Some really important questions!

[Chemical Rat]

Hey guys,

I'm basically new to the modding community, and I've chosen Serious Sam for a little mod I want to do.
I'm not asking for much, but maybe you could help me answer the following questions. Please excuse my "n00biness".

1) If i would like to make a small multiplayer mod, that maybe just has tweaked weapons, what do I use?

2) I'm aware of what i need to use for mapping, but what do I use for modelling weapons/monsters etc.. ?

3) Are there any really good tutorials out there that could help me?

4) I've done mods before, but for other engines (half life).but..the Serious Sam SDK... what does it do? :)

5) skinning? how do i skin serious sam models/my own? what progs etc?

I hope you guys can help me, for I really feel a love fot he flexible SS engine and I would like to do a nice mod. I'm skilled at 2d art / 3d art / coding / creativity so that's not what I'm missing... but we all have to start somewhere.. so please. help me out. it's all i ask of you.

-Chemical RaT

[Straker]

For 3d modeling you'll need two things:
1. Serious Modeler (included on the CD)
2. A 3rd party 3d model builder, such as Lightwave 3d or 3d Studio. You can sometimes get trial versions of these of the web. If you search a little, you may be able to find a fully functional modeler that only has restrictions on licensing. I couldn't give you any specifics because I'm not a 3d artist, but dig up your favorite search engine and give it a shot.

As far as tutorials: there are none. Well, almost none. On this site you can find a couple level building tuts, but even these are pretty lame and for anything else you're gonna be going nearly completely blind. Either hack through it and figure it out yourself, or wait till some genius posts some tutorials (and if you find anything out, be sure to take pity on the rest of us poor slobs and write a tutorial yourself). You can always look in the Serious Sam SDK Help file for help, but it isn't much. Serious Sam is brand new, and you won't find a lot of help yet because we are all in the same boat. If all else fails, go to http://www.croteam.com and fire questions off at the developers until they're sick of hearing from you.

Skinning: You'll need Serious Editor to import and export textures, though again, you'll have to figure out how yourself. I do know that it has something to do with "VirtualTrees" since that is where SS textures are stored. You'll need a paint program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop to actually paint the textures, of course.

Don't quote me on this because I'm not sure, but I think that the Serious Sam SDK is how you create your own entities (weapons, bad guys, etc), and you'd have to be pretty proficient with C++ to get any use out of it (though you did say you know some coding).

So was that completely not helpful at all? Lastly, I think that if you know some 3d modelling and code (even if your not proficient with the Serious Engine yet; neither is anyone else), I could use your help with a total conversion I'm planning. If you're interested, go to http://members.theglobe.com/Straker86/Hellmain.htm and check it out.

I hope that this info was of some help. And if you're interested in that TC, let me know.

Bye!