wip player model

[cdavid]

This a player model ive been making for a few days.
The mesh is mostly done, except for tweaks later.

Ive been working in blender 2.7 so far.
Im going to try rig the model then open in blender 2.4x, then try export, without textures.
I think most the rig and weight painting will probably work in 2.4x, im not sure if 2.4x can open 2.7 shape keys.

Give feedback if you want, Ill try modify it then.

Stuff im not sure about.
Im ok releasing it as GPL v2, so ill have to make a licence template or something.
Ill have to upload it somewhere, I guess its ok to upload here.
Im not sure if the 2.4x export script supports shape keys, so I will have to test.
Ive never exported a new model from blender to OA before, so it may take some tests before/if the dimensions and empty tags work.

I had some problems getting the export scripts to work at first.
I found it worked after adding the scipts to .blender\scripts directory.
I set the frame to the end of the animations, selected the mesh objects to export, then used export from the file menu.
This worked, I made some test animations for the penguin model.

Login to see image.
Heres an offline image: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=71640

[cdavid]

I opened the file in 2.49. The rig still worked, though other problems existed.
Login to see pictures.

Select mode was disabled in edit mode.
The mesh had no faces, just vertices and edges, I selected all the vertices, pressed F then selected Auto Fill, which worked ok for most the mesh.
Some faces were missing, some were filled incorrectly, so I had to check the mesh, deleting, refilling, and recalculate the normals.
This took some time fix.

Renamed the meshes, h_head, u_torso, l_legs.

Added empty tags and parented them to pose bones, tag_torso, tag_weapon, tag_head.

For a test, I thought it would be best to make a walk animation, then just use that for all animations.

Tried to export, got an error.

Code:

md3_export.py, line 317, in FileSelectorCallback, Export(filename)
md3_export.py, line 312, in Export, md3.Save(file)
md3.py, line 539, in Save, self.GetSize()
md3.py, line 487, in GetSize, self.ofsEnd += s.GetSize()
md3.py, line 234, in GetSize, sz += v.GetSize()
AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'GetSize'

I found the error only happened with the legs, so maybe I missed something.

It did save the md3 files, so I tried to test them.
I added the files to a new model\player\folder, I couldnt select the model from the menu, so I guess need to add player info somewhere.
So I tried to overwrite the penguin model, this worked but after selecting the penguin, the model wouldnt show.

I found lower.md3 was 0kb, so I removed this and the head.
I selected the penguin, it came up with an error that the upper.md3 had more than 1000 verts.
This is correct, the body has 1454.

So I tried just the head, this worked, it was a tiny head, and an odd animation, but it did work.

After some messing about, I found it was best to make the player in the z dimensions -25 to +25.
I was able to load the body mesh on to the penguin correctly, I seperated the hands to decrease the vertices.

[fromhell]

There is a 2.6x MD3 exporter script out there btw, but there's a couple annoying things:

- Autoscale sucks, so to turn it off you'd have to bump the scale to 1.0001
- It only exports selected stuff in Layer 1.


Also I tend to put the torso's origin right at 0,0,0 and use a tag_torso empty connected to a tag_torso bone, for parenting.  My pipeline is slighlty different because i'm exporting to MDR for the reboot now using Noesis.  If you're doing MD3 only you don't have to worry about  having a tag bone and just have a tag empty bound to any bone you'd like.

[cdavid]

There is a 2.6x MD3 exporter script out there btw

That sounds good.
Have you got a link to the correct script?.. There seems to be a few different scripts online.

MDR for the reboot now using Noesis.

When is this expected to be released, in a few years or something?
Sounds cool.

If you're doing MD3 only you don't have to worry about having a tag bone and just have a tag empty bound to any bone you'd like.

Yea thats how I kind of have it at the moment, seems to work.
I do have a problem with the head, the tag_head is parented to a torso armature neck bone, but when open in game, the head seems to rotate from the tag_torso, like when looking up or down.
I was trying to fix this today, but  I couldnt get it to work correctly.
Attached picture.

[Neon_Knight]

cdavid, this link has everything about the reboot:
(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/OA3

[cdavid]

K. lots to read.
I guess 0.8.8 includes some of the oa3 stuff, art wise.

I tried the katsbits md3 script with tag support.. In 2.70.

Im tryng to export the u_torso body mesh with 420 verts.
If I select the body then export with Manual Scale 1.00000, it exports the md3 with 1327 verts.
If I select the body then export with Manual Scale 1.00010, it complains about nontriangle faces, then exports the md3 with 0 verts.
Both files didnt load.

I removed some more verts from the body so it has 303, then exported with 1.0 scale, which gave it 914 verts.
The game did load this md3 file, though im not sure why the script gives it 3* more verts.

When the game loaded the md3, the tag_head worked correctly, which is good.

This is the export log.

Code:

######################BEGIN######################
Scaling export by a value of 5.24 to fit MD3 space
Converted quads in UV map of u_torso to tris.
Exporting UV texture coordinates for u_torso
Exporting u_torso
Header Information
Ident: IDP3
Version: 15
Name:
Flags: 0
Number of Frames: 121
Number of Tags: 3
Number of Surfaces: 1
Number of Skins: 0
Offset Frames: 108
Offset Tags: 6884
Offset Surfaces: 47540
Offset end: 946692
Total Shaders: 1
Total Triangles: 576
Total Vertices: 914
MD3 saved to C:\oam\upper.md3
Elapsed 10.72453 seconds
Scaled export by a value of 5.24 to fit MD3 space

Ill probably try some more tests later.

