not me personally.. but my friend Vinnie here really could use some bones, and I have tried just about anything.. and I really suck at it! I was wondering if someone would collaborate with me on this, I am in tre progress of exporting all the Max Payne 2 characters to obj files, and I'll have the textures ready too and I will get the textures to sit right with the models :) but I just need someone to bone these people. anybody would like to help me? maybe someone would even like to try and give the poor people some expressions :)

Excellant job on the model and if I could bone I'd only be to pleased to help you out...but alas I'm lousy at boneing! Rich

Max Payne and Max Payne 2 are registered trademarks of Take Two Interactive, the characters and textures are copyrighted to the company and their respective authors. Are you sure you have permission to export these characters to another format, do things to them and send them to other people to "help you" work on them? I do realise that people create modules for games such as this but they are usually kept within a propietary format and useable only in the game itself. From their "Legal statement" Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games, Gathering of Developers, Gotham Games, TalonSoft, Jack of All Games and related logos are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Nintendo, Nintendo 64, the "N" logo, Game Boy Color and the Official Seal are trademarks of Nintendo of America, Inc. MTV and related logo are trademarks of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International, Inc. Xbox and related logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. PLEASE NOTE: Take-Two Interactive Software and its subsidiaries, Rockstar Games, Gathering, Gotham Games, and Global Star Software welcome input from the gaming community. However, any submissions to Take-Two Interactive Software of any nature whatsoever, whether through this site or otherwise, and whether via electronic or other means, become the sole and exclusive property of Take-Two Interactive Software, which shall have full right, title and interest thereto, including under copyright, in all media now existing or hereafter created, and without any obligation to account or make any payment to the submitter for any use thereof. No purported reservation of rights incorporated in or accompanying any submission shall have any force or effect. By making a submission to Take-Two Interactive Software, you hereby agree to all of the foregoing. 2003 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Perhaps contacting them to check might be worthwhile? James Ankner Director of Corporate Communications Take-Two Interactive Software 622 Broadway New York, NY 10012 (646) 536-3006 ir@take2games.com

Hmm Questor, I guess you're right _ that never really crossed my mind. guess I thought that the only people interested in these characters would be people who already owned the game. but then again, it's not like you can use them for much, except posing. and i'm not out to make any kind of money on these. I'm just a big MP fan ^_^

well according to that statment he COULD do it but take 2 would own it...but again I am not a lawer LLOLL

Attached Link: http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne2/mods/

Maybe the guy is just trying to make a MOD of the game? We used to do it in Quake1/2/3 all the time - you export the meshes/models to something a modelling proggie can actually use, modify them and their skins, then re-import those altered models into the game. SWAT (Unreal Tournament), Capture The Flag (all of 'em), Counterstrike (Half-Life), Team Fortress (Quake 1), etc. - they all were built this way, and most games makers nowadays encourage it. So long as he's not distributing the results in that external (.obj, .3ds, etc) form (he'd have to distribute them in the exact same format that the gamesmaker provided), and under approval from the game maker (who even hosts tools to do it with - see the link), it's not a big, screaming, copyright violation. Put the torches down, guys - from what I read of it, he's not breaking any laws. /P (an old gamer from way too damned far back :) )

Meriamus Wrote: Hmm Questor, I guess you're right --- Right or wrong is a moot point, I just thought you might want to look a bit closer at what you want to do in relation to the company and it's regulations. The funny thing about models like this is if (perhaps) you thought maybe other game owners might like them and loaded them up to freestuff, it would be more than game owners who download them. With the way things have been in the last 18 months they could end up anywhere from this store to another store somewhere else - with your name on it somewhere. Might not be healthy for you. :) Sorry if I seemed a tad heavy handed up there, that wasn't my intention. **** Pengy wrote loadsastuff: ----- Personal use I should imagine would be fine Pengy, it's the potential for redistribution that I thought Mariamus might need to investigate. It was the "need help to bone" that twigged, if you're altering mesh or changing textures, adding props there's not usually a need to bone anything. I've done the same thing with Counterstrike models and altered them for a "clown" mod a friend wrote. This didn't come over as an intention to write a mod, but rather to take them into Poser for other uses. Take Two are a 10.3 million dollar company and Max Payne is kind of a flagship for them at the mo, meaning they might be somewhat protective of it. My apologies if I implied something untoward and painted Mariamus for burning at the stake (far too much of that goes on around here). But, sometimes people do things with the best intentions and get themselves into a world of hurt. ***** odeathoflife wrote: well according to that statment he COULD do it but take 2 would own it ----- Yeah, that's pretty much how it read to me as well, indicating that they want total control over the goodies. This (to me anyway) implies strict protectionism and any other usage of the files/models may result in unpleasantness. Having seen the way some companies operate (Disney, Microsoft, Paramount, TSR, Games Workshop etc.) it seemed prudent to suggest caution. :)

