you can do it either way; but with no animation exporter(or source code for calling new model animations anyway) there is no animation for new models, except weapons which use hardcoded(in the exe) scripting to rotate etc.interestingly there is an animation call for animated weapons, but none of them are animated models.

keep in mind theres only one exporter and its for ms3d, so you'll need a format you can import to ms3d;or you have to model in ms3d(which is how i like to work)

http://www2.propichosting.com/Images/450014434/1.bmp

not sure how to post links here but thats the link

this is one I did in about 1hr I'm still trying figure out the basics of the freelancer
models but with 3D Canvas I can export to 3DS max the model is 115 Faces & 120 points if I'm not mistaken thats just a little over 100 polys

Edited by - valtor on 6/9/2006 6:50:32 PM

Valtor,

Ideally if your model should be as close to a continious mesh as possible.. by that I mean if you imagine that the model is a 'balloon' deformed to shape, with as few hidden (internal unseen) faces as possible. linked box type models can suffer from texture overflow where the parts intersect one another..but for that matter these can be used as well without too many problems..

If you can export 3D canvas to Max then you can export it from Max to milkshape and then export to a .cmp with Milkshape.. unfortunately Milkshape is the only modelling program we have that will do this..

Oh and btw.. the polys dont need to be that low.. for the average fighter up to about 3500 polys is ideal for Freelancer.. low poly ships have the advantage in that you can use more of them at one time without lag..

Harrier

Edited by - harrier on 6/10/2006 9:47:41 PM