So first before we start:

You will need a copy of Star Wars Battlefront 2 Mod Tools (available here: https://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-battlefront-ii/downloads/star-wars-battlefront-ii-mod-tools-pc)

also if you are using windows 7 or later you will need the fixed and improved munge files (install instructions and files found here: http://www.gametoast.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=30415)

Now navigate to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_BUILD (or wherever you mod folder is) and open up ModTools_visualmunge.exe if it prompts you to select your battlefront folder do so.

NOW: CREATE A TESTING WORLD. I cannot stress this enough, a testing world should be where you put all your object while you are making and debugging your models, your models should be removed from the testing world when done, this speeds up the munging process especially if you are only debugging your one model. under your 3 letter name type in anything you will also need to add a world name and a description. when complete click Create world. below is a picture of my template used for my testing world. (note select your game modes, i usually only select conquest for my testing world)

Once your world is created navigate to your worlds folder (in this example mine is C:\BF2_ModTools\data_T5T).

first we want to set up our world to make sure we can debug everything for our models. so right click ZeroEditor and Click Run As Administrator. Once in Zero editor click Load in the top left hand corner then navigate to your maps world folder and open the .wld file (in my case it would be found at C:\BF2_ModTools\data_T5T\Worlds\T5T\world1)

when the prompt pops up to pick your layers click select all in the lower left hand corner.

Next we are going to set a world light to debug our current object and all future objects. go into the lighting tab on the far right of zero editor (green box in screen shot below)

First once in the lighting tab click place (blue box) we will want this to be a directional light (to test shadows later on) so click DIR (yellow box), then click cast shadows (green box) finally we also will want to be able to properly debug specular (red box). Finally you click on the map to place the light where you want.

Once your light is placed click select (green box) and select your light (you can hold down the “X” key to rotate your light and use the right / left / middle mouse buttons to rotate it, i recommend rotating it slightly down and to either the left or right to properly debug lighting effects)

in the Name box (yellow box, type dirlight) then in the far right corner where it says directional light 1 type dirlight again. This will assign this light as the worlds primary directional light. Finally once your light is in place click Save (blue box) and overwrite your old world file.

Next navigate to your C:\BF2_ModTools\data_T5T\Worlds\T5T folder and create two new folder names msh and odf. your folder should look like above. Inside of the msh folder place any texture you apply to your model (you should do this before you apply a texture to a model in xsi so you can keep editing the texture from this folder, but if youve already applied a texture the game engine will still read it.)

Back in XSI create a null (Model > primitives > null) or on the mainshelf it is the red box highlighted above. After this is created press the “8” key to open the explorer.

In the XSI explorer right click your null and rename it DummyRoot, then drag and drop every object you want to export into that null (in this case i just drag and drop cube) press the “+” sign next to the null to make sure your objects made it in alright (for me it looks like this)

Finally select dummy root and go to the top menu of XSI and go ZE Tools > export .msh.

When the exporter pops up click the “…” and navigate to your test worlds newly created msh folder, name the object whatever you like, above is what my directory was set to. once that is done just click export.

Next navigate to your odf folder and create a new notepad document name it whatever you like but change the extension from .txt to .odf

in this case i made a file called testcube.odf, open this file and type what you see in the image below (replacing the word testcube.msh with whatever you named the object you exported from xsi)

Back in zero editor go into object mode (green box), click place (blue box) and where it says odf file click browse (red box). navigate to your odf folder and click the odf you created, once loaded simply place your object (you can use x to rotate your object after its place if you select it, and use c to change your objects position if needed). Once your object is placed save your world.

Next navigate to your maps _build folder (for me its C:\BF2_ModTools\data_T5T_BUILD)

in there click Mod Tools_visualmunge.exe

once open make sure your world is selected and then simply click munge, once a pop up shows up run SWBF2 and see your new object. (depending where you placed it you may have to search the map for a bit)

So first I will start by saying I will keep it simple for this part. And just explain theory, I will be uploading and providing practical examples how I build models and you can get further ideas of how to build UV maps from that. I will say this section takes practice, and a lot of fooling around with your texture maps, however the theory behind it is simple.

