3D artist looking to join a project

[6649066d9e42dBren]

Just got System Shock 2 on steam last night, installed a few of the mods to update the game and was pretty excited by the whole thing.

I was wondering if there are any ongoing project that could use some help in the 3d department. I'm interesting in helping but would like some assistance breaking in to the whole thing. I figure joining an existing effort would be the best way.

Thanks,

Bren.

[6649066d9e66bZylonBane]

Well, you might have noticed that a lot of objects in SS2 have Z-fighting issues (for example, the side of the truck thing at the beginning of the game). If you'd be willing to undertake the grunt work of fixing those, it would be much appreciated. What sort of 3D modeling experience do you have?

[6649066d9e777Bren]

Maya2013 is really all I'm strong with. Does that translate to anything that can work for the game?

I've not noticed any z-fighting business, though its been over a decade since I've really played the game. I'll snoop around ...

[6649066d9e89cZylonBane]

As long as you can do low-poly work and import/export 3DS format you should be good to go. The new version of the game engine that SS2 runs on is, for some reason, more prone to bringing out the flaws in the original models. Fixing them should be just a matter of deleting the duplicate faces that cause the flicker.

[6649066d9e9b3Bren]

Sounds good. Any idea where I should head next?

The last game I had any real experience 'modding' was Doom. So I'm pretty lost.

Thanks

[6649066d9ebe1Kolya]

Find TRUCK.BIN in obj.crf (all CRF files are actually ZIP archives).
Use the tools included in Shocked Toolkit to create an intermediary e file and then a 3ds file.
Fix the 3ds file (take a look at the truck in game to see the problem) and convert it back to BIN.
Create this folder structure to override the original truck.bin with your fixed version:

Code: [Select]

DataTempMods
 |_OBJ
     |_truck.bin

Check the results in game.
When you're happy with it, start a new thread here and link to an upload of the file at some file hosting service.
At this point you will likely get uploader rights here and the staff will move your mod thread to the SS2 mod forum where visitors can point out other models that need fixing.

[6649066d9ee1dZylonBane]

As a point of technical interest, the way model work in SS2 goes is like this--
1. Convert the BIN file to an E file. E files are plaintext, so you can directly view and edit the material settings and such.
2. Convert the E file to a 3DS file.
3. Edit the 3DS file in your modeling program of choice.
4. Convert the 3DS to an E. Required since that's the only format that the model conversion tool accepts.
5. Convert the E to a BIN.

Note that converting BIN->E->BIN won't always result in exactly the same object, due to BIN being intended as a "final" format that uses edge lists and whatever other strange encoding that apparently works very well for the software renderer that it was originally created to support, but makes it tricky to convert the model back to a collection of discrete polygons. So it's best to only convert the original model once, then use the E or 3DS as the baseline version.

[6649066d9ef79Adrian]

Hey Bren,

Me and one other person are working on a survival horror FPS called Ruin that draws most of its inspiration from SS2, Thief, Bioshock, Amnesia and Dishonored, to name a few, albeit with a style all its own. I saw that you had some experience in Maya and I thought I would ask if you had any models or anything that we could see, as well as if you would like to collaborate? We are planning for a major release on PC, Mac OS X and PS3 ideally, so it wouldn't be a pet project or anything like that.

My email is neo167@gmail.com if you can send anything my way!

Thanks.