Editting 3D assets in maya?

[Blur]

So I just got a student package for 3 years of Autodesk Maya (woo hoo!  ) and I was wondering if its possible to edit 3D models for use in battlefront 2 mods in this program. Although I'm still green, I'm currently taking classes on how to make better 3D models and animations for them in Maya. From what I've read mod assets that are made or edited for this game are primarily done in Softimage/XSI, but I've only read about it, never attempted to edit this game's msh or objs since I have never owned Softimage. But now that I have Maya, I want to ask A: Is it possible to create/edit assets for this game in Maya and B: If it is possible, do I need any plugins for it and where can I find them?

I have a hunch that I'm not the first person to ask this, so if these questions have already been asked here, a link to that thread in which it was discussed or a link to any sort of tutorial is all I need if its more convenient than explaining at length. Thanks so much in advance.   

[swgaming1015]

I've seen people use Maya to make Battlefront models before. To be honest, you can use any 3-d modelling program just so long as you convert the end model to msh through either Softimage (with the ZETools plugin) or SWBFViewer.

If I were you I'd export the Maya model to .obj and then import the .obj into Softimage. Then you can texture the model and export to msh.

[Ginev]

Yes.You can use whatever 3d program you know to use but on the end you must use SOFTIMAGE 7.5 with the ZETOOLS plugin to convert the model into .msh Thats the main rule in my opinion for good fully working models for Battlefront 2. 

[Idren]

You can for sure - I use 3ds Max to create models and stuff. Here's my process:
before I create a model, I get the correct scale by importing a game asset to max (in your case maya) by using the
StarWars Battlefront Viewer (which can export to .vrml) found here:  http://starwarsbattlefront.filefront.com/file/SWBF_MSH_Viewer;94127#Download

1. create the model (try to follow the poly count standards in the documentation included with bfbuilder)
2. create the collision mesh/primitives and shadowvolume
3. export as .obj file
4. open softimage xsi modtools and import .obj
   follow this topic to get xsi and the ZE tools for exporting to msh:
   http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=5164.0
5. create a null "dummyroot" and put your objects into it (with the null as the parent of your imported objects)
6. name the collision mesh "collision" and the shadowvolume "shadowvolume"
7. in the animate panel of xsi, create a new parameter on the shadowvolume, and name the parameter "shadowvolume", then press the "h" key to hide the shadowvolume.
8. middle click the "dummyroot" and with the plug-in for swbf export to .msh

[Blur]

Thanks so much for your responses, all of you! So it seems like the answer is yes, but I'll be needing several additional tools. One last question. To create low poly variants of my work for rendering further past the LOD distance, do I need to include that model in the .obj as a child of the global parent as well? Or do I need to save that as it's own file with some kind of naming convention? Thanks again for answering my questions, I'll see about picking up XSI and the plugin, as well as swbfveiwer

[swgaming1015]

To create low poly variants of my work for rendering further past the LOD distance, do I need to include that model in the .obj as a child of the global parent as well? Or do I need to save that as it's own file with some kind of naming convention?

If you're talking about lowrez models then I usually do that in XSI Softimage. Make a copy of your original .msh and call it "name_lowrez". Make sure this is under "dummyroot" like your other mshs.

[Blur]

Yeah that's exactly what I meant. So save the poly reduced version of the model as name_lowrez where name is the name of the asset, and save it as a child of the "dummyroot", got it. Thanks for the knowledge, friend