New guy with questions

[Emperor Leto]

Hello everybody!

As the topic say Im new to this forums and to Glest, the main reason of this post is to introduce myself, and ask a few questions:

• Where can I find the instructions to create new units, including importing new models, textures and animations
• Is there something like a tutorial for Glest Modding?, I visit the wiki and it doesnt really have too much info
• If I create a new game with game engine, can I make profit of it?, Im asking this because for long time I had want to make a game based in my country history, and it may be posible to get sponsors.
  

Altough Im new to Glest, Im not new to modding; Im a well know member of the community at AOM Heaven, where I had develope and release several mods. Im currently working on a total conversion for Age of Mythology call Ancient Warriors. Im also part of Wildfire Games, a online based team that is developing a new free RTS call 0AD.

If I can be any help to any going project, please let me know. Here you have some examples of my work:

My site Ancient Warriors Games:

www.freewebs.com/ancientwarriorsgames

EDIT: Ok I find the Glest Manual, but I need info for 3DS Max, and Photoshop please.

[titi]

Hi and welcome!

Currently nearly everybody is using blender here and most of us use gimp, because these tools are free.
So most of us cannot give any tips for 3ds-max, photoshop and glest.
The glest exporter for 3ds max is included in the glest tools ( see download on homepage) is for older 3ds versions ( I think 3ds 7 and 3ds 8 work).

In general:
- Glests models have <1500 vertices but better use less for units which appear very often ( 700-800)
- Alphachannel is used for teamcolor or transparency
- only uncompressed tgas are(currently) valid for textures
- animations have about 10 frames but there are no limits ( missing frames are calculated by the glest engine, try it )

The possibilities to go commercial:
Glests sourcecode is GPL, so if you use this, you have to release all changes in the sourcecode (for free!)
Glest original content works with every license which gives credit to the authors, so here its possible to create your own content(I think  for commercial use too ).

But I think most(all?) of us here are creating free stuff(GPL CC or whatever) just for fun and to have something funny to play .
Sneak a bit around in the forum to see all upcoming mods and decide for yourself with which one you want to go.
I think the guy(modman) who makes the "dark magic" faction curently has the biggest need for new models.

[Omega]

Nice work I've seen. I've never used 3DS max, but once exported, the Glest guide should hopefully answer your questions. If the guide is missing something you need to be able to learn, tell me. I haven't had a lot of people with no experience using just the glest guide, and I want to see if it's good enough to go 'noob to pro'. If not, I want to update it.

Oh, and welcome to glest. Feel free to post models in OBJ format for others to convert if you can't get them converted though. I think that's one of the most compatible... (aside from .blend)

[gameboy]

welcome to the forums, btw i'm awaiting the release of your AOM mod ( i love the game)
also if you want to help you could try the community faction, it's in real need for ideas right now.
also i could use some help with the Ardhon mod, for its size is huge and i'll need at least 400 new models!

[hailstone]

Welcome to the forums. 0AD looks impressive. I'll be sure to play it when it is released. Any contributions are appreciated.

[wciow]

Hi Leto, your texture work looks very impressive.

I've been following the 0AD project for quite a while and it is IMO the best freeware RTS currently being developed. Professional quality work in every area!

[Idanwin]

0AD is the best rts game I found (sorry Glest) but it isn't released yet.
I hope it will be soon.
A beta this year? hope so!

Your help will certainly be appreciated!

[titi]

I think all of us know it, but as you said, its not released .....

[modman]

Idanwin, you keep changing your image!  Kinda cool.
Emperor Leto, I would appreciate it so much if you would model for me.  There is a guide with (I think) as much info on how you should model a unit here.

But what is really needed is help in the Magitech department.  The two factions, Magic and Tech, are EXTREMELY unbalanced.  This is quite apparent because in certain circumstances, a Tech CPU (normal) can beat a Magic CPU-Ultra (hard).  Thus, both factions could use a bit (or a lot) of help.  I have been pondering this myself, and first priority is definately the Magic faction.  It could use a new unit, which I was thinking would be a centaur.  It would fight with a pole axe.

But depending upon how much you are actually willing to model for Glest, you could easily make both factions far more exciting to play, and increase the size of the factions very much (and become my #1 hero ).  If you want more ideas, I would be pleased to hand them out.  The Tech faction could use a lot more units, since ideas for this faction are quite easy to come by.  The Magic faction could use ideas, and I think the Glest community has come up with enough ideas to keep you busy for quite a while.  there is a long discussion on new unit for the Magic faction here.

Other than that, I think you should know that it might be possible to use several programs as a basis to converting models from your program of choice to the .g3d file format.  I really hope you chose to stay a bit and help out the Glest community, because we could always use another modeler.

[Emperor Leto]

Thanks for all the answers!

My main interest on Glest is because for long I have think into create a stand alone RTS based on the history of my country (Mexíco), and Glest provides a free, moddable and the most important finished engine

Also, Im looking for experience to improve as a 3D artist because my goal is to become a pro and make a life of this.

modman, I havent get time to try to import models to Glest, but I will like to help you if I can, and checking that you mention centaurs, i will like to show you some that I made previously for AOM:







I did that just for fun, and since the models are partially based on AOM centaurs, I cannot legally add them to glest, but the textures are all mine, and I will like to give it a try, and and work new ones. Can you be a little more specific on what you want?, maybe show a concept drawing. My style is mostly based on historical references, but I may also do some fantasy.

[modman]

If you're going to be around Glest for a while, you might as well just look at the tutorial I refrenced to earlier.
Otherwise, below is a concept of a Centaur.  I like the fact that it is muscular, and not too tall or short.  I would like it to have a battleaxe though, and be heavily armored with plate armor.  For attacking, it should rear back and come down with the axe with gravity as well as arm-generated force.  But that's only for Magic.  If you would, please start with Dark Magic.

[Emperor Leto]

I hate this, I havent been able to import new models because I dont know how to import the animations, can someone give a help?, I saw the instructions before but now I cant find them.

[Omega]

Instructions can be found on: http://glest.110mb.com/
You can always try to export to a format that blender can import (OBJ) and then use blender to export. It has a perfect exporter.

[gameboy]

When i tried to export an animation to OBJ, I made a billion files.
I you can't export the model then I could do it, you can mail me at amish13-^-gmail.com.

[modman]

I may not know how to model or animate, but I think there's a setting that you can save it into less files, but I'm not sure.  Don't get mad at me if it's not the way I remember; it might have been a different format.

[Omega]

Hmm, maybe that wasn't a good recommendation. What formats can you export to then? I guess the best thing for you to do is just to find out how to use the 3DS Max exporter. Sorry I can't help you there. I believe there's someone that has 3DS somewhere on the board...