A Guide to Assimilate: Tips and Tricks

[Sniper Wolf]

I wrote this guide awhile back and sent it to jkii.net but seems it hasn't been posted. Here it is. Maybe make this sticky so people can use this reference?

 

A Guide to Assimilate: Tips and Tricks

By Mike “Sniper Wolf” Judd (aka Rendak)

 

Introduction

So what is Assimilate, you ask? Oh you didn’t ask? Well too bad I’m going to tell you anyways. Assimilate is the only tool out as of this moment that will create and compile the files needed for using your custom made model in JK2. This tutorial will work for you ONLY when you are done with your model and have correctly linked the hierarchy, weighted the bones and uvwmapped it! It can be tough to actually get this program to work. You’re in luck, though, because this guide to Assimilate will get your model in game guaranteed! * (after a $49.99 mail in rebate and the fattened cow sacrificed to yours truly) Here’s what you will expect to see here:

 

· The essentials of assimilating

· Technical details (for you techies out there)

· Common problem and fixes

 

 

So let’s get to it! –Christopher Lowell

 

The Essentials

First off, note that the path to my jk2 folder is c:/games/jk2/ therefore that is the location I will be using throughout the tutorial. This is the best location for your game because it has no spaces in the path. I will go into that later. Apply this knowledge to your own JK2 location. Please no emails complaining about this unless you’ve already made sure everything is pointed to where you’ve installed the game.

 

Ok, if you have just opened Assimilate for the first time, you need to change the preferences so that the first line points to your anim.h (which is located in your c:/games/jk2/gamedata/base/tools/gamesource/ folder) the second line points to your carcass.exe (in your c:/games/jk2/gamedata/base/tools folder) and the third line goes to your c:/games/jk2/gamedata directory. Then check MP and click OK. You are ready to start compiling once you are sure the directories are right and everything points to the right file.

 

*One common error in Assimilate is that it doesn’t like any paths with spaces in them. It would be a smart idea to uninstall your JK2 then reinstall it to c:/games/jk2. This is what I had to do to make Assimilate read my root.xsi.

 

Next, open Winzip (or the zip program of your choice) and go into your gamedata/base/ folder and open the assets0.pk3. This is where your _humanoid.gla file is located that is the root for your animations in JK2. Extract it to your gamedata/base/ folder and make sure you have the “extract with path” option checked so that it extracts to gamedata/base/models/players/ and then creates _humanoid/ and puts the _humanoid.gla there.

 

Now, make sure you have exported your model as root.xsi and placed it in your models/players/yourmodel/ directory (where your model is the name of…. Your model ) Then, go to File > Add Files and find your models/players/_humanoid directory, open it and select the _humanoid.gla. Then click the B (which is build) and this will prompt for you to enter a name for the .car file carcass is going to compile. Name it model and then click ok. It will start to build the .glm and hopefully it will work. If it doesn’t, don’t fret little missy, ole Wolf has got yur back.

 

Common Problems and Fixes

Ok, the method I just mentioned is the tried and true most error ridden method possible. In no way did I ever get a valid .glm file out of it. This is the most common problem there is, and my friend SilentMobius devised this sinister plan to rule with an iron fist and actually get a workable glm file out of “that thar durn” Assimilate. Here it is:

 

“I think what I've said will get you a working glm.

Here's why:

If you import the _humanoid.gla from the _humanoid dir it looks in that dir for the root.xsi (not what we want)

Also I get a "Model file missing”: c:/games/jk2/gamedata/base/gamedata/base/models/players/_humanois/_humanoid.gla"

This is if the preferences read:

c:/games/jk2/gamedata/base/

so as I previously said I shortened it to

c:/games/jk2/

Then it stops complaining

_BUT_ again it still looks in _humanoid for the root.xsi

if you do what I suggested it works, but if I look at the car files it creates:

code:

 

 

$aseanimgrabinit

$aseanimgrab_gla models/players/BattleDroid/_humanoid.gla

$aseanimgrabfinalize

$aseanimconvertmdx_noask models/players/BattleDroid/root

 

 

Whereas the one Raven gave us for the stormtrooper reads:

code:

 

 

$aseanimgrabinit

$aseanimgrab_gla models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.gla

$aseanimgrabfinalize

$aseanimconvertmdx_noask models/players/stormtrooper/root -makeskin -smooth

 

 

As you can see I'm linking to a file that may well break the game.

 

So my suggestion is that you copy the .car file from the SDK that should have ended up in: /base/models/players/stormtrooper/model.car

Into your named dir. Change the "root" line to match your named dir, leave _humanoid.gla where it was in _humanoid and load the .car file rather that trying to create it from scratch in Assimilate.”

