Jump to content

Home

MODELERS/SDK I HERE/ I've Got QUESIONS???

CheshireKat

By CheshireKat
in General Editing

Recommended Posts

CheshireKat Newbie

CheshireKat

Posted
Posted

O.K. I can model, I can UV Map, and I can SKin, but that's as far as I've ever gotten.

 

I installed the importer for MAX and I opened the files up, and I am 100% lost...

 

My model is pretty far along, and hopefully I don't have to go back and redo anything, but I was really hoping for some answers from these tools.

 

Now I'm more confulsed than ever.

 

It's to the point that I'm scared to do anything, with all the hard work I've already put into this.

 

So does anyone understand what to do now?

 

Is anyone going to write some good TUTs for this?

 

I need help!!!

 

Please give me answers.

 

At least a few...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
spacermonkey Newbie

spacermonkey

Posted
Posted

ok I had a quick play and figured a few things..

now, the md3 view allows us to either use the pop n fresh md3 exporter (from max) or gmax to export our models as md3. then we import them into the md3 viewer where we can export them as glm's. But it looks like we have to extract teh animations from the existing model and get a .seq file and I havent got a clue how to do that. Also theres the segmentation and tags to consider and I'm not sure if the mod viewer has support for attaching the seq/animations to the model.

-edit- downloaded it again from Jk2 net and it had the exporter included. Now I'm totally confused. Obviously you have to export your models as xsi format, but then whats the point in having the md3 viewer - unless its just intended for viewing skins.. but then why not just view them in the modviewer..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
spacermonkey Newbie

spacermonkey

Posted
Posted

The fact that they have so many stupid little skinmaps annoys me. But no I havent havent checked out the stormtrooper model.

It seems the assimilate program is the little bugger that will let us apply the bones to the mesh (as it allows for xsi importing and gla (animation)..

 

-goes to look at the stormtrooper

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CheshireKat Newbie

CheshireKat

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Check out the Max Tools. Once you put the Xsi importer in the plugins folder you can import the models they packe with the tools. Kyle, Stormtrooper, and Humanoid thingy.

 

It appears one shows how the model is set up and another is like... I don't know. Humanoid must be the animations.

 

What all this means though, I'm at a loss.

 

The models look way wierd though. Each has a second Torso section floating below it.

 

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

Man I want to understant this!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
senkusha Newbie

senkusha

Posted
Posted

On the days SDK's are released it almost feels like a study session of some sort. Lot's of fun stuff to figure out. Anyway, i've been looking over the model information and jotted some notes which I'm going to share. Hopefully, it'll clear up some confusion. Although it could potentially cause more. Who knows.

If something isn't clear, feel free to ask for a clarification, and if you notice a mistake, post it so that we all know. Oh, just a disclaimer, I make no claims that this is entirely accurate, just my own observations.

 

Dummies

there are 3 dummies located at (0,0,0), i think they specify the origin of the model, other than that i'm not sure what else they're used for. this little diagram gives their names and their heirachcy.

		
                        "model_root"
                         /          \
                  "mesh_root"     "skeleton_root"
                        |                 |
                        \/                \/
            "stupidtriangle_off"    rest of skeleton
                      |
                      \/
                     rest of mesh

Note: the next child for "mesh_root" is a triangle called "stupidtriangle_off", I'm pretty sure it's a tag that separates the lower half of the model from the top half.

 

Level Of Detail (LOD)

I take it that JKII uses an LOD system similar to Quake3 in that each mesh has

a explicit mesh for each level of detail. Hence that is why each mesh (i.e. "torso")

also has a corresponding "torso_1", "torso_2", and "torso_3" for each LOD. 3 being the lowest

and the base name (again "torso") being the highest.

 

These are the number of polygons for the stormtrooper and it's respective LOD as and idea of what to go by.

LOD 0 - 2729

LOD 1 - 1740

LOD 2 - 665

LOD 3 - 378

 

Skeleton

To my understanding, the humanoid models share a base skeleton. That also means each model has all

the same animations which is stored in the "/gamedata/base/models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.gla" file.

