I'm a 3D hobby artist. I've been using 3ds Max for 5 years now, to the point I even teach an Essentials course at a local community college.

I'd love to make models for this game. I find some of the ship designs need help.

Is there a way for players to contribute other than storylines and missions?

Give me a poly budget and a texture size and I'll give you some really cool stuff.

Cool to hear. The older post that Rogue linked will probably have most of the information you need, along with the general suggestion of joining the PCC sometime soon.

Heh, this always, always happens. If I didn't have to finish this research memo, I'd see how many of these threads I could dredge up. I'm betting, even with VO's brutalized search function, it would top a dozen.

Not much ever comes out of this, but we can always hope!

OK, I've read the thread supplied by rogue. And I have definitely over stepped myself.

I'm a good modeler and a whiz at texturing but not so much an expert at creating game assets. Most of the technical stuff you mentioned I'd never heard of. I did a little research and I have to inform myself more. I know there are some good books out there on game asset creation but seeing as I really don't play that many games that often, this is not really a thing I want to invest my efforts into.

I just thought it would be cool to see a ship I created flying around in your game.

If ever there is a collaborative effort by other members that require the basics, I'd be interested. But spending over a month creating a single ship to function in VO simply will not hold my attention considering my busy life. I would end up frustrating and disappointing you.

Once again thank you for the info and I think its really cool that a developer of the game actually takes the time to respond personally.

I definitely understand. A lot of people underestimate this sort of work. That being said, it's really not that hard, if one has some photoshop and Max skills, just time consuming to learn and test.

The first thing that most people have to deal with is game-asset UVW definition. Our former artist actually made a tutorial specifically about this, how to put all of the texture data on a single texture:

http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_01.html

If one started with a good model, UVW mapped properly, and a diffuse texture, and posted it to the PCC for more community involvement.. I think some people might be interested. But, I don't really know.

Anyway, take care, I appreciate the intent and interest.

Woah, a Waylon link, I miss bullying Waylon so much it hurts at times :/

Ding! Did somebody say my name? :)

It's a Waylon! Quick, everyone run!

Omg! :)

*waves at the dust covered one

hehe

So Waylon, how is being a slave to EA working out, or did you escape?

<3 you Waylon

Meh, I just wanna station camp his ass! I mean lubs you waylon!