"Everyone break out your cum-buckets, you're gonna need 'em."
--- Barrett 'Bear'Alexander, id Software

ganslick@quake2.com | MessageBoard | Questionnaire

 

01/31/98 NST 0.76 Released!, Sonic Model

Paul Burslem has created a Sonic the Hedgehog player model, which can be downloaded here. NPherno has released another version of NST this time v0.76. New features include : Import and Export under mapping have been added.... If your skin size is exactly the same, then the mapping will load _perfectly_, however, if you've changed the size of your skin, NST will re-size the mapping to fit, and that might cause a slight variation... You can only import .nmp files back into MD2s of the same triangle count as they were saved from. Enjoy! NPherno Steed, NPherno is expecting an email from you :P

01/30/98 NST 0.75 Released!

NPherno has released v0.75 of NST. This new version comes bundled with a load of features, some of which include : What's new: Companion Mode: Load a second MD2 via the Companion menu. Secondary MD2's must have the same framecount, with the exception of weapons and player models...which will load if the frames are set at 198 for the player and 173 for the weapon... Bug Fix: There's now a 99.9999% chance that your views won't freeze when painting or moving the camera...the bug was _dumb_ (can you say don't break out of loops randomly) and now the only interaction delay _may_ occur on NT systems during startup, but that's out of my hands... Next up: Windowed 3dfx mode preview...and possible Pen tablet support. I am playing with the idea of allowing NST to load multiple MD2s not just for comparison, but for actual editing....you'd simply toggle between all that you had loaded, however, the 3d window speed will be a real issue...=], as will choosing the palette to use when rendering...the most likely choice will be the currently select model. That's it for now...keep the e-mail coming, and I'll keep the versions going =-] NPherno So, email NPherno and tell him what a great job he's doing.

01/29/98 studioMDx

New tool called studioMDx based on the MedDLe code has been released on the studioMDx home page. Some of the features included in the release are : * Load/Save MDL files * Load/Save MD2 files * Import/Export PCX skins * Full animation preview * Select/Rotate/Scale/Move vertices * Select/Rotate/Scale/Move objects * Copy/Insert/Delete Frames You can download a copy here.

01/28/98 Email

My email has been disabled for the past 48 hours ... and has just minutes ago been fully operational. If anyone has sent me any mail during the past 48 hours, i'd appreciate it if you were to resend it. Thanks.

01/27/98 NST, New Player Models

Version 0.72 of NST has been released by NPherno. New features include : * Neato soundtrack and intro...Hold Ctrl when starting to disable. * Newfound stabilty, and cleaner memory handling. * A mix bar, set the bar to the percent you wish to paint with, and start the majik! (You can lighten/darken/tint with just the 1 bar once you understand it) * Palette import * New skins show lines instead of checkers =] Henry from Quake Studio MAX informed me of a Bones Pro tutorial that he has created on his page. Stecki from Decontruct has created a new player model, goes by the name of Waste Jonn Gorden from ZeroGravity Entertainment has created an Astro-Boy player model replacement.

01/23/98 Messageboard

Many thanks go out to Frenzon from Riot.com.au for setting up our Messagebaord! If you have any comments about this site, suggestions, questions regarding modeling/animating, quake2 models ... or anything regarding 3D, then visit the messageboard! Who knows, maybe we'll see the odd 'celebrity' in there from time to time.

01/22/98 qME 3.1 Preview released, Small Request.

A new site dedicated to Quake2 Models has emerged, goes by the name of NonReality. Worthy of a bookmark for sure. qME v3.1 preview has been released by 3DMatrix. Both an upgrade and a demo can be found to download on the 3DMatrix home page. I have a small request. I receive alot of repetetive email from people, and instead of creating a FAQ which will answer these questions i would like to create a messageboard. The problem being, wwwboard doesn't seem to work with Quake2.Com, so if anyone out there can host and setup a messageboard please email me. Much appreciated.

01/20/98 NST Undo Shortcuts, Addition to Questionnaire, New Player Models

NPherno has just released v0.65 of NST. NST as we all know, is the premier Skin Tool for Quake2 Models. Some new features : 3 New modes : * Dots * Marker * Line Re-size skins option...it re-sizes the mapping and skins. NPherno, the author of NST has sent along news that the Store and Revert options in NST are the Undo keys ... he seems to be getting alot of mail regarrding the Undo option which most people cannot find. Thank you to Dave Manuel of SunStorm Interactive for filling out the Questionnaire. Our second addition to Questionnaire today, this time by Rich Fleider of Rogue Entertainment featuring a very detailed response to 2D-Art, as opposed to 3D-Art. Yet another thank you to Rowan Crawford of Animagrafx Pty Ltd / Impact Dev Team for filling out the Questionnaire. Rowan recently created the Morbo player model. kray-zee, the man behind the excellent kray-zee's Modeling Guide has released his Snork model.

01/18/98 Addition to Questionnaire

Thank you to Cyrus Lum from Iguana Entertainment for contributing to the questionnaire. It's nice to know that this site is visited by people not only from the Quake Community.

01/17/98 Addition to Questionnaire, new Q2 Modeller.

