This
tutorial will deal with a shortcut way to get your model into
Q3. So that you can view it in game. Also I will give some
hints on getting your hands on good skins.
I
start with the skins. Like I said in the previous tutorial,
unless you are pretty good(= very good) with graphical
programs you better have someone else do it. In this case I
have some evidence to support my point.
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If
you can't see the difference in quality you need to quit
jacking off so much cause it's affecting your eyesight. If
you can see the difference in quality but still don't get my
point then you are just plain stupid. :P
If
you manage to convince a skinner to do a skin for you he
will probably need a UVW map. This is a skin which displays
the edges of the models like white stripes. Just like you
see when you are working with the Texture coordinate editor.
The
swords UVW map looks like this.
This
is the UVW map that Jinx used to base his skin on. I used a
slightly different one as you can see. But that's not
important. What is important is this. How do I get a UVW map
for my model? Fortunally there is a neat program for that.
It's called Npherno's GL viewer. I have honestly no idea where
I found this program so you will have to look for it yourself.
Try the bigger Q3 sites to get it. This programs main function
is to display .md3 files (the Q3 model format). And you can
apply skins to them! What joy.
There
is also an option to create a UVW map. Load in your model and
select Export=>skinbase in the File menu. This will
generate a .bmp which contains your UVWmap. Send this over to
the skinner and the skinning can commence.
Now
the part about getting your model into Q3. I will describe the
method I use to make this as easy as possible.
First
create a map on your desktop called 'weapontest' or something
like that. Make sure that it starts with a letter higher then
p. I will explain why later. Now in the weapontest directory
create a directory called 'models'. In the models directory a
directory called 'weapons2'. And finally in that directory a
directory called ssword or something like that. For those of
you who snooped around in the pak0.pk3, you will probably know
what I'm doing here. For those of you who don't, read on.
About
.pk3: A .pk3 file is the same as a .zip file. You can open the
pak0.pk3 in Winzip. You can see that there is a clear
directory structure in there. Like the structure
models/weapons2/railgun. In this directory you can find the
.md3 model of the railgun and it's skin. We created on the
desktop something with a similar directory structure. When we
are finally are ready to make a .pk3 of our model, what we
actually do is replacing the structure currently existing in
quake. Q3 reads all the .pk3 in alfabethical order. So when he
is done with the pak0.pk3 and then finds another .pk3 which
has some directory structure the same then Q3 will use that
one instead.
You
can't use .pk3 with names lower than p because of this. So
what we are going to do with our model is to replace it with
one of he weapons that already exists. First open the pak0.pk3
in Winzip. Then go to the models/weapons2/railgun directory.
Extract this directory into your weapons2 directory in your
weapontest directory.
Open
your model in Milkshape. Then choose Import=>Quake III
Arena MD3.. Go to the dir you extracted the railgun in and
open the railgun.md3. Now check if your model is the right
scale. I you lost your model it's to small. If you still can't
see the railgun it's to big. Also you must make sure that your
model has the right position. A Q3 playermodel holds his
righthand against the handle of the railgun. So if you place
your sword in such a way that it has the same position as the
railgun handle it will end up in the right hand. To put the
sword in the left hand you will have to place it a bit more
forward. Perhaps even rotate it a bit. When you are done go to
the Groups tab and delete the railgun.
In
the Tools menu you can choose Quake III Arena=> Generate
Control File. Do this. Name the file shortsword.qc or
something similar.
This is a Control file. It contains some information Milkshape
needs to create an .md3. We have to make this information
correct first. Open the .qc file you just made in Notepad. We
can now see some code.
//
Quake III Arena MD3 control file, generated by MilkShape 3D
//
$model "models/players/model/model.md3"
// 0 0 = all frames, -1 -1 = reference model, 1 30 = frame
1-30 $frames 0 0
$flags 0
$numskins 0
// you can have one or no parent tag
// tags
// meshes (surfaces)
$mesh "handle"
$skin "models/players/model/skin.tga"
$flags 0
$mesh "hilt"
$skin "models/players/model/skin.tga"
$flags 0
$mesh "blade"
$skin "models/players/model/skin.tga"
$flags 0
You
can ignore the entire first part cause this deals with the
animation of playermodels. We don't need that. Copy your skin
in the weapontes/modes/weapons2/ssword directory. Change the
mesh paths so that they point to your skin. As you can see
there is a skin path for each group.
The
result is this.
//
meshes (surfaces)
$mesh "handle"
$skin "models/weapons2/ssword/shortsword.jpg"
$flags 0
$mesh "hilt"
$skin "models/weapons2/ssword/shortsword.jpg"
$flags 0
$mesh "blade"
$skin "models/weapons2/ssword/shortsword.jpg"
$flags 0
Save
the .qc file and then go back to MilkShape. In the File menu
choose Export=> Quake III Arena MD3.
Give
the model the same name as the .qc file. And save it in the
same dir.
This will generate a .md3 of your model which will look for a
skin in the directory specified. This directory is actually
Quake III Arena/baseq3/models/weapons2/ssword. .pk3 files
always assume that they are placed in the baseq3 directory. So
that's why the path starts at models.
Now
copy your .md3 to your railgun dir. Then rename the .md3 to
railgun.md3 thus overwriting the real railgunmodel. When this
is all done go to your desktop and rightclick your weapontest
directory. Select Add to Zip(must have Winzip installed). Then
change the extension from.zip to .pk3. Press Add and your .pk3
is finished. Copy this weapontest.pk3 to your baseq3. Fire up
Q3. If all went well the Railgun is now replaced with a sword
with skin. Ignore the fact that a short sword normally doesn't
fire Uranium slugs.
You
can replace most weapons in Q3 without much problems. Some
weapons however have more than one .md3. A high polygon
version and some lower polygon versions. Just replace all of
them then. Furthermore the playermodel is holding the sword a
bit odd. The playermodel is holding his other arm somewhere in
the air. This only does not happen with the gauntlet. But
replacing the gauntlet is a lot trickier. This weapon has a
certain level of animation(the circleblade) and can not be
replaced like we did with the railgun. More on that in another
tutorial.
This
was how it looked in my version.
I'm
not entirely certain what the next tutorial will be about.
AshRain