I’m going to start with a very simple Cube. Once your Cube is loaded simply go Model > Property > Texture Projection > Unique UV’s (you could go with a cubic projection which is already done for you , or experiment with texture projections, I’m specifically showing unique UV’s because it is the most common type of projection you will be using, and to show how connectivity works)

In the above picture you will see the projection properties, you can use this on more complicated models to decide what angle you want to be the angle where the polygons automatically break into a new UV. (if you want create a sphere as well and apply a texture projection to it, press alt+7 to open to texture editor and slide that angle slider around you can see how this functions).

Now we will apply a diffuse texture to our cube before we continue, for SWBF2 it is recommended that your texture be either 8×8, 16×16, 32×32, 64×64, 128×128, 256×256, 512×512, 1024×1024 those are common dimensions (in pixels), they should also be in .Targa format (.tga) (if you are using gimp make sure RLE compression is left unchecked when its exported of BF2 doesnt like it).

To apply our texture simply go Render > Texture > Image as shown below.

When the window for the texture pops up click the “new” button and select from file. Then simply navigate to your texture.

After this if you change your view mode from wireframe to either textured or texture decal you should see your texture applied to the object.

our cube with the texture applied.

Next lets make our texture proper and connect the parts of our cube together. open the texture editor (on the main shelf click views > texture editor or simply press alt+7)

In the image above, in the blue box is our selection tools, this works the exact same way as our selection tools for objects, v = verts (points), e = edge, and p = polygon try using each one to see how it selects if your unsure.

In the red box is our transforms this again works the same way as our model manipulating, it scales, rotates or translates depending on the letter selected.

finally the snapping tool in the green box. This operates the exact same way as the weld point tool. If you use the vert (point) selection in the texture editor you can drag a point with snapping enabled to another point and it will weld them together.

In the above picture you will notice I dragged two polys aside to plan its texture. The Colors on edges show connectivity so you will notice the poly on the top left has a blue edge on its left and the poly on the right has a blue edge on its bottom. These two polysconnect to one another on our model. To join them you can rotate the poly on the right 90 degrees clockwise to make the blue edge on the left side then simply drag the two and snap them together. (you can rotate clockwise with the “r” key in the texture editor)

If you have a hard time figuring out which polys are where on the model to texture them you can simply go into the viewport, go into raycast poly mode (u key), and select any face on the object, it will select that face in the texture editor. I have displayed this in the image Below.

you should always try to connect as many polys as possible in UV mapping, this will take a lot of practice but as you tinker more you will get used to it. Keep an eye on others texturing tutorials as well to learn more, there are hundreds of ways to do this and none are really that simple. start with small simple objects if possible, avoid player models while you learn as those can be very difficult. When you are ready to do so proceed to the next part, where we will learn how to get our object ingame.

Another bit of basic shape manipulation is going to be adding edges. When we add a new edge we can basically draw it where we need it (this is very useful when making specific shapes in the polygon to duplicate later) Simply go to the top of the menu on go Model > Polygon Mesh > Add Edge (or just use the “\” key). you can add an edge to another edge (it’ll turn red) and then connect it to another edge or point or simply connect it to points. try to fiddle with it a little. The image below features 3 new edges drawn in various spots throughout a cube.

For a more practical use lets say i wanted a octagon in the middle of the cube and then have that octagon extend outwards I could draw edges connecting to one another to form an octagon then select the polygon face shaped like an octagon, duplicate it and pull it out. See below for this example.

Next a very quick section is for welding points. basically all this will do is weld one point to another (dragging and connecting other polygons and edges with it). This is a very simple tool, all you have to do is click and drag to point you want to weld to the point you want to weld it to.

