OK here is the process I use to start my prop creation.


This is less tutorial than a guide of my personal process that you can work from and modify for the way you prefer to do things.

OK first thing I did was to open the female guide max file provided by Chaz and add some LOD nodes to it and saved it for my new standard template (I actually just merged the LOD nodes from one of the template files)


Next I chose the node/nodes I was going to use for my prop and cloned 3 copys. In this example case I chose the "NodeNN.Back" node. After cloning it I attached the resulting NodeNN.Back01, NodeNN.Back02 and NodeNN.Back03 to the lod nodes and renamed them each to "node00".


Now I select all the default nodes (NodeNN.BodyPart) and hide or delete them, if you delete them make sure you save this as a different file than you started with so that you have them to use again in your starting point for your next prop.


Now you get to have fun and create your prop, I am not going to go into any mesh creation in this so I will skip from here to what happens after you have designed your mesh and textured it

OK you have your mesh done, lod's finished and all 3 meshes attached to the proper LOD node00's, now select the Avatar mesh and hide it.


And now you have this


You are now ready to test your prop in-world.

Testing in-world


OK this is how I do it.

I have a shortcut on my desktop that goes right to the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\" folder

In the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\" folder I have created a new folder called "testing"

When I am ready to test my item in-world I export my model to "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\testing" and I name it "testing.model"

I copy my textures from my "projects" folder that I work out of to the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\testing" folder

After I have my "testing.model" file and texture files in the "testing" folder I load the model into previewer and load the textres that are in the "testing" folder onto it so that previewer will create the *.DDS files needed by There.

We will use the Jack-o-Lantern for testing, you can get one here

Now you have to edit the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\jackolantern.aconf" file, calm down its not as scary as you think.

Open the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\jackolantern.aconf" file in wordpad and delete everything that's there. Paste in this

Here is the example aconf with some notes.

The aconf file I provided has spaces for all 4 possible textures and for all 5 possible nodes, you do not have to remove the extra lines if you have less textures or nodes, the There client will just ignore the unused lines. Keeping all of them in the aconf file makes this a good default aconf to use for pretty much any prop other than animated props, which I did not go into here, so I did not include any animation options.

After you are done editing the aconf file, click save.

You are now ready to log in and see how your new prop looks.

If you aren't happy with the position of your prop, switch back to 3DS or gmax and move it a little in the direction you need it adjusted and export again to the "\There\ThereClient\Resources\prop\testing" folder overwriting the existing testing.model

Now switch back to there and go into your workshop zone and choose "reload all assets" and everything will reload and you can see your changes fast and easy.

After you are done and ready to submit, select all the nodes (one group of nodes at a time ie: all 3 node00's than all 3 node01's etc...) and center them in the master node (when ya move the nodes the meshes will follow)




You can move ALL nodes there no matter how many nodes you used in the prop, don't worry if the meshes of different nodes look all shoved together, that doesn't matter.

The position of the mesh in the scene doesn't matter, what matters is the position of the mesh *in relation to* the node it is attached to.

Export and submit with a big smile on your face, you earned that smile, you just made a new toy for all of us Thereaholics


Here is a collection of facts about the Props that you should remember

You can use up to 5 nodes, each node has its own mesh linked to it and each node can be attached to a different part of the body.
Example:
node01 {attached to head}
 mesh01
node02 {attached to back}
 mesh02
node03 {attached to hand}
 mesh03

It doesn't matter where the nodes are in your max file (position), as they will be placed on the specified joints of the avatar. The mesh should be positioned and rotated where you want it to be, relative to the node it is linked to.

You can only hold/wear one prop at a time (but that prop can consist of up to 5 actual objects, each object attached to one or more parts of the body)

You can not hold a drink or paintball gun while holding/wearing a prop.

The only way to be compleatly sure how your prop will look on an avatar is to test in-world using the file swapping method.

We can select a pose for the right hand in the script and at submission time. The poses we can choose from are none (hand at side like normal and hand WILL move around with the norman idle animations of the avatar) drink pose (we all know what that looks like) and treat bag pose (grab a treat bag and you can see what that looks like if you aren't a pet owner)

You can use 4 separate textures for props and they will allow for dual animations

The list of nodes that can be used for props are:

• Head
• Neck
• Chest
• BackPack
• LeftClavicle
• LeftShoulder
• LeftElbow
• LeftWrist
• LeftFingers2
• RightClavicle
• RightShoulder
• RightElbow
• RightWrist
• RightFingers2
• Pelvis
• LeftKnee
• LeftAnkle
• RightKnee
• RightAnkle

If you want to have a Prop that is stationary over the avatar and doesnt move with emotes etc... make a mesh instead of a dummy node for the LOD's.

You still have to have the mesh00 and node00 so you can make that a single hidden poly or whatever you want.

master <------dummy node
-col <------collision mesh
-lod0 <------Mesh
--node00 <-----dummy node
---mesh00 <-----Mesh or dummy node
-lod1 <------Mesh
--node00 <-----dummy node
---mesh00 <-----Mesh or dummy node
-lod2 <------Mesh
--node00 <-----dummy node
---mesh00 <-----Mesh or dummy node

If you need a prop to use with in-world testing you can get the Jack-o-Lantern prop here

OK Now for the DrawMode options I mentioned in the example aconf

Available options are:
0 Default
1 Opaque
2 Blended
3 Filter
4 Chromakey
5 Additive

For more information on drawmodes and animation click here