Thanks alot! Does anyone have the time to add the Firepoints and export it as .msh for me so I can use it in game?

Sure, I guess I could do it. Upload it in .obj format and PM me a link.

This Blender is very compicated. Now when I try to load it, I just get an empty grey screen, without even the grid that then model sits on.

I'll send you it when I can find it...

Press shift+space, it sounds like toggled your toolbar to full screen mode.

@Slime: I like the model, but I think the UV on the very rear part of the model could be better. It looks a bit stretched there.

My first attempt at modelling a weapon - a replica of the Halo CE sniper rifle (Sniper Rifle System 99C-S2 Anti-Matériel) based off this pic: Still need to add a few things to the model, but most of its there:
1. The small oval shaped thing on the side of the main body
2. The loop over the sight
3. The stock (is that what the stand is called?) - Do you guys think i should add this? It's not like its gonna do anything...
4. The screws randomly placed around the body...

Also need to texture and export it still.....

Constructive comments would be greatly appreciated - I'm still learning how to efficiently model a curved surface, and my current abilities are limited to scaling, extruding and rotating vertices - as a result some parts of the mesh are pretty messy looking, especially the back half. If anyone has any suggestions for improving my technique / the model, i would appreciate it...

EDIT: 1111 posts!!

Although I don't model, I think this looks amazing! It's pretty good for a first weapon, too.

lucasfart wrote:3. The stock (is that what the stand is called?) - Do you guys think i should add this? It's not like its gonna do anything...

That would be a bipod. (The stock is actually the back part.) Eh, I'd add if you're going for accuracy, but it should be fine without it.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Thanks AQT! Hopefully I can do it justice in terms of texturing also...I think I probably will have a go at modelling the bipod, not just for accuracy but to improve my skills.

That's a nice model, especially for your first time. Keep it up!

Just a quick question - what would be the max amount of vertices you guys would put on a swbf2 weapon? I'm currently sitting at 1600, with probably about 2000 by the time i finish modelling....

Your model looks great!

lucasfart wrote:Just a quick question - what would be the max amount of vertices you guys would put on a swbf2 weapon? I'm currently sitting at 1600, with probably about 2000 by the time i finish modelling....

There are some guidelines in the swbfmodtools documentation folder, lemme see if I can look them up.
EDIT:

*\BF2_ModTools\documentation\art_guide wrote:Polygon Count Limits (general guidelines):
Props - 0 - 500 polys
Buildings - 200 - 3000 polys (the higher end of this spectrum represents large buildings with large interiors)
Vehicles - 1500 - 2000 polys
Characters - 1500 - 2000 polys

These are only guidelines of course and nowadays you could probably go over them for quite a bit, but a lot of units with a very high polycount weapon may cause instability in the engine.

Awesome! Thanks for the guidelines mswf! Hopefully I should be able to keep the vertice count to around 2000 - I'm at 1880 with just the looped pole section over the scope to go...

EDIT : Also, anyone know how to increase the render resolution in blender? All the lines look kinda low-rez and pixelly....

EDIT2 : Found resolution changer, but the lines are still pixelly. Anyone know how to make rendered edges appear smoother and less jagged?

EDIT3 : Nevermind. For anyone interested, in blender 2.6 you just go to the render tab in properties and change the "percentage scale for render resolution" value, under the X and Y resolution values...I changed mine to 500% and got much better results. I wouldn't recommend 1000% though. Crashed my laptop. Autosave is such a useful tool!

So under render settings, dimension tab, you have:
The resolution, you can set the amount of pixels on the x and y axis, the percentage slider beneath is for controlling test renders, it is default at 50%, set it to 100% to get the full quality image.
If you still get very jagged edges, you can mess around with the AA settings, but that should not be necessary for default model renders.
BTW, have you heard of 3-point lighting? Here is a short video explaining that, it is a standard lighting setup in photography and film, applying it to model renders makes your model stand out better too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFVMcgPmBVM

Thanks for the explanation mswf.

Also, thanks for the tut, but our ISP blocks youtube, due to my parents choice (bad possibilities and all that), plus our 25kilobytes/sec download speed kinda prevent me from watching most vids . I'll see if i can find another version of that tut....

EDIT : Don't know if this is the same idea, but i found THIS

Updated Mesh: Changes:
Added screws
Updated Scope model at back
Added Bipod

To Do:
Pole over scope

I remember a text+image tutorial that was very good, let me find it for you.
EDIT:
Here, this one is very, very good:
http://bensimonds.com/2010/06/03/lighti ... e-masters/

Lol. Thanks for the link mswf!

EDIT: What type of lamps do you use as the back, fill and key lights? I have too many options; Point, Sun, Spot, Hemi, and Area.

Well lucasfart, it is a very nice model. However you can cut your poly count down by removing things no one would every see anyway. Specifically all those ten sided "bolt" like cylinders on the sides. Also your scope and other cylinders has a lot more sides than needed. It's really hard to see detail like that in SWBF2. The lighting and camera system is designed for third person, always far away from the model. I count 20 sides on your scope, 12 would suffice.

I used to do those same exact problems when I first started making weapons. I think my DC-15s is like 2100 polies or something lol. Rather high for a weapon.

Yeah, I guess those intersected each-other.

I got a quick-blender-tip for you; there is a spot behind the trigger where the where some face seem like they should form a flat surface, but they got slightly displaced. To fix that, select all those faces in face-select-mode, change your transform orientation from global to normal and hit s, z, z, 0, to flatten all those faces against the same normal.
Your model looks great now, but if you want to get it ingame, you can remember that the stock part of the rifle can have almost zero detail, because people will not see it in 1st person and from other perspectives, the wielders arm will probably cover it.

@ TheWulfMan - Does it have any impact ingame, or is it just unnecesary? Because if it's not gonna ruin someone's game, I think I'll just leave it as is - I'm a perfectionist and hate blocky looking meshes. Even the current one looks to sharp to me.

@ mswf - Thanks for that tip! To change orientation do i just hit the "View Global/Local" button? Hmm....Good point. As with TheWulfMan though, i probably won't bother changing it unless the mesh has problems ingame...

EDIT: Is it the same as just hitting s, z, 0? Because that flattened them all along the Z Axis. That is a very handy trick mswf. Thanks for that.

lucasfart wrote:@ TheWulfMan - Does it have any impact ingame, or is it just unnecesary? Because if it's not gonna ruin someone's game, I think I'll just leave it as is - I'm a perfectionist and hate blocky looking meshes. Even the current ones look to sharp to me.

It really depends. How many other high poly models are you going to be using? If it's just stock, with this model added, it makes no difference. However if unit models are like 5000 polies+ and most weapons are high poly then yes, it does make a difference. Especially for people with weaker computers.

Also, when making models for games (especially old games), being a "perfectionist" is relative. Making a model that looks perfect doesn't mean it is perfect. If your model is going to be used in movies, by all means make it as high poly as you want. However for games, models need to be somewhat efficient. I am very laxed on the matter, however I do have limits. Personally a weapon model should be about 1500 polies. If you don't want to redo the scope and such, I recommend removing those bolts on the sides. I think they make up about, 180 or so of your polies and few people would notice them. Stuff like that should be on the texture.

Just my two cents, take it or leave it I don't mind.