Tag: milkshape 3d

Game Development

Blog 856: My Milkshape Brings All the Models to the Unity (Part II)

Rao Dao Zao

I wrote previously about how I had made a native Unity importer for Milkshape 3D model files — well, half of one. I managed to import geometry, beautifully and reliably, but I failed to get animations working; mainly because Unity’s animation systems are utterly opaque and incredibly poorly documented. No worries, I thought, direct Milkshape geometry importing is still a really useful addition and has saved me a lot of pain and annoyance over the months since I installed it.

But I am, if nothing else, a dreamer. I just knew that getting all the way woud be amazing, and so I decided it was time to try again. Those animations will go to the ball.

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Game Development

Blog 825: My Milkshape Brings All the Models to the Unity

Rao Dao Zao

I’ve been using Milkshape 3D for all my modelling and animation needs since I first discovered it in my Warcraft III days (though it wasn’t until Guesst finally cracked animation export to MDX that I really got going). To be fair it was the first 3D modelling and animation tool I ever used, but I fell in love nonetheless. It’s very simple; you might say it’s lacking in features, but I say it’s clean and focused, and it’s ideally suited to working on the low-poly creatures, vehicles and decorations that I enjoy/am capable of making.

There is one tiny wrinkle: in order to get that artwork into Unity, I have to export it to an interchange format. That’s a whole extra three or four clicks! What if… what if Unity could understand Milkshape files directly?

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Game Development

Blog 643: 18-Gun Salute

Rao Dao Zao

A game with only a single type of enemy is not much of a game. Well, okay, actually, Unreal Tournament technically gets away with it (the differences are visual only, though they are heavily parameterised), but I’m not operating on that level — so I want there to be as big a variety of mechs as I can make.

But up until recently, I only had one character: the Delta mech. In order to stress my systems a little bit and help work out the kinks, I decided that the next mech had to be the monstrous three-legged Alpha…

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Game Development

Blog 583: Dreams of Modularity

Rao Dao Zao

The major draw of a modular design is that you can swap things in and out to suit your needs; that’s why every RDZ Industries mech is built from a solid chassis with interchangeable bits. It’s one of the reasons I chose Unity — units, characters, can be very easily constructed from independent bits.

Recently, I was sketching some odd cabin designs that I couldn’t use, and I got to thinking… What if the company published their module connector specifications? What if third parties could make alternative cabins and guns?

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Game Development

Blog 577: Series Y5: Alpha, Beta, Gamma

Rao Dao Zao

The best way to begin any project is to flesh out the core mythos. Unfortunately that’s spoilertastic meanderings that shoot off into an overblown space opera that is grander than I’ll ever be able to implement, so you’ll have to make do with a bit more artwork for now.

It is, after all, the most productive time of the year. (If I say this enough times, can it become a self-fulfilling prophecy?)

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Modding, Project Y4, Warcraft III

Blog 412: Prime Suspect Y4

Rao Dao Zao

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I made an Optimus Prime model for Warcraft III.

Prime was never finished because I never found a texturer (the UV map was actually a horror anyway). But I’m big on reuse and recycling; so I thought to myself, “how can I shove this into Project Y4…?”

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