Modifying Assets To Be Printable

[Billbill36]

I’ve been messing around with the game model of the Noble armor, but as they exist now they’re clearly not printable. Does anyone know of any tutorials or methods to get them into a more usable state?

 

[Coreforge]

I've only done it for one suit, but I basically just used the model as a reference (made some renders from all sides with some parts removed) and modeled it based kn that.

 

[S225]

I’ve been messing around with the game model of the Noble armor, but as they exist now they’re clearly not printable. Does anyone know of any tutorials or methods to get them into a more usable state?

I might not be the most helpful for this but what sort of file is it? Depending on this you might be able to feed it into a program that can read/render/ edit it.

 

[Billbill36]

They're .obj's, I've just gone about messing with them in Meshmixer and 3d Builder and think most of them will be usable enough, thanks!

 

[CollinMcCaf]

There are two main issues regarding game asset conversion; primarily it's an issue of misaligned triangles.... You'll have for example, a piece of rebar sticking out of a wall. They'll end up being two separate objects, not connected. The fix here is to "trim" the meshes so they create a singular object. Blender is one of the better (and especially important) free programs available for mesh manipulation
The second main issue is that of wall thicknesses. Printing a helmet for example, you need it bucket shaped rather than being a solid block of plastic. For that, I'd recommend creating a watertight object, then hollowing with the desired surfaces selected for removal. NetFabb is able to do this quite well

Tough out of luck on tutorials for you but thats the general idea of it... The tools/commands used are going to be different depending on what programs you're using but the idea is pretty much the same

 

[PlanetAlexander]

The other problem is, as you might find, to save resources when running a game, models use "normal maps", which are textures that tell the in-game lighting system how to render details. Asset creators use these instead of mesh geometry to create tiny details that look good when not viewed up close.

So basically, from a straight game asset rip, you'll likely find you're missing small details in the geometry that would show up in-game. Adding that detail back would require one to model it back in.
Another lesser issue would be smoothing, you might find that the armour pieces are quite blocky. You would need to modify the surface to smoothen it (typically called subdivision surface).

Sorry for the modelling jargon. What program do you plan to use to edit the parts? Have you got any screengrabs of them?

 

[CollinMcCaf]

I feel like that falls outside the realm of making an asset printable however.... In the case of the models I create, they're completely separate from what can be found in game simply because there's only so far you can go before it becomes a limitation..... After a point, increasing the definition of a model becomes more a question of artistic representation.

As far as making the assets appear as they do in game, once printed. Absolutely, you need to also take textures into account. In my case, this ends up being 50-100 hours depending on the model

 

[Billbill36]

That's pretty much what I've discovered, I've been adding most of the details back to the Noble set's torso but it's very time consuming, but it's pretty fun now that I'm getting the hang of it.

I ended up remodeling the lower legs and arms in general but I'm not happy with them just yet.

 

[TurboCharizard]

I feel like that falls outside the realm of making an asset printable however.... In the case of the models I create, they're completely separate from what can be found in game simply because there's only so far you can go before it becomes a limitation..... After a point, increasing the definition of a model becomes more a question of artistic representation.

As far as making the assets appear as they do in game, once printed. Absolutely, you need to also take textures into account. In my case, this ends up being 50-100 hours depending on the model

This is my way too. Open up game rip from pre-2010, laugh and then boot up Fusion360 and start fresh. The H3 Pilot helmet was absolutely a marvel of creative normal maps to look good in game and actual geometry is... yeah...