3d Studio Max, Openzone & Terrain Basics I

[Richardo]

I'm planning to compile a few tutorials "based on my experience with OpenZone". In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a mountainlike grassy hilly plains that is just a standard terrain model in 3d Studio Max 9 and has very low detail and no additional objects. (You can use 3ds max 7, 8 and 9 as their interface is fairly the same.)

For this tutorial you need the following:

3d Studio Max (7, 8 or 9) - In this tutorial, I use 9.
OpenZone


3ds Max Terrain Basics I (http://www.xonos.net/openzone/tutorials/3DSMax%20EQEMU%20Basics%20I/)

Download 3ds Max Terrain Basics I Video (http://www.xonos.net/openzone/tutorials/3DSMax%20EQEMU%20Basics%20I/3DS%20Max%209%20EQEMU%20Basics_media/3DS%20Max%209%20EQEMU%20Basics.wmv)
Download 3ds Max Terrain Basics I Project Files (http://www.xonos.net/openzone/tutorials/3DSMax%20EQEMU%20Basics%20I/3DS%20Max%209%20EQEMU%20Basics_media/VidBasicsIProj.rar)

[Cripp]

this is awsome :) thanks so much. need more tutorials for 3DS max and OZ !

PS: your OZ 8.3 seems to run nice.. mine doesnt (older versions are better).. should i just redownload it or somethin? or is it my OS/machine?

[leslamarch]

Nice work Richardo, I hope i get time to play with this.

[Aramid]

Really nice and informative tutorial Richardo... Was that the $3500.00 version of 3ds ? /phew

[Richardo]

Really nice and informative tutorial Richardo... Was that the $3500.00 version of 3ds ? /phew

I didn't pay a dime for any of my software. Although my methods for obtaining this software aren't the most ethically correct.


PS: your OZ 8.3 seems to run nice.. mine doesnt (older versions are better).. should i just redownload it or somethin? or is it my OS/machine?

I recently reinstalled. Currently I am running Windows XP 32-Bit. My hardware follows:

AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (Dual-Core 3ghz)
2GB Corsaire DDR2
500GB Sata HD
Geforce 8500 GT 512MB
Crappy ECS MotherBoard
Creative XFi Soundcard

It might run bad if you haven't applied the dualcore hotfix for windows (if you have a dualcore.).

[GeorgeS]

I did try 3Dstudio, even had an employee discount version, but hated it so much and never got very good at it.

Soo, eventually tried truespace 7, bought my copy and vray and it's been great since. Actually I am waiting for my 7.x version updgrade eagerly..

I do have tonnes of models made with it, but have'nt had the time to make more custom zones.

GeorgeS

[quadroplex]

awesome tutorial I look forward to seeing how to add water and buildings in 3ds max... Ive just been using OpenZone to do all that and well its not that great...

Great work Richardo

[Richardo]

yeah well, I made a tutorial how to export world of warcraft models.. map the textures and import these models into your zone. It's fun to do this considering we don't always have tons of time to create and map our own textures. (Usually I do, but sometimes I don't.) Ofcourse I don't encourage illegally distributing the files but to envoke creativity, I will show you how to do it. :)

(Edit: I won't be posting it so don't ask for it here.)

[Sakrateri]

you may want to show that in another section of forums such as off topic as WCs dream of openzone is for people to use their own imagination and no legally owned property to make their zones.

[quadroplex]

and yet HE made it to import zones from another game (quake3) this is no different

[Richardo]

Yeah well Quake 3 importer is actually for zones not endorsed by Quake 3. Don't start importing official Q3 Maps. I don't plan to post that tutorial actually Sak so don't worry. It's only for those who ask for it outside of eqemu. Last thing eqemu needs is to be in the firing range of Blizzard. :)