As a quick example if I wanted to give a cube a bevelled edge all i would do is first select the edge, duplicate it, and then weld the points from that edge to the points below it.

Try to play around with these two techniques a little bit and try modelling a bit on your own. When you are ready move onto the next section. In the next section we will be covering how to texture our object.

This is where things get interesting, so far we have learned how to manipulate single points, but when we mix in subdividing or duplicating points, edges or polygons we can really start to modify out objects shape.

For this start with a Cube and set its U/V/Base subdivisions in the primitive properties window to 1/1/1 (make all faces of the cube only one polygon face). For the duration of this tutorial I am going to have my camera in “shaded” mode.

First we will do duplication, with your cube created in the scene go into point selection mode (either by going to the selection menu on the main shelf or simply by pressing the “T” key). Select any point and press ctrl+d. This will duplicate the point, your cube should now look like the picture below.

duplicating is that simple, Now try to select any of those 4 points and translate them (move them around) see what kinds of shapes you can get. duplication of points is extremely useful for things like rounding cubed corners.

Next switch into edge selection mode (either by going to your main shelf and clicking the edge selection tool or simply by pressing the “E” key) select any edge, I would recommend selecting an edge away from the points we just duplicated so we can see how edge duplication works on a fresh edge. Once you select your edge simply press ctrl+d to duplicate the edge. If you worked from a fresh side you should see something like the picture below.

With your new edges duplicated try moving things around with the translation too again to see how the object manipulates now.

Now we will look at the polygon duplication, select any face on your cube with the raycast polygon tool (either by going to the main shelf or simply by pressing the “U” key). Once selected press ctrl+D, now this is where things get a little weird, you will see nothing out of the ordinary at this point, we have duplicated our poly face and effectively have duplicated all edges and point around it. If at this point you go into your translation tool and move the face you just duplicated you can get a better visual of what has happened. Try also moving a non duplicated Face and then duplicate it so you can really see the difference.

The final part of duplication will be out full object. Go to object selection mode (either by using the main shelf or by simply pressing the “spacebar”). with your cube selected press ctrl+d, this will duplicate the entire object. move this new cube around and you will be able to see your brand new second cube.

Next is subdividing. We will only focus on subdividing in polygon mode, (you can use this in edge mode as well, it will create new point, but you have to swap from edge mode to point mode to even see the new subdivided points and it just not something your really ever going to do) For this example I started with a new cube, feel free to use your current cube if you want. You will mostly be using this to experiment with shaping. Once you have your cube simply select a polygon face in raycast polygon mode (“U” key) and then press shift+D. this will open the new subdivision menu, feel free to experiment with the different type of subdivision, and move your points, edges, and polyfaces around to see how the model reacts. below are images of the 4 types of subdivisions.

At this point believe it or not, you now have the knowledge to make most prop like models (or buildings) almost everything you build will be done simply by duplicating or subdividing a face, edge or point and simply moving things around, scaling things or rotating things til we get our desired shape. Fiddle around with this on different primitive (the cylinder, cube and sphere are usually the most used primitives so experiment on those, see what kind of shapes you can make). In our next section we will cover adding new edges manually and welding points.

For this section start with a new scene and create a new Cube primitive with only 1 subdivision on U/V/Base (if you don’t know how to do these see getting Started Part 1, or Part 2).

For most of our modelling we are only going to use 4 selection types: Object (to select an entire object), point (to select a single point on an object), Edge (to select an edge (which appears as a wire in a wireframe), and Poly (the actual face in between those wires).

So our first type of selection is the Object selection tool. This allows us to select a object (or multiple objects) for us to manipulate to objects transforms as a whole. This was the type of manipulation we did in Getting Started Part 2. You can deselect any object by holding ctrl while you click it (this will also add additional objects to your selection if they are not already selected).

