furrycat's Milkshape weapon modding tutorial

Materials

Just like in 3D Studio MAX you can assign materials to faces to set special behaviour of those faces.

Faces mapped with the material called MAG will be considered part of the weapon's magazine and will momentarily disappear as the gun is reloaded.
If a single face (you can use more than one but that's a waste of polygons) has a material called FLASHLIGHT, the game will use that face's position (and orientation - check your normal!) to draw a corona sprite when the weapon's flashlight is activated. Weapons with flashlights must have at least one such face in the mesh.
If a single face has a material called MUZZLE, the game will draw a muzzle flash sprite at its location when the weapon is fired. The "MUZZLE polygon" is optional. Your weapon will work without one but it will not exhibit muzzle flash.

FLASHLIGHT and MUZZLE polygons will not be drawn by the game engine. You should not pick a polygon at random from the end of your flashlight or muzzle as doing so will create a hole in the mesh. Instead, create a single face and position it slightly in front of the weapon.

The picture below shows the MP5-N's MAG polygons.

Note that you do not have to name your material groups but you must name the materials themselves.

In the next section I will show you how to create joints for your weapon.

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