The Final Objective
Having the two object models in mind, I want you to pause a minute and think
about why I chose them. The RF-9 plasma gun is a great start. Although it’s no ordi-
nary object, it’s not too difficult to model, and for now will have no moving parts.
This is my favorite type of object to model and texture, because it’s generally quick
to develop and has what I would consider an easy texture skin. Beveled, futuristic
metal is fun and looks really cool, so I think you’ll enjoy it—in fact, that will be
your first modeling project to get your feet wet.
The slogre model, on the other hand, will be by far the most complex. The slogre
will consist of only one skin mesh, but will have an internal skeletal structure
(known in 3D Studio Max as a biped object) that will be used to drive the mesh defor-
mation. That is, as the bones in the biped object move around, the vertices in the
mesh will follow. On top of that, you’ll be weighting the mesh (adjusting the behav-
ior of the mesh around the bones) and skinning. Lastly, dummy nodes must be
placed all over the slogre to signify locations for the character to mount weapons,
backpacks, point-of-view cameras, and the like. The model itself, being organic, will
also be the most time consuming, so we’ll save that for last.
Summary
Developing a complex 3D game model is definitely a time-consuming process that
must be well-planned in order for your model to be successful and presentable in a
gaming environment. The development can be broken down into several basic
steps, beginning with an initial concept sketch to provoke modeling ideas (which
leads to creating the model itself in a 3D modeling program), followed by U-V
mapping, texturing, possibly applying a bones system to deform the mesh, and
finally outputting to a game engine of choice.
Lars provided some great sketches that you can use as you create the models and
textures for this game. Of course, you don’t have to stick like glues to the sketches
(although it should be close); feel free, by all means, to make up your own models
as you go. The techniques I’ll show you—from modeling, to U-Ving, to skinning
and animation—will still apply.
The next step in the development process is creating the actual object meshes, and


To give you a quick review, Figure 3.2 shows the RF-9 plasma gun sketch that you’ll
be using to model the plasma gun; you probably remember from Chapter 2,
“Getting Ready to Model: Concept Art,” that this sketch was generated by me and
my colleague Lars Ricaldi.
26
3.
Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
Figure 3.1
The next step in
compound-asset
development: mesh
creation.
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When you’re finished,
you should end up with
something like the mesh
shown in Figure 3.3.
27
An Overview
Figure 3.2
The RF-9 you’ll be
modeling in this
chapter
(sketch
courtesy Lars
Ricaldi).
Figure 3.3
The completed
plasma-gun mesh.
NOTE

Changing the World
and Object Units
Generally speaking, one meter in the trueSpace modeling environment equals one
meter in the world of the video game you’re creating. (It’s a good idea to use the
metric system because most game engines are based on it.) To ensure that your
modeling environment is set to use the metric system, do the following:
1. Right-click the Object button (with the white arrow) to open the Object Info
panel (see Figure 3.5).
28
3.
Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
NOTE
G-LoK.tsc is an interface-configuration
file that will set up your modeling envi-
ronment my way, displaying three
orthogonal views (Left, Front, and Top)
as well as a background Perspective
view. Over the years I’ve found that this
is a fairly optimal way to model, but by
all means, you should arrange the envi-
ronment to your liking.
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29
Setting Up the trueSpace 6 Environment
Figure 3.4
Changing the model-
ing-interface configu-
ration by importing
the G-LoK.tsc file.
Configuration

