Tempust85

@@minilogoguy18 Yeah, I read through that Appleby doc to make sure I had everything correct. I added a mesh_root to begin with, and removing it changed nothing. Must be different for Max. @@Psyk0Sith I thought about using multiple scenes, but I decided to use layers off the bat to keep everything neat. Thanks for the help guys, I combed the scene again after I finally got some sleep and I fixed it. I had the r_leg named as another l_leg. Loads up and switches fine in Modview now. Doesn't matter how much you learn, you can still trip up on the simplest of things.

Me too, which is why after looking at Hapslash's Stormtrooper I decided to try harder to get my own to a lower tri count. He did great (and certainly kicked Raven's ass), but there are a few little things that aren't very accurate and it's the ANH armor. The one I made is ROTJ armor and is as accurate as I could make from the refs I had. Now I just need to try and squeeze a little more tri's out of LOD0 and make some extras.

Zbrush does take a bit getting used to for some (including me), but what you can do with it is worth learning. There's also Mudbox you can try.

Ah ok, well you should pickup a Zbrush trial and give it a go.

Now that you're in a sculpting program, I'll let this pic speak for itself in terms of helping you:

Ok so I've now tried my hand at making LODs. My model compiles fine until I decide to include LOD1 & the LOD1 tags. I get error 6210, and I've tried fixing the tags as mentioned here http://psyko3d.50webs.com/tutorials/errorfaq.htm to no avail. My LOD1 model & tags have the "_1" after it, and have "stupidtriangle_off_1" linked to nothing (tried a mesh_root and didn't make a difference). Any ideas guys?

Reminds me more of Gothic 1/2.

The final count for that is 7,088 tris which is still too high and that's with no extras. I'd have to do some serious LODing to make it remotely useable. EDIT: Ok I can't get it any lower than 6,620 tris without a full redo. I have however made LOD1 at around 4,500 tris. Chalk, it's upto you whether you want to use mine or Hapslash's Stormtrooper.

Thought I would at least see how mine looks ingame:

Ok cool, this will also serve as a JKA version seeing as I can't find a working JKA link anywhere. Almost done. I've done a few little tweaks, including some UVW mapping tiny issues & fixing the hand plate. Just need to finalise and weight. I'm also combining in the sandtrooper parts.

I'm pretty sure no one cares if you tinker with their models, so long as you give them credit for the original. If you want, I could un-mirror Hapslash's Stormtrooper for you.

Speaking of Hapslash's Stormtrooper, I cannot find a working link to the JKA version anywhere.

To be honest, you may as well just use Hapslash's improved Stormtrooper. I'm really not liking the tri count on mine, and I can't really cut anymore detail out without ruining how the textures fit. That and I don't really feel like doing a full remake just for JKA. There isn't really anything wrong with Haps one and it's already done, though it could use is a worn version.

If you made this in 3ds Max, make sure you reset xform on the mesh and collapse the stack. Any surfaces that are flipped you will now notice, then all you need do is flip them back to normal. I would also do an editable normals modifier and make sure all your mesh's normals are unified.

@@Corto nailed it, only thing I have to contribute at this point is the distance between the top lip & nose is too much.

Yeah forget the head for a while, work on the body.

Chalk, man what happened lol? Your 2nd last update was alot more closer to him.

Ok, got it down to 7,800 tris. Can't really go any lower without a complete overhaul of everything.

Looks great! Will it be on PS4 though is what I'm wanting to know. I'm trying to figure out if I won't need my PS3 anymore.

Why not just change the .skin file it uses? I think it's .skin file 'G' or something, haven't looked in quite a while. I recommend looking in modview for the correct skin.

I do plan on doing LOD's, the original model's tri count is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too high not to have them. However I will only be making 2 LODs, preferrably: LOD0 - 7,500 tris (original model, need to get it down to this first or lower) LOD1 - 5,500 tris LOD2 - 3,500 tris The only person who did make them that I know of was Hapslash, no one else (once again that I know of) did not even me.

The way I get existing animations onto the biped I animate with in 3ds Max is using Bippy, which converts animated objects into a character studio biped. Neat tool really if you understand how to use it.

Ok Chalk, I got the tri count down from 12,000 to 8,345. Trying to find areas where I can cut detail from, but it's getting harder and harder lol.

Well that would explain why I haven't had to use it for my custom skele, I thought it was some pure luck but this is indeed great news!

If you want to edit animations in a way that's 100% compatible with JKA's other .xsi source animations, import the .xsi file that contains the animation you want to edit into Mod Tool. Then it's as simple as adding it to the rest of the xsi source animations for JKA and compile with carcass. AFAIK, XSI/Mod Tool will export out a 1:1 copy of the SRT & BASEPOSE data. 3ds Max exports out slight deviations with its SRT & BASEPOSE. Nothing that's really noticeable, but you will have to use the -ignorebasedeviations option with carcass.