3 Big Questions *Maya and Halflife 2 related*

[mayro]

Valve has said they will release a import/export for XSI for 3dsmax, any word on maya?


How do you know if the model you made is too much model for the engine?

Any work on the Shrek Shadow/Lighting script? I heard they made their own and after seeing the reflections in shrek i wanted to know if they are going to be selling it. From what i heard shrek has like 4 layers of skin and the script goes through to the 2nd layer and reflects light back based on a whole bunch of stuff which gives us the cool lookin shrek.

By the way - i still stink at modeling but after joining this world "the modeler's world" I have a much gretter appriciation for the work i see, and find the mistakes in others that i never thought existed "triangle pollys not shadeing correctly in movies" LOL....

 

[random.hero]

hmm, where is the best place to look for info on HL2 / Source ??

...why, the 'VERC Half-Life 2 / Source Mod FAQ' page of course !

and lookey here, i find this page telling me that plugins have been made for XSI, Max and Maya... you better bookmark that page, incase you need anymore info

PS. we dont know how much the engine can handle, so youll have to wait until some insane ass guy pushes the game to its limits to find that answer, like the one who put a 40k spaceship in BF1942

 

[AJH16]

Just some clarification

Just some clarification on the above post. There is a translation utility released by SoftImage that will transition Maya files to SoftImage using the dotXSI file format. You can download it from http://www.softimage.com/download/xsi/converters/default.htm, but it doesn't do so well on carrying over some things like texturing, so be prepared to have to redo some work in SoftImage. The other trick is that the converter does not come compiled. You have to build the converter yourself. This isn't a big deal if you are a linux guru, used to doing your own builds, but it can seem a little complicated to someone not familiar with make files. If you don't have a package like Visual Studio (or some other programming package) you will need to download the Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit (freely available version of Microsoft's C++ compiler) which can be obtained from http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/ .

As far as overloading the Source engine, you are not going to be able to do so with SoftImage EXP 3.5 for HL2. In SoftImage EXP for HL2, you are limited to 4000 triangles on any models if my memory serves me correctly. That limitation would still apply to any imported files. 5000 really isn't a bad limit though, considering that they are giving you an almost fully functional version of a program that sells for between $2000 and $9000 depending on the version. If you have any more questions about SoftImage XSI for HL2 or converting files between Maya and SoftImage, feel free to contact me. I work primarily with SoftImage, but have worked with Maya as well, and I have used the converter.

AJ Henderson
IT Director
Video/CG specialist
GameCube Café
[email protected]
AIM: AJH16