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English beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

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Poll Poll

Where should some one who knows no German or anything about scripting or mapping for stranded start modding for stranded2?

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Making models, cuss that's all they can do....
0.00% (0)
learning to script....
45.00% (9)
give up!
5.00% (1)
try to join existing mod group as a modeler
50.00% (10)
20 votes cast

old Poll beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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my experience with stranded:
I've bin playing stranded for a wile now, I've finished adventure mode and tried my hand at massive mod(which i enjoy very much and still play!!!) once I finished the adventure mode I soon found the gmod stranded game mode, not being abble to add any thing to this i soon gave up modeling for gmod...I've played with the map editor some, but don't know much... i know no German so most of the form and mods i can't use...

my experience with Blender:
I love Blender, it's the reason i found stranded2, I was trying to use the game engine to make a simple game where you walk tough the woods avoiding the "enemy"(weird spider looking thing)(this project has bin lost) Blender is the only program I use and I have learned my way around it pretty well, still new to alot of it's feature tough...I'm not sure how to make the models use able in stranded buy I have seen threads that say you can, and I'm willing to learn.

Why I'm here:
After playing stranded2 I wanted more, now after finding this community I would like to try to contribute to a Stranded mod.

If you have a mod started and can type decent English I'm willing to try to do what i can to help, If I'm no good just say so, and I'll look to help else where,

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

mikultra
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Heya, yeah I've pretty much worked out how scripting basically functions, lucky I dabbled in scripts years ago.
And I can bone models and manipulate them for basic animation, not the proper way setting them up with weights and forces & the other stuff, but so long as the frames look acceptable, you only need to make a few little animation loops.

I have no idea on source code manipulation, I would love to but too many hobbies already.....not

I have a seperate stranded I have been playing with adding stuff and generally playing with lots of things.

If you want to get your models working in Stranded I can help no worries.

Look for pacemaker its now free
export your model to a .x or .xml or .b3d file for it
What is your bone experience ?
If you just have meshes this is a great tool to bone with
load it into pacemaker and bone it (give it a skeleton with joints, assign each and every vertex to the joint that they move with)
now to animate it you essential move the position of the joints for each frame (to save use copy and paste not save and move onto next frame ??)
Save it somewhere and it is ready to use

Look at existing game models in pacemaker for added learning

That is a really quick explanation you will probably need me to elaborate a bit more on these.
when we get one happening we can then go into scripting it into the game.

Edit: Sorry I forgot to vote, but I need another option.
I vote for
"Just Do it, starting from what is known to you and expanding on it, repeat indefinately"

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

miezebieze
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mikultra has written
{...}

No. Just no. In relation to blender pacemaker is -like many applications only available for windows- pretty retarded and thus totally hard to use for blender pros. (Did You try the totally new and revamped blender? (It's AWESOME! (And easier to use for newbs, I think.)))
On a journey to find a working way to produce .b3d files, it didn't work with pacemaker. In the end, I gave in and stopped working at models until someone uploaded the b3d exporter vor blender! (If You search the interwebs, You will hardly find it.)

If You want to use Your modeling skills and don't find a mod, You could help with Infinja, a FOSS clone of Stranded II. (german thread)
Due to the use of C++ and Python it's cross platform. And trust me, that Python is totally easy to learn, if You don't already mastered it.

Wiki: http://infinja.netmin.org/wiki/
Forum: http://infinja.netmin.org/forum/
Projektsite: http://netmin.org:3000/projects/infinja (Redmine Projektmanagement System)
IRC: #infinja (irc.quakenet.org)
Mumble: infinja.netmin.org:64738

old file type to export from blender for stranded?

Legoman
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OK I tried pacemaker, made no sense at all..... i don't understand why i would need it or use it...

I've started some models just to get back to blender(just started using 2.5.3beta), I've made a crate,pot and starting to make some simple machines(water wheel,anvil,forge,stuff along those lines) still looking for a mod group who might want some help...

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

mikultra
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He he
that is funny, I guess from my experience with CAD & manufacturing software I found it easier to quickly do it with pacemaker.
I am totally lost in blender, so I can see how being familiar with that would be like working backwards and with little dolly step spurts of progress.

My other prob was import/export issues, I seen references to Python before, thanks for the heads up.

Yeah you won't need pacemaker if you get the right output from blender.

And please correct me if I'm wrong static models can be 3ds or b3d, but animated models need to be b3d, and boned.

Actually is boning a b3d requirement, is it the relative position of the vertices to the node that SII uses in animation.
In which case say your water wheel, instead of just rotating it with a blender rotating function. You need to stick a bone node in the centre of the wheel, assign the vertices to this then rotate around the node for animation.
Sorry I say boning like too much profanity.
In blender its skeleton hey.

Rave on and on should delete, oh well record my ignorance, I have finally come to the point
You need to stick a skeleton in and port it to b3d if its going to be animated,
Someone please correct me if I am wrong

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

DannyDeth
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Ok, well I'm no pro with modelling or anything, but I would just like to add something in here, you have to remember that you have to script ur item/object/unit in the appropriate file, so you need to learn some script anyways. And by the way, I share your love for Blender, it's beautiful, and it doesn't pull you off 50 bucks short ( *cough*Milkshape3D*cough* ). But if you want to mod Stranded II, you need to do more than add some items and objects, you need to build maps and stuff, so you need to get it right. I am seriusly suprised by how you find it difficult to use the Stranded 2 Map Builder, it is so easy to make a decent map! Just start off by filling ur island randomly with objects ( the tool, i mean, don't waste time doing it by hand ), then adding small villages and units and using the script
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ai_stay "unit" "insert id here"

It's dead simple! Now just run around ur map and see what you could improve, coz there alwasy is something! But I think that modellors are very much needed for Stranded II, coz without them mods just plain suck with the same old same old. But anywasy good luck, maybe just start a mod and learn by doing, try every nook and cranny, looks thorugh the scripts in the existing files, just learn, like Eric S. Raymond says, "Read code from the master, write a little code, read more code from the master, write a little code, read a whole lot of code from the master, write a little more code" And as you repeat the cycle everything pieces together! Just try hard and you will find how easy scripting for S2 really is!

