Difference between revisions of "Tutorial:Making an asset from start to finish"

Revision as of 04:31, 18 November 2011

Currently in Progress

Creating a game ready asset

You can use this at any time during your asset creation to refer to and to troubleshoot with. This is a step by step guide to creating the cool mods you see in game. This tutorial is not for the faint of heart. Proceed at your own discretion.

Specifications

Length: Varies by user
Difficulty: Intermediate
For version: Every version

Steps

Step 1 - Choosing the program

Despite popular belief, this is not an important step. Any old program will work. The main ones:

3ds Max (Good to go)

Maya (Good to go)

Blender (Good to go)

Wings 3D (Cannot import .DAE models)

Sketchup (Needs a .DAE importer/exporter)

Cinema4D (Doesn't auto unwrap by powers of 2; exports do not function)

Step 2 - Understanding Folder Design

File:FolderLayoutTemplate.png

General Folder Layout

Creating your part is nothing if it isn't set up correctly.

To get your part in game you must set up a part folder accordingly;

{Folder=Partname}-{Folder=Textures};{Part.DAE];{Part.CFG}

More information here: [1]

Things to keep in mind:

Your texture must be in the folder labeled Textures. That "s" is important, tiny things like that will corrupt your part.

Your part.DAE is simply your exported mesh and it's collision.

And your Part.CFG is your text file correlating all of your names (case sensitive) so the game can run from the locations.

Step 3 - Creating The Asset

This part is completely up to the user. Anything that you can dream up, with feasibility in the Kerbal world is acceptable. Everyone will make different assets depending on their program fluency, desires, and expectations. Some things to keep in your mind while creating an asset(s);

Triscount
Unwrapping
Textures
Attachnodes
Boundingbox (Collision mesh)

Tris are what every model is made out of in any 3D game to date. No matter what program you use a game engine will split your model into the smallest geometric shape; a triangle. This should be your unit of measure when judging the complexity of a model. The vanilla, or stock parts, default pieces issued with the game are the best judge for what the KSP is built for, and the mod packs on the forums are the best judge for what the limit is.

File:Triscount.jpg

Triscount Placeholder

The triscount for most of the stock pieces are around 300 tris for small pieces like the TT-38K Radial Decoupler, and 2000 tris for pieces like the LV-T30 Liquid Fuel Engine and a general 1000 tris count for the boosters, fuel tanks, and pods. When assessing your tris count it's necessarily to keep in mind you want an optimized number. You want to have the lowest tricount possible, without taking away from the integrity of the model's silhouette. When modeling one can get lost in adding detail, and whilst finishing up it's important to give your model a twice over.

Step 4 - Creating The Collision Mesh

It is simply a matter of creating another separate mesh in the program you are using that has a reasonably close resemblance to the object you have made. It must be convex, and must NOT be parented/joined to the main mesh.

This collision mesh is to be called node_collider

Once it is named, add one empty material to it, and you are set to go.