Is there any way to convert VMF models to 3ds format or whatever?
I have gotten to be skillful at making maps in Hammer, and Hammer happens to be just about the easiest mapping/modelling program to use. The only thing is that it only spits out things in VMF format.
If you don't know what Hammer is, it comes with the Source engine after you buy a game from Valve.
It would be really useful if someone could find any info about using Hammer for Spring modelling. I've looked just about everywhere that Google has to offer.
Question: Is there any way to covert VMF to 3ds, ect?
Moderators: MR.D, Moderators
You wouldn't believe how easy Hammer is to use compared to Wings 3D and especially SketchUp, mainly because you have a grid that you can follow to make the exact shapes you want, you can make the grid smaller or bigger, or you can just not follow the grid at all.
The only downfall to using it would be that you would still need to retexture the model and delete unneeded faces in another modeller.
More or less, it would still be a good way to model, and all the converter needs to do is get rid of all the entities and convert the world geometry
into some different model format.
[Late reply to Argh:]
I have Wings 3D, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. It's just that it's hard to make the precise things you want, also, I still plan on putting the VMFs into Wings 3D after being converted... to get rid of faces, and (of course) UV map the model.
Just trust me... get used to Hammer and you'll see what I mean. I know there's an issue with it not being free and all, but it's got nearly everything Wings 3D has and more.
The only downfall to using it would be that you would still need to retexture the model and delete unneeded faces in another modeller.
More or less, it would still be a good way to model, and all the converter needs to do is get rid of all the entities and convert the world geometry
into some different model format.
[Late reply to Argh:]
I have Wings 3D, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. It's just that it's hard to make the precise things you want, also, I still plan on putting the VMFs into Wings 3D after being converted... to get rid of faces, and (of course) UV map the model.
Just trust me... get used to Hammer and you'll see what I mean. I know there's an issue with it not being free and all, but it's got nearly everything Wings 3D has and more.
Last edited by Chrispin on 29 Jul 2007, 03:12, edited 1 time in total.
Sayeth the newbie modelerThe only downfall to using it would be that you would still need to retexture the model and delete unneeded faces in another modeller.
Now, there are some exporters, IIRC, that will handle Hammer output, and turn them into .3DS or .LWO files. I remember somebody sending me one of those one time (some guy made a spaceship with Hammer) and he said in his email, "gosh, it looks great in Hammer, but when I tried to import it into the game engine, it looked terrible!)
Here are the reasons why:
1. Hammer expects multitexturing. Spring does not support multitexturing (this is actually a strike against Spring, but it's a very minor one- we can use texture up to 4096*4096 if we like watching slide shows). So, in order to use Hammer content in Spring, you're going to have to learn how to uvmap and texture anyhow! Might as well use a good application in the first place.
2. Hammer does not understand welding (Wings doesn't do it quite the same way as Spring, but you can address this in UpSpring very easily). So, you're missing an important part of making good models, which is using smoothing groups, etc.
3. Hammer export, IIRC, put literally hundreds of cutting faces into the interior of the model, due to the way that Hammer works (it is a modeling environment designed for a 3D engine that expects "rooms" and optimizes appropriately, which is completely different than what Spring is doing).
Basically, I can see why people try out Hammer, and think, "hey, I'm a newbie modeler, and this feels easy and comfortable for me". I've used Hammer before, and it's pretty intuitive to use. However, from the standpoint of making things for Spring, it sucks. Gotta use the right tools for the job.
Now, is Wings the only cheap tool available? No, there's always Milkshape3D (clunkier modeling interface, but it works better for a few things than Wings and has more tools, but it costs a little bit) and Gmax (fairly good modeling / texturing tools, is free, but you have to go grab an exporter for the Quake 3 format, and then buy a copy of Milkshape3D to export to 3DS).
If you're a student at a university, I strongly suggest either getting Rhino3D 3.0, at student discount rates, or the latest version of 3DS, both of which are made available to students at a fairly low price. I love Rhino3D, myself- it's intuitive, very easy to learn, but it includes very, very powerful modeling tools, for getting the tough jobs done, fast and accurately.
In short, if I were you, I wouldn't waste any more time using the wrong tools for the job- you're just going to become very bitter and disappointed, when you realize that you're making neat-looking models that are utterly useless in Spring, and you can save yourself much grief by learning another tool now. Wings is the favorite around here, because it's free and the uvmapping tools are really pretty good (I use 'em, for weird shapes, but I mainly use UVMapper Pro).
Before you inflict that kind of pain on him just recommend Blender. MS3d is just painful to use and GMAX was built to prevent exporting into any engine that doesn't pay money to Adobe.Argh wrote:Now, is Wings the only cheap tool available? No, there's always Milkshape3D (clunkier modeling interface, but it works better for a few things than Wings and has more tools, but it costs a little bit) and Gmax (fairly good modeling / texturing tools, is free, but you have to go grab an exporter for the Quake 3 format, and then buy a copy of Milkshape3D to export to 3DS).
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Warlord Zsinj
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Guessmyname
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Hint: In wings3d, use shift, ctrl and shift-ctrl to constrain face and object movement. You see the grid that usually appears in wings? Shift will move an object / face 1 grid length, or rotate an object in 15 degree bits. Ctrl will rotate an object in 1 degree bits, and move it 0.1 of a grid length, Shift-Ctrl will move things 0.01 of a grid length, and I've never yet had to use it for rotations...
Hammer can't handle convex faces, and is very klunky to use (no Extract face, no extrude and so on) Wings will give you much cleaner models. And trust me, compared to nearly all the other modelling programs out there, wings is the easiest to use. Have a look at this tutorial to give the basics on how wings' GUI works
Hammer can't handle convex faces, and is very klunky to use (no Extract face, no extrude and so on) Wings will give you much cleaner models. And trust me, compared to nearly all the other modelling programs out there, wings is the easiest to use. Have a look at this tutorial to give the basics on how wings' GUI works
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Guessmyname
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KDR wrote: Before you inflict that kind of pain on him just recommend Blender. MS3d is just painful to use and GMAX was built to prevent exporting into any engine that doesn't pay money to Adobe.
you say that Milkshape is painful to use... and then recommend BLENDER?1? How many times were you dropped on your head when you were little, and did you pregnant mother do crack, heroin, or both?
Milkshape is easy to get to the point where you can place points and put them in a game. It becomes a freaking nightmare once you're trying to make those points and triangles into actual shapes and models. I've been using MS3d for years and once I understood enough about Blender I wasn't looking back. MS3d is a PITA to deal with, the tools are primitive, the interface clumsy and anything resembling a useful feature is not implemented because Mete says it'll be in 2.0 which will probably come with DNF format support right out of the box.Dragon45 wrote:KDR wrote: Before you inflict that kind of pain on him just recommend Blender. MS3d is just painful to use and GMAX was built to prevent exporting into any engine that doesn't pay money to Adobe.
you say that Milkshape is painful to use... and then recommend BLENDER?1? How many times were you dropped on your head when you were little, and did you pregnant mother do crack, heroin, or both?
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SwiftSpear
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Yeah, Blender is very good. You need some hours with video tutorials and some times you need to look up the hotkeys. But if you understand Blender you have a free great modeling toolSwiftSpear wrote:In comparison, I'll DEFINITELY take blender any day. Blender is more intimidating to learn due to greater complexity... but that also means it acctually is quite powerful once you get used to it.
