Help with modeler

[berkhof]

ok
i found out that you cant just start a new model with serious modeler

can you open any of the models in the game with it?
or just import stuff from max etc?

i thought it was a full blown modeler?
thanks

[Michael Harris]

Read the modeler related material/tutorials in the modeler help.

Yes, you can open models that come with the game and study them, retexture them, .....

I have yet to work with the modeller, but I'll take a stab at giving a preliminary answer (take it with a very large grain of salt).

Serious Modeler is the tool for combining the components that go into making a complete useable model for the game:
- animated body parts (hips & legs, upper torso, head, arms,
*weapons) (requires a set of frame-by-frame body part
*positions for each animation cycle to be shown)
*(produced in LightWave, 3D Studio, Milkshape 3D, etc.)
- textures (can manually assign textures or apparently
*bring them in as part of 3D Studio and Lightwave models)
- entity code
- scripts (for defining/tieing everything together?)

These are all combined and identified and tied/related to appropriate entity code.

Note: Models don't have to be characters. *They can also be columns, statues, ?????????????? *There are presumably reasons for and against creating non-character features for the game as models vs. architecture. *I would be very interested to hear someone knowledgeable discuss the various uses of models and the pros and cons of models vs architecture.

As I said before, read the help and take what I said with a large grain of salt.

(Edited by Michael Harris at 1:55 pm on Mar. 29, 2001)

[Admir Elezovic]

Thnx Michael, couldnt say better myself.
Serious Modeler is model compiler, it have some features (nonmodeling) that are essential to game and Engine itself.
We certanly wont compete with Discreet, A|W, Newtek and going to make our modeler.

Admir

[Acacia22]

I'm not sure how far you've gotten with the tutorials, but there is a '.gro' file in the root directory of Sam that doubles as a zip file. double click on '100.gro' and tell Windows to open it with winzip, then extract it to the root SS directory. This will make all the models (what I assume to be all the models) in the game available to you.

[Admir Elezovic]

When you unpack .gro file, you will get Models folder with its subfolders (enemies, weapons....). Open them in Modeler and check...

[Cyanide]

Tutorials on Modeling for SS? where?

[Admir Elezovic]

In TOols Help, under Serious Modeler

Admir

[Acacia22]

Quote: from Cyanide on 2:21 am on April 2, 2001
Tutorials on Modeling for SS? where?


Also if you go to your SS folder through My Computer and open the the help\extras folders ( Serious Sam\help\extras), you'll find three folders put together by three different programmers with even more info, but I think most of it is for level editing.

[Admir Elezovic]

I dont know if you catch in earlier posts but here it is again:
www.croteam.com/help/Helpmax.zip for max users.

Admir

[Rotworth]

someone mentioned gro files,
how do you decompile a gro file (IE extract)
and are they even neccisary?

[Michael Harris]

Remember to use the advanced search facility (see upper right hand corner), to find previous discussions of things you are researching.......or just manually browse through the forum (I'm not kidding)........also check out tutorials available here on Seriously! (www.planetserious.com) and on Serious Editing (www.massassi.net/serious) plus various other sites.

.gro files are just .zip files, with their contents arranged in a directory sturcture matching that of Serious itself. They are used to save space for game distribution (and for those not interested in editing/modeling..... or who suffer from tight drive space). The different name (.gro) is used to identify them to the game, so that the game will be aware of and work with their contents just as it does with the contents of the Serious directory structure.

While most folks (myself included) apparently use WinZip for dealing with this........ the WinRAR utility comes highly recommended, due its dealing with the internal directory structure of .zip files in a much more obvious, transparent and intuitive manner.

Check out my Hello Serious WLD tutorial (and perhaps #2 also) on www.massassi.net/serious, for a detailed discussion of how to rename and unzip .gro files if you are going to be editing and/or modeling.

Check out LSD's "Let It GRO, Let It GRO" posting that is kept stuck at the top of this forum, for a discussion of creating .gro files (I believe he discusses both WinRAR and WinZip).

[wjw]

i am interested in modeling characters...
just started a week ago... i want to learn more..
that's not the important, just your site doesn't work.