The second type of manipulation we will use is the point tool manipulation this will allow us to move the points on our model (they appear as blue dots in the picture below).

Now when we click on a point you will notice it turns red, past that all we have to do is use our translation tools (the same way we would to move our object) to move the single point, this will cause our object to deform.

Next we will look at our edge selection, this will move those wires between the points as a whole unit. when you select an edge it will turn from yellow to red. Again try moving an edge around so you can see the different way it deforms a cube.

The final type of selection we will use is the raycast polygon selection. This will allow us to select an entire polygon face on our object (when selected this will become red). This is one of the most used selection modes for us.

Now that you understand the basics of model manipulation its also important to see your model ahead of time. we can get a preview using various viewport settings.

if you click in the upper right hand corner of your viewport where it says wireframe you can see a list of our shaded modes.

here is a rough breakdown for you:

Bounding Box: displays basically what your models “boundary is” (the total approximate space your model takes up, translated into a single box.

Wireframe: shows the edges of your model (as seen above) but no poly faces.

Depth Cue: shows your wireframe but fades the wireframe with the percieved distance from the camera.

Hidden Line Removal: Shows your poly faces and your wireframe and hides anything not visible behind a poly face.

Constant: Same Concept as hidden line removal but with no wireframe.

Shaded: shows your model and its poly faces with the current lighting from the scene.

Textured: If a diffuse texture is applied will show the texture and shade it with the scenes lighting.

Textured Decal: Same as above typically takes on less scene shading and displays the diffuse more prominantly.

And that should for now conclude Part 3. In the next part we will go through more advanced manipulation and examples using duplication and subdivisions while we manipulate our model components.

So first I started with a new fresh scene in XSI for this tutorial. (if you have opened a new xsi window you will start with this, otherwise go File > New Scene or simply press ctrl+n).

Now as covered in part 1, create a cube (you can do this either via the Main Shelf by going to the “primitives” tab and clicking the Cube Icon, or by going Model > Primitives > Polygon Mesh > Cube)

Once a new Cube is created you should see your primitive properties window appear. (If at any point this is closed and you want it reopened simply select your object by clicking on it and hit the “enter” key).

Inside of this window you will see a few sliders Length: will determine the Cubes total dimensions, this is equal on each face (I believe 1 Unit = 1 Metre from XSI > SWBF2 but I could be mistaken it seems close to that) so if a cube has a length of 8 it will appear in game to be 8 cubic metres (8m long, 8m wide, 8m high).

Next we see subdivisions, this will add additional edges, points and faces to our model (basically it makes more parts for us to manipulate) The U subdivision will add additional polys to our cube Height Wise along our entire cube. The V subdivision will add extra polys along our cube Width wise across the middle of our cube. and the Base will add extras along our cube width wise and height wise along the top, bottom and side faces. Below are three images highlighting each of those subdivisions.

For now keep our subdivisions all at 1. (U:1, V:1, B:1) as I will be going through manipulation of Polygons and objects.

So first: a Basic run through of your transform tools. There are 3 Basic type of transforms we will always be Dealing with, you will find all 3 of these tools in the lower right corner of your screen.

Scale: (Blue Box in image below) this will allow your selection to be Scaled (sized up or down) along 3 different axes (or directions).

Rotation: (Green Box in image below) this will allow your selection to be Rotated along your X,Y or Z axis.

Translation: (Red box in image below) this will allow you to move your selection Up, Down, Left Right, Forward and Backwards.

You can input Values manually (example, I can move my cube UP by 4 meters by typing the number 4 into the Y value of the translation box (red Box)) or you can move it with your hands. if you click the letter, T, R, or S in that area it will open up the tools and display it in your view port. Below those letters you will see a grey box icon with 3 little sections, this is used to simultaneously select all 3 axis to manipulate your transforms. Or you can select a single axis by clicking on the X, Y or Z letters next to the transform you want to perform (example to move my cube UP i would click the Y in the red box in the image above, then click the green translation arrow that appears in my view port to drag my cube upwards).

