UT99.org | Unreal Tournament Community

As the title suggests, I'm looking for a program that's preferred when it comes to creating custom models for UT99. I've read that people preferred Milkshape while others prefer Blender, so I'm a bit stumped on which to use.

I'm also trying to find a good tutorial for creating models. I've had an idea for a while and I'm itching to try my hand at modeling.

It's like asking which graphic tool would be the best to make a drawing. Many prefer Krita, some say PS is the best and others like Paint tool SAI.

You have to test it and take the one that suits your needs.

I'm using blender because its absolutely free and can do a lot of stuff.
Since you understand how the movement work and where the short keys are its a easy to use tool.

I'm using it for models and for BSP.

Skywolf wrote a import/export tool which allows you to export your animated Skeletalmesh to the Unreal Vertexmesh format.

Link: https://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 1490136781

Milkshape has the best exporters for Unreal and UT99, but it's absolutely garbage as a program to do any 3D modeling and it's not really maintained anymore.

While Blender is the exact opposite: it's god-tier for 3D modeling and animation, but it's constantly updated to new versions, often disregarding existing plugins and so they just break many of the existing plugins, until the plugins themselves are updated by their authors to work in the new versions.
I don't blame them much, because the language used to run plugins is Python, which has the same exact nasty tendency to break stuff even between minor versions.

Fortunately, there's currently a member who recently wrote and seems to be updating an exporter for the vertex meshes at least (.3d files), and while there's also an exporter for skeletal meshes, the last time I tried it out it was rather broken for the exact reason above, so I don't know if there's an updated skeletal exporter.

Therefore, one thing you could do is to make the models in Blender and then export to the Unreal format using Milkshape.
But this also means that you need Blender to export to a format that Milkshape understands, and doesn't break what you have have set up from Blender (like multi-texturing, smoothing groups, and such, rigs, etc), meaning that if at all possible, if you manage to find a good enough Unreal exporter for Blender, go with it instead.

A good simple tool is Meshmaker. It can convert your Unreal Editor brush into a mesh. I've used it for fairly complex shapes and it does a good job as long as you aren't expecting incredible results. Works great for that chair you need or that statue that would look good in the corner.

Feralidragon wrote:Milkshape has the best exporters for Unreal and UT99, but it's absolutely garbage as a program to do any 3D modeling and it's not really maintained anymore.

While Blender is the exact opposite: it's god-tier for 3D modeling and animation, but it's constantly updated to new versions, often disregarding existing plugins and so they just break many of the existing plugins, until the plugins themselves are updated by their authors to work in the new versions.
I don't blame them much, because the language used to run plugins is Python, which has the same exact nasty tendency to break stuff even between minor versions.

Fortunately, there's currently a member who recently wrote and seems to be updating an exporter for the vertex meshes at least (.3d files), and while there's also an exporter for skeletal meshes, the last time I tried it out it was rather broken for the exact reason above, so I don't know if there's an updated skeletal exporter.

Therefore, one thing you could do is to make the models in Blender and then export to the Unreal format using Milkshape.
But this also means that you need Blender to export to a format that Milkshape understands, and doesn't break what you have have set up from Blender (like multi-texturing, smoothing groups, and such, rigs, etc), meaning that if at all possible, if you manage to find a good enough Unreal exporter for Blender, go with it instead.

So stick with Blender for modeling and have Milkshape on the side for exporting. I''ll have to find an exporter in case something goes wrong for Milkshape.

Do you happen to know some good tutorials for Blender?

Well, it's been a while since I have last checked tutorials and such for Blender (or even Blender itself for that matter), but the site itself seems to have a beginner series:
https://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

Also, there were a series of videos they had before by another older guy, which were hosted in Vimeo and had some materials to toy with as well, but they have some years already so they may not be completely up to date to the latest Blender version.
Unfortunately I lost the link, and I cannot find them anymore, so I am not sure if they still exist even, but it explained things extremely well (it's where I learned).

Didn't 3DBuzz have some really good (but probably dated) vid tuts too? They are probably gone now but I'm wondering if anyone archived them?

3ds max is the best program for modelling maps and skins whenever you like.

https://www.autodesk.nl/products/3ds-max/overview

You need some plugins for import and exporting the files from ut99.

That cost tho. $1500 USD for a year, ouch

Was 3DS ever any good, especially nowadays though? Both the sites and examples they give aren't very professional looking at all, and their tools weren't particularly good even years ago (and I used other tools from them, to build things like circuit boards, and it wasn't all that good).

Blender is supported by nearly everything (even natively by Unity itself), is really good at what it does, and is absolutely free.
The only downside is UT99 support, but there are some plugins around at least to export to formats that Milkshape may be able to read, more or less.

For the price they're asking, for 2000€ you can get an incredibly strong machine for both gaming and development, with an extended warranty up to 5 years (in EU at least), and just use Blender and other free or less expensive tools, which are generally as good or better for all that you want to do.
Which means, in a 5-year span, what you pay for this you could buy 5 of these machines instead, each one being an upgrade relative the previous one, if you have that kind of money to begin with (which I believe most people around here, me included, do not).