In this tutorial you will learn how to make a basic model and import it into Red Faction. The Tutorial assumes you know absolutely nothing about 3D Studio Max. In this tutor I will be using 3D Studio Max 4.2 other versions are very similar.
Getting started:
First of all locate your 3D Studio Max directory. Open 3D Studio max. When you first open 3D Studio Max the interface will look very confusing after a while you will slowly get used to it and it will get much easier to use.
First box:
When we build these boxes we will mainly be using the front and the top view port.
Thats the view ports Im talking about. We will also be getting around somehow right? So we will be using these tools.
They are found in the bottom right hand of the interface.
Ok now lets start on the right hand side of the interface you will see a thing that looks like this.
Thats the main tool bar. When you first start off you will be in create mode. (The mouse cursor) there is also a modify, hierarchy, motion, display and utilities mode. We will be using create. Ok Lets start with our first box. On the main tool bar click Box now in the front view port click and hold down in the top left corner and drag until its a long rectangle like this. You will notice when you take your finger off the mouse button the box in the top view port will move thats the depth make it square then click again. There you have it your first box. It should look a little something like this.
Now if you have done everything correctly on the right hand side of the interface under the main tool bar you will have approximately these numbers.
Now we have to change these. You should round off to the nearest 10 when modeling. Here is what we are going to change them too. Length= 150 Width= 50 Height= 50. Now the box is on the left hand side of the view port. We are going to have to move the view with the pan tool.
Click the hand then in the front view port drag the cursor you will notice the view moves you can also center the box in the top view port.
Second Box:
Now that we have done the first box we will need a second. So we will use the clone tool. Using the Move tool we will select the box. The move tool is located on the top tool bar it looks like this.
Click it and click the front view and draw a box around the box. Now it is selected. We now will clone the box. In the edit dropdown menu select clone.
Click on clone now set the settings to this:
Now click ok. You will now have 2 boxes but the second one is over the top of the first so we will have to move it. The move tool should still be selected. Now you will see a green line with an arrow (y axis) and a yellow line with a red arrow(x axis). Click the yellow line and drag to the up or down. Now the boxes are separate.
Now that we have 2 boxes we will need to rotate one of them to make the cross. Next to the move tool there is a rotate tool that looks like this.
Click that button. Now in the left view port we will rotate the box. Click on the X axis and drag up or down. Drag it until you get something a little like this.
In the front view port it wont be an exact cross. Listen this is how we will fix that. Select both the boxes then the right click on the move button and this box will come up.
We will center the boxes in Absolute X Y and Z-axis put 0 then press enter. Your cross should look like this in the front view port.
Pan across so the cross is in the middle. Now you have the main cross.
The Second Cross:
Now we will make the second cross again make a box but not as think and wide, something a little like this.
Make the box these settings: Length= 130 Width= 30 Height = 5. Now left click on move button then right click it and set the settings to this.
And then the top view will look like this.
Now clone the box and rotate the new one. And it should already be centered and looks a little like this in the front view.
Third Cross:
Select the boxes from the second cross and clone them now move them to this position.
Now we have finished our model :)
Skinning:
We will now need to skin our model so it looks like a medipack. Create a red and white texture and save them in .tga format on your desktop. Select Material Editor from the rendering drop down menu or press M.
In the window that pops up select the first orb.
Now see the maps rollout, click the + on that to drop down this menu.
Now click that none that is circled.
Now double click Bitmap and select the white texture. You will notice that the orb will turn white. Now with the Material editor still open select the 1st cross and click the 2 buttons circled.
They are Apply material to selection and show map in view port.
Now with the second orb repeat the process but select the red texture and the 2nd and 3rd crosses. (Hold down ctrl to select multiple objects)
Now we will render the model to have a look what it looks like in 3D Studio max but first get a good view in the perspective view port with the movement tools. Make sure the perspective view port is selected (has a yellow border around it) and then from the Rendering dropdown menu select Render at the bottom of the Render window click the Render button. This is what the final render should look like.
Now you can close the windows and save your work. To export the model you will need the Rftoolkit now in the V3Dexporter folder you will need to copy and paste the plug in and paste it into the plug in folder in your 3D Studio Max directory. (you may need to restart 3D Studio max after this process. Now select all of the boxes and in the File dropdown menu select Export.
Now in the export window save the file as medipack and export it in .v3d
Now in your meshes folder in your 3D Studio Max directory copy the medipack.v3d file and paste it in your ccrunch folder in the RFToolkit directory. Now its time to change the format to .v3m follow the ccrunch manual carefully then convert it to .v3m. Copy and paste it to your desktop. Now you will need to extract your items.tbl from tables.vpp using the VPP Builder. Save the items.tbl to your desktop. Now open the .tbl in WordPad scroll down until you find medical kit now change it to this [click for original image];
Now add items.tbl, medipack.v3m and the 2 textures to a blank .vpp call the .vpp test.vpp now save and copy it. In your mods folder in your Red Faction directory create another folder called test paste test.vpp inside that. Now start up Red Faction.exe go to setup and in Misc command line put '-mod test' with out the quotes. Run Red Faction and your medipack should look like this. You may want to scale it just a bit. :)
![](images/modtutes/static/image018.jpg")
![](images/modtutes/static/image031.jpg")
