3ds max - Designing on curves

[Kaz]

I have a section in my map where I would like to incorporate some fancy curved design:

[lvlshot]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1563/curved.jpg[/lvlshot]

I was basically wondering if anyone knew of a way inside of 3dsMax where I could design the outer wall in a "flat sheet" and then use something similar to the bend modifier to "fit" it to the outer curve. Bend does what I want, but I'm unable to say "this edge of the mesh goes here, the other edge goes here, and stretch everything in between to fit along this curve".

Example: http://www.clacosupply.com/photos/06%20 ... Peters.jpg

[TRaK]

I'm not sure if this can do what you want, but you can use the Pathdeform(wsm) modifier to distort your geometry along a spline.

Like this:


It's described around the 9:45 point in this video:
http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3d-art ... echniques/

[Kaz]

Just a minute or so before you posted I started playing around with that... hah! It's a little hard to see what it's doing... I'll have to read up on it and watch some videos when I get on faster internet. The search continues!

[^Ghost]

not sure about 3ds max since i never used it, but if ur usign radiant u can do something like that very easily with a couple of bevels... this is what i whipped up in about 5 minutes...


its very sloppy, but the idea is there.

damn it made me open gtk and now i wanna map

edit: did u guys purchase 3ds max legally, if not where can i 'purchase' it myself

[obsidian]

We don't talk about 'warez' here, but 3ds Max does have a free time limited trial version on their website. If you can still find it, you can give GMax a try, it was the free version of 3ds Max designed for game developers but it is discontinued now (it was pretty much all the same modeling tools). Otherwise, Blender 3D is a free open source full featured 3D modeling application that will do pretty much anything 3ds Max will do as far as game developing is concerned.

[obsidian]

Here's how I would do it:

Create a spline

• Create tab panel > Shapes > Line
• Use it to draw a curve as you would with a bezier curve (click once for one end, click-drag for the second end and curve).
• Set Interpolation to how many curve subdivisions you want.

Extrude the spline

• Modify tab panel > Modifier List > Extrude
• Set the Amount to whatever you want for the height of the curve.
• Set the Segments to how many height subdivisions you want.

Further edits
If you're going to do further edits to the curve for more detail bits or whatever, in the Modifier List, choose Edit Mesh. Since this is still part of the stack, you can still go back and edit the number of subdivisions as necessary. You can also collapse the stack by selecting the curve, right click and in the menu choose Convert To > Editable Mesh (though if you do this second method, you won't be able to edit the original line or extrude modifiers).

[obsidian]

Actually, the above instructions will create a curved wall. To do what you want in the Chester Peters image above, it's probably easiest to create a torus, convert to editable mesh and then just delete the unnecessary faces.

[o'dium]

Why don't you make the basic shape and then export it to .obj, import it in max, and then edit from then, exporting at the end?

But from what I can gather it may be possible to make what you need with patches anyway, with a little work.

[moai666]

But from what I can gather it may be possible to make what you need with patches anyway, with a little work.

As seen in PG room in q3dm7?

[Kaz]

Sorry, I should've clarified that I meant that reference as just an example of a curved thing, not the actual design I want (which is complicated enough to warrant needing this sort of tool).

Imagine doing something more like this: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/3477 ... c7.jpg?v=0

[obsidian]

Extruded splines or splines and lofts.

[Kaz]

Thanks for your input obsidian, I get what you're saying, I'm just not sure that would allow me as much freedom as far as odd shapes and such go...

Here is what I've been able to accomplish with using the Bend modifier on a "flat" mesh. I applied it, played with the "center" option, and was able to get the curve *pretty* accurate, but not 100%. Fortunately, I can simply select the verticies on the edge that isn't totally on and manually get rid of the little error and it meshes great with on-grid brushes in radiant. Note that it's just a test mesh the final will be much cooler :

[lvlshot]http://student.cs.appstate.edu/freemancw/junk/shot0032.jpg[/lvlshot]

[obsidian]

There are any number of creation methods, many times you would be mixing various techniques to get the job done and there is never any one correct way of doing it. Something like that I would have used some lofted splines and then boolean subtract out the portholes (but what you did is perfectly okay too).

[urgrund777]

One way that works (of the many ways to do this!)
The length of the wall you are modelling needs to be of length : ((pi*r)^2) / 2
Which will make it perfectly fit the 90turn in the screenshot.
Now, to make it the perfect length, just use a 2x2x2ffd cage and set the control points to be at the perfect distances! This lets you be flexible with the wall segment you are modelling as the FFD and Bend can just be on the top of the stack.

That's if I understood correctly that you're wanting to model the curved wall segment initially as a flat wall in 3dsMax?

[Kaz]

Yes, that's what I was looking for! I was hesitant to do the math ... I have little experience with the ffd modifier, but I'll let you know how my experiments go.

[fKd]

hay kaz, lets see some of ya levels, the shots you post always look cool, but i've never seen any beta/wips. come on share

[urgrund777]

whoops - made a silly mistake, you don't square the pi*r (which would be volume!)... so just remove that ^2

[Kaz]

@fkd: thanks for the compliment, it'll be awhile before this one is released in any form, i'm maybe 40% on the way to a beta