3D modeling topology.

@Forces Sorry to quote you here, but you have a pretty good mod making guide and figured out you could gimme a lot of help. I have decided to dive into mod making, since I allways loved 3d modelling. (I hate coding). In the past I used other softwares to model architectural designs. Never modelled cars before.

Followed a few hard surface modelling tutorials and started with my first truck. Currently, it looks something like this:
Blender.JPG

I saw some of your models, and you seem to have a lot of triangles, which is agains what I've been taught and also, I don't know how to archieve a smooth shading without using subsuf modifier, which increases the geometry to much.

And a final question: How many poligons can my truck have in order to be properly optimized for mudrunner engine?

Thanks a lot. Feel free to critique my model as much as you want, so I can get better.

Hi @deathcoreboy1 thanks for the honor and in fact your poly flow is perfect, i only spot a pole near the door and that one that cant be avoided

you have been ussing the wrong blender version friend, thats 2.8 i guess, you need to use 2.7x (4-6-8) to be able to run the exporting pluggin from Dzen , 2.8 changes the whole ui so im lost in that new version

  • to smooth your meshes you have to go into tool-> shading Flat/smooth
  • dont worry about topology i use polygons-quadragons and Ngons because at the end ill problably press ctrl+T and turn them all into Polygons (for sake of topology once in game) DirectX only loads Polygons
  • The max amount of Polygons per mesh/object is 18K (this is the same for Wheels and addons)
  • The max amount of polygons per Mod is 2.5Million (splitted in smaller >18k meshes)

refer to the Mudrunner 101 blender Guides or my youtube Channel for more help about smoothing meshes and other info

your modeling is really good for a first try cheers

p.d my modeling isnt the best, im trying to hop into Hard Surface too for my Turbosquid models, but that takes a time to learn and so far youre ahead of me with this model haha

@Forces Thanks a lot for your complements. I started with Blender 2.79, but I fugured out, that if I'm starting out anyway, I might better get used to the new interface of 2.80. I didn't know about the export tool.

There are some other tris and poles on my mesh, but so far, I'm happy with the result. If you don't mind, I'll keep posting here if I have any other doubths.

I took a look on your Turbo Squid models, and they look awesome to me.

last edited by deathcoreboy1

Cool, looking forward to see more of your work
I haven't tried the 2.80 blender I know it brings allot of cool stuff and Eevee

@Forces So, I've been working a lot on my model and I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but, I encountered an issue. In my Blender status bar, I already have Tris: 21.418 which is more than what you told me. There are still a lot of things to add and most of it are just placeholders.
My question is: 18K meshes limit, is reffering to each mesh inside the truck? like, for example, if I have a mesh for the cabin and other for the chasis, each one can have 18K poligons? Sorry, it might be a silly question but I really have no clue whatsoever.
I'll leave you a pic of my current model so you can see how it's comming up together. (wheels, addon and suspension are just placeholders and will be completely redone in more detail later.)

blender2.JPG

@deathcoreboy1 You've got the right idea. If the cab is a separate mesh from the dump bed, for example, your cab can have up to 18k polys, and the dump bed can also have up to 18k polys. As long as the entire model doesn't exceed the 2.5m poly overall limit then you'll be in good shape. πŸ™‚

@Mexican_420 Nice!!!! thanks a lot mΓ­ster! Back to work! πŸ˜›

DAMMIT mex it was my turn hahaha...

Jaw hits the floor amazing!
Yeah you got the idea right friend... let me know if you need help to start your own topic (i can clean this one, merge some posts and give you a new fully clean thread)

@Forces @Mexican_420 Hi guys!!! its me with a new question πŸ˜ƒ

Is there any downside to modeling parts as separate meshes? For example, my air intake mesh, (the one on the hood) is a separate object from the cabin mesh. My fuel tanks, are separate meshes from the chasis and so on, as you can see in below pic:
Capture.JPG

I'm going to start modeling the moving pieces soon (Wheels, Suspension, etc) and I was wondering if the wheels have to be separate meshes from the tires and the axles... I guess I'd have to use bones to rig the moving parts, but that's a topic I want to leave for later. For now I only want to know which way I have to model these things so they work ok in-game.

PD: It's funny the three of us are from Latin America though we are communicating in english.

@deathcoreboy1
Actually, I'm Canadian... lol
And as far as my personal experience has taught me, the only possible drawback to having a whole bunch of separate meshes is optimization/framerates (more meshes means more drawcalls, etc.).
The wheels/tires have to be a completely separate model, not just a separate mesh.

Mexi is from the great way North, Right above the states, the big patch of trees hahaha jk @Mexican_420
And yeah I'm from Venezuela
Anyway...

You don't need to add the wheels in the main body, and the biggest issue is that when you crash the objects will have they'r own deformation and be extruded into different ways

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@Forces said in 3D modeling topology.:

Mexi is from the great way North, Right above the states, the big patch of trees hahaha jk @Mexican_420

We have trees?? I couldn't see them through the year-round snow, from the door of my igloo, anyway... lol

Hi guys, maybe a little off topic but I'm thinking about getting back at modding but this time on blender, so my question is, works blender the same way with animating as 3DS Max does??

@wrangmog Yes they work pretty much the same , a bit harder in some areas (springs) but thanks to @tattoo and marinjs95 for the weight paster its faster than before those tools, overall works the same (empty reference as bones, 3 bones for axles and center bone and ik bones), you can always look at my tutorials... (didn't realize not spam!)

@deathcoreboy1 mind if i ask for some ortho view Wireframes or your model?

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@Forces Thanks, lol I forgot about the tutorialsπŸ€¦πŸ½β€β™‚οΈ, and what did you mean with not spam??

@Forces said in 3D modeling topology.:

@wrangmog Yes they work pretty much the same , a bit harder in some areas (springs) but thanks to @tattoo and marinjs95 for the weight paster its faster than before those tools, overall works the same (empty reference as bones, 3 bones for axles and center bone and ik bones), you can always look at my tutorials... (didn't realize not spam!)

@deathcoreboy1 mind if i ask for some ortho view Wireframes or your

Wow, this is scaring me! I'm gonna be totally lost when I get to this part! About the wireframe ortho views of the model, sure! I'll post some when I get home. Do you mind if I ask what for? πŸ˜ƒ Any specific angle?

last edited by deathcoreboy1

To have a look at the topology , just the cab, round body shapes are really hard to me
Animating a model is really easy

@Forces @Mexican_420 First of all thanks a lot for the help you have provided so far.

@Forces here are the wireframes you requested>
front_cab.JPG

Wire_Cab.JPG

I'm finishing detailing the chassis and will start with axles and suspension soon. In order to animate them later on, shoould I make them as separate meshes? I already know that the wheels have to be a completely separate file as @Mexican_420 said above.

Here is a teaser of my progress so far. Still a lot of work ahead. Speacially the dump addon which have to be redone completely and the wheels/tires.

28-6-2019.JPG

Let me know what you think of it.

last edited by deathcoreboy1

@deathcoreboy1 dude, this is actually really good in my opinionπŸ‘ŒπŸ½