creating shipsets

[inigma]

What's the best free graphics program out there that would allow me to create good shipsets for SEIV?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Wings3d.

[inigma]

What do you think of Blender?

Does Wings3d have the capability of creating shipsets for SEIV that could transition to SEV later?

[Ed Kolis]

Blender would be great just because it's so powerful, but unfortunately the interface drives me up a wall with its complexity http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
Wings will let you export to .3DS and .OBJ, which are easily convertible to .X, which is the format which SE5 uses. Also, Wings is designed as a low-polygon modeler, which is good, because SE5 ships shouldn't have more than maybe 1500 polygons.
There's been talk recently at the Wings forum about a plugin which would export directly to .X from Wings, but that's right now in the idea stage... it shouldn't be too hard to implement; it's just a matter of finding someone who has knowledge both of the obscure programming language (Erlang) which Wings is written in and of the .X format to actually write the plugin http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif
If you want to use a program called Art of Illusion, I did make an .X exporter for that program, but it currently is rather buggy; I've fixed up some of the bugs and I've got the revised version lying around on my computer somewhere, so if you're interested let me know and I'll zip up the revised version and post it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
edit: here ya go: http://kolis.dyndns.org/ed/prog/exportx/exportX-1.2.zip

[Atrocities]

I use DOGA Its easy to learn. Its like building with legos.

http://www.doga.co.jp/english/

Look at my site to see what can be done with DOGA.

[inigma]

Atrocities, is what you've done with your site done with the L1 version?

[TerranC]

inigma said:
Atrocities, is what you've done with your site done with the L1 version?



Although I am not atrocities, I can tell you that they have nearly all been made with L3.

[Atrocities]

I used L3 with many custom images and bonus model packs. You can get them from the forum or perhaps they are listed on Todd Zirchers web site.

I have posted a tremendous amount of info about this so do a search for DOGA and read through some of the threads.

Post on the DOGA forum asking for new parts downloads and what not.

[inigma]

Is it possible to create our own parts with DOGA, or are we limited to only what they provide?

I was thinking of creating parts in Bender or Wings3d and making them available for assembly in DOGA.

I just haven't read enough of the documentation to find out one way or the other.

[zircher]

One of the interesting perks to L2 and L3 is that while they are shareware, only the movie rendering feature is disabled. For ship set makers and model designers, the programs are fully functional. So, DoGA is essentially a freebie for our needs.

If you're new, I suggest downloading L2 and getting a feel for that before moving on to L3. I have written a translation of the L3 Parts Assembler help files on my DoGA support page, you can also find a tutorial on designing game meshes with DoGA for SEV, and a slew of parts.

http://zircher.iwarp.com/doga

Ed, weren't you working on a SUF export plugin for Wings3D? If so, what the progress on that?
--
TAZ

[Ed Kolis]

Yeah, I think I was a while back... never quite got the hang of Erlang... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
Though what would be more useful with SE5 is an .X exporter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Hugh Manatee]

Most of blenders interface woes can be fixed with 2 things, #1, dont eff with it unless you know what it does, you can find out what it does on the blender.org sites or the elYsiun forums. #2 1 hand on the mouse, 1 hand on the keyboard, and have a hotkey list available. Mouse id for moving things around and clicking number sliders mostly, keyboard is where about 80% of your commands are.

The only thing I haven't nailed down in blender is texturing... but then that is my weak point in many 3D programs......

[Ed Kolis]

OK, I said I used to be working on a .X exporter for Wings...
Well here's a preliminary version - can't export textures yet (all objects are gray), and I haven't done much testing, but it does create valid DirectX files http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

http://kolis.dyndns.org/ed/prog/wpc_x/wpc_x.beam

Source (in case you're interested):

http://kolis.dyndns.org/ed/prog/wpc_x/wpc_x.erl

Instructions: When you installed Wings you should have got a plugins shortcut under your wings directory. Go to that shortcut, then to the import_export directory. Place the beam file there and restart Wings. Use the new "DirectX (.x)" menu items under File|Export and File|Export-Selected.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Woot!

[Ed Kolis]

The .X exporter now supports textures! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Yaay!

[Hugh Manatee]

that 1500 poly limit, does that aply to Star Fury ships too or is that the SEV limit?

[Captain Kwok]

It's not a limit at all. It's just a recommended figure to keep performance in mind. But yeah 1500 is good for bases, and 300-1000 is a good range for ships.

[douglas]

Starfury has a lot fewer ships on screen at a time than SEV will, so Starfury can handle much higher poly counts without performance suffering.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

zircher said:If you're new, I suggest downloading L2 and getting a feel for that before moving on to L3.



I don't know as much about DoGA as Zircher does, but I can tell you one thing; I never ever touched any 3D modeler in my life before, but less than 15 minutes after I downloaded L3, I was happily making stuff that wouldn't look bad in a shipset (in fact, some of it actually got into my Bartelian shipset) so I would say jump into L3 rightaway. Like I said, you learn the basics in a few minutes; the palette designer, not much more than five to fifteen to get a basic feel for it. If you learn L2 before you start with L3, it's your own decision, but for my own part I found L3's interface to be rather self-explanatory and I would recommend to start using L3 rightaway.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Wings3d isn't much harder, and will likely be easier to use for SEV.

[Cipher7071]

I finally got curious about these graphics programs, so about a week ago I downloaded Blender (free). The interface is a monster, but the Blender web sites assure me that once I get the hang of it, the journey will be worth the trouble. We'll see.

I seem to remember that it took a while to get the hang of playing SEIV too. That journey was worth it. Now I just have to worry about those pesky human players.