Skinning Issue: Lightsaber hilt

[Xiox]

Hi there, this is the first time I've made a model for any game. I used to deal with the Quake III Engine for a while and it was fairly easy to understand how file structuring works in this engine.

 

Obviously alot of parts from JA are "tweaked"

 

Anyway I figured out how the tags worked for *blade#, anyway I'll get back to that issue.

 

Anyway I can successfully import the model into the game, I have gone through all of my files and made sure the path is correct. The Saber blades are correctly positioned.

 

My only issue is that the lightsaber's texture will not appear in-game.

 

Anyway I'll post up the file hierarchy and what's in them, and see if anyone ca n figure out what the problem is.

 

---

models\weapons2\saber_precu\

 

Contains:

 

saber_w.glm

saber_w.jpg

saber_w.qc

saber_w.md3

saber_w.skin

 

---

 

I understand the only 2 real files I need are saber_w.glm and saber_w.jpg

 

anyway I'll post what's in the .qc and .skin file.

 

saber_w.qc

// Quake III Arena MD3 control file, generated by MilkShape 3D
//
$model "/models/weapons2/saber_precu/saber_w.md3"
// reference frame
$frames -1 -1
// frame 1-30
//$frames 1 0
$flags 0
$numskins 0

// you can have one or no parent tag

// tags

// meshes (surfaces)
$mesh "saber_w"
$skin "/models/weapons2/saber_precu/saber_w.jpg"
$flags 0

$mesh "*blade1"
$skin "[nomaterial]"
$flags 0

$mesh "*blade2"
$skin "[nomaterial]"
$flags 0

 

saber_w.skin

saber_w,\models\weapons2\saber_precu\saber_w.jpg

 

 

Well that's what's in there.

 

Since I use Milkshape and I export MD3s from there using the QC, the skin is already set in place.

 

For a while I only used the path without the backslash in the beginning, I didn't know if that really mattered, and I tried it WITH the backslash and no avail.

 

I can't seem to find the issue with this, and it's bugging the living crap out of me.

 

Also my second question is.. how the hell do you hide the tags? The tags are showing up in the model regardless what I try to do to the Face's transparancy.

 

hopefully I can get some help here.

 

Thanks in advanced.

[Inyri]

Open your MD3 with MD3View and apply the skin, then export to MD3 and GLM. Saber GLM's and MD3's do not automatically recognize .skin files like player skins do.

 

You also do not need the leading backslash.

 

To hide the tags, name them properly -- not *blade1, but tag_blade1. If you don't name them right they will appear as a plane rather than a tag, which sounds like what you're experiencing.

[Xiox]

Thanks for the help Inyri, but however I've been doing exactly as you've said. The qc file is configured to automatically have the skin applied when I open up the MD3 model anyway.

 

Recently I opened up the model in GMax, and replaced the texture and configured the UV map.

 

Anyway, about the skin file. Does it matter what kind of slashes are used? I ran into this problem with a few of my player models in Q3.

 

Again, thanks for your help.

[Xiox]

Excuse the double post if you will.

 

Since I've worked about 3 days on this issue I'm on the edge of dropping the entire project and say screw JKA and Raven Soft's structure.

 

I've rebuilt this lightsaber 3 times from scratch, following this tutorial word for word:

 

http://www.thejediacademy.net/~virtue/tutorials/hilts/part7.html

 

I would hate to blame the game for the problem, I've seen hilts released recently and work, beautifully, but my model just doesn't seem to want to do what I want it to, and the mesh is extremely simple (well kind of)

 

The Skin is extremely simple.

 

The model is meant to replicate the Type 1 DBL Lightsaber used prodominantly in PRE-CU Star Wars Galaxies.

 

This was just a prototype model in comparison to my high resolution model.

 

I was expecting to see how simple this model fits into the game, and to get the bare bone basics in importing into Jedi Academy.

 

Since I've failed in debugging the issue I thought I'd give the more experienced the chance to look this over.

 

Here is the model: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EU72JKBQ

 

Actually it's the PK3, so save it or just open it, either one.

 

If you can, please debug this and let me know where and what the error was so that I do not make the same mistake twice. Thanks.

