Mikko_Sandt, on Nov 7 2009, 07:53 PM, said:
I can make a model based on one of the simple props in an hour. There is a lot of f*ckery involved with the UV mapping, texturing, tweaking meshes and so forth that takes more time after that.
After all that is done, you have to get it into the game itself.
You have to export the model. I don't know what sort of things are involved with XSI, but with Blender it's pretty straight forward. The problem is that MD3 is a very old format now and its difficult to get up-to-date exporters for it. I know that with Maya you need to have one made specifically for that version.
After that you have to write your def file. Once you get it to turn up in game there is what seems like a geological age of arsing around. You have to load the game, check the model against the sprite by dinking between 8-bit and polymost mode. You have to check for position and scale. Each time its not right, you have to quit out, alter your def file, reload the game, go to your level, play it, go between 8-bit and polymost. It gets really tedious really quickly. That is for simple props as well. Once you have animations, skin changes and so forth, the amount of time required to get it right just spirals out of control. For animations, you have to shut down the game, tweak your animations, re-export your MD3, change your def file, reload the game... I get worn out just describing it.
I modeled the Queen in day or so. Tweaking the mesh took about two days. Getting it into game so it matched the original - about 4 days.