PyroJockey
Active Member
Yes, another thread on a ASHPD Portal gun build. This was a project I started in 2009 and have worked on and off on ever since. The goal was to build the most realistic Portal gun ever. Now there are so many good ones out there it seems almost mediocre but I am still going forward with it.
I initially used the Valve SDK to extract the models from the game as MDL files and converted them to SMD file. I then imported the SMD files into Blender using a third party plug-in.
Once in Blender I saved them out as DXF files that I can import into SolidWorks, a 3D solid modeler for mechanical design and manufacturing.
The models came in as 3D wireframe curves with surfaces, primarily lofted, between them. I found that if I import the models with the units specified as meters they import to scale.
The models were coarsely faceted and some of the surfaces needed repair but all the base geometry is there and to scale. This saved me countless hours of work with only screen shots.
Some players of the game are not aware the 2 different models of the gun are used. The world model used for third person views (on left) and the view model used for first person views (on right). The first person model is of a larger scale than the third person view and has a slightly finer resolution and finer details of what you can see in game. The first person model is not complete in that it only has what can be seen from the first person view. Like most of the other builders I went with the third person world model but took some of the better defined features from the first person view model ans scaled them to fit.
I then used this base geometry to create the various solid bodies and to rebuild the coarse faceted model with smooth surfaces.
I recently completed my initial re-design.
I exported the models as STEP files and sent them off to a 3D printer to be printed in nylon.
More pic's to follow.
I initially used the Valve SDK to extract the models from the game as MDL files and converted them to SMD file. I then imported the SMD files into Blender using a third party plug-in.
Once in Blender I saved them out as DXF files that I can import into SolidWorks, a 3D solid modeler for mechanical design and manufacturing.
The models came in as 3D wireframe curves with surfaces, primarily lofted, between them. I found that if I import the models with the units specified as meters they import to scale.
The models were coarsely faceted and some of the surfaces needed repair but all the base geometry is there and to scale. This saved me countless hours of work with only screen shots.
Some players of the game are not aware the 2 different models of the gun are used. The world model used for third person views (on left) and the view model used for first person views (on right). The first person model is of a larger scale than the third person view and has a slightly finer resolution and finer details of what you can see in game. The first person model is not complete in that it only has what can be seen from the first person view. Like most of the other builders I went with the third person world model but took some of the better defined features from the first person view model ans scaled them to fit.
I then used this base geometry to create the various solid bodies and to rebuild the coarse faceted model with smooth surfaces.
I recently completed my initial re-design.
I exported the models as STEP files and sent them off to a 3D printer to be printed in nylon.
More pic's to follow.