[Psyk0Sith]

Open your MD3 with MD3View and apply the skin, then export to MD3 and GLM. Saber GLM's and MD3's do not automatically recognize .skin files like player skins do.

 

That is correct, QC files are useless.

 

remove the \ before models:

saber_w, models\weapons2\saber_precu\saber_w.jpg

 

If all else fails you can manually edit the path inside the .md3 file, but you have to do it right or it will corrupt the file and freeze the game when trying to load the object.

[Xiox]

That is correct, QC files are useless.

 

remove the \ before models:

saber_w, models\weapons2\saber_precu\saber_w.jpg

 

If all else fails you can manually edit the path inside the .md3 file, but you have to do it right or it will corrupt the file and freeze the game when trying to load the object.

 

Heh you mean hexing it? Still what good does that do for me? The game doesn't even recognize MD3's, the only thing I'm worried about is the GLM, and no texture is rendering on its surface. If you actually download and open up that PK3 you can see even in the .skin file that I have it pointing specifically to the right skin, however it's not even rendering the skin.

 

At first I was worried that the UVW wasn't saved properly, but that's impossible because even the default texture used by JKA (Grey/white lines) are UVW Mapped (prefectly symmetrical white lines).

 

So there is indeed something I'm missing, look into it if you can and try to debug this thing please.

 

Thanks for helping, anyway.

[Psyk0Sith]

Open your .md3 in Md3view.EXE (it's part of the SDK), apply .skn file, save to .glm.

[Xiox]

I'm sorry to sound frustrated Psyk0Sith, but I've done that at least 15 times in the last two days, I've had NO luck at all, if you would just examine the file that I uploaded, we could probably get this issue solved alot quicker than having me rinse an repeat the same steps over and over.

 

edit: Also would this have ANYTHING to do with the polycount as well? The Saber is in it's 2,000's and I heard a rumor that the game limited this to 1,000 would that have anything to do with the model not rendering the texture??

[Psyk0Sith]

Hmm ok the .glm looks fine, it is pointing to the right path. Altho you used "weapons" instead of "weapons2" for base folder, i doubt that has anything to do with it tho. At least the texture shows up in modview, i cant test it in-game since i lost my JA install in a crash.

 

The maximum allowed VERTICES per object is 500, but shouldnt be a problem, when you go over that limit the game wont calculate shadows for that object. To get around this limitation, you can break your mesh into multiple objects within the file, just make sure you add the texture to each new part.

 

You could have "saber_handle" as one object and detach extremities to "saber1" and "saber2" until you meet the 500 verts limit per object.

[Xiox]

Hmm ok the .glm looks fine, it is pointing to the right path. Altho you used "weapons" instead of "weapons2" for base folder, i doubt that has anything to do with it tho. At least the texture shows up in modview, i cant test it in-game since i lost my JA install in a crash.

 

The maximum allowed VERTICES per object is 500, but shouldnt be a problem, when you go over that limit the game wont calculate shadows for that object. To get around this limitation, you can break your mesh into multiple objects within the file, just make sure you add the texture to each new part.

 

You could have "saber_handle" as one object and detach extremities to "saber1" and "saber2" until you meet the 500 verts limit per object.

 

Ah cool that's very useful info there. I was thinking that I'd start all the way over with a higher quality model, and knowing that, it'll help me greatly. I use ZBrush in alot of my higher end material. Maybe I'll have better luck there then

[Psyk0Sith]

I wouldnt use zbrush for low poly models, a lightsaber with 2000 tris is overkill if you ask me, but hey i know computers are more powerful these days hehe. Still odd that the texture doesnt show up in-game. I remember people had problems with progressive compressed jpeg files...but ur pointing to the .tga, i'm out of ideas for now.

[Oktanis]

Hello... My first post here, my first Model as well haha

 

I followed a tutorial that told me to open notepad, enter a code, and then save the file with the ext as ".skin"

 

Makes sense, but it saves the file as a text file .skin.txt Not as a .skin file.

Im almost finished the tutorial, and my saber hilt, but the last part, is whats keeping me back... IF anyone can help me i would be greatly thankfull

 

Peace

[M@RS]

Try renaming the file instead of changing the file when you save it...Just right click and click rename then change the .txt to .skin that might work But, I don't model...and Welcome to LucasForums!