Blender - Mega Man Droid project (Update - See latest post)

[Double_Zecha]

Hello there!

If you didn't catch this post before this most recent edit, I was having some real trouble with Blender, but was able to identify and solve the problem with help (see below).  However, as I've been working on my project, new problems have been cropping up. I'm going to just use this post to attach any questions I have as they crop up.

Here is some of the original issue:

Quote

 

I think the issues were mainly down to my having nonstandard filepaths b/c I installed Jedi Academy and my mods on an external harddrive.
 

I was able to set up blender with the proper plugins, load the player model .glm I wanted to edit, I created new geometry, attached it to the proper bones and everything, but my model would be invisible in game.

I figured I was doing something correct, since the game would actually load, so I checked the console and noticed it couldn't find the _humanoid.gla file.
I managed to resolve my problem with a hex editor, and setting the proper filepaths for the .glm file directly that way.

 

 

[mrwonko]

You should not need to hex edit your models. Just make sure that when you unpack the original files, you keep all the paths intact, so that _humanoid.gla ends up in WhereverYourJediAcademyIs/GameData/Base/models/players/_humanoid/. Then you can refer to it as models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.gla in the export settings and the game will be able to find it.

[Double_Zecha]

On 1/21/2025 at 4:19 AM, mrwonko said:

You should not need to hex edit your models. Just make sure that when you unpack the original files, you keep all the paths intact, so that _humanoid.gla ends up in WhereverYourJediAcademyIs/GameData/Base/models/players/_humanoid/. Then you can refer to it as models/players/_humanoid/_humanoid.gla in the export settings and the game will be able to find it.

Hi MrWonko,

Yes that was the solution. Thanks for your tutorials btw, they've been a big help.
I've gotten deep into modelling and I have some specific questions for a project I'm working on.
I'll go ahead and post them here, but should I make a new topic instead?
- Is there a maximum number of vertices a character can have in total? I've found out about the 1000 vertex limit on individual meshes, and my model has about 16,000 vertices total rn, divided between 48 object meshes. Googling hasn't gotten me an answer.
- I'm making a robot character with some transparent elements. I plan to make the upper arms, torso, hips, and upper leg pieces translucent, so you can see the robot internals underneath. Attached pic is a reference for what I'm making. Are caps visible at all times within the model, meaning you'd be able to see them inside the translucent parts?

If it's better for me to make a new topic I'll go ahead and do so, but I don't want to spam.

[mrwonko]

I'm not aware of a concrete overall vertex limit, but performance will suffer eventually. Try to stay close to what the original models use, this will both help keep things smooth and improve visual cohesion with the base game.

Typically, caps are hidden until dismemberment. But I'm not sure if that's hardcoded, or if models explicitly mark these cap surfaces as initially disabled. If it's the latter, you should be able to have caps that start on. Or just don't give them the magic cap names, just make them "regular" always-on surfaces. Having a cap that doesn't behave like one would probably just be confusing to anyone examining the model.

[Double_Zecha]

5 hours ago, mrwonko said:

Typically, caps are hidden until dismemberment.

Ok, awesome! I copied my caps from another model, resizing them to my own model's parts in order to keep the proper formatting. I'm sure I'll be able to make the caps work with the transparency somehow. User NumberWan made a 2-1B medical droid.
I also checked my model vertices against an Episode 7 stormtrooper and they have about the same vertex count.

I'm at a point in my project where I can show off my work
These are temporary solid color textures just to show off basic color contrast. The black parts are going to be a dark purple color and slightly transparent, and you can see what the robotic skeleton will look like.
I'll be drawing new textures once the model geometry is finished.
Aiming for a Star Wars interpretation of Mega Man Zero, where he looks like Zero at a glance, but looking at the details he should look like a droid that would fit into Star Wars nicely.
Shooting for some of Star Wars' design language.

Model was kitbashed from several other models, and has some original geometry. I'll be sure to credit everyone when its ready
...




Now, I'm having trouble exporting the model though. When I go to do so I get an error I can't interpret (see pic) (google also isn't very helpful for this error)
It says something about weight. I sat down and started going through every model piece to check that it was attached to the proper bones and had weight assigned, and every part seems to have weight (unless I missed some, which is possible. I did this tired). Most parts seemed like they were already attached to proper bones and weighted properly given that the model is a kitbash.
Anyway in my frustration with going through each piece individually I looked at some tutorials and figured out how to "weight everything automatically" which worked, in the sense that it allowed me to export the .glm, but I realized it changed the hierarchy structure, parenting everything to the skeleton. So that .glm probably won't work.
Any ideas?

[mrwonko]

That error should not happen, can I see the .blend file that produces it?

[Double_Zecha]

I'd be happy to send you the .blend file but I'm not sure of a good way to send it. Do you know of a good way we can trade files? I just looked into Dropbox but it wanted me to sign up for a 30 day trial and I'm not sure I want to deal with that.

 

Also I realized at some point after my last post I actually probably wasn't weighting anything correctly. I had found this post and was using it as a guideline

... but I was going about weighting by selecting all vertices in a piece and assigning weight to every vertex group.
I'm a little lost on how to weight things properly

[mrwonko]

There are different ways of weighting models, but they're not specific to Jedi Academy. You can look for general advice on how to do weighting in Blender, the only important thing is that it needs to be done using an armature.

I would not start by assigning individual weights using vertex groups. For a rough first pass, bone envelopes should provide a more convenient workflow. Weight painting would then only be used to further refine the result. But this is not my area of expertise, I know just enough to get something working, but probably not efficiently.

[Double_Zecha]

Hmm. I see. I guess since I think the problem is down to me weighting things improperly, (I was able to export the .glm after automatically weighting everything, although it broke the hierarchy structure) I'm going to sit down and learn weighting. If, even after being sure I've done the weighting properly it still doesn't export, I'll figure out a way to get the file to you. I don't have a Google Drive set up but that might be an option.

[Double_Zecha]

Just a quick update on the project, and a follow up question for anyone who knows Blender:
Spent a few days quite confused about weighting.
Watched several tutorials and learned a few things, but in all the tutorials, when people in the tutorials weighted things, the object meshes would be parented to the skeleton, which is not how Jedi Academy models are structured.

Yesterday I found this tutorial
https://youtu.be/2VsQcImIQdc?feature=shared
Which was quite helpful to see someone weighting specifically for Jedi Academy. I think I know what the problems are now, and I think I generally know what to do to get everything working.

Just have a question: the modder in the tutorial weight paints stuff manually, where MrWonko mentioned bone envelopes and touching up the result.
How would you go about using bone envelopes in a way that doesn't attach the model to the skeleton?
The only ways I've seen envelopes done changes the parenting structure