Figure 3.6 Setting
the dynamic render-
ing modes.
The Display Options:
DirectX button
The Draw Objects as
Transparent Outline button
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2. Select either DirectX or OpenGL mode.
(One mode might outperform the other
depending on your video card, so check
your video-card manufacturer’s docu-
mentation for more information.)
3. Select the Draw Objects tool, and press
and hold down your mouse button.
Then, choose the Draw Objects as
Transparent Outline button.
Texture Resolution
If you apply bitmaps to any object in your dynamically rendered world, you’ll need
to crank up the dynamic texture resolution—otherwise, your textures will appear
pixelated. Do this by right-clicking the Draw Objects tool (or by clicking File,
Display Options), and setting the Txt Res option to 512×512.
Keeping the Point Edit Tools Handy
Much of the modeling you’ll be doing is based on point editing—that is, building
or modifying your objects at the vertex (point) and face level. I like to keep the
Point Edit tools right next to the Eye Rotate
and Eye Move tools, at the middle-right of
the screen, to make them easily accessible.
To make a copy of these tools, press and
hold the Ctrl key as you drag the Point Edit

vision, and movies. That’s because games have dynamic rendering environments;
that is, as a player moves around in 3D space, all 3D mesh objects are rendered to
screen at least 30 times per second. That means the player’s computer’s CPU and
graphics processors must constantly transform the game world and render it at the
same time—which in turn limits the number of polygons your models may con-
tain. Models with high levels of polygonal detail may look better, but will be so slow
to render on a player’s computer as to make them unusable.
Put simply, models for games must be created to accommodate the average
computing power of home computers on the market. These days, that equates
to designing your models to work with computers in the Pentium IV and V range,
at about 2.5 to 3.0 GHz. That means rather than creating character models with
50,000–100,000 polygons, as seen in the film Final Fantasy, you’ll need to create
32
3.
Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
Figure 3.7
Locating and
anchoring the Point
Edit tools.
The Point
Edit button
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character models with polygons in the
neighborhood of 2,000 to 5,000, and
weapons possessing only 500–2,000 poly-
gons. This need for a low polygon
(poly) count will deeply affect the way
you model; with every step you take to
shape your object, you’ll work to mini-
mize the count.

for a similar effect. For instance, the
RF-9 has a hose-like item running the
length of the action, but modeling a
hose would require hundreds of poly-
gons. Instead, you can use a simple
curved cylinder, and later apply a tex-
ture map that features an image of the
bumps in a hose to that area. If you can
fake something with a 2D map, then it
might not be necessary to have high
poly counts for certain areas.
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Step 1: Planning the Model’s
Dimensions and Poly Count,
and Creating a Reference Plane
Before you start dropping objects all over your scene, it’s a good idea to plan your
model and set up your environment so that you can avoid the most frustrating mis-
take that modelers make all the time: getting halfway finished with your model and
having to scrap it all or backtrack because you didn’t plan ahead. Following are a
few things to consider.
The RF-9: Pea Shooter or @$$-Kicker?
I mentioned in Chapter 2 that the slogre stands at about four meters (13 feet) tall.
Given that the slogre is more than twice the size of an average human male, the
RF-9 can be big and heavy, despite the fact that, as illustrated in the sketches you
saw in Chapter 2, the slogre carries it in one hand. I figure a beast that possesses
the size and strength of a slogre can handle a weapon that’s roughly two meters in
length—half of his height—with the height from the gun’s strap hoop to the bot-
tom of the handle being about one meter (refer to Figure 3.2). Knowing the
dimensions of the weapon will sure come in handy as you proceed with creating
the model!


