Models

[Caveman]

Okay, so I'm at the point in the modding process where I want to stick my own model in there. I have a few questions...

First off, what is g3d? I'm using 3DS Max, and uhhh, I've never heard of g3d before. How do I open it and what is it? An animation?

Second, I have my own model, and its cool and everything, but it's texture is split up into 4 different .bmp files? I noticed that the Glest models have all their textures in one image file (a vga)... So, do I have to stick all these pics into one image and then edit how the model puts the textures on?

Help please. It'd be even nicer if you use 3DS Max!

[John.d.h]

g3d is the format Glest uses for its models and animations.  You need a special export plug-in to export your files into a g3d format.  I know it works with 3DS 6 and 7, but if you have a different version than that, you may be in trouble.  All textures used in Glest have to be uncompressed tga files.  You can create them with GIMP, Paint.NET, or Photoshop.  You don't necessarily have to combine all the textures into one file if you have more than one mesh object in your model, but you can have no more than one texture and material on each object.  For 3DS-specific questions, I can't really help you since I (along with most of us here) use Blender.

You'll be needing these: http://sourceforge.net/projects/glest/files/glest%20tools%20win32/

Edit: You might also find the following thread useful: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=4521.0

[Fluffy203]

ok if you have 3ds max it has to be 8 or lower to export your model to g3d which is the model format for the game and no you don't have to put them all into one .tga you can have them seperate thats how i texture 

[Caveman]

Okay so now I'm confused. One guy tells me that I can have more than one, and the other tells me I can't.

Can't I use Blender to import g3d files since I have 3DS Max 9? Can I also use blenders to import my own 3ds files and then export them as g3d?
How do animated g3d's work? Is there like a video tutorial for making them in blender?

[Fluffy203]

ok you can have all the models you want , but if you have 3ds max 9 best thing to do is to export them into a .obj and open them in blender and then export them into a .g3d 

[ElimiNator]

Here is Titi's Blender tutorial. 

[John.d.h]

Can't I use Blender to import g3d files since I have 3DS Max 9?

Yes.  Unfortunately, the current import script doesn't import animations.  Your best bet for accessing the original Glest models is this thread: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=2215.0

Can I also use blenders to import my own 3ds files and then export them as g3d?

Blender does support importing 3ds files.  I have no idea if it keeps your textures and/or animations intact, though.

How do animated g3d's work? Is there like a video tutorial for making them in blender?

Here's the tutorial I learned from: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character_Animation/Upper_body_armature.  You can ignore everything about shape keys and the NLA editor, though, because none of that stuff applies to g3d files.  When your animation is done, go into object mode, select all your objects that you want to export, make sure that your start and end frames are set to the appropriate numbers, and then File>Export>G3D.  Glest interpolates between the frames, so your animations can have very few frames and look just as good as animations with a lot of frames.  I've made some pretty good looking walking or attacking animations that were only about three frames long.

Titi's video tutorial are a bit outdated, by the way.  We now have an export script that exports directly into a g3d instead of an xml.  Get it here.

[ElimiNator]

Can I also use blenders to import my own 3ds files and then export them as g3d?

Blender does support importing 3ds files.  I have no idea if it keeps your textures and/or animations intact, though.

I think it keeps only the textures intact.

[Omega]

See the Glest Guide: glest.110mb.com
Guarenteed Blender Tutorials on that site.

[Caveman]

Blender is not letting me import .obj models, or any models really. All it will let me import is VRML files, XDF (or whatever) and another filetype, I think its SDL or something like that.

[John.d.h]

See the Glest Guide: glest.110mb.com
Guarenteed Blender Tutorials on that site.

You've got a 403 going on.

Blender is not letting me import .obj models, or any models really. All it will let me import is VRML files, XDF (or whatever) and another filetype, I think its SDL or something like that.

Strange.  Do you mean it doesn't give you the option to import anything else, or it gives you the option and doesn't work?  What version are you using?  The current one is 2.48a, I believe.

[Caveman]

Blender is not letting me import .obj models, or any models really. All it will let me import is VRML files, XDF (or whatever) and another filetype, I think its SDL or something like that.

Strange.  Do you mean it doesn't give you the option to import anything else, or it gives you the option and doesn't work?  What version are you using?  The current one is 2.48a, I believe.

I'll try downloading the latest version. I just imported the obj version of my model back into 3DS max, and its all screwed up. So tomorrow I'm going to try to get some kind of 3DS plugin for Blender so I can make it work. I hope I get this thing working, its really driving me crazy, because I've done so much work on the my Glest already. I don't want it to fail because I can't get this model into my game, lol.

[Omega]

See the Glest Guide: glest.110mb.com
Guarenteed Blender Tutorials on that site.

You've got a 403 going on.

Hmm, works fine for me. Either your network, or my server was down when you visited. It does that sometimes. The disadvantage of using a free thing. I would update to a paying site (like glest.info or glestguide.com) but it is a bit expensive still... Will have to see if ads will work at all...?

I really need to update it. I've had a new version ready for a while now (everything updated EXCEPT the ads page, the donate button, and ads at the bottom of pages, but that will have to wait until I download my entire site.

OT: Part of my genius...um...ness, I managed to make a full PHP script to place the entire site into a zip folder, force download of it, then delete the zip folder. It uses its own class, rather than a PCLE (or whatever the danged acronym is) one, and works great in my tests.