This is kind of my introduction post and an offer to help a project in need of a modeler. I've been working with 3ds max for the last 5 or 6 years and the last 2 of those have been professionally. I've been bored lately and looking for something to do.
I'm planning on doing a bunch of remodeling on KotOR 1 characters to update the models and make them look a little nicer, but to do this I have to first clean all of the meshes and convert them from tris to quads. This takes a long time and is rather boring so I'm looking to help someone else out!
As I mentioned, I have been working with 3ds max professionally for the last couple of years, so I do have access to a full and legal copy of 3ds max 2009. If you have a project that you need models for, let me know and I'll do some modeling for you! If I need to export or import anything from the game you may need to walk me through it. I have lots of experience with modeling, but only a few days experience with KotOR modding.

can you model new areas?

If you could model lightsabers, would you mind doing a few? I have a few designs(probably more than a few, though I'd chose a few for this), that I wouldn't mind being used in the games(as either custom sabers[unique], or as the models for the default colors).

There's a tutorial section at the top of the forums. In there you should find a ton of info on how to get setup to do some Kotor Modding.

I did a few for 3D modelling, but I guess most of those will be pretty un-usefull to you. Since your a real modeller, not some wannabee like me :p
Your imput will be greatly appriciated!

Be carefull with offering your skills; there aren't many peeps about who do 3D. And it's quiet popular to get new areas and what not in the game ^_^

Of course if you really can't find what you need, post your question!
Welcome to Holowan! Have a great time :p

I'm planning on doing a bunch of remodeling on KotOR 1 characters to update the models and make them look a little nicer,

This excites me. Combined with SpaceAlex's improvement mod, some of the more high res area retextures that have come out, and the various weapon mods that improve model diversity, KOTOR's going to look as nice as it can.

As for your question, I'm sure you will be in high demand, as modelers are few, especially those who can do more than a small sword or lightsaber hilt (no insult intended to anyone who can do those, of course, I'm just starting modelling, and even making one of those look good is pretty tough at the moment)

I could use help modeling out fillers for Sleheyron

Wow. I wasn't expecting this much of a need for modelers. In less than 12 hours I've received 6 messages and the 3 posts here. I'll try and do as much as I can, but I can't really commit to 4 TCMs. I might choose one TCM to help on, but I'm mostly looking to help on small projects were I can create one or two things and then move on to the next project.

Quanon, I glanced at your tutorials and they look pretty good. The one thing they seemed to be missing was hot keys. Using hot keys speeds up the work flow a ton and so it is a good thing to tell people about. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on hot keys, edge flow, and poly-optimization. I am mostly set up for modding, but thus far I've only messed around with characters. I'll have to take a look at some of the environment creation tutorials.

I think I'm actually going to follow your "Modelling a new area!" tutorial right now just to see how it goes.

Nevermind then for me.


Wow. I wasn't expecting this much of a need for modelers. In less than 12 hours I've received 6 messages and the 3 posts here. I'll try and do as much as I can, but I can't really commit to 4 TCMs. I might choose one TCM to help on, but I'm mostly looking to help on small projects were I can create one or two things and then move on to the next project.

Quanon, I glanced at your tutorials and they look pretty good. The one thing they seemed to be missing was hot keys. Using hot keys speeds up the work flow a ton and so it is a good thing to tell people about. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on hot keys, edge flow, and poly-optimization. I am mostly set up for modding, but thus far I've only messed around with characters. I'll have to take a look at some of the environment creation tutorials.

I think I'm actually going to follow your "Modelling a new area!" tutorial right now just to see how it goes.

Quanon, I glanced at your tutorials and they look pretty good. The one thing they seemed to be missing was hot keys. Using hot keys speeds up the work flow a ton and so it is a good thing to tell people about. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on hot keys, edge flow, and poly-optimization. I am mostly set up for modding, but thus far I've only messed around with characters. I'll have to take a look at some of the environment creation tutorials.

Thanks for the tip, I only know a very few hot-keys; swapping between move, scale gizmo and such. Nothing spectacular x-D

Looking forward to learn more.


I think I'm actually going to follow your "Modelling a new area!" tutorial right now just to see how it goes.

Well, it should give you a start, though some of my tutorials are getting a bit old, mainly cause I was more "dumb" about how 3D works in Kotor back then when I made it.

