OpenArena Message Boards

I know I'm still a noob in this modding business, but I really need help.
I've been using OA to test this weapon model, and the model seems to work.
But after I UV mapped it and made a texture, the texture doesn't show up AND the muzzle flash is in the wrong place. Why do you think this happens? I really need help, thanks

note that I use blender for making models, UV mapping with blender and exporting the tga UV map with lithunwrap (and yes the texture shows up in lithunwrap). Also, the UV mapping isn't finished, I only finished a bit just to test the texture.....

PS: I'm not sure where to put this post, so I just put it here, soz

Disclaimer:

I'm a modeling noob myself, though I have dabbled.

You might try Misfit Model 3D, make sure your paths are correct, they should be based from inside of baseoa, I think, and I believe you'll need to add a tag for the muzzle flash.

Sorry I don't have more on the tag thing, but if you can't find or get the info I can look around some more when I have time.

Yes, I agree they could use a modeling forum perhaps, though I don't know how many are interested in modeling for OA or it's mods or how helpful it will be.

hi jonc,

if you check out this thread (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=184.0), Czestmyr gives a good explanation about editing your md3 to work with the games file system.

the other thing to ensure is that your model is skinned with either a jpg or a tga image.

Thanks for the help, but I can't find the xreal svn from this thread: http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=184.0
and yes I made my texture either tga or jpg (i made it a tga....)

And I have tags (they came from the old OA model, and it worked when I haven't done the uv mapping.

okay i THOUGHT i could fix the texture (I forgot to import it into blender) but for some reason it didn't work, and instead the MUZZLE FLASH works now....well at least thats partly good...

if you are going to use Blender to export an md3 you should be using these scripts unless f0rqu3 has a newer version. 

note - they are somewhat insecure as there is no limit to the amount of characters that can be embedded within the model's meta data when the model format only supports 63 characters

It's been awhile for me, but I quickly got disappointed in Blender because the md3 export under Linux simply didn't work and that was and is the only need I have for a modeling program, so I started using Misfit Model 3D and the developer on that project  does a good job fixing reported bugs as well as implementing reasonable request for features and file support, though I imagine he could use some help on the latter.

Hence, It doesn't surprise me that your having difficulty with Blender and md3 and from here I really can't say if it's you or it, if I had to place a wager though it would be on Blender.

it actually works https://tremx.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/tremx/trunk/blender/
md3_shared is also needed

my only problem with it is the weird exporting with modifiers (mirrored and edgesplit in particular) and sometimes it exports with very weird normals that cause the model to look flat shaded making me import and export them again

oops.

Didn't the OpenArena guys use Blender?

EDIT: sorry for saying 'OpenArena guys'....well to me it sounds a bit disrespectful....

Anyway, I still dunno why the goddamn textures don't work. I mean, the textures show up in Lithunwrap and Blender, why shouldn't it show up in OA?(repeating myself) If someone wants to help I'll post the model if they want..... (and yeah the model kinda sucks)

if you could post the model and the skin in the pk3 that you are using in the game that would be good. i'll take a look at it for you.

if you're not sure how to host the file you can use a website like mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/) and then copy and paste the download page's address here.

Don't worry I think I know how to host it

Thanks Hyperfocus

hello? any help please??

jonc, i downloaded the zip file and here is what i found inside...

2muzzley.tga
bleurchrome.tga
bluechrome.tga
blueechrome.tga
flare.tga
f_machinegun.jpg
machinegun_barrel.md3
machinegun_flash_1.md3
machinegun_flash.md3
machinegun_hand.md3
machinegun.md3
mgun.tga
muzzley.tga
muzzlside.tga
newdualiesmgwip.blend
newdualiesmgwip.blend1
newdualiesmgwip.blend.md3
sillychrome.tga
woodspec.tga

...this won't work with openarena because a)it's not a pk3 file and b)it's not in the file structure that openarena uses.

your work needs to be in a pk3, which is basically a zip file that you rename with the extension .pk3 and inside it you need to use the same file structure that openarena uses. so inside your pk3 would be the file structure models/weapons2/machinegun and your models and skins would be in there. you'd also need to edit the md3s with a hex editor so that when it refers to the tga files it uses the correct files structure like models/weapons2/machinegun/muzzlside.tga.

hope that helps.

no no, sorry, that is one of the FOLDERS inside the pk3 file, hyperfocus.
i thought the pk3 file would be too large, so i extracted the folder out for download
and the folder 'machinegun' is in models/weapons2/
sorry about the misunderstanding

EDIT: basically, I made my own md3 files and put them in 'machinegun' (in the pk3)

aah, i see.

ok, i opened up your machinegun.md3 with a hex editor and scroll through looking for the line that refers to the texture that it uses. i a chunk that looked like this...


.@...C...C:/Progr
am Files\Openaren
a\mymod\pak0\mode
ls\weapons2\machi
negun.......?.{(?


if this is the texture line then there are a couple of problems. firstly the texture for the machine gun is called mgun not machinegun. secondly it's telling the game to look in the folder C:/Program Files....etc for the texture and openarena doesn't have any files of that name. what i suggest you do is overwrite that part with the correct folder structure. like so...


