3D Other [Reference] Sites with lots of Open Source Materials (A tutorial in second post)

[Specialist]

I just thought I would throw this one out here....
If you need models for a specific mod, most of the stuff off of these sites is free for any use. In other words, give credits and there are no limits to what you can do.

For any project...
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ - Google Sketchup's 3D Warehouse
The stuff is a bit highpoly though, so be prepared to lower the polycount. Also, some stuff doesn't have textures. Use Babel3d to convert to OBJ and get textures...

For a modern day project...
http://www.gamebanana.com/models - Gamebanana should have some pretty nice models. Everything in this directory is free to use, but designed for another game. Beware of high polycount,....

http://www.gamebanana.com/textures
This here has textures, still gamebanana. They can be hybrid from ancient to modern styled.

More modern stuff...
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/index.php
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/

Just look for anything open source. If you want something, contact the creator or read the legal section. They normally don't mind. Also be aware of polycounts. I've seen items in Fallout 3 or New Vegas hit 100k polygons

For a fantasy mod...
http://tesnexus.com/
Also another good place to find models and textures. It's a good idea to ask the creators (again, as usual), but they normally don't seem to mind.

For anything (virtually anything)
http://www.sharecg.com/ - You have to have an account, but as long as you give creds and look at the copyright protection of the models, they are free.
and
http://www.turbosquid.com/ - You need an account for this too, but again, look at the description. The free models are normally free to use in any project.

I'll update this as I find more good free model/texture sites. These are the ones I have personally used before.
Also, the second post will be instructions on how to port material from Fallout 3, NV, or Oblivion mods. If you port non-OSP or non-permissioned material, I hold no responsibility.

 

[Specialist]

The spoilers contain extra info that may help you, so it's a good idea to read them. This isn't picture based though, at least not yet.

This tutorial assumes you have basic knowledge of modding, and can open, save, and edit DDS files. You can use the NVidia plugin for Photoshop, or the DDS Plugin for GIMP, which I do not have links to.

How to port models from Oblivion, Fallout 3, or New Vegas MODS:

Step 1: Get NifTools and install it.
Step 2: Get the Lite&Demo Version of the Atangeo Balancer and install.
Step 3: Download an open source mod, or a mod you have permission to use from one of the three nexus sites (links in first post) and unzip it to a temp directory.
Step 4: If you installed NifSkope, go into that temp directory. Find the folder named "Meshes" and browse through it. Open any files you may want to have in NifSkope, then move to step 5 (read the spoiler below first )

Spoiler: Step 4 Note

Most files require some polygon reducing. That is why I said to download the Atangeo balancer. If you don't care about lag or poly count limits, you don't have to reduce. As a common note.... NIF files between 25 kilobytes and 125 kilobytes normally don't need any polygon reducing, while files 750 kb to 1 megabyte can't be handled by the balancer.

Step 5 Finding the model and texture: Go to the main folder of the mod where you found the "Meshes" folder, and look for the "Textures" folder. In that, look for a texture with a same or similar name to the model you want. Normally the people that made the mod name textures after the object.

Spoiler: Step 5 Note

For example: You open "dragoon_spear.nif", look for textures, and you end up finding  a texture named "modspear.dds" or "dragoonspear.dds". Normally that's how it will look.

Step 6 - Textures: Look at the texture size. For common practice, in any of those three games, you will normally see textures that are pretty large (as in...over 1 megabyte). Normalmaps will be 1.4 megabytes each, or more. The easiest way to fix that is to convert it to DXT1 using your image editing program.

Spoiler: Step 6 Notes

You want to open most of the textures. They are usually saved in DXT5 (I learned from experience), but you can easily resave them as DXT1. Alot of the textures may be over certain sizes. You normally don't want to use a texture over 1024x1024, so if it's larger, just rescale down to that size. You don't want to use the textures over that due to size. A 1024x1024 DXT1 is 683 kb, while a 2048x2048 is triple that, which causes lag.
When you rescale, you may want to optimize textures. Otherwise you may end up with some fuzz or blur on the mesh, but it is your choice.
Another thing... if the texture has any transparency, you want to do one of two things.
1. Fill in the transparency (not required) and save it as DXT1/BC1
or
2. Save as DXT5/BC3, that way Warband can read the transparency.

WHEN YOU SAVE! MAKE SURE TO GENERATE MIPMAPS! Otherwise texture is 6-10 times the normal size (in kilobytes)

Step 7 - Exporting from NifSkope: We're gonna skip back to models now, the textures won't matter until later...
So, now you want to go to your NifSkope window and click File -> Export -> OBJ (Wavefront).
When you do that a window should pop up saying something like "NifSkope OBJ Import?". When it comes up, just click Yes. Name your mesh however you want and export it to a location on your computer.

Step 8 - Checking the Polycount: Start OpenBRF.
Click Import --> Static Mesh --> then choose your exported mesh (the one from step 7)
Look at poly count. If the object is a sword, axe, etc, it shouldn't have more than 450-500 (I aim high because I use LOD's, if you don't know how to make LOD's or don't feel like it, try for around 250). If it is a modern day weapon like a gun or a flamethrower, you can aim for 800-1200 polygons without lagging your system.
If the polycount is over those general amounts, then you need to open the Atangeo balancer (if not, go to step 10).