Phillip Martin has released a new version of Q2: Modeller, currently standing at v0.83, which can be downloaded from here. This new version includes a Skin Painting Tool .. which is very handy, along with a handful of other features. Thank you to Jonn Gorden of Zero Gravity Entertainment for contributing to the questionnaire.

01/16/98 NST v0.60 Released, qME 3.1 Release Information.

NPherno has released v0.60 of his excellent skin tool, NST. * The modification of skin mappings is 100% supported... * A couple of Bug fixes * Apparent NT support (Don't ask me) * More Shortcuts * Faster draw in some cases. * Documentation. Yes another emplyee from TeamFortess Software has contributed his time to the questionnaire, thank you Allan McKay. Received information from ^Mortis^ about the upcoming release of qME 3.1 : Finally qME 3.1 is almost ready to be released. The beta testers are currently testing it and I hope to fix the bugs that may turn up within the next few days. I am now preparing the preview releases that will be released without new documentation hopefully this Sunday. After the preview release I will update the docs fix any bugs that may pop-up and release the real 3.1 versions within a few weeks. why the long silence I don't want to hype up something that will take me months to finish. My time is limited and I worked like mad to get all the MD2 functionality working. I hope it has been worth the wait. * Features I now fully support MD2, painting on the 3D model has been made ALOT faster and the rendering has been doubled in speed on my 90Mhz Pentium. It doesn't give me a doubling in speed on my 200Mhz system though. I also implemented an animated GIF writer that can record animations directly to a file. Check the URL for a swell animated space marine! qME, as we all know is the premier model tool for Quake; it will surely be a worthy tool to any Quake2 modeler/animator.

01/15/98 NST v0.54 Released, Addition to Questionnaire

Yet another addition to the questionnaire, this time by Jeramy Cooke from TeamFortress. There is a new addition to the questionnaire by K. Capelli from Accolade. Big thanks goes to everyone that has contributed thus far. NPherno has released a new version of the allready popular NST, currently at v0.54.

01/14/98 3D Modeler/Animator Questionnaire

Our first major special on this page, a questionnaire filled out by professional 3D Modelers/Animators in the gaming industry. It has taken me a few days to gather all the information i need, and to create a mini-database, but it's ready for your viewing. It's aimed at encouraging 3D-Artists, informing them of what tools the 'pros' used when they were rookies, and general hints & tips, straight from the horses mouth. To view the form results so far (we have a total of 4 postings so far, ranging from iD, ION, Crack.Com and RebelBoatRocker) click here. If you are a professional 3D-Artist, and would like to contribute by filling out a very short questionnaire, click here. Alernatively, you can visit the Info section and follow the links from there. Q2: Modeling Studio is now hosting the Quake2: Modeller page. This great program is the #1 tool for modelers/animators who wish to create Quake2 models. More than a worthy addition to anyones bookmark collection.

01/13/98 New version of QDATA, NST Released!

The long awaited NST (NPherno's Skin Tool) v.053 has been released as is available in the Tools section. Here is a brief description from NPherno, the author. ... the only thing outside of PSP or Photoshop, and a Six-pack that you'll need to edit the skins of an MD2 =] And some last minute notes from NPherno himself : ... when commands with the mouse require either Shift or Ctrl to complete in NME or NST, you only need to hold them when you first press the mouse...after that you can let go...and should...if you hold the buttons, and move, your motion will be lagged...if not, you'll be as normal...but the lag only usually occurs if the updating window is large... On a different note, i've noticed that some other Modelling site(s) have been ripping news of my site without giving credit. Please folks, this page is not a brothel, so don't treat it like one. Yet another version of QDATA, this one modified by the team behind QuakeMUD. This version of QDATA flips the normals of your meshes, which is necessary if you are importing from 3DSMAX and get abnormal looking results. Please note that this page is farily unviewable on IE 3.x. For some reason, the colors are wrong and the text is misalligend.

01/12/98 Team BDP looking for modeller.

Team BDP is looking for a pair of taleneted modelers for an upcoming TC, which is well underway in development. Email BDP for further information.

01/11/98 Q2 Modeller v0.82 Released

Phillip Martin has been rather busy lately, and has released v0.82 of Q2: Modeller. Looking at the history.txt found in the package one can see the number of bugs that have been fixed.

01/10/98 Model in the works.

I usually see no point in posting screenshots of unfinished models for the purpose of making people aware of their existance, but i'll make one exception this time around. The below character goes by the name of Banshee. The skin was created by Ryan Butts and the model created by Buckethead. More images can be viewed here. [shot] [shot1] [shot2] [shot3] [shot4]

01/09/98 LWO Modified QDATA

Ken Turner has released a modified QDATA, which has built in support for LightWave's .LWO file format. A must for LightWave users, which can be downloaded from here.

01/08/98 MedDLe Source, Thanks.

There are going to be a large number of tutorials pumped through this page in the next couple of days, i've completed some more modeling and animation tutorials, but i have no idea what people out there would like to learn, so if you have any ideas on what the tutorials should be centered around, drop me a line. The MedDLe source code for version 2.01 Alpha 3 has been released on the MedDLe Homepage I'd just like to thank everyone who visits this page and everyone who has dropped me a line congratulating me. I really appreciate it .. without you people this page would not exist, period.

