[Enzo03]

Well I decided I'd get to work with my first serious mod.  Gotta start somewhere so here it is.

edit: I guess the best thing to do with UV Unwrapping will just be to get good at it the way I know best, like with learning guitar or something like that. In the meantime, enjoy my mediocre models
I have these models but I'm having trouble with the UV Unwraps simply because I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate them, so I've been trying various applications.
Here's a model I made a couple of days ago, so I'm just going to use it as a "My First Model Import" or something along the lines of that:

It is 100% symmetrical from front to back, so I was planning on making a UV map which could make use of this, although I'm still unsure on this because it is my first unwrap on anything even semi-serious (other than garbage UV maps for trashy models during my game programming class last year, pun intended )
Now as you may be able to tell, I made this model in wings3d (version 1.4.1 to be specific), and I can't stand it's UV Unwrap system.  I have identically sized parts on the model stretched to horridly different proportions, and the whole thing is just a mess.  Although workable, the last model I unwrapped with Wings was only about 150 polies, yet took over 5 hours for me to get a decent unwrap (Didn't help that it crashed halfway through ^^).  I looked for free alternatives:

First I tried LithUnwrap and it does a horrible job: I automatically get what looks like the top of the ship, the bottom of the ship, and a huge cluster**** of lines everywhere else.  I simply cannot make out which polys/triangles that it could possibly be.
I read that LithUnwrap was updated to Ultimate Unwrap 3D (if this is wrong, fix the wiki ), so I looked at it and it was by no means free.  I do not know how I'm going to be able to make use of demo software that can't save anything, so that was out of the picture.
I cannot afford Autodesk products so do not tell me to buy them.  Well OK, I CAN buy them but I do not want to because I have more important uses for my money than 3D modeling software for a hobby.
GMax? I actually haven't tried it for UV Unwrap purposes.

Anyway, now I'm trying to do this with Blender 2.49, but hardly know where to start.
I looked here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,61061.msg1241903.html#msg1241903
But some of the things I must use simply are not there!

When I look up tutorials online, all I find are how to unwrap stupid cubes and, if I'm VERY LUCKY, spheres.

So I'm kinda at a loss of what I should do and what I should use.
Help?
Of course, if anyone wants to do it for me, then by all means but...

[SypheDMar]

Not bad. Reminds of of WoD actually.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

[shameless_plug]
It's your lucky day, I just added a good chunk of Blender-unwrapping to my tutorial, and more is coming up
[/shameless_plug]

For a first model, that's pretty nice too.

[JGZinv]

Quanto (of Stellar Assault) put this up for Silo some time ago...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_dUc2qOpA

Silo ain't free either, but depending on how you feel about the ease of what is shown.

There's a lot of UV tutorials in the Tut thread....

[Rampage]

Wings3D actually has an excellent unwrapper.  All you need to do is tell the program what edges to cut by marking them as "hard", select the faces you want to group together, and unwrap using projection normal.  Then you can edit the UV map by selecting overlapped faces and moving them appropriately.

-R

[Enzo03]

Not bad. Reminds of of WoD actually.

Funny. I was basing this design off of Ace Online/Air Rivals/Phi Doi's I-Gear.  I was going to make a semi-serious (but not happy-go-lucky) anime-esque TC since I can draw at least halfway decent.  But soon after, I saw Wings of Dawn, and then:

It's an excellent mod though.

If I go through with mine, I am considering doing some stuff involving custom cockpits if I can.

various others offering tutorials

Thanks I'll look at them.

Wings3D actually has an excellent unwrapper.  All you need to do is tell the program what edges to cut by marking them as "hard", select the faces you want to group together, and unwrap using projection normal.  Then you can edit the UV map by selecting overlapped faces and moving them appropriately.

-R

Like I said, I often end up with some strange screw ups in sizes.  I will say that if Blender doesn't work out, I'll probably end up trying to use Wings3D again.

One thing I would like to know is if (in Wings3D) if I cut the model in half and then UV mapped the half, if I mirrored it again would the mirrored half be UV mapped to what the other half is mapped to?

[Rampage]

One thing I would like to know is if (in Wings3D) if I cut the model in half and then UV mapped the half, if I mirrored it again would the mirrored half be UV mapped to what the other half is mapped to?

Yes.  This is how we Wings3D people do it.

-R

[Spoon]

Is it based on this?

Because that's what I based the LSF caliburn on (is that ace online? I dunno tbh)

Anyway, your model looks good! (but I may be a bit biased )

[JGZinv]

Yeah it's an ACE Online I gear. Not sure which armor package.
ACe is also known by Space Cowboy Online and some other names overseas.

