Developers of the GPL game Nexuiz are looking for modelers, and who better qualified than a blenderhead?
From the Nexuiz site:
Nexuiz is a 3d deathmatch game made entirely over the internet. The purpose of the game is to bring deathmatch back to the basics, with perfect weapon balancing and fast paced action, keeping itself away from the current trend of realistic shooters. It uses HFX textures by Evil Lair, and currently has 17 maps to frag in. With an advanced UI, the user can select between 15 different player models to use, with an average of two skins for each, and can connect to our master server to play people from all over the world.
SavageX writes:
I'm SavageX, lead maintainer of the free (as in speech, GPL) multiplayer online game Nexuiz. We started in 2002 and released version 1.0 in May 2005. Currently we're shipping version 2.0, released in June 2006. Every release we made had several hundred thousands of downloads and our community is large enough you'll usually always find between 20-80 players online (depending on time and timezone you're living in).
So... where's our problem? We clearly need some fresh models. The player- and item-models were modeled right after the project started and don't live up to today's standards. The game engine we're using fully supports dot3 normalmapping as seen in e.g. Doom 3 and Quake 4 - but the models are predating this functionality by years and therefore don't take advantage of that. Their animations usually are mediocre as well. Human models are somehow out of proportions etc. You can see some (very outdated, but the models are still the same) shots [here] and some more recent shots [here (zip)]. Of course you can download the whole game and have a look, too.
The project itself is alive and has some very active crew behind it - it's not going to disappear anytime soon. We don't have any active modelers, though, so we stuck on that side at the time being. We'd greatly appreciate any help. If you are interested to help you can reach me e.g. via email at maikmerten AT gmx.net or e.g. in #alientrap on irc.anynet.org (our development team is named Alientrap). I'm of course monitoring [the BA thread]as well... so feel free to post any questions or feedback or whatever comes to your mind.
So if you've been looking to break into the gaming world as a modeler, here's your chance. If you would like to see more, download the game!
**Edit: SavageX has opened a thread with technical information and overall model project discussion.
17 Comments
Is the game entirely developed in blender? Wich game engine is used?
The Quake III engine I believe...
It is a heavily modified "Quake I"-Engine which supports "Quake III"-Maps. The levels or maps look quite good and you need a very fast machine to play the game with full details and effects activated, but it is correct that the player models look somewhat blocky.
Hmmmm...... So I'm guessing the models are in a format that blender can export to?
I sure hope so as I was once helping some guys make a HL2 mod and I had to export the model to autocad format, then use another program (milkshape or something like that) to convert it again into HL2 format. Very annoying.
As far as I know, the models used in Nexuiz are standard .3ds or something similar. It's built on top of the Darkplaces engine (based on q1), so you might be able to find some info there.
@Kayde
postlogic is right. I had the same question as you since Blender didn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on the game's site. From what I read .3ds is the file format of choice.
Blender has a built in MD2 exporter.
However there are some other Quake exporters here.. ( MD3, MD5, Q3 BSP )
http://71.80.10.207:8080/programming/blender/
If you use the scripts above, give feedback to the author regarding both feedback on bugs / improvements, as well as encouraging them to submit the scripts for inclusion in the official Blender distribution.
Mal
I'd love to get in on this. I wonder if we have access to some of the models currently in use for reference...
Then again I could ask directly and come back with anything I find out.
Until then...
Very impressive!
Thanks alot for the nice comments and help. I wasn't aware we were featured here - thanks alot, very cool!
I opened a thread with technical information and overall model project discussion over at http://www.alientrap.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=587 - feel free to post there if you have comments/questions of any sort.
SavageX
Nexuiz is definitely the best free FPS that I have found; it is really a shining example of what open-source software is capable of. I will have to see about figuring out the model format so that I can try to be helpful:).
actally there is are some beta exporters for hl2 around, and I know at least one of them works.
a friend of mine is making buildings and props and got them textured into hammer/ingame.
Note: I don't know if this goes for animations as well.
@FreakyDude
Sweet, Can I know where to get one of those converters? (preferably the one that works)
hey, is there support for LAN yet?
Yeah, LAN servers will be listed in the same list as internet servers. Due to their low ping they're usually on top of the list.
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Can supply any of the models from my website & preview ((cheap special price for you)))...of course the best stuff is still under my bed...Marty