minilogoguy18

When it comes to cinematics you're free to do whatever you want bone wise so a universal face rig isn't really needed. The face rig should be made to fit the character so that the best result is achieved.

Meh, those reskins aren't any good, someone rip the model from KotOR 2, I'll make a small edit so it's legit and put it in game.

The file I exported wasn't a game ready model, just a random mesh that I applied custom parameter sets to but it preserved the data when re-importing. You'd have to give me some time to try what you want, it'd probably be better if I had a model that was ready to go into game but I don't. One thing I do know is that Softimage applies tangent and binormal data using custom parameter sets. I'm pretty certain that the carcass compiler does recognize custom parameter sets as they can be used to define shaders for a specific mesh (see here) so that at least gives us something but as far as knowing what to do with that data that's another story. If someone here either wants to give me a model to export I can send you that or if anyone just happens to have Softimage installed they can export something for you. While I have the AT-ST I don't have maps to make a proper PBR shader with. @@AshuraDX only gave me diffuse, normal and spec. He plans at some point to redo the AT-ST so that it's set up for PBR but for now it's only set up for the older MP rend2 with just standard normal mapping. That model probably wont be ready until a proper high poly mesh to bake from is made.

@@Archangel35757, I did a test export, tangent and binormal data was preserved in dotXSI 3.5 (which later version of carcass supports) but in the older 3.0 format (which you for some odd reason you wanted to keep supporting it) does not. So, dotXSI 3.5 is a go, 3.0 needs to just go away. The only hurdle now is to just get some sort of tangent support for GLM and @@Almightygir had a good solution to just allow the renderer to just ignore warnings and load GLM files with no tangent data since that would keep us from needing a separate file but keep backwards compatibility. I must also have an older xNormal since I do have dotXSI support. Version is 3.17.13.38574. Hopefully there aren't any good features we're missing out on.

@@Archangel35757 if you do a quick google search or open the help files with any version of Softimage including Mod Tool it shows that tangents are supported in the dotXSI format. I already posted a link to it. @@Teancum, we could release a demo any time honestly, it would be a 1 level demo but we do have 1 fully playable with no bugs level. Once DT started learning more and more about coding all these great things happened.

If you're current 3DS Max dotXSI exporter doesn't support tangents then it isn't a actual working exporter since the format is supposed to support tangents. I'd hate to see a GLM exporter come along and not a way to improve dotXSI->GLM since I would go from the most reliable and capable exporter to nothing at all.

I'm already familiar with xNormal and it's ability to import a dotXSI file, it works just like importing a .obj or any other 3d format. You import the high and low resolution models setup your options, what maps you want to create and it will generate them. With a basic tutorial I found online a couple of years ago it was all pretty simple to follow. The end results really depended on your models and how well they were made but that's the same no matter what you're using to bake maps. I originally was using ultimapper in Softimage to do that sort of thing but xNormal was able too generate the maps faster and didn't require as much tinkering also with so many people using it I was able to find some "generic" settings to get some good results.

Ummmm, @@Archangel35757, compatibility is something we don't care about since this is a stand alone mod. MP is out the window and we have no need to import our assets back since we'll be in possession of all the source files since we're the creators. I have no doubt that you or @@DT85 could modify the importers to allow these files to come back but there is almost no need to other than maybe checking against the original to see normals and such. I have lived all these years without a GLM importer, it's not a big deal since I'm not trying to use other peoples work. We have the carcass code, it's what's also going to have to be modified to write the proper file and I'm sure DT is aware of it.

Timeless classic, Honda power.

@@DT85

@@Archangel35757 Here is Gorc after a tangent property is applied, Mod Tool does support tangents and binormals. http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/xsidocs/import_export_xwalk4xsi_SupportedSceneElementsandAttributesfordotXSI.htm There's some technical jargon but it seems that the older dotXSI does support tangents just storing it under color at vertices rather than preserving the operator but that is probably only a big deal if you were re-importing back into Softimage where you would want to preserve scene structure.

Have you tested a 3DS Max generated dotXSI against a dotXSI file that came from Softimage to see just how accurate everything is? @@Almightygir could you please summarize the workflow that you'd best recommend for all of this since it doesn't seem like we're modifying formats? It seems to me like this 3D package->hi/low poly dotXSI->xNormal->write low poly shaders->convert low poly to GLM->game @@Psyk0Sith you probably don't have all the maps for Gorc to use PBR made since it wasn't something we were going to do originally, I'm sure you at least have a normal and AO since you seemed to have baked those into the diffuse to give detail to the vanilla render engine.