[Enzo03]

Space Cowboy Online was the old North American version by Gala/GPotato. It ended up being shut down on either christmas or christmas day of... 09? I forgot.  Anyway, soon after that there was an illegal international version called Aero Ace with huge EXP gains, and it was quite short-lived.  Luckily, soon after the official international version called FLYSIS, based in the depths of Europe, was released. It changed its name to Air Rivals due to some trademark/copyright scare from the name.
There was a Vietnamese version using an older episode of the game called Phi Doi floating around at the time as well.
During all of this, there was another Asian version under the ACE name.  Soon after, a North American release was hosted by Subagames, named ACE Online, yet Air Rivals still allows for NA players due to being international (yay, because I don't want to grind all over again!!).

Spoon: As I said, I did base it off of the I-Gear!  I did not want to make a specific design, so I just looked at a random I-Gear picture that would give me a good idea of what I wanted to make:

...and I went for it.
If I were to name any I-Gears that this would be most similar to, though, I'd have to say it's one of the various I-Gear Early Types you see as mobs.
I'm not using the blue color scheme though.

My next ships are straying away from the I-Gear design though.
I made this bomber last night, and I called it Kanabo:

I don't like the nose :-\
I don't want to square it off, but...
Well anyway, I think I got a decent Unwrap for the Katana.. ..and now for the other thing I hate to do: texturing.
At least following the tutorial in the sticky shouldn't be too bad.

Thank you again for those who offered help with UV Unwraps.. I stuck with Wings3D though.

[Scooby_Doo]

Doesn't look too bad, only areas I see that might be somewhat problematic is the cockpit area.  Just remember to divide and conquer.

[JGZinv]

^ is an older M gear design too ^_^

..and yeah I forgot the names by Flysis, Air Rivals, etc.. I talked to people about picking up the
3rd party patches scene as it was dying. There's some good wallpapers for interesting ship designs. 

[Enzo03]

:-\ I didn't use the M-Gear as a base at all
Now that I think of it, it does look a bit like some of the Defender armors, but I didn't even glance at the M-Gear design.

Next thing you know, when I decide to model this forward-swept wing design for an interceptor, someone's gonna cry B-Gear even though I was really just looking at the Su-47.

[JGZinv]

These aren't the best pics... but it should get what I was pointing at across...

http://ace.winner.co.th/Guide/img/M-GEAR.jpg

http://www.crashjunkies.org/HoDu%20M-gear.jpg

I don't mind whatever you base the stuff off... was just making the connection.

Some of the other boss armor designs are very nice too, like the Jealousy Defender, Serapia Binder, Vellocatus Veil, and
Exorcist Binder.

[Enzo03]

Ok that does it.
Wings -> POF conversion how-to has proven to be a beotch after horus hours of searching and bathroom breaks and brain meltings.

I have MODView32 and PCS2.  Wings exports to a .dae although I have little to no idea whether or not it's the one that supposedly can be used by PCS2, yet PCS2 doesn't give me the option to import .dae anyway..
edit: I am using version 2.0.3 or whatever it is.  Is there some other version I should be using?
I read of a separate program that should be able to convert .dae to .POF, but I can't find it.. or maybe I'm too sleepy and/or lazy to find it.. at least for now.

I don't think my models' current sizes are gonna cut it at all since last time I used Wings3D for 3D models in XNA w/ C# (this was long ago in a high school classroom far far away (literally, actually) and I was the only one doing a (crappy) 3D demo), it was 1) really really small at the scale I originally used for the models and 2) Backwards!! O_o, but I don't have the original versions of said XNA demo models so I can't compare size.

So I wanna know a couple of things from Wings3D users:
1) How big should I make the model?
2) Which direction on the Z-Axis is the front of the model? I don't want all my ships flying backwards like with XNA.
3) An internet or two for explaining in baby steps how to get from .wings to a .POF loadable in PCS2 and Modview32 so I can start messing stuff up
(Internets only redeemable if condition is met while valid.  Condition only valid if not self-fulfilled.  Chances of actually receiving internets are 1 in 50,000)

[Commander Zane]

If you do make more of these ACE ships could you make a design based on the Rapid Binder I-Gear?

[Rampage]

You will need to get the Wings3D model into DAE, 3DS or OBJ.  Then export it into Blender and bring the mesh into its right hierarchy there (use the tutorial in the Wiki).  Then save as COLLADA and import into PCS2.

-R

[Enzo03]

Oh my God almost every edge is marked in Select->Non-Manifold when loaded in Blender!!

edit: Actually, it is every "cut" line I used in my UVs! What the hell?


edit again: Fixed by Select->Non-Manifold, vertex mode, and then removing doubles..
The Blender to POF tutorial didn't say anything on that :-\

[Asteroth]

Oh my God almost every edge is marked in Select->Non-Manifold when loaded in Blender!!

edit: Actually, it is every "cut" line I used in my UVs! What the hell?


edit again: Fixed by Select->Non-Manifold, vertex mode, and then removing doubles..
The Blender to POF tutorial didn't say anything on that :-\

Buddy, I learned the hard way. They don't tell you a whole hell of a lot.

[Enzo03]

Learning life the hard way is bad enough.