Step 9 - Using the Balancer: Open the Atangeo Balancer. Go to the toolbar, and click Open.
Find the mesh your exported in step 7 and open it.
The program is easy to use, but if you can't figure it out, go to the main site or google tutorials. Basically, reduce the poly count. Make the mesh lower poly so that WB can use it, and then save. With enough tinkering there won't be any rough spots, blank triangles, etc. You just have to learn it a bit.

Step 10 - Associating a Texture:
Just do what you normally do for your mod. Make sure you've pasted the textures in your mod's texture folder, then import a material in OpenBRF with that texture. Associate that to your reduced model to make sure it's the right texture. Another way to do this is to view the UV-Map in NifSkope, but I do it in OpenBRF.
If it isn't the right texture, try out a few more. Normally, the mod has textures named properly, and they aren't hard to find.

Spoiler: What if the mesh has multiple materials?

That is a common problem with those 3 games. The materials seem to have no limits. The record I've seen was 23 textures, 19 normals, and 21 speculars on one mesh. Alot of the simpler meshes like swords, axes, crossbows, or polearms have only one texture, while guns (like the one with the record textures) may commonly have up to 3 textures. In that case, I wouldn't use more than two textures for an object, but you can do whatever you want to. Just let openBRF split the mesh on import to save you the headache of doing it manually, and then associate the different textures.

Step 11 - Finalizing
This step is going to be short. Basically, import any normals, speculars, or diffuses that you have, associate them, save the BRF, and fiddle with material settings. If you don't know how to do that, look at native meshes and settings, stuff from OSP packs for Warband, etc and you should figure it out.

The next post will have instructions on how to resize and move the individual mesh types (gun, crossbow, spear, sword, etc) so that it works for the MB: Warband game engine.

NOTE: This is unfinished, but still useful. I'm 75% done, I just need to polish it up. These are my personal methods, but I won't go into what I do to make meshes look as good as they do in my mods. It's taken me a good 3-4 hours to learn how to lower polygons on any mesh and make it look almost as good as before. The other methods I use, like the ones I have for textures and the rest of it are also my secrets.

Step 11 - Reorienting the mesh to Warband size:
For any kind of static mesh, simply import to OpenBRF and then scale the object down to 5, then down to 25, then back up to 125.
Not down 5, 25, then 125, but actually scale it down to 5, to 25, then to 125.

All that's left for statics is rotating them and moving them to be oriented the same as Native materials (it's different for each item).

 

[Specialist]

##Reserved for later use##

 

[Zerilius]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Specialist]

Second post updated with about half of the tutorial. Bear with me and I should be able to finish it.

 

[Pumpkin Lord]

Nice.

 

[Specialist]

Okay, I should be finishing this soon. I'm just buffing out exacts on how to port all the weapons.
By the way, armors are not something I'm doing here.

 

[mr.master]

Nice The adding items part though, it has been covered over in a few tutorials to My understanding. I wrote a quite detailed in The modding wiki. Then again, The more The merrier? Anyways, good work!

 

[Specialist]

Well, I don't mean coding. But Fallout or Oblivion (and weapon from Bethesda games) has orientation way different from Warband. You normally just rotate to the native weapon rotation, scale down 5, down 25, and then up 125. All that should be left are minor adjustments.

The weapon coding is something I'd rather not write a tutorial on. Lol

 

[MadocComadrin]

scale down 5, down 25, and then up 125. All that should be left are minor adjustments.

That's scaled down about 11 percent simplified.

 

[Specialist]

scale down 5, down 25, and then up 125. All that should be left are minor adjustments.

That's scaled down about 11 percent simplified.

Wait... sorry.
Scale down *to* 5, then down another 25, then up 125.
Never got around to simplifying that one. Heh

 

[Mammoet]

scale down 5, down 25, and then up 125. All that should be left are minor adjustments.

That's scaled down about 11 percent simplified.

Wait... sorry.
Scale down *to* 5, then down another 25, then up 125.
Never got around to simplifying that one. Heh

0.05*0.25*1.25 = 0.0205078125 -> 2.05%

 

[Specialist]

That does help. Too bad that OpenBRF can't scale down to anything less than 5 at one crack.

 

[MadocComadrin]

0.05*0.25*1.25 = 0.0205078125 -> 2.05%

I think he means scale it down 5%, not to 5%.

So that is .95*.75*1.25=0.890625 which is down 11% or 89% of the original.
Also, you can type in how much you want to scale to--it's the ticker that only goes down by 5.

 

[Specialist]

0.05*0.25*1.25 = 0.0205078125 -> 2.05%

I think he means scale it down 5%, not to 5%.

So that is .95*.75*1.25=0.890625 which is down 11% or 89% of the original.
Also, you can type in how much you want to scale to--it's the ticker that only goes down by 5.

Wait... sorry.
Scale down *to* 5, then down another 25, then up 125.
Never got around to simplifying that one. Heh

I made a mistake in the wording.