ways, such as taping a hard copy to the edge of your monitor, flipping back and
forth between trueSpace and another program that houses the image, or—my
personal preference—creating a reference plane (a 2D plane you create in trueSpace
that has the actual sketch painted on it).
35
Modeling the RF-9
Levels of Detail
When you build a game, you’ll typically need several versions of the
same weapon model, each with different levels of detail (LOD). One,
which will have very high resolution, will be seen only by the player as
he holds his own weapon (because the player will be able to see the
model up close, a higher level of detail is required); one or several less-
detailed versions will feature a lower polygon count, and will be seen
being held by other players.These polygon counts may also vary with
distance. For information on creating LODs, see Part IV,“Preparing
Assets for Games with 3D Studio Max.”
NOTE
There aren’t really any rules to model-
ing; some techniques, such as point
editing, are more efficient, producing
fewer polygons. Other techniques, such
as Boolean operations with primitives
and NURBS, accelerate the process.
Of course, accelerating the modeling
process may require you to clean up
any unnecessary polygons at the end.
See Chapter 4 for details on advanced
modeling with NURBS (non-uniform
rational b-spline) objects.
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Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
TIP
I’ve saved the individual modeling
steps as trueSpace .scn files in the
Chapter 3 Data section on the
CD-ROM in case you get confused.
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Step 2: Build the Muzzle
Now that you’ve determined the model’s dimensions and established a poly count,
it’s time to start building the model. The part of the RF-9 plasma gun that’s easiest
to model is the muzzle. Notice how the muzzle is really just a large, egg-shaped
sphere primitive with two adjoined cylinders on the top sides. This is the resonating
chamber, where the charged energy pellet enters a plasma-injection chamber and
gets superheated in a fraction of a
millisecond, before annihilating a
nearby targeted object.
37
Modeling the RF-9
Figure 3.8 Painting
the face of a properly
scaled and rotated
reference plane with
the RF-9 Plasma
Gun.jpg image.
NOTE
The modeling techniques I use for the
rest of this chapter can be applied by
anyone using trueSpace version 4.0 and
later. In the next chapter, however,
when you model the slogre and other

To open the basic Primitives panel,
press 6. If you use trueSpace version
5.x or higher, you can also open the
Primitives panel by clicking on the
Primitives Library button, located
in the vertical toolbar in the bot-
tom-left portion of the screen.This
contains a more extensive and help-
ful list of primitives.
Figure 3.9
Add a 12-segment
sphere primitive,
rotate it 90 degrees,
and elongate it to
match the sketch.
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7. Click the Erase Vertices tool, located
within the Point Edit tools, to delete
the selection from the sphere, as shown
in Figure 3.11. (From now on, when I
want you to remove something, I’ll sim-
ply say “Select, and delete.” That’s your
cue to repeat
this step.)
8. Press Ctrl+C to make a copy of the
sliced sphere. In trueSpace 6, your cursor
will change to an arrow with a plus sign beneath it—just left-click once in
the scene to add the copy, and immediately right-click to exit the copy mode.
9. Scale and position the copy as shown in Figure 3.12; it should line up with
the reference plane’s sketch.

object with only one front face (see Figure 3.15).
15. Select the front face of the muzzle; you’ll extrude this to form the muzzle’s
flare (see Figure 3.16).
40
3.
Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
Figure 3.12
Make a copy of
the existing sphere
object, and then
scale and position
it as shown.
Figure 3.13
Select the first two
segments of the
top sphere object
and delete them.
Figure 3.14 Sweep
the front face of the
sphere and continue
the extrusion until it
matches the face of
the lower sphere.
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16. Use the Sweep tool to extrude the face of the muzzle.
17. Move and scale the extrusion in an orthogonal view so that it matches the
reference plane sketch, as shown in Figure 3.17. (Remember to use the Point
Edit: Move, Rotate, and Scale tools to do this, and not the Object Move,
Rotate, and Scale tools. These tools are located in the Point Edit tools that
pop up when in Point Edit mode.)

21. Select the muzzle object, click on the Object Subtraction tool, and then click
the cone to hollow everything out (see Figure 3.21).
42
3.
Modeling the RF-9 Plasma Gun with trueSpace 6
Figure 3.18
Sweep the face again
and move, rotate, and
scale it to match the
sketch.
Figure 3.19
Select the top six
edges near the
muzzle’s end and
scale/move them
down.
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Voilá! A muzzle! Obviously,
you could do a lot more to
make it more closely resem-
ble the sketch, but I want to
keep things simple for now.
Interestingly, however, the
twenty or so steps it took to
create the muzzle constitute
more than 80 percent of the
modeling operations
required to create most
objects; that means you’re
well on your way to creating