Guild of Writers

Per Deledrius's suggestion I am starting this brand new thread where I will post questions and progress reports as I learn to build ages for 3ds Max and Blender 2.49/2.67. I think to keep things organized and easy-to-follow I will put the name of the program related to each question in bold, like so:

Blender 2.49
How do I increase the DPI to make the fonts, menus and icons bigger? In Blender 2.67 I could so this in the menu.

Blender 2.49 and Blender 2.67
How do I make an object show as wireframe only, with no shading, in Edit Mode as well as Object Mode?

Now those are real questions by the way, but I don't really expect an answer here (although if I get one I will be very grateful.) I know this is not a Blender forums per say. You might see me at Blender Artists with stuff like that. But these questions are a good example of how I will format things. Please let me know if I should do it differently.

Now for progress reports... I have a treat for you guys! But first the report...

Blender 2.49 and Blender 2.67
I have successfully made my first age in Blender 2.67, exported to Collada per the suggestion of Sirus, and imported into Blender 2.49. I have also successfully configured both environments to make them easier to use, especially for Max users. Attached to this post is a screenshot from my first Blender age. I have a sneaking suspicion that I have the scale wrong...

Hmmmmm

Might be Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput maybe he should go to an age somewhere between Lilliput and Brobdingnag maybe Glubbdubdrib - LOL

Your questions concerns basics of the blender interface.
Please look at neils hirsig excellent video tutorials of blender.
If you saw those and repeated the lessons by yourself, then post your remaining questions.
I will be glad to answer where i can.

You find the video coarse at

http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html

Neils has made a similar coarse for 2.49b.
Unfortunately these are no longer provided by him since the introduction of the new interface from 2.5 and higher.

If you are seriously intersted in the old serie i can upload it to you if you want.
I still have a complete copy!

I can do that once i am back home again from my holidays.
For now i have only an ipad

As the interface is so drastically different between the two, yes I would love to receive of copy of his Blender 2.49 series. I am indeed working my way through his newer series.

What do you mean, only an iPad? Can't they do everything? Include transport you to the mothership?

Well, if you consider my Pc as mothership.
Then they can if you use splashtop 2 on the ipad.
I can play , without any lag on the gehn shard, with my ipad if i did not turn off the mainswitch of my mothership.
Splashtop perfectly streams video , audio of uru from my pc to the ipad even when i am in another country.
It is. amazing!

I will provide you a download link usingdropbox in about a week.
I only have to split it into 4 or 5 parts, because the total is bigger then my space.
I give you a sign when the first part is ready.

(For thebigger letters in 2.49b , make the button window wider and press right mouse button just outside the button area but being inside the button window. Tab ,tab key for edit mode, and z key once or twice for switching to transparent faces, i mean wireframe))

I'm about as new at this as you are, Dreambliss, but to answer your question regarding wireframe display, in 2.5x Blender you can just press the "z" key (which is the shortcut) or you can look along the bottom of the 3D window at all those little buttons, and to the right of the "Object Mode" toggle, there is another small toggle menu that gives you the Viewport Display modes, including Texture mode, Solid Mode (that's default), Wireframe mode, or Bounding Box.

Keep learning, and keep telling everyone what you've learned! (because it's helping me to learn it all too lol)

Heh, yeah, the first thing you put down is likely to be out of scale. Just how it goes, I think.

Check out the scaling information to set things up in a consistent manner (and a sample avatar for easy visual reference).

DreamBliss ,
i have just uploaded the promised 146 Videotuts to my Dropbox.
Check your Pm for the link, and please inform me when you have downloaded it.
It occupies 1.5 Gbyte (compressed in 1 7zip file) and i need the space again.

Downloaded, thank you!

I also sent you a PM.

Working on my first official age for Uru. Hint... It will be a MAZEing...

This thread deserves an update...

In short, I quit making stuff for Uru. Too many hoops to jump through. I dropped it like I dropped Platinum Arts Sandbox.

But there was more to it than that...

For a long time I have been telling myself that I have been wasting my time. This idea that one's time must be productive and well spent, which only leads to a mindset of limitation and lack. You are either time broke or monetarily broke!

A dream I had last night, worked through using the format in "Realities of the Dreaming Mind" by Swami Sivananda Radha, helped me see that I had in effect, tied my own hands behind my back creatively.

There is a young woman, a neighbor - our families are friends - who plays the flute. I got to thinking. I realized that it was highly unlikely she ever looked back at all the time she spent learning how to play the flute as a waste of time. She plays beautifully BTW - some really complicated and complex stuff - even multiple tones.

Maybe there is regret. Maybe there is something that wasn't done because one was at home, practicing. But to look back and say it wasn't worth it, it was a waste of time? I doubt any artist believing that would stay an artist.

Before this dream I reinstalled Morrowind. I loaded up my old mods - Morrowind and Amaya Lodge. Below is a shot of Valenwood. You can see I really put my heart and soul into this:


Back then I had a different user name. A different mindset. I had been telling myself the last few days that nothing had changed. My circumstances and situation remain basically the same. I was depressed. I was angry. I was frustrated. I revisited my old work and I went to bed, for the first time in days, happy. After the dream I was at peace. The spark is back!

So what does this mean? Well first of all apparently I was not diligent in keeping notes, which is why I am here, to re-remember everything I learned about modding Uru. Maybe I will find some notes I kept somewhere later. In the meantime I want to re-famileriaze myself with the process.

In all likelihood my first age idea is dead and will stay that way. I am inspired to do something better. I do not know on which "canvas" this something better will be painted. Will I do something for The Witcher or The Witcher 2? Well I revisit Morrowind (unlikely)? Will I do something with Skyrim? Unity 3D? UDK? CryENGINE? Or Uru? I don't know. Blender and Gimp are my brushes. All Max work is hereby officially ceased. I will, from now on, only use and support free or open source tools. The aforementioned tools are the various canvases I will choose from.

So for now I am collecting information and getting my memory refreshed. If I start on an age I will let everyone know. Chances are I will see which free GCS is closest to scale with Uru, so I can model something in Blender, import it into Unity and test it there, then bring it back into Blender for Uru. Or I might try using the Blender game engine. I just have to find the right process. It would be a lot easier if Uru had a good, graphical and stable editor. But for now I will do what I can with the tools I have on-hand.

So that's my update, enjoy the screenshot, and if you want the plugin for Valenwood for any reason let me know. I wouldn't mind making something like that for Uru. But I am not setting anything in stone right now. I am leaving myself open and receptive to my creativity, in whatever form it decides to manifest itself through me.