Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9ce_ygeSA

It's not possible to remove effects ourselves. If you have an item that requires a custom effect, valve will do it for you (not animations, though-- you must do animations yourself).

No problem. And to answer your other question: I use Blender, btw (obviously, haha).

Make a lower polygon version of your finished model (the easiest way of doing this without messing up your UVs completely is to delete edgeloops: select an edgeloop > press "delete" > choose "edge loop"). You can also delete faces that aren't seen from far away.

Export this new low-poly model as a .smd file with a different name. If your regular model was called "c_model.smd", then name your new lod something like "c_model_lod1.smd".

Finally, add the following lines to your QC and compile:


Note that the number 10 can be changed. This value represents units per pixel. Basically the larger this number, the further away the model has to be in-game for the default model to swap into the lod version. Read more here.

You can also have multiple lods: Just make various low-polygon versions of your model (each model being lower in polys than the previous), and add more lines to your QC file like such:

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2ShaderMaskGuide.pdf

Contains all the information you need.

Make sure your normals are pointing the right way (recalculate your normals or just flip the ones that are backwards manually). Also, it might be that you are trying to bake the model without first having applied your mirror modifier first. This is most likely the cause of your issue. There are no overlapping UVs, but how do you think the mirror modifier works? It overlaps the UVs :P When you apply the modifier, you'll see what I mean.

Originally posted by doot doot 2:

there are no specifications or guides as to which bone or bones im supposed to parent the object to

This is something you have to figure out on your own. When I was making my brewmaster set, the shoulders were a goddamn nightmare since there were at least 10 bones I had to work with. The best way to see which bones are assigned to which is to use the weight-paint mode (google this). Take a look at which bones are used in the default model and go from there.

Originally posted by doot doot 2:

It also seems blender wont let me parent to a bone if there are multiple bones connected to the one im trying to parent to. Any suggestions?

From object mode you should be able to parent your model to the main armature. Then select your model only, go into edit mode, go to the object data tab (right side), then you should be able to apply only certain vertices to certain bones. You can alternatively use weight painting to do the same thing. It takes a while to learn how to weight-paint, though...

1. Go into edit mode, select everything, press ctrl+t to triangulate the model. At the top you will see the amount of faces (tris). Press ctrl+z to undo the triangulation.

2. When you select different parts of the model, the UVs for the selected portions will appear. You can only see all the UVs at once when your entire model is selected (in edit mode). If you haven't already, join together your different objects into one model: From object mode, select the various objects and press ctrl+j.

3. UV unwrapping something like that will require more than seams. Try projection unwrapping.[dl.dropbox.com] You can select various faces from one side, project them onto the UV coordinate space, and continue for the faces on the backside of the model. This technique is useful for models that are bilaterally symmetric that would otherwise be hard to unwrap.

There is no way to convert from an applied color to a UV map (in any program, not just Blender). One way or another you will have to UV unwrap the model.

What do you mean it gives you the option to add more items? I'm assuming you are talking about the preview feature? Each item is separate from the next. When you compile your model in-game, it automatically creates a .mdl file from your .smd. The feature you are looking at simply allows you to preview multiple items on a character at once.

The game compiles your .mdl files to the C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\models\items\<heroname>\<numbers> folder.