3d Modelling Tutorial by Nsienski

Here's some more info from Nsiensky which helps with the modding:

I just did a test.
I re-shaped Hollywood hogan (less shoulders and less pecs) and it worked just perfect.

Just a quick note, you don't have to use any modifiers at the begining. Just select editable mesh in the modifier stack and use whatever you want for editing the mesh (vertex, faces...)



When you edit a model in 3DS max, it is made of many different objects. It can be a problem when you want to retopologize a mesh without editing vertex per vertex (overkill) and you want to use MAX soft selection.
It is the case for the head/face of the models for exemple.

Now, there's a way around that.
Here is an example with Hogan chest :

1- select the left pec using elements in the menu :




2- down the menu, select Attach :



3- click on the right pec :



4- now the pecs are attached, you can deform the whole easily and fast without making holes in the models :



5 - when you're done editing the mesh,  select the right pec (still using element in the menu) :



6- then select Detach in the right menu and give it a name (I prefer to give it back the right name) :



7 - Now the right pec you edited is detached but he has lost is skin modifier which means it won't follow the bones animation. That's not what we want.
Select any part of the model, (they should all have the Skin modifier)



- right click on the Skin modifier to copy it :



8 - select the right pec you have modified :



Go in the stack, right click on Editable mesh to paste the Skin modifier :




The part you modified has his Skin modifier back at the right place in the modifier stack. You can export the mesh, it will works in game:



CAUTION : When you select the element to detach, be sur to have all the Triangles. Sometimes there are a few of them isolated on the model. It's easy to check with the number of vertices or faces.

That's what I did to tweak Hollywood Hogan, I attached the shoulders, the pecs, the neck, the back and the belly together for editing.
Then I detached every part and exported them. Hogan looks way better now, less buff

X-Rey - How to edit models

With upcoming release of Xrey, I thought I'd post a tutorial on the process for those who want to start practicing using 3ds max to edit.

Basic controls for the program:

- Double click an object in the grid to display a preview
- Click the viewport to control the object. Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll button.
- Hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse to rotate the object.
- Some objects render off the screen for some reason so zoom out to view these.
- Some faces don't render correct in the preview viewport, not sure why as yet. You can still edit these objects as the program does not interfere with the faces.

Basic tutorial on how to do model edits

I am assuming that you already know how to extract your yobj file from the pac, have 3dsm installed and have brienj's import plugin.

The program also loads a texture as long as it is named color in the same directory of the yobj. The color texture can be in png, jpg or bmp formats in that order of preference. If there is no color texture the mesh will load without one.

1. Import your yobj into 3dsm. Click on any object and select Conversion - Turn to Mesh. In this example I am working with Hogans belt.



this will convert your object into an editable mesh. On your right menu, select editable mesh and select vertex under this option. Your object will now display all the vertices.




2. Select a few vertices and move them. Do something simple for your first try, just to understand the process. Make sure you do not delete or add any new veritices. The number of vertices must remain the same.




3. Select all the vertices for that object by pressing ctrl+a. Take a note of the number of vertices under the selection menu on the right you will need to know this number later on. In this example the number of vertices is 570.



4. With the object still selected, select Export - Export selected from the main menu. Make sure you have selected "Export selected" as the import wont work otherwise.

Give your object any name you want, I'm calling mine belt_570.obj (so that I'll remember that it has 570 vertices later on). In the save as type dialog select "gw: Obj-Exporter (*.Obj)"

For the export options, make sure you set all the options as follows:



Please double check these options as the object will import incorrectly or wont import at all if these are incorrect. Click the export button when you are sure and the object will be exported to obj format. Double check the number of vertices is correct on the status box which appears after the import. In this case the number of vertices on the export status box is still 570 so it's correct.

5. Option your yobj in X-rey using the "Yobj new format" option. Look in the grid for an object which has the same number of vertices. In this case 570 vertices.



Double click the object to preview it. In this case Hogan's belt is off the screen so I needed to zoom out with the mouse wheel to see it.

6. Click the import button and select the object you want to import. In this example, belt_570.obj. If you have done everything correctly, the object will be imported and the viewport will display the new edited object.



7. Inject your edited yobj back into your pach file using the compress and inject function in x-packer. Then inject pach into pac as normal

That's it, the edited yobj should load in game displaying your changes.

Things i haven't tested:

- I coded functionality to change texture coordinates but don't know how to do unwrapping so I couldn't test this.