[fromhell]

I guess 0.8.8 includes some of the oa3 stuff, art wise.

Not really.  Currently the OA3 content tree is stuck on my hard drive (and multiple other drives) as I want to put it up at the same time of a release, considering some history of interceptive project sabotage on this very board.... also the tree isn't very clean with a crapload of Copy files, blend1/2's, etc.


Also I aim for a specific total poly count - ~2000 triangles.  The style would be even harder to match. It took me many years to learn and refine to the point where anime looks okay in id Tech 3.

[cdavid]

Hi again.

I dunno when oa3 will be release, so I dont want to try export to mdr.
I may read more about mdr/md4 later, maybe it supports better features.

I got the 2.49 script working better.
I found I had to select all the tag empties, then select the torso mesh, then export.
For the head, I set the head origin to [0,0,0] selected then exported.
It would be better if the head origin was calculated from the tag_head empty, but I dont know if this is possible yet.

I tried to look at the code for 2.6x export script.
It has a hard code style to follow.
Im not sure why it exports 3* more vertices still, I guess its probably counting the face or uv verts.
I may do hex dump of the exported file later, to see how to data is arranged, if its a bug maybe I can modify the number of verts.

I would rather use 2.6x/2.7x.

In 2.49 I found the error with the legs was because I had a mask modifier hiding the skirt verts, and also the skirt verts hadnt been filled.
Attached picture of model in game.

The tag_torso is higher than normal with this model.
So unless some wierd offset can be use, I will probably have to change the model so the torso rotates from hips, or have a smaller model than usual, which is probably a bad idear.

Hopefully I can get the export working better, then make some basic textures, then try some animations.

[cdavid]

In blender 2.46, I found its best to export the model in 3 parts.

First export the lower meshes, and the tag_torso empty.
The floor for the game in blender is z-25 or something.

Then export the upper meshes, the tag_head, and the tag_weapon.
The origin for the torso is [0,0,0] in blender.

Then export the head meshes.
The origin for the head is [0,0,0] in blender.

...

Im stopping this project for now, maybe ill update it in the future.
I would like to help with content but, the problem is im not sure which project to target, 0.8.8x or oa3x.
Also im not sure how to distribute or add the model to the oa projects.
I just feel a bit lost.

Its been a fun project todo anyway, I learnt how to add a player model.

[Suicizer]

In blender 2.46, I found its best to export the model in 3 parts.

First export the lower meshes, and the tag_torso empty.
The floor for the game in blender is z-25 or something.

Then export the upper meshes, the tag_head, and the tag_weapon.
The origin for the torso is [0,0,0] in blender.

Then export the head meshes.
The origin for the head is [0,0,0] in blender.

...

Im stopping this project for now, maybe ill update it in the future.
I would like to help with content but, the problem is im not sure which project to target, 0.8.8x or oa3x.
Also im not sure how to distribute or add the model to the oa projects.
I just feel a bit lost.

Its been a fun project todo anyway, I learnt how to add a player model.

So where is it

[cdavid]

Its not finished.

I was going to make it, but I estimate it would probably take 3, 4 more weeks, bit more rigging, textures, animation, adding the player info.
Then I would have to distribute it with a GPLv2 licence, so its ok for the devs to add it.

I feel bad about stopping it, but I feel like im wasting my time.
I would like to read more about whats happing with 0.8.8 and oa3, before working on models again.

[fromhell]

OA 0.8.8 is pretty much stagnant at this point. since there's too much to maintain to keep up.  So many different unique player animations of hugely varying quality (usually for the worse).   Contributing to 0.x would just add to the problem.

OA3 is more likely than a 0.9.0 now.  OA3 exists to leave behind the quality issues that plague the OA0 branch and is intended to replace it.  However the problem is that OA 0.8.8 is 'playable', so there's no motivation to contribute - leaving things to a huge burden on myself.

Currently i'm the only artist doing new models and sound for OA3.

[cdavid]

That helps. Thanks for the post.
Maybe Ill do some oa3 stuff sometime.

[Gig]

I'm not sure I understood what are the differences in "workflow" while creating models following OA 0.x style and OA3 style... however I would like to suggest cdavid to complete his work for several reasons:
- Getting some more experience would help him to make even better models in future.
- Experience may be helpful also for creating OA3 models, although there may be some differences. I don't know whether following the same workflow which Fromhell uses will be a requisite or not. Surely, someone helping Fromhell with the job may be useful.
- Even if the model would not be part of any 0.x official version, maybe Pelya may like it and decide to include it in the Android port, just like he did with the Forlona skin for Arachna, IIRC.
- Even if something does not get packed into an official release, it may still worth to do it. There are many third party maps around: people created them even if their goal was not to include them in official OA releases.

[cdavid]

I think if I continue to work on it again, it will just be a mod patch for 0.8.8 that people can use for fun.
Im not sure how oa3 models work.

[Neon_Knight]

Why not coordinating with fromhell in order to create models for OA3? That's OA's future, practically.

[cdavid]

I dunno. Thats up to hellfire.