Modeling woes (UVW + vertices error)

[Giant Graffiti]

I made a few small changes to the eyes and nose to one of oldflash's heads (with his permission of course), but I'm having a little bit of trouble getting it into the game properly.

 

First of all, there is a pretty sizable hole in the model's neck, as you can see in this screenshot. Another problem is that there is hole for where her hairband was, and the texture has gone crazy. (On oldflash's original model he had done away with the hair bun and remodeled the hair to be rounder.) A third error is that there are some stray vertices way off in the distance. I assume that this is where that chunk of her neck or where her hairband went.

None of these problems can be seen in Gmax. This leads me to believe that the errors have to do with either exporting the head model from Gmax or from recompiling it with Taina's replacer tool. However, after encountering these errors I tried reexporting the model from Gmax and recompiling it with Taina's replacer tool several times, but each time I had the exact same problems. Also, I when Taina's replacer tool asked for the original version of the model, I tried pointing it toward the one straight from the game, rather than oldflash's edit of it, but I still got the same errors.

 

I was following this tutorial.

[Quanon]

Hey,

 

What might help, is to 'detach to element' following the UVWmap of said model.

This will sort of slice your model into the parts like how the UVWmap is laid out.

 

The game often freaks on UVWmaps and the model. That's because the UVWmap also uses vertices to work. And it often has more vertices then the model. And somewhere in our little tools things can get it a bit messed up, on what vert is part of what... UVWmap or the model. The above trick mostly worked OK, as you get the same amount of vertices on the UVWmap and the model. On my sabermodels and area models this often solved the problem with meshes being all over the place. Not a 100% sure how Taina's replacer will act on this.

[VarsityPuppet]

If you"re using Taina's Replacer, it shouldn't be an issue though....

 

We really need to get people using 3dsmax instead of gmax

[supreme kotor]

We really need to get people using 3dsmax instead of gmax

 

I've never had an issue with Gmax? I understand MANY MANY people do but I have done everything from heads, to area models, to placeables. And I've never had an issue.

[Fair Strides 2]

If you"re using Taina's Replacer, it shouldn't be an issue though....

 

We really need to get people using 3dsmax instead of gmax

 

I haven't really had many/any issues with 3DS per sey, but I have often had issues with Taina's replacer...

[VarsityPuppet]

I've never had an issue with Gmax? I understand MANY MANY people do but I have done everything from heads, to area models, to placeables. And I've never had an issue.

 

Gmax for me is notorious for losing vertex weight information thus causing "fun" issues like the wrong displacement for vertices in skin meshes, especially when attaching new skin meshes.

[Darth DeadMan]

Gmax for me is notorious for losing vertex weight information thus causing "fun" issues like the wrong displacement for vertices in skin meshes, especially when attaching new skin meshes.

This issue usually happens when you resetxform the skin mesh.

My 2 basic rules for skinmeshes in gMax:

1) If you edit the existing skin mesh - NEVER use resetxform.

2) If you're adding a completely new one - rsetxform this mesh only BEFORE you add skin modifier.

Following this simple rules makes the job done. At least for me.

[VarsityPuppet]

This issue usually happens when you resetxform the skin mesh.

My 2 basic rules for skinmeshes in gMax:

1) If you edit the existing skin mesh - NEVER use resetxform.

2) If you're adding a completely new one - rsetxform this mesh only BEFORE you add skin modifier.

Following this simple rules makes the job done. At least for me.

 

Yep, I know that. I'm talking about attaching two different skin meshes. One of the meshes will undoubtedly lose the weight information.

 

And moving the vertices will lose the weight information.

 

Mind you, this is for combining body models or making NEW heads (not Taina's Replacer)

[Giant Graffiti]

Thanks for all of the replies, but I finally figured it out on my own. Apparently the problem was leaving neck_g and head_g ticked on Taina's replacer tool. So now I feel really dumb.

 

We really need to get people using 3dsmax instead of gmax

 

I don't doubt that 3DSmax is much, much better than Gmax, but the trouble is that 3DSmax costs money, and Gmax doesn't. Also, I'll remember what you said about meshing models, but for now I'm really just moving around a few vertices.

[oldflash]

From what I remember, I edited the head in one step (used original model, edit/export/blabla/tested in kotor while the source was still in 3dmax) as any later reconversion/edit/conversion was ended as fail. So I expect the problem to be on conversion already edited head. Just for test, convert my mode to aschii, import in gmax, export, replacement tool and see it in game if is still work.

As fot the top of the head, get the verticles on the edge of that hole and get them together (do not weld them - gust get them close). It is what i did.

[VarsityPuppet]

Thanks for all of the replies, but I finally figured it out on my own. Apparently the problem was leaving neck_g and head_g ticked on Taina's replacer tool. So now I feel really dumb.

 

 

 

I don't doubt that 3DSmax is much, much better than Gmax, but the trouble is that 3DSmax costs money, and Gmax doesn't. Also, I'll remember what you said about meshing models, but for now I'm really just moving around a few vertices.

 

Actually, older versions of 3dsmax are supposedly free.

 

Also, if you have a college email address, you can get the latest of any autodesk software for free (comes with a 2 year license I think, but better than nothing)