Getting into game modding

Reznik

Hey, I'm looking to dust off my old and several years unused 3D modeling/animation skills and would like to maybe do some character mods for games. I'm wondering where the best place to start would be. Which games have the easiest toolset to get into? Most newbie-friendly modding community? Most comprehensive documentation?

My brief google search has pointed me to:
- Source games
- Unreal games
- Bethesda games

Would like to hear some thoughts from anyone with any experience. I'm a fairly decent hand with 3Ds Max, but the taking of the thing I made there and the putting it into a game is where I go ????

I suppose a character might be a bit ambitious? Maybe I should start with a weapon or item or something just to see how it works.

wilting

Well, what game would you like to mod something for? Start with what you want to do, then find out if its possible, or if you can do it, and if you can't do it, then figure out how to do it.

Echo

Bethesda games have a pretty easy pipeline for modding stuff. You can get a lot done without any programming.

PLA

Developers who hand out tools tend to be easy enough to work with. The various versions of the Gamebryo Creation Kit, and the more recent Pack Manager for Age of Wonders 3 all have pretty clear "insert 3D-things here" functions (or rather "target 3D-things with this window/address/list"), and the communities have some helpful people and tutorials.
Gamebryo is also ancient, so there's a lot of documentation even though some of it boils down to, "it's mysterious."
Source seems to be especially popular specifically for models and animations, without other distractions.


Items do tend to have fewer parts that can break than characters do.

BlindZenDriver

The Unreal platform offers a lot of stuff including instruction videos and what not to get started. There is also Unity which is pretty friendly to get started with, but really I think the best start would be to pick your favorite game and maybe mod that to get a feel for what it takes.

I think most people that mod games get started when seeing what other people have done with a game they love, maybe thinking some other mod is maybe not just right or needs something extra to be even better.Your approach on looking for the best tools and go from there is not wrong or anything, but I just imagine it will be more like work and less like play.

bowen

Generally you'd want to mod a game you play.

But skyrim/fallout are really good places to start.

There's also stuff like sims, and cities skyline, and counter-strike global offensive, and a few others.

PLA

Some software for managing mods basically automate manual installation, putting things in a game's folders and overwriting things.

Others, like Mod Manager, leave the original folders alone while loading mod-stuff from other places.

That makes a bigger difference if you're modding for the sake of modding, and see yourself changing your setups frequently.
But even then, you'll keep seeing people stressing "clean saves", because many mods make changes that can't easily be removed.

Reznik

Thanks for all the advice.

I guess my approach is a little different. I'm primarily a console gamer, and my favourite PC games are old to the point that learning how to mod them is kind of irrelevant at this point (think C&C Red Alert 2). I'm really looking to figure out the workflow from sketch to in-game asset, so it doesn't really matter to me whether I'm modding Fallout or Unreal Tournament. When I learned 3D modeling in school, it was very much kind of... in isolation. So okay, I have this model I made, now what do I do with it? We didn't even get into texturing very much. So that's why I figured modding would be the best avenue to learn how to actually do something with this stuff.

I downloaded Unreal Engine 4 and have been watching some videos, but I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with that one. I love the sheer amount of learning material around it though (and jesus christ, in 2 clicks I can have a dude running around an environment with full collision and controls and everything).

I think I might try Fallout since it's super cheap on Steam (and apparently the mod tools for 4 haven't been released yet) - is there much/any difference between 3 and NV in terms of mods?

Also, @PLA when you mention Mod Manager, is this what you're talking about? http://www.nexusmods.com/games/mods/modmanager/?

NightDragon

You may also want to look into visiting http://polycount.com/forum - it's an entire community for people who do game development and create 3D assets and such. Pretty active and filled with pro's as well as hobbyists. They'd definitely be able to help you out in a number of these areas!

Caedwyr

From what I've heard, New Vegas is the preferred platform for modding between Fallout 3 and NV.

PLA

Reznik wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.

I guess my approach is a little different. I'm primarily a console gamer, and my favourite PC games are old to the point that learning how to mod them is kind of irrelevant at this point (think C&C Red Alert 2). I'm really looking to figure out the workflow from sketch to in-game asset, so it doesn't really matter to me whether I'm modding Fallout or Unreal Tournament. When I learned 3D modeling in school, it was very much kind of... in isolation. So okay, I have this model I made, now what do I do with it? We didn't even get into texturing very much. So that's why I figured modding would be the best avenue to learn how to actually do something with this stuff.

I downloaded Unreal Engine 4 and have been watching some videos, but I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with that one. I love the sheer amount of learning material around it though (and jesus christ, in 2 clicks I can have a dude running around an environment with full collision and controls and everything).

I think I might try Fallout since it's super cheap on Steam (and apparently the mod tools for 4 haven't been released yet) - is there much/any difference between 3 and NV in terms of mods?

Also, @PLA when you mention Mod Manager, is this what you're talking about? http://www.nexusmods.com/games/mods/modmanager/?

I mixed up the words. I meant Mod Organizer.

I believe Nexus Mod Manager is actually of the "automated regular installation" type.