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I am seriously (as in I've already saved up most of the cash) considering buying DBPro. My experience programming starts with BASIC on the Apple II, and moves on through QBasic to Visual Basic 5, so I don't think DBPro will take too much trouble to learn. My questions refer to the graphics. Please bear with me, as I did browse through before posting, but I have a talent for missing the obvious, so it is likely my questions have been answered.

I have Hash Animation Master for my modelling tool. It wasn't meant for this type of application, but it does export to .x files. Does anyone have experience using this? Is there any tool in particular I should use to tweak my models for games? And (most importantly), do I have to export my animations as a series of frames like for a 2D sprite, or does anyone know if I can export my skeletans and animations somehow?

I have had experience with BASIC, but mostly I'm an artist with (IMHO) good ideas for games. What it boils down to is I am not sure how to prepare my art for DBPro. I have been browsing tutorials on converting Animaster animations for Quake, but they have mostly involved lots of expensive tools, and it's taken me months to dig up the cash for just this.

Anyhow I am going to download the trial version to test it out, and I want to have all my media in place so I can spend all 30 Days coding and testing; so I am mostly trying to fine tune things ahead of time.

Thanks in advance.

You want Low-Poly counts on your models where possible. Most people tend to create a main character with a higher poly count (up to 1000 polys I have seen mentioned).

Textures are mipmapped (different resolutions at different distances), so it's down to your graphics card as to how big you make them.

Personally, I use Wings 3D because it makes it easier to ensure you don't go over the top with Poly Count. A professional package is designed for quality, and as a result you can end up with too much detail.

It's easier to export as 3DS, which will retain the animation sequences, and use the DB convertor for .x files. A lot of people have problems exporting animations in .x files from other packages.

It's a good idea to have animation sequences, all ending back at the same resting point. DB can select a range of frames and loop them, then selct a different range of frames and loop etc...

Maybe your experience as an artist will bring some ideas to the forum.

I have Hash Animator, but I don't think there's any export tool that preserves skeletons and such for it in .X format. Saving the data frame by frame is extremely wasteful. You might be better off using a tool like Milkshape 3D for your animated game models.
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TAZ

You are right... But it does export to 3DS, so...

I'm looking over some tutorials on converting Hash models for use in Quake, hopefully I'll find something there. I have a tendancy to miss things on the first twenty lookovers.

heh. I hope that was a typo, because character models these days are generally around 5000. Of course, you'll need an up-to-date computer too. But yeah, smaller polycounts do improve speed on certain cases, but going too low won't result in a big speed gain. (btw, the game STALKER (not released yet) will have character models of 6000 polys in average. )

Anyways, as for textures, you can use .jpg, .bmp, .png and so on.. The compatability is pretty good, so I don't think you'll have problems there.

with model textures, just make sure they don't use Paths in the textures, just the names, and then move the textures to the same folder as the model and they should work automatically.