Spring RTS Engine

I have absolutely no experience with games design or model creation or any of that stuff. So i thought i would make a Machines mod on spring. If i could get some pointers on how to use blender or anything it would help also how long SHOULD it take me to make a basic reaper model (the most memorable thing of Machines) because Ive spent about 3 hours making the torso and then realized that i had made something that looked like a baby's drawing of one . I'm looking to make it reasonably detailed.
I'm trying to get my disc to work so i can refresh my memory but it doesn't even work on windows 7. I'm having to work mainly from memory.
It shouldn't be that hard to covert it to spring since what i remember of the game mechanics weren't much different from TA
Thats a reaper

Best rts or best rts EVER!





Since your questions is a bit unprecise, did you read this?
http://springrts.com/wiki/Mod_and_Unit_ ... evelopment
A much used modeling software also is wings3D, imo ALOT easier to use than blender.

how long SHOULD it take me to make a basic reaper model

If you know how to use all the tools, how to script the walking animation etc:
Maybe 6 hours?
Multiple days if you have to learn it.

I would say that making and texturing 1 model takes me 1-2 days, depending on complexity. Making 50+ for machines would take a long time.

I checked out the Wired for war forum, and it seems to have an enthusiastic following.

You can try porting over the Machines models and textures, if its modding community has figured out how to export them into common formats, then its a pretty straightforward process. Porting existing stuff wouldn't be nearly as hard as making them from scratch.

I would say making a port wouldnt be too hard, and there is a lively community here who can chime in with advice when needed.

Welcome to spring btw!

greetz!

when first learning modelling, the important thing is not to get discouraged. as far as how long something "should" take, theres not really an answer beyond "work on it until you're satisfied"

a good way to learn might be to find a tutorial to create something similar to what you'd like to make (ive been making stuff for years, and i still do this often, even if just for inspiration)

i'm not a blender guy, but maybe show us a screenshot of your work in progress if you'd like some modelling tips?

from wikipedia :

Machines does not natively run under Windows XP, supposedly as a result of a security issue in the main executable. A patch and various other 3rd party modifications are available at the Wired for War Fan-site.

KaiserJ wrote:from wikipedia :

Machines does not natively run under Windows XP, supposedly as a result of a security issue in the main executable. A patch and various other 3rd party modifications are available at the Wired for War Fan-site.

I tried ENDLESSLY to get machines running on XP and although I SOMEHOW got it to start it was stuttering and there was no sound.

thanks people for the advise!
i will post images of stuff i make (when i get enough time (coursework))
i am learning how to use blender at the moment although i did kinda make a torso on wings 3d i don't really like the program that much. does anyone know how i can make thing symmetrical easily on blender?

Yeah, what beherith said.

Don't get discouraged.
Practice, practice, practice.
Keep trying, don't expect to get anything right on your first try.
Be willing to learn, and listen to what other people say.
Some people will be mean and yell at you, some will troll you. Take it in your stride, be above the dumber members of the crowd.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Be nice and try your best to use proper English.
You may want to work on something else to brush up on your skills before tackling a big project.

Never give up!

My earliest models looked like this:


My newer stuff is a marked improvement:


You get both better and faster as you go along.
Best wishes!

Oh yeah, PS: I, too use Blender. Are you using version 2.49 or 2,5? Either way, the mirror modifier in the modifiers menu can helop you make things symmetrical.

MidKnight wrote:Yeah, what beherith said.

Don't get discouraged.
Practice, practice, practice.
Keep trying, don't expect to get anything right on your first try.
Be willing to learn, and listen to what other people say.
Some people will be mean and yell at you, some will troll you. Take it in your stride, be above the dumber members of the crowd.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Be nice and try your best to use proper English.
You may want to work on something else to brush up on your skills before tackling a big project.

Never give up!

My earliest models looked like this:


My newer stuff is a marked improvement:


You get both better and faster as you go along.
Best wishes!

Oh yeah, PS: I, too use Blender. Are you using version 2.49 or 2,5? Either way, the mirror modifier in the modifiers menu can helop you make things symmetrical.

Thanks for telling me that! Very inspirational!

Realize that your first project will probably not go anywhere, unless you already have skills in programming or 3d art.

Its like taking up painting for the first time and just using one canvas, painting over your old work over and over and over (or pottery just using the one lump of clay until you're perfect).

Taking on a project is a good way to learn, but its a daunting task and there are a lot of skills involved. Focus on one skill (say modelling, texturing, lua, or unitdefs and mod construction). Id suggest you edit an existing game, to have something working whose guts you can poke to figure it out: CA/ZK (Us) are a big crew with lots of helpful people skilled mostly in programming, though not the best place for 'first time models' if modelling is your focus. You may want to take a look at the units in EvoRTS and check out KaiserJ's lego pieces. They are lovely looking, fully textured with normal maps and make creating a large range of models incredibly easy.

Blender is huge, i could never figure it out myself, but its a very professional package. If you want to learn it, go through all the tutorials and such. Blender has its own active userbase.

If you plan to make models for ingame use, get a unit ingame asap.
It is no use if you create hundreds of models and then figure out they are way to hard to UVmap.

If you manage to figure out how the animation data is stored for Machines units in the original game, making a port could suddenly become way simpler.

If you learn Blender then you won't need Upspring, so you can save time.

isnt that like keeping your own pigs to make sausage so you do not have to go buy it at Aldi.

figure out how the animation data is stored for Machines units in the original game

theres this maschines fan forum, even a developer posted there sometimes. But I think they never figured out anything usefull except how to make everything cost no money

Yeah, I looked through the forum as well, even tried decompiling the engine to figure out the model loading code, but models.bin seems to contain way more than model data.

This is really hard
I haven't made a single model yet... not even a little grunt.
Ill keep trying though. I love machines, I shall honour it!

knorke wrote:isnt that like keeping your own pigs to make sausage so you do not have to go buy it at Aldi.

Yes, that is exactly right. Using Blender is difficult as raising pigs. But you'll never have to leave your house to go to Aldi (Upspring) which makes life easier. Once you've learned how to handle the pigs (Blender) then you'll save lots of time and gas money and not have to drive to Aldi (Upspring).

CarRepairer wrote: Yes, that is exactly right. Using Blender is difficult as raising pigs. But you'll never have to leave your house to go to Aldi (Upspring) which makes life easier. Once you've learned how to handle the pigs (Blender) then you'll save lots of time and gas money and not have to drive to Aldi (Upspring).

Your insane

Blender has a very counter-intuitive interface that breaks a farktonne of good UI conventions.

However, they're just conventions and intuitions... they aren't barriers that will actually slow you down once you get used to them. It just means that if you try to learn things by tinkering with the interface and hacking around the way you do in other programs, it will drive you batty.

Work from tutorials, and it's quite nice.

Use the blender 2.5 beta. The UI is much improved and a lot easier to use.

MidKnight wrote:Use the blender 2.5 beta. The UI is much improved and a lot easier to use.

Ok i will.
The blender website lied and said that 2.49 was easier to use -_-