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So I read darth ducks tutorial but I still have some questions about shadowvolume and lowrez. This would be for a weapon model (slightly modified aug a1) that I made and have yet to texture though.

1) how big should they each be? same size? smaller? bigger?
2) are they hidden on export? and how is this done?
3) do they require a .msh .option?
4) are they textured?
5) whats an optimum amount of pollies for each?
6) do they need to be triangulated or can I have N-gons?

Thanks for the help!

I can only answer in the lowrez case:

1 Yes it should be as big as the original
2It's not important, you can hide the lowrez mesh but the game will do it for you too.
3No the lowrez dont needs an msh option
4It is textured, (i know that the shadowvolume is not textured)
5Theres no optimum amount. Smaller is better but if youre model is complex, then you should keep some detail.
6No model has to be triangulated.

okay, great! Now I just need the same questions for shadowvolume. *does a search of it on GT and google search*

Weapon lowrez meshes actually work differently than prop lowrez meshes: the "lowrez" mesh is used in third-person mode and the highres mesh is used in first-person mode - they are both separate .msh files and are defined in the weapon ODF.

What I do to create my shadowvolume meshes is I usually just take the lowrez mesh and remove the UVWs and materials, connect any border edges, and use that. Shadowvolumes should still retain the general silhoutted shape of the high-res mesh, but yeah.

You should never use n-gons for any model for any game, film, render, etc. no matter what. The models don't necessarily have to be triangulated so you can certainly have quads and/or triangles, but no n-gons ever.

To hide your shadowvolumes and lowrez.meshes, select them and press H. I personally right-click them in the Explorer and go to Properties, Visibility, and just uncheck View Visibility, which is what I'd also recommend, but it shouldn't matter.

Lowrez meshes should have a material - it can be the same as the highres or it can have its own with a lowres texture as well - but shadowvolumes, like collision meshes, should not have any materials applied.

Most game models don't need an .option file, but weapon and unit models render much faster when their .option has -nocollision.

okay great, thanks marth. so basically this is what im getting:

Lowrez and shadowvolume should both be the same size as the original model
Shadowvolume dos not have a texture
both should be hidden on export
both should have less polygons then the original model
lowrez can have a higher amount of pollies than shadovolume
shadowovolume should just be the basic outline of the model
no [Diet Dr. Pepper] polygons! Polygons should be quads/tri's.

I will try implementing both and post results in the 3d modelling thread!

https://sites.google.com/site/swbf2modt ... ation/home

Bookmark that page.

Lowrez = same size as original mesh, should NOT be hidden, the game will toggle between the 2 based on gfx settings in the menu. Every model I have ever exported did not have the lowrez hidden in Softimage and they all worked as intended.

Shadowvolume = slightly smaller, best to build it rather than using the original model as a base, very low poly and NONE of the shadowvolume should be seen sticking out of the original mesh, otherwise you get the model casting weird shadows on itself without an obvious light source.

Although I didn't finish the other 2 parts these should still help you out a bit

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