"It was the "need help to bone" that twigged, if you're altering mesh or changing textures, adding props there's not usually a need to bone anything." There is if you're making walk/run/jump/die/etc animation cycles and can't afford Maya to do it. :) We had to build and animate a sentry gun for the old (and now way dead) Weapons Factory for Unreal Tournament mod, as well as plasma spheres, the entire cyborg player model that sometimes shat out those spheres, (was also working on) a flight animation for the recon character, etc. there's plenty of .bvh tools out there for most games (dunno what MP uses offhand, though.) dunno about the newest games, though - I've been out of it for too long (I recall the UT2k3 disks coming with a (I think) stripped version of Maya as well as UnrealEd to assist in this for UT's unique "Golem" animation engine, though.) /P

The reason I wanted to bone these models is that I am trying to make a Max Payne graphic novel just for the fun of it, but mixing other characters into the novel will be hell if I have to take screenshots.. not to mention the interactive value when the characters only stand like they move in the game br> the first thing I did when I got the textures to sit right with Vinnie was to make the image attatched.. but as you see.. he does look at bit stiff ^_^

oh yeah, and btw.. I'm a she. ^_^

Err, you may want to ask the owners then if you're using their mesh to do it. Most won't care, but the few who do can make your life a legalistic Hell if you do it without them knowing about it first :/ /P

What are they going to do. Spend a bunch of thier own money to take them to court. I can see it now. The judge would ask how much did you profit? Reply: None. They made a profit when I bought the game though? The judge would then ask why are you sueing this person. You think she owes you something? Like a couple more bucks? What law has just been broken here? Get this out of my court!

LOL. thank you LynnJonathan.. you could also say that i'm not redistributing the game.. people can't even make mods with these models i'm exporting, not unless they already own the game..

Not to start an argument lynnJonathan, but the answer is. Yes. It has happened in the past for less reason - although not "yet" to Poser users (as far as I know). Copyright is protected regardless of usage. Trademarks are defended rigorously and often vehemently. Did Star Trek fans profit from their sites? No, but Paramount closed them down and spent a fortune doing it - why? Usually because of grainy screen shots snapped from TV. No profit, no charge for access, nothing. Just a 'fan' saying "wow, I love this series". That's one example. Same with several other companies. Yeah it's easy to shrug and say "I made no money, what they gonna do?" Simple fact is, many often DO do something. Better safe than sorry, neh? Other examples of how people react when their textures, models and images are used against their wishes can be found on this very website. Here in the Poser forum and in the Copyright Forum. Might want to search and take a look. :)

I'm going to bow out of this conversation because it was not my intention to start a "what if" argument or a witch hunt or get into a "but it's free" discussion. The mesh exported from the game is copyrighted - no matter what you do with it. Have a read, Answer 2 is quite relevant. http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html and http://www.copyright-laws.com/ On that note, I'm outta here. Do whatever you will. I just thought a heads up was worth while before anything went much further.

Don't worry Questor. we'll play nice :)

Hmm Just don't stick your butt out too for making a statment like that one, It almost sound slutty to me.

And you're saying that to a woman who is married and has a two-month old daughter? ROFL

i would like to say that for all u jack(rears) yeah yeah about copy this and copy that.. dud do what u wanna do.. the only fault u had was asking for help yet u get none but a bunch of he-has talking mad lip about copyrights... umm they freaking made a programs so you can mess around EVERYTHING about the game and even a tutorial about how to EVEN make it distrudable without profit... do you.. cuz eventho iam late today is 5/31/2004 this was somthing i wanted to do... actually i wanted to figure out how to get the charactor animations out.. when i do i'll keep it to myself... last time i spoke about export my threand got locked... 3 years ago for halflife game

Oddly enough, it's that particular attitude that's the reason "for all u jack(rears) yeah yeah about copy this and copy that.." -- the point wasn't that she shouldn't do it, but that if she does, be sure she doesn't get herself hurt. Because it does happen, a lot, and MORE often to the folks who don't profit from than the folks who do. dud (sic), she can go to jail simply for redistributing them. Not for making money -- just for letting them go out there. us buncha "he-has talking mad lip about copyrights" know that there are several tools out there for doing so. But is this specific purpose one that the company intended them for (intent is the point), and would they do something bad to her? We don't know. All we know is that we like her, and the last thing we want to see is someone getting hurt becuase they weren't aware of what could happen.

Well. the graphic novel I wanted to make is finished, and the people at Remedy knows about it, and have praised it. so I'm not getting into any probslems :) knock on wood

ooohhh! link, link!~!!