Each skeleton has 139 bones, 61 of which are used for the face and neck animations.

 

Tags

There's 184 tags, not including the previously mentioned "stupidtriangle_off" tag. As far

as I can tell they all begin with the prefix "bolt_" and they are part of the mesh and not

the skeleton.

 

Mesh

There's not much to say about the mesh. It's obviously segmented. It looks like each

segment has a cap of some sort. I presume this is used for dismemberment of arms and

what not.

 

Tools

XSI importer - Self explainitory, but it also includes an exporter. Max 4 comes with it's own XSI exporter, but it's probably safer to use this one as it's coded specifically for the needs of the development team.

 

Assimilate - Basically just a front-end for the carcass program. Imports the .car files (essentially a souped up version of the quake .qdt file). Takes the .car file and the .xsi file and tells carcass what to do with them to produce the .glm model file

 

Carcass - The model compiler!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MessiahErebus Newbie

MessiahErebus

Posted
Posted

I have a question about weapons

 

okay, made a leia's blaster a few days ago, and am trying to import it now, following some q3 tut i found a while ago...anyway

 

its in the game, but:

 

A.) the texture is all f***ed up it seems like it would be in the right spot,...but all i can see is a blob of grey, and 2 blobs of white...its like it took out any contrast.

 

B.) the model is inside the character's arm.... my question about this is

 

in max if you move the entire model, tags and all in the world, does it move it in the game. Or instead do i just move the weapon farther forward of the weapons tag?

 

im gonna screw around some more with it, hopefully post some screens of the completed thing...or what is still messed up. Plus ill post a pic of my skinless test saber that would be kind of cool, if i added the claw at the top again (had to delete because of polys, before i realized you can break a weapon into infinite segments) and skined it... probably be up all nite messin with this, so ill post what i find to help anyone else out. and if anyone has answers to my questions post em up

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CheshireKat Newbie

CheshireKat

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Sorry Guys. I went and messed with Radient, which I really have no buisness doing right now, so I feel bad. I shoulda stuck around to see some of this.

 

As far as I go, I can tell you guys have a much better grasp on how this all works. Most of the things I figured out have already been pointed out, and alot I don't even have a clue about.

 

But great job so far.

 

I'm totally in utter confusion. My model is about70% finished, and now that the tools are here, I'm very very scared. Things look so damn complicated.

 

I've spent the last three months reading MAX books and learning the program up to Skinning, and this seems so much harder.

 

I know I'm being hasty, and once a good TUT comes out way I'll hopefully figure it out, but I've been pretty excited about this project.

 

Keep up the good work everyone.

 

Messiah: your alot farther than I am, so I'm sorry but I cant answer your question. Though I thought someone would be near getting a weapon ingame by now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest seantree

Guest seantree

Posted
Posted

i have my dooku saber workin in game. I think my parent tag is off because the model floats in front of the characters hand. Oh well, more as it comes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
evilhomernz Newbie

evilhomernz

Posted
Posted

BUT HOW do we alter the games models?

 

is it imposible?? like do we have to create all new models

 

 

coz im havin issue after issue trying to figure it otu if some one coudl help me id be greatly appreciative

 

i know its a big ask but if someone could make a tut or roughly write down how to copy a game model out into an alterable format then change it back and put it in the game (also waht progs used to do this)

plz that i think owudl help alot of people

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest seantree

Guest seantree

Posted
Posted

spacermonkey, I exported to mds with popn fresh from max4, imported into md3view, then exported as glm. works dandy except for tags :/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
spacermonkey Newbie

spacermonkey

Posted
Posted

patience cheshire, at least with the max xsi importer we can see how we have to segment out models.- although I'm going to take the stormtrooper approach rather than try to get it setup for facial animations, which would just add to the complexity.

The bones are in max too, I guess we've just got to apply a skin modifier to the model linking the bones to our mesh. Sad thing is if we want to test the deformation we have to export the model from max and test it in either md3 or modelviewer, which is a real pain in the ass.

I'm sure there'll be a tutorial along soon on all of this crap. :jawa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...