 

So what SilentMobius was saying is that instead of having the carcass.exe make you a model.car, make your own that uses the storm trooper version. Not understanding? I’ll put it in simple terms: Open up Notepad, and copy this into it:

 

$aseanimgrabinit

$aseanimgrab_gla models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.gla

$aseanimgrabfinalize

$aseanimconvertmdx_noask models/players/YOURMODEL/root -makeskin -smooth

 

Where the “YOURMODEL” is, change that to your model’s directory name. Then save as model.car and open that up in Assimilate. If this has all worked, then you should have a model.glm being built. Any errors from there on are because of your model and not related to Assimilate. Of course if this is your first time assimilating and compiling a glm then you will have errors such as a few vertices not weighted or a few vertices weighted with more than 4 bones (which is a no-no). Just adjust and export your file to root.xsi and try again. It’s a never ending battle with Assimilate. If you’ve got a model into the game without much hassle, kudos to you. Remember, this method works the best! It’s worked for everyone I’ve talked to. That’s it, Assimilate is that easy!

 

If you get the error “C:/Program.car” and a bunch of other things, then it is telling you that it has messed up because of the spaces in the path. A good method would be to reinstall to c:/games/jk2

 

If you get something like this:

l_hand_cap_l_hand_wrist_off

l_hand_wrist_cap_l_arm_off

l_hand_wrist_cap_l_hand_off

l_arm_cap_l_hand_wrist_off

torso_l_shoulder

torso_r_shoulder

r_arm

*r_arm_cap_r_hand

*r_arm_elbow

*r_arm_cap_torso

r_hand

*r_hand_cap_r_arm

*r_hand_wrist

*r_hand

r_hand_wrist

torso_collar

torso_l_shoulder_cap_torso_off

torso_collar_cap_torso_off

torso_collar_cap_head_off

r_hand_wrist_cap_r_arm_off

r_hand_wrist_cap_r_hand_off

r_hand_cap_r_hand_wrist_off

head_cap_torso_collar_off

 

( Press any Key ... )

 

This means that these parts of the model are not linked right. Do the hierarchy again; it takes only a few minutes.

 

Conclusion

Well, that’s the end. I’d like to thank SilentMobius for his theory, Madjai for helping me understand a few things and the JK2.net forums and my fellow modelers that post in the Modelling Forum so often. Also I’d like to thank Al the Drunken Pasta Maker for making me some pasta while he was drunk.

Until next time!

- Wolf (dammit I couldn’t add the little jawa!)

 

 

Any questions? My email is snig1123@hotmail.com Please, no gay porn.

 

Hope this helps.

- Wolf

[adillon]

thanks sniper! i'm sure this tutorial will help out numerous people, including yours truly.

[Sniper Wolf]

*bump*

Just trying to keep it up here so people can refer to this for assimilate posts.

[KapnKeg]

Just a quick question. I understand that the "-makeskin" parameter causes carcass to write you a skin file, but what exactly does the "-smooth" parameter do? Is this something similar to using one big smoothing group in max? When you export an xsi, I don't think anything related to smoothing is written to the file. Since jk2 apparently doesn't recognize smoothing, I'd figured that the rendering engine in jk2 probably did this automatically, but that's just an assumption and, as we all know, assumption is the mother of all f***-ups. Thanks.

[Commodus]

I think what you said about -makesmooth smoothing the model is right, because the model templates Raven gave us don't have any smoothing on them....

 

Good job on the guide Sniper!

[GabrielXen]

I finally got this all workin', but now it's telling me that it "could not spawn process" when I click on the "b" to build it... Sniper, what am i doing wrong..?

 

-Gabriel-

 

[Midgit Yoda]

I had the same problem when I was startin. All you do is put the carcass.exe file into the folder that you have your .xsi file in.

[agentj64]

*drools*

 

Thank you!

[GabrielXen]

Put the .exe in the folder with the .xsi and it still gave me the "could not spawn process" error...

[Sniper Wolf]

Uhm carcass.exe should be in your /tools folder and should be referenced to that location.

[GabrielXen]

At least I got on thing right... lol

 

-Gabriel-

 

[MacD]

BTW: the third line goes to your c:/games/jk2/gamedata/base directory

 

Note the addition of "base" to the line for the Quake3 directory in the preferences of Assimilate.

 

BTW, thanks for all the tips! The model.car one is neat; now my project reads "roger" instead of "model" after adding the model.car!