Ashura did all the work with the AT-ST maps in substance designer if I remember right. He contacted me the other day stating that he was going to go back and export all the maps needed for it to render using PBR so hopefully soon we can preview it in the DF2 renderer to see if anything different needs to be done in Softimage but it's unlikely.

I'm sure someone here could do what needs to be done which is add tangent support to GLM files and allow the compiler to properly take all normal and tangent properties from the input file (.XSI or .FBX) to the GLM file. I mean we have the carcass code, FBX code, XSI code and GLM code so why not just update some of the tools and the GLM file type and make it work properly and not half assed? I would really like to see FBX be able to be used by carcass since it can be exported from a wide range of softwares and mainly Maya which is without a doubt the top dog in 3D.

Well changing the GLM format seems like it would be the way to go since the game can already read that but some things seem like they would need some changing, for instance the carcass compiler. If someone is going to go so far as to alter how it outputs a GLM file they may as well add FBX file reading by Assimilate/Carcass and keep dotXSI around only for legacy purposes. This will also open up a lot of possibilities for pretty much any software the user desires to be used to make content for this game. While slightly off topic we could also use MD3 support for Maya, I'd like to see Softimage support for it but since the software is no longer being made people may not be interested in writing a plugin for MD3.

Yeah, if you're still using a 4:3 monitor you're also still probably rubbing sticks together to make fire.

@@Almightygir, man, I missed you lol. Despite being a lot of work it would be nice to implement FBX on top of keeping existing G2 although I don't know exactly how we'd handle the player animation part since for MP compatibility all characters must use the same animation file but maybe there is some way around that. I'm pretty sure FBX supports letting the model read from a separate animation file so perhaps there could be a clone of the _humanoid bank but who knows, I'm just a monkey on a treadmill doing what I can to get that banana hanging from the fishing pole taped to my back. I've been bringing myself up to speed on the PBR workflow and it really isn't that big of a deal, you just have more maps to allow the surface to react to lighting in more dynamic ways giving a much higher detailed result. G2 has a shit ton of draw backs, the coordinate system is wonky as hell and not having proper tangent support is going to be a problem on a render engine that we're trying to use to take advantage of a property that allows proper normal map rendering.

That's awesome that it auto fix's the hud but what about the menu and load screens? Surely that will take some reworking of the image files they use for their backgrounds. I wonder if there is a way to run some sort of auto detect of the user's video resolution to auto resolve to use the aspect ratio that is correct so that the game doesn't boot in an incorrect aspect ratio.

So am I correct to assume by what you say that the DF2 engine in ways has surpassed the standard OJK w/Rend2? If so that's pretty great.

Hmm, I'm sure a lot of work would be involved in switching the file format to something different, we at least don't have to worry about compatibility since this is an SP mod but at this point it's moving in the direction of being a stand alone indie title. The upside is that we'd be able to ditch some of the other limitations that come with GLM/GLA and probably use 1 format for every 3d object, static or animated.

Considering how we're pushing everything forward wouldn't it be a good idea to make all the UI support 16:9 resolutions? I'm sure if we took a poll of this site we'd find very few people are still using a 4:3 monitor. I'm not saying completely get rid of it but definitely prioritize the creation of assets so that 16:9 UI is put before 4:3.

@@AshuraDX, it will be a lot of work but since this is just a SP mod and not the base game in which people are going to be adding a hundred or so extra characters into we really just have to worry about our own content supporting PBR. If someone wants to add say Kylo Ren or something to the mod well then yeah, they'll be shit outta luck unless they update the maps to work. Right now we have around 20 or so characters if you include civilians and droids. The maps textures will need to be updated which wont be too bad since we only have a few finished maps and the weapons which were going to get an overhaul anyway. Why not just help us out? =p

My DF2 build is so out of date, I'm gonna have to take the time to update everything. @@Psyk0Sith, do you have all the maps for Gorc so that he can take advantage of the new render engine?

Still though, does improve this game quite a bit from it's base form even though it may not put it in with 2017 standards.

OMG, it looks so amazing.