Models and Textures Download

[Tomix]

Hello all,

So after a few hours of playing around with the 3D Model Converter, I got all the RT3 models converted to OBJ format.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9n6omq8pgow7 ... reDump.zip

None of the models have .mtl files (which associate textures) so you will have to apply them yourselves. I didn't feel like importing and exporting 2,000 models just to generate mtl files!

Here is a render I did of the Big Boy in blender:



Enjoy!

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

Great work and thanks for your dedication, but can you explain to me how this will make my life easier? And that's not sarcasm, I just clearly know a lot less than you about how to work these things. Consider it a lesson, if you will. Thanks!

[Tomix]

I find it easier to make skins. I don't have to keep going in and out of game to see how the skin looks. I am working on a Big-Boy skin now, and look now easy it is to see where my progress is.



By opening it in Blender, I can easily check where the parts are being mapped to. The other use could be to find the correct version of Blender that exported .3ds files to almost the same data as .3dp files, and then people could manually edit new models in.

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

I'll look into downloading Blender. I hear it's only a 30 or 50 day trial for free, though, from Gumboots, unless he was talking about something else.

[Stoker]

Blender has always been free. Click here to download it.

Edit to add: Just be aware that the installation has some "toolbar" offers and such. Just pay attention when going through the install prompts and say no to those.

[Gumboots]

It's 3D Model Converter that isn't free. That one has a 30 day trial period, and costs $50 to buy.

[Tomix]

If you're gonna mess around with Blender, I recommend you download the archive version. I find it easier to install plugins and it is also portable, meaning you could use it on any computer and you wouldn't have any errors.

Just remember, Blender has a massive learning curve. The UI can confuse you easily. I found this site useful:http://www.blendertutor.com/. Most of my Blender experience is just trial and error, and in my opinion this is one of the best ways to learn the program.

[Stoker]

Yes, 3D Model Converter is not free. I figured out a work-around for using the free version a few years back. There is a thread here somewhere about that. It is a PITA, would be nice to have the whole program, but $0 is my limit for modding RT3 so....

[Gumboots]

There isn't a free version any more. At all. You can get the trial version, or the full paid version, but that's it.

[Stoker]

By "free version" of 3DMC I meant trial version. I have not messed with this stuff for a long time, and don't recall exactly how at the moment, but I figured out a way to convert the 3dp files into 3ds on an older version and then convert back with the newer version (both trial versions) - or something of that nature.

[AdmiralHalsey]

I find it easier to make skins. I don't have to keep going in and out of game to see how the skin looks. I am working on a Big-Boy skin now, and look now easy it is to see where my progress is.



By opening it in Blender, I can easily check where the parts are being mapped to. The other use could be to find the correct version of Blender that exported .3ds files to almost the same data as .3dp files, and then people could manually edit new models in.

Pretty engine. I wonder why PopTop thought painting the Big Boy and Challenger like they did was a good idea? I don't think i've ever seen a photo of them painted the way the game has them.

[Gumboots]

Tomix, any chance you could whip up a basic tutorial for this process? Wouldn't need a complete guide to Blender, just some tips on how to use the basics for skinning.

[Tomix]

You mean a tutorial how to import these via Blender and add textures?

[Gumboots]

Yup.

[Tomix]

I'll do a video of me importing it and then adding the materials and such. I find Blender much easier via Video instead of text.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZHEh8c5WKA Here you go.

[Gumboots]

Cheers. Will check it out.

[Tomix]

I'll be updating the Engines in a few days with the wheels and bodies combined together. This saves the user time instead of manually importing. I'll try to fix the material files too.

Since Blender doesn't have a proper Batch OBJ import tool since 2.4 (which doesn't even work well), I decided to bring out 3ds max from the dust and try it out. Sure enough I found a perfect importer. I might try and write a batch script myself if I can do it.



Cheers

[Gumboots]

Cool. So is there any way of using all this trickery to generate usable hex coding for the RT3 .3dp files?

[Tomix]

I found the structure of 3DP files here, http://florian.nouwt.com/wiki/index.php ... le_Format) so if we found a skilled coder we might be able to make one. The other way would be to find the version of Blender someone was using on this forum that was the same format as the 3DP files.

[Gumboots]

Yup, we knew the structure anyway so that's no problem. Thing is the default models are rather crude by today's standards. The game engine was always capable of far more than the graphics cards of the time, and everyone's computers these days have mega RAM by comparison with the first gen Pentiums. So, there's the potential to make more detailed models (without going totally mental about it) so we can have decent looking trains that still allow good game performance. That's what I'm really into at the moment.

I can already skin the suckers manually by just using Photoshop. I completely understand the coding of the .3dp files, so changing the mesh or remapping gfx is no problem even if doing it all manually (just a bit tedious). However, generating entire new models from scratch with higher levels of detail is frankly a whole lot of work. Even more so if using multiple instances to allow better game engine performance when zoomed out. If there was some way of making that lot simpler to handle, that would be totally awesome.