01/05/98 Q2-Modeller v0.81 Released, 3DStudio VIZ review.

We have a very lenghtly review of 3D Studio VIZ on Tools page, kindly contributed by Rogue13 There is a new version of the popular Quake2: Modeller. Amongst the many bug fixes are : * Newer help file * Should save .md2 files properly now * Animation Frame Scroll Bar * Added progress indicator for saving md2 and mdl files. * Heaps more. The new version can be downloaded here, or from the Tools page.

01/03/98 SoftImage|3D, PowerAnimator Review, FatBitch.

I received a quick response from Henry Provoof Quake Studio MAX with a review of SoftImage (thats Soft[image - with a French accent]) to all the newbies. We have a new model on the models page, compliments of HotFat Head over to the Tools page and check out our new review of PowerAnimator, contributed by Rowan Crawford We are still in need for a review of SoftImage, so if any SI user out there would like to spare a few minutes of their time, and write up a few lines on it, please drop me a line.

01/02/98 Quake2 Modeller V0.08

I received an email from Phillip Martin with release information for his Quake2 Modelling tool, simply named Quake2 Modeller. Here is a brief list of features. * Import/Export MDL, MD2 files. * Import .ASC files. * Copy/Pasting between models. * Full Skin Editing (works like a mesh editor, with selecting, rotating, scaling etc). * Load PCX files. * Save skin meshes to BMP format. * Wireframe view * Flat, and Texured view, both Z buffered * generate the Header files the (m_*.h files) for all you Quake 2 Developers, * Coordinate ouput window. This is REALLY useful. It outputs, the FrameName, the current co-oridnates, and the difference from the last set of co-oridantes. Super useful for doing the offsets for wach frame when doing the programming side for the models.

I had a play with this program, and i must say i am VERY impressed. Philip, the author, released this out of the blue, and i really wasn't expecting much for a program that just poped out out of nowhere, but i was mistaken. I'll definetly be making some tutorials using this tool as a primary MD2 creator. Head over to the Tools page for a more detailed description, and download this program, as it will be essential for model creation.

Head over to the tools page (yet again), for information and download sites for JawMD2, an OpenGL MD2 viewer.

01/01/98 Model - Maskman

First off, hope everyone had a nice and happy New Year. To start off the new year, we have our first model up on the MODELS page, created by sAbO

12/28/97 Back in Business :

Head over to the tutorials section for our exclusive Quake2 Model Tutorials! Tools section has been updated, with correct links to MedDLe, and links to the OpenGL MD2 viewer. If anyone has any tutorials, models, reviews or previews of anything to do with Quake2 modeling/animating, please email me. This site needs to grow in content, and i can't do it alone. I added some more reviews of 3D packages on the TOOLS page, compliments of you, the visitors of this page.

12/27/97 Damn modems

Major connection problems. Had to get my cable-modem replaced, that took over a week, no FTP access for over three weeks. Only a few more tidbits to resolve, and i'm back in business, with some neat tutorials i've cooked up. Thanks to everyone that has emailed me with reviews/updates .. highly appreciate it. I'll do a MAJOR update in a few hours.

12/08/97 MD2VIEW, NME, General Shit

Just received an email from Crack.Com's Trey Harrison, informing me of the fact that he's updated MD2VIEW with a bunch of new features, as described below: Just wanted to say I've updated md2view to version 2.1.. lets you take screenshots.. has a mini 3dfx emulator for those poor souls who dont have a 3dfx card, lets you spin the model around with the mouse, toggle between skins for each model, etc. it will also read directly from .pak files, too. its command line based though, so you gotta read the readme.txt for info on using it, but it works pretty well once you get the hang of it.

I gave the program a quick whirl .. and it works great! As Trey said, go through the readme.txt if you want to view the MD2's straight from the .PAK .. As always, you can pick up MD2VIEW from here.

I received my new copy of NME the other day, now supports Lit-Textured (sorted) and Lit-Textured (Z-buffered) .. these can really be helpfull to people like me, who don't want to go into Quake and back just to see how the model looks like with different light settings etc .. NME lets you simply adjust the light settings internally.

Received an email from Jon Mahenski informing me of the new features of True Space 3, check it out...

Just a quick note on Truespace... The latest, ver.3, has an updated keyframe editor that makes things much much easier than before. It can be d/l from caligari if you have a registered copy. Supposedly, it will also be shipped to registered users, although I haven't received mine yet... Also, you can have a four view mode by just opening view windows and arranging them on your screen, all the while you can switch back to the main perspective to make sure you haven't screwed something up... These can also be the default upon loading TS3. Anyway, for the average Joe that hasn't got the small fortune to by 3DS Max 2.0, I'd consider TS3. Much cheaper and it's got all the bells and whistles, 'cept bone modelling, and motion capture, but Hey, it does have plug-in features, much like 3DS. And I did see somewhere that someone is working on a bone modelling plugin. Who knows..