That will conclude our section on Basic model manipulation. In the Next section I will show you how to manipulate individual sections of each model to deform the model to how we want it to look.

Before you read too far ahead you will need the following:

Autodesk Softimage XSI Mod Tool 7.5 (available here: https://www.moddb.com/downloads/autodesk-softimage-mod-tool-75)

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Mod Tools (available here: https://www.moddb.com/games/star-wars-battlefront-ii/downloads/star-wars-battlefront-ii-mod-tools-pc)

XSIZETools (addon for XSI available here: https://schlechtwetterfront.github.io/xsizetools/)

You will also need a copy of Star Wars Battlefront 2 (Classic 2005). I recommend downloading either the GOG or the Steam releases (these have been patched to have full multiplayer support). Even if you have an older PC CD or DVD copy I would recommend repurchasing over steam or GOG (simple reality is the multiplayer patch is worth the price and with a difference in scripting the only way to ensure anything you make will work for all versions is to purchase a newer patched version via Steam or GOG)

Please make sure you follow the XSIZETools install instructions as laid out on the website for the download. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT AS THIS WILL BE OUR MODEL EXPORTER.

If all else is done and you are ready to start your journey open Softimage XSI Mod Tool.

Now we are going to go over some basic movement controls is XSI but before we do lets create a Cube so we can visualize whats going on.

OPTIONAL: if you want in the upper right corner of the menus Select View > Optional Panels > Main Shelf. The Main Shelf is completely optional for XSI however I (and most other users) find this to be a very quick method to access a lot of what you need (including primitives)

Now lets create a simple cube primitive:

If you chose to use the Main Shelf go to the “Primitives” tab (Red Box) then click on the Cube icon (Green Box).

OR if you chose not to use the Main Shelf alternatively you can use Model > Primitive > Polygon Mesh > Cube from the top menu.

With your new cube created your scene should look something like this:

In the middle of this screen shot we see the Primitive properties menu of the Cube we can use this to manage things such as Subdivisions of the cube (how many edges / points / faces the cube will have) as well as its length (units for length are cubed and all faces are exactly equal by default) We will get more into this later. In the upper corner of that menu you can Click the X to close this window.

Now further we see our 4 view port windows in XSI. displaying the image Top, Front, Right and User Camera. For the most part you will be using only the user Camera window (I legitimately never use the other cameras).

If you want you can actually display only the User Camera Window by Clicking on the small box in the right hand corner of the window (displayed below in green box).

Now we will go over a few basic camera controls:

First: The “S” key on your keyboard will default use the cameras Navigation Tool, This will allow you to Drag the camera Up, Down, Left and Right without rotating you view. Below is a picture of our scene after we use the navigation tool to move UP.

Second: The “O” Key on your keyboard will allow you to use the Orbit Tool. This will make the Camera “orbit” around its target (or the point the camera is focused to). Basically this will allow use to rotate around our Screen. Below is a picture of our cube after I have orbited the camera slightly.

Third: The “P” key will allow us to Pan our camera forward or backward in the direction our camera is currently facing. Below is a picture of the cube after we have panned forward.

There are a few other ways to rotate your camera (which we will not fully cover in this section such as the zoom tool, the pivot tool and the roll tool) I am choosing not to Cover these in this section because With the “S”, “P” and “O” keys you should be able to do enough camera movement to make most thing and the others you will use so infrequently that its not necessary to cover them here.

If at any point you feel the need to reset your Camera you can do so by clicking the camera icon (green box in picture below) or you can press the “R” key. you can also centre your cameras focus around your selection by clicking on the same camera icon and clicking “centre selection”.

That wraps up our first section on basic camera controls. Take some time and fiddle with the “S”, the “P” and the “O” keys and familiarize yourself with how the scene is moving. When you are comfortable doing so you can now move onto the next section.