.@...C...models\w
eapons2\mgun.tga.
.................
.................
............?.{(?


...note that the file path starts where the old one does and overwrite the excess letters of the old address with dots.

one other thing of note. your mgun.tga is a blank orange texture, was that intentional?

wow thanks! (well I haven't tried out that hex editor thing yet, but I'm pretty sure you're right....)
and yeah, the bring orange texture was intentional, it was just a test texture....

EDIT: by the way, what hex editor are you using? I think my hex editor is a bit screwed up. and I'm currently using Windows

Something that might help is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_hex_editors).

yet another thought. you say you were worried your pk3 would be too large. your pk3 should only contain the bits you are changing, so it would be almost exactly the same size as the zip you posted.

this makes me wonder if you've pulled apart pak0.pk3, changed some of it's contents and are planning to put it all back into a new pak0.pk3. it's a bad move to alter the games pk3 files (pak0.pk3, pak1.pk3 etc). you must leave them alone and put your work in a new pk3.

when the game reads pk3s it does it in alphabetical order, so if you give your pk3 a name that is later in the alphabet than pak0.pk3, then it's contents will override the same files in pak0.pk3. so you could call yours x-jonc-mg.pk3 and that would do the trick.

thanks


but i copied the original game files (pak0.pk3, pak1.pk3 etc) into a mymod folder. And then when launching OA I use the mod mymod, so isnt that okay?
anyway, I will try to make the new pk3

if it's in a mod folder then that shouldn't cause a problem, but pk3s in a mod folder only need to contain stuff that's changed from the original game. it makes it a lot easier to share your work with other's if you keep your pk3s no larger than they need to be.

ahh....but yet the texture problem still persists.....do you think different hex editors have different results?

it could be that you didn't uvmap it correctly or export it right. that line in your md3 didn't refer to mgun.tga, it refered to machinegun and there is no texture of that name. could be something you did in the 3d editor.

hmmm......

i've loaded your md3 into blender, i'm going to try and get it to work myself.

thanks!

ok, i've had some success.
(http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2199/gunwg6.th.png) (http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gunwg6.png)

there are two models, because i need to sort out various models and tags, but the texture has exported.

a lot of blender exporters want the texture loaded up through the texture menu (f6), so here's what you need to do.

• select your gun model
• select materials (f5) and select "add new"
• select textures (f6) and select "add new", then for "texture type" select "image"
• in the "image" box that appears to the right, click load and select your image.
• then go into "uv face select mode", open a "uv/image editor" window and you can then select your texture from the pullup menu to the right of "images" in that window.

now you should be able to export your md3 with the texture intact. then you need to use the hex editor.

if you download this file...

http://openarena.ws/svn/source/assets/models/newmgun/sknr2.blend

...you can see how the model is made. i think you need to select tags when you export the model for them to be included in your md3.

damn, I don't know why but I can't test the model.....my exporter somehow triangulated all the faces of my model....meaning I have exceeded the vertex limit.....
any idea on how i could change this? this never happened before, however......

oh wait.....the exporter does triangulate everything.....but somehow I got the warning now, not before...

ahh well i just deleted some parts of the gun, and ran OA......but the texture still doesnt work...??
I added the tag 'tag_weapon' to the model, and followed your steps.....
use the hex editor?

Yo all,

The Hex editor causes major problems and screws it up big time. The only solution I had to solve this was to start in at "/" on my Linux machine and go on from there to create "/models/weapons2/machinegun"
Thats more of a limitation of the export script tho.

I do have another export script which allows you to edit the texture & shader paths, however it doesn't support animation nor Tags. :(

(http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/6892/shot0003kx8.th.jpg) (http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot0003kx8.jpg)

Oow and heres the modified .blend file.

It didn't have a tag_weapon and it was called Cube which I renamed to mgun so when it got exported it would look for a texture called mgun. :)

WOW THANKS SO MUCH GUYS! IT FINALLY WORKS!!! THANKS ALL THOSE WHO HELPED ME!!!

And of course, a little gratitude to Mr Carmack, for making that game engine 10 years ago.

so which exporter did you use?

Here's the script I used: (DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/DeveloperFAQ#Modeling
Its the one most of you will most likely have used.

However there is another one I use you can get from here: http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=697.0

You can set the texture & shader paths in that script. But it doesn't support animation or tags.

The most common md3 script (the one at the top of this post) bases the texture path on the path used too to save it. It also uses the name of the model as the texture name. This is a limitation of that script.

If I can be arsed I may take the code from the 2nd script that allows you to set paths and intergrate it into the 1st script. Solving the problem. :)

hmm

kit89, when i downloaded the blend file, and exported it, it didnt seem to work, yet it worked when I used the md3 in the pak3 file......

EDIT: it works again! lol i just forgot to hex edit the file....now i just have to repair the muzzle flash (its on 0,0,0 again)

please do kit89. the current scripts are a pain to work with. if you could put all the good bits into one scripts that would be great. :)

I concur