General Art and Game Questions

What sort of game are you going to try to create?
Have a look at the web sites for the tools/apps you want to use…some are better than others…depends on what you want to achive.

What you describe with the barrel is really all that is required.
1)Create the barrel texture/s in any Paint program you wish…Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop etc
2) Apply the texture to the barrel,using the Fill and brush tools…you don’t have to use the unwrap feature in 3DC. Unwraps are usually used on more complex models such as figures etc.
3) Export the model from 3DC….Most 3D engines will accept .x file format so use this for now.
4) Load your model into the engine. Thats it

The exported model and textures used will all need to be in the same folder otherwise when you load the model into your engine the textures, more than likely, won’t show.

Your reference to rendering in other apps…
Most commercial games now use some system of Lightmapping. A lightmap is really just like a texture…but it is applied to the finished scene as a whole to give all the nice shading and shadow effects.
If you take a look at the attached pic (Which is still Work in progress)…..
1)The models are all created and texured in 3dc, using the above methods (mainly the Brush tool)
2)They are then loaded into Gile..a Lightmapping app
3) The final scene is then built up in Giles…all the lights positioned and the lightmaps created.
4) This finished scene is then exported from Giles and into the game engine…in my case Blitz3d.
5) All that is now needed is to create the figures,load these into the scene, write the code and you have a First Person Shooter..if that is what you want, or maybe an adventure game…whatever.
A word of warning…all this isn’t a quick job.If you are working on your own try making just a small demo first, that incorporates most of the features you would like in the full game.
If you can get the demo working ok and still have some enthusiasm left have a go at the game.

My tools/apps are…
3DC…all the models
Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, RealDraw…to create the textures.
Gile..to set up the scene and create the lightmaps
Blitz3d…The 3d engine/programing app

Bazza

I’ve been doing alot of looking at different 3D software and game engines and have come down to wanting to work with art for Torque, Dark Basic and Realm Creator, I own Torque and Realm Creator. My questions are:

Lets say Im making a simple wooden barrel, Im using 3DC Plus, I want to place this model into Torque.

I create the base model, texture it, save it in a file format that works in Torque, is that all you have to do?

I am getting confused because Im seeing alot of references to having to take a model and render it in another program.

That the textures/skins you use won’t transfer over to the gaming engine.

That you have to create the textures in something like Photoshop…

What Im hoping is that I can create an object complete in 3DC Plus and shoot it right into the game engine.

Any help on this subject would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]Originally posted by Merrie:

Lets say Im making a simple wooden barrel, Im using 3DC Plus, I want to place this model into Torque.

I create the base model, texture it, save it in a file format that works in Torque, is that all you have to do? [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

Basically, yes. Although I’m not familiar with Torque. Sometimes you may need to use some export script, file converter or some such to add information needed by the engine you are
using into the file.

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]I am getting confused because Im seeing alot of references to having to take a model and render it in another program. [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

When your computer draws an image of your model on the screen it’s called rendering. It has no effect on the model itself. The model file just tells the program rendering the model what to draw and where. Rendering also takes care of shading and such. Wouldn’t it look a bit weird if your model had shadows on one side even though the light was coming from that same direction?

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]That the textures/skins you use won’t transfer over to the gaming engine. [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

Depends on the file types used. If the model file doesn’t include UV-coordinates or material information the textures won’t show. UV-coordinates are the information that tells the program rendering the model where to place the textures on the model. Material information tells the rendering program how lighting affects the model (or only a part of the model), if the model is shiny and so on. Game engines also usually understand only a small selection of texture file types. So be sure to check which file types Torque supports for example and use those.[/QUOTE]

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]That you have to create the textures in something like Photoshop… [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

This is true. The textures on a model are just bitmaps. As I explained, the UV-coordinates tell the rendering program where each part of the texture file goes on the model. You first create a bitmap that has a presentation of the UV-coordinates on it with some program (like the unwrap operation in 3DC) and then draw the textures on it. The same program or tool saves the UV-coordinates into the model file. The procedure is called UV-mapping or unwrapping.

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]What Im hoping is that I can create an object complete in 3DC Plus and shoot it right into the game engine. [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

Well you can do that but I would advise you to use something else for texturing. In this case you have to export your model into a format understood by the texturing program and then import back to 3DC afterwards. Not a big deal really.

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-title’]quote:[/div][div class=’ip-ubbcode-quote-content’]Any help on this subject would be appreciated.

Thanks! [/div][/BLOCKQUOTE]

I hope that clears things up a bit for you.