Hey guys, dont know if any of you can read the PotBS forums, so I will c/p this for you:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Three commonly used programs for flags and sails are:
* <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html" target="_blank">Adobe Photoshop</a>. The most expensive, but also the most powerful. Great if you have other heavy-duty graphics-creating needs.
* <a href="http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307383&pid=1047025487586" target="_blank">Corel Paint Shop Pro</a>. Very reasonably priced, and more than capable of doing all you need for flags and sails.
* <a href="http://www.gimp.org/" target="_blank">The Gimp</a>. Totally free, and just as capable of creating flags and sails as Paint Shop Pro.
There may be other programs available. The basic requirements are A) the ability to work with layers; B) the ability to work with transparencies (alpha channels); and C) the ability to save in PNG format, with or without transparency (24- or 32-bit color space).
Edit 6/15/2006:
FLS has just announced a <a href="http://www.flyinglab.com/pirates/logs.php?log_select=381" target="_blank">2D Content Preview Tool</a> for all you flag- and sail-makers! Grab it and use it to get an idea of how your content will look in game
3D modelling program: <a href="http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax" target="_blank">GMax</a> by Autodesk (FREE!)
3D modelling program: <a href="http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/" target="_blank">MilkShape</a> 3D (FREE!)
3D modelling program: <a href="http://www.anim8or.com/" target="_blank">Anim8or</a> (FREE!)
3D conversion utility: <a href="http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/" target="_blank">Deep Exploration</a> (Not free, but very handy for viewing/converting models)
3D conversion utility: <a href="http://www.micromouse.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.micromouse.ca/</a> (can save to Maya ASCII (.ma) -- almost free, USD$20 as of 7/16/2005)
There are a few ways of constructing hulls... lofting I find is never a satisfactory method, as it will innevitably involve a large amount of booleaning, where it really isn't necessary. Everyone finds a method they're comfortable with through practise, but I've found that the best way (for me) is to lay out, as splines, all of the frames, in their correct positions.
You can loft them at this stage to check that it looks reasonable, but I (and I model in cinema4D generally, although I do have access to Maya thanks to work - and I don't like it much - not for modelling anyway) leave the splines as they are for the next stage, so that I might use them as 3D guides.
To build the hull properly, I take a simple cube, adjust the dimensions so that it fits exactly between the two midship body lines, and then I cut the two outboard vertical edges of that cube into however many sections I deem necessary for the job. If I'm working on a particularly high detail model (which is the usual case) I might use 8 cuts to start off with. Next I grab the vertices and position them according to the body lines (slightly outside them, in fact, for reasons that I shall explain later). Once this first segment is done, I will pick a direction to go in (ie to the stern, or to the bow), and then select the face of the 'cube' that points in that direction, and extrude it up to the next body line, and position the verts roughly, extrude again, etc. until I have reached the penultimate bodyline.
I stop at this point because of the way the shape changes so drastically. At the bow, the whole thing sweeps up, and this needs to be carfully worked to get it right. You can extrude the final time for the bow, making sure that the end snapes into the keel (and I build the keel and hull as one single object, as it keeps everything nice and tidy that way). You'll find that it all conforms to the bodylines, yet still looks rubbish - more later <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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The stern is more tricky, as it curves up under itself basically. By having done the bow first, you'll have a pretty decent idea as to what is needed for this area, though - basically just give yourself the necessary number of verts to get the job done, and place them appropriately. At this point, you will find yourself with a mildly dodgy looking, vaguely hull-like object.
The next phase is the tweaking phase <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> Here you adjust the points to get the shape more accurate, and add rows of polys where necessary to get the shape better (when doing models for games you need to keep a close eye on that poly count though! and although low now, it can easily rise shortly!). Once you are happy with the shape, you need to use sub-division surfaces to smooth the shape out. All the major apps, 3DS MAX, Lightwave, C4D, Maya, modo, etc. all have sub-d's in some form or another. For a game mesh you will use the lowest number of subdivisions that you can get away with. You'll know what that is when you see the poly count <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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Once this is done, you will most likely find that the body plan you used as a guide was not exactly accurate, and so you'll need to go over your whole control mesh (the name we give to the rough, low poly model you perform the sub-d on) to smooth out unwanted bumps and undulations, and correct the shape in places - particularly the bow and stern.
Once you are happy with what you have, you would freeze the mesh (and for game purposes it is imperative that you use edge weightings to ensure you have good sharp edges, and don't use a high-poly technique and round the edges of the control mesh
). Details such as gunports are best added to the model by constructing a single base object - a cube, effectively, scaled appropriately, and then multiple instances positioned along the hull in their respective locations, rotated so as to conform to the hull shape. Then you can boolean them into the hull. This will make a mess, and so it is very important that you spend time to clean up the mess.
Once you've got to this stage, how to do everything else on the ship should be fairly obvious to you <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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Using that exact method, I created a 74-gun ship, to be portrayed as a hulk, in the space of just a few days. (Including textures). That one wasn't for a game, so I was able to use more polys - 100k, in fact. You can fairly easily get a decent looking ship for 60k or less, even <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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Don´t know anything about modelling - at all!. But it IS a fact, that Akella has delivered the sailgaming-engine and the ships in PotBS. Maybe these tools can make new ships to PotC Engine 2.0 as well? What do I know?...but maybe its worth a try? They mention "vrml2-files" in there a lot... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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(In addition, there is a hull lofting tutorial <a href="http://www.worldwideflood.com/CAD/start.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>)
(..And a quick tutorial on converting Gmax models to maya .ma files <a href="http://members.cox.net/potbs/GtoM.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>)
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Here is a basic tutorial on how to get started. It's for trainz, but the basic idea is the same. You have have to work with different settings since the train engine is a nice simple box and your hull will be curved.
<a href="http://www.worldoftrainz.com/Pages/T...ter1TutTRS.htm" target="_blank">http://www.worldoftrainz.com/Pages/T...ter1TutTRS.htm</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Also, I could rip several more links from the site, if there is any specific you guys might have in mind. I.e. if you want any tutorials for a wide array of modelling programs, like <a href="http://www.3drender.com/rhino/boathtml/index.htm" target="_blank">THIS</a> one (a program called Rhinoceros).
" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> like.. I downloaded PLENTY of programs but none of them allowed me to change like textures of the ships. What I want to try as my next program will be maya but I tried to find a serial key for v.5 that i found on ftp-commander (from pieter's site <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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" border="0" alt="me.gif" /> well, i'll try all u've told me to do (i mean the programs 
) and well tnx alot! ill tell u if i come up with something useful lol <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bookish.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":mm" border="0" alt="bookish.gif" />
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> /// But this game... I dont know shit about modeling hehe... It has files ive neer heard about "tga.xt" WTF 
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