Hi i'm new, plus questions

CabalsLegion · Civilian **Joined**: 18 Nov 2008

Hey all, I'm new to 3dsmax, so my work isn't amazing yet. But i hope with tips and links to good guides i can become alot better. So i'm planning on modellingand rigging acabal faction. So i'm starting off with the core, whichis my mcv for the faction

Heres it is so far, my second ever model, again please be kind. What i
http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d143/terry123456789/?action=view&current=CbalCorepic.jpg

What i would like to know is
- what is the polygon count meant to be (i know this is way too high, but i need a guideline to work with
-how do i reduce my polygon count, what techniques would i needand what should ido to reduce it without ruining my model
-feedback on my model, is it good bad etc, what would make it better

-finally in the art packs the mcv had various 3ds files. Do i need these seperate for my mcv or do i have all the animations etc in one scene?

what animations does the mcv need to act like an mcv. Damage animations, packing etc? How does the packing into a unit work?

Chronosheep · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject:

For being new to 3ds max, I'd say that model looks quite good.
It's a bit hard to see from that pic - so if you want good feedback, I suggest making a proper render.

As for the poly count... um... you've got alot of work ahead of you...
You'll find most of the information you need in the C&C 3 mod SDK, but the recomended vertex budget for structures is 2000... so yours is basicly 30 times too high.. Rolling Eyes

Reducing poly count can some times be really hard... the best way is basicly keeping it lowpoly when making it. In cases like this, where the model has already been made, it's often easiest to remodel some things in a lower poly count... for example if you have a 18-sided cylinder, the easiest way to make it more low-poly, is simply making a new one with for example 9 sides.
There is a function in 3ds max named Optimize which can be really helpful, but the results are not always perfect, I'm afraid.
When reducing poly/vertex count, I normally work on a vertex level, using target weld, collapse (verticles) and vertex weld. You can probably find some tutuorials on this (or simply learn by doing).

Quote:

-finally in the art packs the mcv had various 3ds files. Do i need these seperate for my mcv or do i have all the animations etc in one scene?

I'm not completely sure what you mean by this... having more than one animation in a scene would probably be really messy, if that is what you meant.
No animations are strictly needed for the mcv to work, but you should at least have a packing/unpacking animation. Without the packing/unpacking animation, the mcv would just disappear, and your core would magicly take it's place (or the other way around if you pack the core back to the mcv). I don't know how your mcv is supposed to move... if it has tracks or wheels, no animations are needed (other than for extra eye-candy). If it walks (like the Nod mcv), you'll need to animate the walking cycle etc.

Damaged states are usually made by having a separate damaged version of the model (or in the case of vehicles, just a damaged texture) that will replace the normal model when it's damaged. For structures, you often have an animation where the structure goes from being in order to being damaged, but it's not strictly needed in order to work.

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CabalsLegion · Civilian **Joined**: 18 Nov 2008

Thanks for the reply

yeah i meant that the nod mcv i looked at in ea's art pack had 1 model for its idle state

one for damaged
one for v damaged
one for destroyed

was just wondering if i need 3 seperate models for each state. also the crane animation for the mcv is seperate to the base structure, does this have to be the case or not?

-p.s. i managed to get my model from that to 2.5k using the optimise tool. Had to tweak a few things too but i retained the look of my model, probably a fluke but it worked out Smile

Also managed to get it ingame Smile