Re: Spring WD, the return.
Posted: 15 Apr 2010, 11:18
He's such a long standing modder, I'm sure he'll be back.FLOZi wrote:G_Z hasn't visited in over 10 days, so we can probably assume he's disappeared back into the ether.
I don't think you can do UV-mapping in Rhino3D. Nor meddle with, uh, normals and welding and smooth or hard edges and those kind of things I don't have experience with. I'd recommend using Wings3D. Wings3D is simple enough to become quickly productive, yet Wings3D is powerful enough to cover all your Spring modelling and unwrapping needs. It just has all that is needed, and none of that is un-needed , which is a plus, that way you don't get lost in a maze of menu. You'll need a tutorial open for your first models, because modelling in Wings3D is done in a different way than in Rhino3D, but after maybe 2 models you'll manage alone. If you've never done it you'll need to read a tutorial on UV-mapping in Wings3D, but Wings3D unwrapper is so nice to use you could almost do without help.GrOuNd_ZeRo wrote:What are the standards today? especially for UV mapped models? what software is the standard? Rhino3D still good?
Some people model with Blender. Blender is much more powerful than Wings3D. However, half of Blender possibilities are irrelevant for modelling Spring units. And Blender has an horrible interface, while it's said to be efficient once your learn it, learning it is a real obstacle.
Of course, there's plenty of other quality modelling software out there, and I bet many can do UV-mapping, but then not only you'd have to buy it, but you'll also be on your own to learn to use it, while there's lots of Spring-specific Wings3D help and tutorial around, since that's what the majority of Spring modders use.
Oh and AFAIK you still need UpSpring to convert models to s3o, though there's an ongoing coding effort to remove that.
Otherwise, you need a image editor than handles alpha channel. Gimp would do it, but if you have photoshop, that's better. Personnaly I use an old Paint Shop Pro to draw images, and Gimp only to assemble the 4 channels and save (as the non-sensical interface of Gimp is highly irritating, items are never in the menu they ought to be).
And a text editor. I'd recommend Notepad++. While it doesn't seem much at first, using Notepad++ instead of Microsft Notepad or Wordpad to type your FBI and TDF and LUA really does make a difference on the long run.
For writing unit animation scripts, you can still use Scriptor. People will tell you to drop Scriptor and to write animation script in Lua instead. Sure, that's a possibility, but if you have 8 years of experience with Scriptor, do you really want to have to re-learn how to write an animation?
Wings3D, Blender, Gimp and Notepad++ are free.
UpSpring and Scriptor are getting lost in the depth of Spring forums & wiki dead links.
There is a Subforum: Modelling & Texturing Tutorials & Resources, Spring's wiki, and lastly, don't forget googling for tutorials.
