Some development questions
<div class="IPBDescription">serious ones</div>Hello, long time since I returned to this site but now I see NS2 is progressing very well now i am intrigued.
I am a modeller / animator / texture artist and rigger currently in the making. Im doing a degree in computer animation and I am wondering how easy this engine is to use. So i have some questions.
1.What are the polygon budgets for props and characters ?
2.Is there much compiling to be done to get models and textures into the engine/game ?
3.What resolution are the textures props and characters ?
4.Does it support bump and ao maping ?
5.Are the animations exported from other software packages like max and maya, or are they rigged and animated internally in the engine ?
If anyone can answer I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks :)
P.S I havent bought the game yet , but if its not much hassle to get stuff in game I am tempted to buy it :).
I am a modeller / animator / texture artist and rigger currently in the making. Im doing a degree in computer animation and I am wondering how easy this engine is to use. So i have some questions.
1.What are the polygon budgets for props and characters ?
2.Is there much compiling to be done to get models and textures into the engine/game ?
3.What resolution are the textures props and characters ?
4.Does it support bump and ao maping ?
5.Are the animations exported from other software packages like max and maya, or are they rigged and animated internally in the engine ?
If anyone can answer I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks :)
P.S I havent bought the game yet , but if its not much hassle to get stuff in game I am tempted to buy it :).
Comments
1. No official word as of yet, but it looks to be fairly light compared to other shooters. If i where to guess i'd go with around 3k for the guns (1st person), 6k-ish for the characters, and probably around 500-750 poly's per prop (wall/floor/ceiling props, stuff like terminals might be a bit higher). Buildings look pretty detailed as well, so ima just put those on 5k.
2. Compiling is easy. You set a builder base directory, and make 2 maps (modelsrc and materialsrc) in them, which you NEED to have. The files in these directories will go to your material and model directories in the game. For textures, you need a photoshop .psd and a text file with the extension .material and a line pointing to the final location of where the texture needs to go. Compile and you get a .dds in the relevant directory (texture wise, that's it, you can now use it in the editor)
For models you need a texture (less error prone if that's already a dds), a .material file pointing to the texture (model textures go into the model directory, not the materials directory), a model compiled with the COLLADA 1.4 exporter (i've used the 3ds max 2011 autodesk exporter to get a prop ingame with some tweaking) which will be in .dae, and a text file with the extension .model_compile. This file is probably the longest part of the compile process since you need to indicate animations in here via naming conventions so LUA can hook onto em (or so i hear). It's simpler then it sounds though. There's no official documents or guidelines for modding though, there's some mapping guidelines but that's it. Considering the game isn't even out yet, it's understandable :p
3. I hear 1024x1024 is the dominant one, though 2048x2048 is used too me thinks. Once again no official word, just some huge props in the editor that still look detailed :p
4. It supports normal mapping that i know. i thought there where 5 channels to compile into the texture, diffuse, specular, normal, emissive and alpha. Emissive would be light-textures that light up even in the dark, and LCD sceens. Also i hear .swf is supported for stuff like. animated computer screens, though not right now by the builder. You can set each one in the .material file and naming the files themselves <name>_normal.dds or _alpha.dds
5. The animations are exported with the model though there's no (official) info as of yet how that's done.
Personally i think NS2 is looking to be the easyest game so far to make a model for.
Thanks for the replies :), this interests me quite a lot. If .swf is supported that is quite impressive, would make having animated textures much easier to produce.