Custom Maps

[Uraj Djnn]

Is it possible to create a script to let a CADD program read the KotOR maps?

I have AutoCAD 8.1 (a VERY expensive but VERY useful program) and it's alot easier to use than gmax.

[Darkkender]

I suppose if you compared the NWmax script executable to the CADD script language and created it yourself it would be possible. Also I'm assuming you don't mean the maps but you mean the area "Models" as maps are the layout of the area which is a simple text file to say how they are connected while the models themselves are what AutoCAD would be editing.

 

Now at this time none of the tools we have properly support new area models being imported into the game so even if you manage to create your CAD import script you still won't be able to import the area model into the game.

 

Now I'm going to re-emphasize something somebody said in another thread about if your goal is to import models into a modeling program from k1 and then export them for k2 I would stop asking now. Porting of models from one game to the other is illegal and is not supported at Lucasforums.

[Uraj Djnn]

That wasn't my goal, if my theory is true, then the maps of KotOR 1 + 2 would show up as a mesh, like head models, and I could modify the mesh and add in some fillers, then after I would be able to reskin the whole thing(ex. modify peragus' map to get rid of the celing and reskin it to look like some part of Hoth), to create a completely new map. The problem is that I wouldn't know how to add the objects (Doors/computer panels). Even If I were trying to put the KotOR maps into TSL, I wouldn't be able to, I dont have KotOR 1. (If you're wondering what a 'filler' is in CAD: it is the set boundary on an object/map. If you add fillers, then the map is larger, if you add 'blocks' the map gets smaller. A filler is always a see-through 3d rectangle with a set height, and a block is any shape and size that is rendered in RED immediately in the CAD).

[Darkkender]

Once again the files for areas are not called maps. Or tilesets for that matter. Each area made up of multiple usually an average of 10 seperate model files. These area model files are then layed out using a layout file.(.lyt)

 

As for Fillers and blocks they would have really not much meaning or use to me.

 

As too modify the area models mesh like you would a head model the theory is correct. However the model itself is so large in scale that our current model compiler/decompiler tool(mdlops) can't properly handle using the Mesh replacer function in the replacer tool. This is because the size of the area model is outside of the scope of mdlops.

 

I've been working on a new model tool based off mdlops so as to be able to try to manage the larger area models but I'm probably a week or 2 off from an alpha release.

 

If your familiar with the CAD scripting language and manage to create a CAD script to import models with I'll gladly provide a export to CAD file option or whatever format AutoCAD uses. That's one of the things I'm doing for the model tool now is building a direct export to 3ds & gmax format by going through NWMax's script files.

[Uraj Djnn]

Although Off Topic, my experience in map making for Quake 3 Arena requires fillers, because the fillers tell the boundaries in the game. Without boundaries, you could fall forever if you forgot a wall and ran through a "floorless" section. The blocks are just to keep map sizes smaller than the full box.

[Darkkender]

In the Kotor games the area models use a walkmesh file that spans all of the seperate models that compose the entire area. These "Wok" files would effectively be what controls the falling factor but not really. The reason you have to create those fillers with Q3 is because the engine is supposed to handle the elemenet of falling and jumping from one level to another. Meanwhile the NWN and Kotor games don't have those elements built into them. The reason for the walkmeshes in the kotor games are simply to define the areas where the player can walk and anything beyond this walkmesh is considered a obstacle and cannot be walked upon or through.