Basic Moddeling questions?

[jedi_pilot]

Hey, I have a few questions,

1st: What version of XSI do I need and where can I get it?

2nd: What other program's do I need besides XSI and where do I get them?

3rd: What are the primary tutorials I need to get started on moddeling?


Thank's .

[Maveritchell]

Moved to XSI forum.

+

Read through the stickies at the top of the page, you can find some good tuts.

[Caleb1117]

1. XSI modtools 6.0
2. Nothing that I know of, besides some good image editing programs.
3. http://www.vast.ws/resources/xsi/tutori ... rials.html is a great place for Video tutorials.

[jedi_pilot]

The link is not working right now, but I'll try it out later . Thank's .

[DarthD.U.C.K.]

1. XSI modtools 6.0
2. Nothing that I know of, besides some good image editing programs.
3. http://www.vast.ws/resources/xsi/tutori ... rials.html is a great place for Video tutorials.

no offence caleb, but the tuts are nice for pros and everyone, who wants to know all funktions of xsi
for beginners the baismodelingtut is the best *searches for link*
here it is: http://files.filefront.com/Basic+Modeli ... einfo.html

[AceMastermind]

Ah yes, the famous doorwall and rocket ship tutorial, that's a pretty good tutorial even though there are a few misconceptions in it, "MS3DSceneRoot" should be replaced with Dummyroot, and rendering your model is completely unnecessary, because in XSI what you see is what you get ingame, most of the time.

[jedi_pilot]

Thank's Darth D.U.C.K. and AceMastermind, I think I have everything I kneed to start moddeling and I'm going to start making some custom weapons , but I have two more questions:

1. how do I place the hardpoints where the lazers come out of the gun?
2. how do I place where the trooper holds the gun?

Thank's .

[Caleb1117]

A hard point is just a null.

Ok, place a null, and by default, it will be at 0, 0, 0.
Move the grip of the gun so that where you want it to be held is with the null at 0, 0, 0.
Name the null hp_active.

Now place a new null, and put it and the end of the gun's barrel, and call it hp_fire, If there are two barrels, or something, you can place another one, and name it hp_fire2, and so on, and so forth.

[DarthD.U.C.K.]

a hardpoint dont has to be a null, use a cone and name it how you want e.g hp_active...
Its MUUUUUUCH easyer (or am i wrong?)
if you use a cone, you can see much better, where the player will grip the gun and the gun will shoot

[FragMe!]

you can use either, you can also make a null look like a cone or diamond or square. If you highlight the null in the XSI explorer and press enter a small pop up comes up where you can change it's size and appearance which is a little easier than scaling down a cone. But that is neither here nor there point being the hps can be either nulls or prirmitive geometry.

Further to Calebs note, if you place the top quarter of the trigger over the hp_active null it lines up pretty good in game, yes I have lined up way too many weapons. Other thing to remember if you are creating new weapons is they have to line up along the X axis with the business end towards you when you look at it in front view.

[jedi_pilot]

What do you name the node that places where the trooper pulls the trigger ?

[Caleb1117]

Ok, place a null, and by default, it will be at 0, 0, 0.
Move the grip of the gun so that where you want it to be held is with the null at 0, 0, 0.
Name the null hp_active.

[jedi_pilot]

Sorry , I thought you meant the front grip. What do you name the front grip null .

[Caleb1117]

that is the grip, there is no trigger pull anim, and no null for it.

[jedi_pilot]

So the only hp-active null needed to be placed is the front grip null ? Does the trigger hand of the trooper automaticly get placed? And does the first null need to be placed at 0,0,0?

[wazmol]

where you need the bolt to come from you will need hp_fire at the end of the barrel...

[jedi_pilot]

I got that already , what I'm asking is if the trigger hand of the trooper automaticly gets placed, or does the foregrip hand get placed automaticly ??

[DarthD.U.C.K.]

it gets placed automaticaly
where the second hand is holding the gun/if it is holding is a thing of the anim
(i think)

[jedi_pilot]

I guess it would make sense if the trigger hand is the one that needs to be placed, so I'm going to try that one . Is there any certain place the hp_fire should be placed on the grid ?

[FragMe!]

A picture is worth a thousand words so here is a picture of a shotgun model



The green cross is the location of the dummyroot null and in this case the hp_active.
The white cross is the location of hp_fire. And yes on a two handed weapon the location of the second hand is determined by the units ainimation so only worry about lining up the trigger to the hand.