Submission Guidelines [Updated: 8/1/2012]

[Dunkelschwamm]

I have full games worth of models I have almost ready to submit, but their textures are in 256 color bitmaps, and converting the textures to PNG would require manually resaving every texture as png and then editting the model to use the png textures, and considering most of the models have around 20 or more textures this would make submitting the models really more time than I'm willing to take.

Pretty much what I'm getting at is: Is it a huge problem if I submit the textures with the models in bmp format?

[Shadowth117]

I have full games worth of models I have almost ready to submit, but their textures are in 256 color bitmaps, and converting the textures to PNG would require manually resaving every texture as png and then editting the model to use the png textures, and considering most of the models have around 20 or more textures this would make submitting the models really more time than I'm willing to take.

Pretty much what I'm getting at is: Is it a huge problem if I submit the textures with the models in bmp format?

Well kinda. I see what you're getting at and a lot of people have asked this, but I can't really let it slide. The thing is for .BMP's especially that they are a LOT bigger than .PNG files because they're uncompressed.

I'd suggest getting a batch converter to convert your .BMP files to .PNG and then editing your .MTL's, .DAE's, .SMD's, and/or 3DS's with a hex or text editor to fix them by using the replace all function to change all instances of .BMP to .PNG. It may seem like a pain, but it sure as hell beats doing it manually.

[Dunkelschwamm]

It'll definitely be a pain to convert everything for every model, but I want to see The Models Resource flourish, so I'll see about doing that. Thanks for the quick response

[gabrielwoj]

I must say I'm excited to see this finally become public. I'd just like to add that .smd may be a good format as well as many programs support it and it retains skeletal data as well. In my opinion it's easier than .dae.

Dazz actually gave me the OK to go ahead accepting other formats, but I thought he was going to change the Submissions board message (at which point I would have changed it here), but I guess I'll just change it here for now.

TLDR, if you want to use .SMD format go ahead!

Hey! I have opened a NSMBD (3d model of DS's) and how I put on some 3d program?
I would like Blender

You need to use a print screen ripper. No they unfortunately don't rip with bones that way.
Oh yeah and here's a link to Blender: http://www.blender.org/

Very old post but...
I'm now ripping stuff, textures/models etc!
I did an thread with help about Mario Kart DS, but one thing
About this Print Screen Ripper, is there somewhere I can found?
What is the recommended please?
And how works this program?

Thank you

[Shadowth117]

I've changed my opinion on the Autodesk .DAE plugin since it seems to be much less buggy now. In fact, I'd now recommend for people to use it in place of the other ones honestly.

[Zerox]

That'd be great except your link to Autodesk's version goes to the FBX plug in. Does it actually have 2011 support now?

[Shadowth117]

That is the .DAE plugin, .FBX and .DAE are lumped together in the same plugin. And yeah, it has 2011 support.

[randomxfirerecording]

I can't figure out how to use that icon maker...

[Zerox]

Well what part of it are you struggling with?

[Shadowth117]

Forgive me for saying that it really, really shouldn't be that hard to use, but I'll help you out here.

To make a new icon, go to file and click new icon. Specify the resource the icon is for (Models, Sprites, Textures) and then if it a game section or sheet icon. To add a name for the sheet you go to Text and then hit Add Text to get a little window where you enter what you want to name the icon. Now there's two ways to get an image onto the icon. You can copy the image from somewhere (it has to be small enough because you can't resize it in the icon maker) and click Image and then Paste Image to get it on the icon. You can drag it around with the mouse to position it and that's that really as the effects the icon maker itself adds aren't too good.

The second method would be only if you wanted to make an image for a player model or something that doesn't take up the whole icon box. Since the Icon Maker doesn't support pasting in images with transparency, you have to manually edit these types of images in through another program. Personally I use a program called Paint.Net (Not the name of the website, homepage is getpaint.net), but you can use any decent image editor for this you want like GIMP, Photoshop, whatever. The whole reason behind this is so that you can have anti-aliasing on the model images so they look nice rather than blocky edges. The AAed look really is worth it in the end.

[randomxfirerecording]

Yeah, that's what confused me. I figured there'd be a way to resize in-program. I used gimp but transparency came off as a white background, so I ended up just using black, if that's okay.

[Shadowth117]

Eh, its fine but its really preferred if you just overlay transparent images over the icon background manually to get it to look nice. Just make sure you use a separate layer for the transparent image or it won't come out correctly. But yeah if you can't get it to work for some reason plain black and white backgrounds are fine I suppose.

[randomxfirerecording]

I suppose I can try again, I'm a perfectionist sometimes like that...

Anyway, there's a thread around in the Models Discussion forums if you want to see what it is. "Custom/Edited," because I can't rip things right yet, so I model things and edit them. But I'm not even a great modeler...

[Shadowth117]

I'll tell you right now, ripping is different for almost every game and it doesn't vary generally because of complexity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is far easier to rip from than Super Smash Bros. 64. Its just because of the methods you have to use to do things. Depending on what you're ripping, you may need to get a little creative at times to get the best rip or do it the most efficient way.

As for modeling as much as it pains me to say it in some ways I'm still learning and I'd honestly like to do it professionally. I've improved over the years despite a general lack of schooling in the subject through practice.

This was my very first custom model ever. It was supposed to be my 8th grade middle school's mascot. God knows why they had 3DS Max 3 in my middle school Auto Tech class, but it was awesome even if the teacher had no idea how to use it.


Yes it seriously sucked. Very, very seriously. Over time I practiced at home and took classes in school when they were available. I'm pretty sure I've gotten better since then.

This would be the most recent model I've done from scratch.


Its not amazing and lacks materials, but its sure shows my improvement. As you can see though I still need lots of practice and I'm not afraid to admit that. It just takes time to get better at things like that.

[Zerox]

To be quite honest I think the improvement is substantial though they're very different kind of models so it's hard to compare them fairly. Still the mascot doesn't look half bad. =)