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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I am trying to learn some scripts for stranded but a lot of the site that give tutorials are in German... that's part of the reason I want to join a mod team...
1) I have some place to give my ideas so that I can be given how to do them
2)I have someone to ask about how to do some thing when I can't find an English tutorial
3)I have some one to tell me what to work on when I can't think of what to do

I'm use to using source sdk hammer to make maps for hl2dm, so using the stranded2 editor is a bit awkward for me.

I also need to know how to bring my models into stranded after I have made and exported them, also i opened one model I exported from blender in pacemaker and it had no texture, will this bug happen when I open it in game, if so how do I fix it?

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

mikultra
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yeah thats a prob re the porting skin...
Have you tried saving the skin as a jpg of the same name as the model in same folder. Thats how the skins in the gfx file work

Anyway for the item to work it needs a few lines of code.
Goto the sys folder and look at each .inf file with notepad or something

basically for models u have items, objects, combinations and units types of inf files
items are carryable, objects spawn in game, units are critters.

Make a new folder with your name in the gfx folder and stash your models and pics in there.

an easy way to start putting your object in is to find an existing object that behaves similar and copy its script,
paste it at the bottom of the same inf file and change its ID to something not already used, maybe 3430.
Change its name and paths to your model & icon.

if its a buildable thing you need to put some scripting in the appropriate combination file as well, again looking at the scripting makes it easy.

You can also add your new item ID to be extracted from rocks or trees or units, either hitting it, killing it or exchanging it with a storage function

Once you look around the inf it all comes to you

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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I looked in to the .inf and it was like trying to read Chinese.... nothing made sense, every other letter was #or&or$, it'll stick to just making models and try to figure more of this out but... could i get some explanation on which file i need to edit to ad my model, make it an item(like leafs,branches,flour), give it combinations to create/use it, or have it be a building, and show what things are needed to make be able to be built and what things i need to do to make it work like a shelter... I'll learn all i can but give me some sort of explanation as to what some of this text means...

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

DannyDeth
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@mikultra: Yeah, Legoman, mikultra is right, that's is why you find all the textures in the gfx folder, coz you need them in the file for the texture to display. nd by the way, if you need to port a model into stranded 2 just use this code:
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ani_move=[starting frame],[ending frame],[frames per second]
ani_attack=[starting frame],[ending frame],[frames per second]
ani_die=[starting frame],[ending frame],[frames per second]
ani_idle=[strarting frame],[ending frame],[frames per second]

Just if you have 3 attacks or 2 idles, just add more and place a number next to the end of it like:
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ani_die1=daddidadida
ani_die2=dadidadida
So yeah, that's all there is to it! Enjoy

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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@DannyDeth
your instructions are very vague to me, like you talking to some one who knows what there doing... remember i have no stranded 2 scripting experience, I have no idea what you talking about on using that code, where do i put it what does it do? i have yet to find how to add my model to a list of items so i can add it in the editor.... if your going to tell me to do something your going to have to be very pacific say things like: "put this<code> in file<file location> right after<original code>" instead of "use this<code>"

I'm still looking to join a mod team, If any body making a mod needs models I can help,just ask, Right now I'm working on gathering a texture library for my models to use, If you need models just tell me what it's a model of(for example: anvil,metal pot,clay pot,stone bowl, mine shaft, any static model rely...)and I'll get to work on it,

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

mikultra
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Ooh nice

Would you be able to do a pineapple & a pineapple bush that would be sweet.

Maybe you could send me some of your models and I will write scripts and get them working in the game.
I'll send you the scripts and how to cut and paste them into the right spot and give you explanations in the scripts so you can see what is going on.
(and I get to play with new models too, )

If you seriously want to learn scripting and stuff go now and look in your Stranded II folder.
Otherwise its good to stay specialised and proficient in modelling and get someone who does scripting to do that side for you.
A mod team will do that for you.
I am willing to help and I can when your ready to go cause I have the "play with Strandeds guts" bug.

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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Wile I'd love to be here to say "here's your pinapple,here's your bush" I'm having some computer problems and though they will be fixed soon I might not be able to use blender for A few days for I will be going out of town soon... I'll try to get you your pinapple very soon...

old Regarding the octagonal pineapple...

DannyDeth
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No offence meant here Legoman, but the pineapple looks like it was run through a octagonal sewerage pipe! you would of just sub-divede it and then round it out a little with the scale tool. But the texture isnt that bad, try drawing scaly looking orange things till you find someting that looks like the skin of a pineapple. That's how i make my textures. But usually i like to take a photograph of it first and then cartoon it up a little. Good luck and hope ur computer trouble goes away quickly

old Re: beginning modeler wants to help, willing to learn

Legoman
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RazorBlade9 has written
@ Legoman
Can u make units?

i can try, i don't know if the animation or UV mapping will export but i'm sure i could at least try to make a simple unit model, are you wanting like a person or a animal?
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