I've found a work flow, that gives me the least trouble and my only big "knowledge" is about making areas.

If you need help getting hold of the tools( MDlops 0.6 and 0.5, Kaurora... ), give me a PM. I'll provide some links ;)
Cause for Kotor modding you'll need a few fan made tools, there's no 1 easy to use creative suite.

Oh, expect your PM box to be spammed with requests :lol:
Mind, only do what's fun for you!

I've got the tools, I just have to figure out how to use them. Do you have any info on creating an outdoor area (like the upper city)? I figure that if I can get an outdoor area working I can probably get an indoor area working.

One of my favorite hot keys is ctrl + change selection type. If you select a polygon, then hold control and switch to vertex mode it selects the verts that make up that polygon. It works for changing between all geometry types and is very useful.

I'm afraid I don't actually need a modeller per se, but feedback on modelling/skinning from a more experienced source is always welcome. :)

since I'm sure you'll get a plethora of requests, maybe it'll be easier for you to check out some of the mod request threads (http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635), and then decide which ones that you might find fun and/or challenging to work on. They'd certainly be smaller in scope than a TC, and a great way to quickly build some confidence with the crazy limits of KotOR modelling.

Welcome to LucasForums :)

I've got the tools, I just have to figure out how to use them. Do you have any info on creating an outdoor area (like the upper city)? I figure that if I can get an outdoor area working I can probably get an indoor area working.

Well, you're going to need NWmax plugin for 3Ds Max. We don't need much from this plugin, just the handy import/export and a few buttons :lol:

The next important step is to get hold of Kaurora, this tool compiles our models to the code the game uses. Whenever you export something out of Max, you'll get an ASCII code file.

Though the game uses its own 3D format, 2 files, model.mdl & model.mdx.
So Kaurora does the job to transform that ASCII into mdl & mdx.

Mostly I just start out of a cube really, depending on what this outdoor needs to be :lol:

Owh, I'm certain you know its handy to sketch out the lay-out and look of what you want in 3D first. So you have a bit of a guide.

Then ofcourse there's the WALKMESH; Kotor uses a 3D mesh, to say where the player can walk. Its hidden in the game but you need to make yourself, thing is Walkmeshes are sensitive buggers. They easely get broken, cause you moved a vert here or there x-D

Plus the hardcore part about area modelling is you need to slice it up in parts. So your model turns into a big puzzle. If you want you leave it as one big model, but the game doesn't prefer that.

And then you need some extra files, to tell which part you can see from where, it's a crazy mess :lol:

Far to much to wright down here :)


I'll just be an ego tripper and post a linky to my wip thread, like that you should get an idea of what is possible:
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=200556)

Also check out Disbelievers thread on Sleheyron, in there you can see the use of the lightmaps, we only got that avaible recently:
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=201053)

I have all of the tools installed and set up and I know all about modular level design. I'm really more looking for some rules. Does the level need to be closed geometry (inside a closed sky box)? Are there rules for the walk mesh, like is there a maximum angle for the walk mesh, or does it need to be flat?

Well, I don't think there are strict rules, if you don't add a skybox to an outdoor area, you'll just see black void. This doesn't cripple the game or something. It's not like say making a level Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, with the Quake 3 engine, where if you didn't at the big box around your level you had weird effect :lol:

So no, you don't to seal up your level. In that regard making a new area is pretty loose.
The Walkmesh however, is another story.

You can do sharp angles, though at one point it'll block the player. So no 90 degrees, even if it is 1mm high. Also you cannot make it cross in height. The lower part of the walkmesh will block of the higher.

So you can't make say bridge where you can walk on and a route under it to walk on.
Another annoying thing, which we haven't solved, is blocking the camera that's behind the player.

Normally the walkmesh has walls to do this, but our own made walkmeshes don't. And to make matters worse, adding walls often breaks them. It also makes it hard to devide/ slice up the walkmesh in parts. Well not persé the splitting up.

But you need to edit the walkmesh in Kaurora, you need to set a number on each edge that's on the end of the slice. So the gamen knows when you jump from one part to another. Thing is Kaurora doesn't have a moveable camera, you only get a top down view. So you can't properly edit that edge of a wall, since its like 1 pixel thick.

Uuuh, did that all makes sense x-D

Thanks for all of the info. I'll probably mess around with this a bunch over the weekend and see what kind of results I can get.