Honestly, the only reason I invite people to view wow models honestly is so they can use the ideas from Warcraft for their own. Export the model, take a look at it and use it as reference. Warcraft has top notch modelers and even better structured models. Low-Poly modeling isn't just about extruding, welding and using smooth groups. It's about precision and perfect optimization that you can use a large quantity of your models in one area and not lag the crap out of the clients. I highly suggest you look at the bare-bone of each model and see how it's made in order to make yourself a better modeler. I'm going to show them next how to make water/lava/ice in 3ds max in the terrain tutorial. Then after that, i'll show them how to mask .dds files to make tree models/trails on their terrain + add more texture detail on their terrain like the following picture below:

http://www.xonos.net/paint.jpg

[Darkriderone]

Ricardo just wanted to say that was a hell of a tutorial, easy to follow, and well done. I really look forward to your others, always looking forward to learning something new, or seeing a trick or tip that I may not have noticed.

[Sakrateri]

I agree wow models are well done and do give you good ideas and its great what your doing to get people motivated to use OpenZone more.

[GeorgeS]

Although I made a tree tutorial years ago, I lost the file, and would very much enjoy if a new tutorial be made on trees and transparency. This is one part I have the greatest trouble with.

If there's a good tut on this which i can verify to work, I will freely release several hundred tree meshes and building props I made or textured.

GeorgeS

[Windcatcher]

Excellent tutorial! A handful of these would probably go a long way toward getting people up to speed.

I think that error you got when exporting was because you don't have the eqemu_maps folder, so OpenZone couldn't create the file. I could put a check into OpenZone to see if that's the case and let you know that the folder isn't there.

[Richardo]

Cool Windcatcher. Hey, do you have any idea how to make a masked DDS file? I forgot how completely. I know you do it through photoshop and export it i as TGA file and then GraphicConvert.exe it to .dds. But I don't know the method in photoshop.

[Windcatcher]

You mean for trees? For OpenZone you need to take a 24-bit .BMP where the mask color is in the majority of the four corner pixels, and use OpenZone's command under the File... menu to turn it into a 32-bit transparent .BMP. Then you can use it with OpenZone.

[Richardo]

nvm.........

[Richardo]

Hey Windcatcher, can you help me find a way to draw terrain textures? :p I'm having a hard time creating roads, etc without creating a terrain image that is 20382308x2048204824

Any ideas? :p Texture shading/mapping in 3ds max is easy but it isn't supported in the cross over.

[Windcatcher]

Hmm. Do you know if .3DS files support multitexturing (with or without alpha blending)? If it does and if I can get a sample I can try adding support to OpenZone and SimpleClient, but that technique would only work for .XWF files (WLD files can't handle it). Do you need to make zones for the live client or only for SimpleClient? I'm guessing the former, but I have to ask. For .WLD files perhaps you could make a low-res zone texture, but that wouldn't look that great, or perhaps a low-res zone texture that is only used where there are roads?

Exporting to .EQG is a possibility, but I have no information at all on the format and I'd hate to have to go that route as it would take a lot of effort away from other things (for instance, I'm maybe halfway through building a human female player model and I plan to complete it this weekend, then I want to do GeorgeS' spider models). I then want to populate the Veldona zone with mobs and do another full-up release of SimpleClient, after releasing OpenZone 8.4.

[Windcatcher]

Were you able to make any progress, Richardo?

As an aside, my human female model is almost complete (I just have to do leather and chain helmets, but all the body texturing is done). This will be part of the next version of OpenZone and SimpleClient.

http://i33.tinypic.com/15eg32w.png

[Richardo]

To answer your question regarding the .3ds format... No, .3ds does not support alphablending. You can have multiple textures on different triangles but when it comes to blending a material... No, it is not supported. The .eqg format would be useful however to me it seems I will have to end up creating one big image for terrain and then using height maps to assign it correctly. I can split up the files but it may be better to keep it as one.

I've played with some terrain programs that support drawing textures. Might be nice. We'll see after I am done with some more testing.

[Thovar]

are these tutorials available anywhere? the links seems to be broken.

[Ropethunder]

Does anyone still have a copy of the tutorial files from the first post?

[Packet]

I lost these ages ago. :( Sorry bud.

[Pectabyte]

Hey Richardo,

Any chance you'll get the links for your tutorials back up? I'm trying desperately to find material on building custom zones.