) -> name it cycle.ase
Put it in the moviepack folder with bike.png
Play armagetron

sinewav · Post by **sinewav** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 8:19 pm

Well, I give up. The texture is not mapping correctly. If I'm doing the same thing as you procedurally, then maybe there is a problem with either my version of Blender or the ASE script. I'm not smart enough to go any further, so I guess I'll have to move on to a different project. Thanks for the help though.

BTW what version of Blender and ASE script are you using?