minilogoguy18

The term you're looking for is vertex animation, it's the only way to do animations in MD3 files which is why it wasn't used for characters because it's not nearly as accurate. You'd be better off using OpenJK so that you can use GLM for first person view models.

Will this have the ability at some point that xfire had where the server you were viewing you had the ability to just click a button, launch the game and connect to that server? If so that would be awesome, I used to love that program for that ability.

I thought there was at least an HK out there. I had plans on putting some KotOR models in game in my free time at some point.

What's odd is that rather than what you'd think isn't really happening, I'd expect it to be stretched horizontally but it's actually squished vertically judging by the green ticks.

Well I haven't looked at the file in a text editor or anything but just simply exported it and reimported it and both properties were brought back into Softimage. How it stores them in the dotXSI file I can't say. As for the options, no, there are some other options stored under the texture coordinates cluster. http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/xsidocs/tangents_binormals_EditingTangentsandBinormals.htm You might wanna ignore some of the clusters I have in there, I need to do some scene clean up.

@@Archangel35757 those 2 options are really only for using secondary UV maps and such, the default settings are usually fine in most cases, it mainly applies to models that use more than 1 texture where you have separate clusters controlling UV islands. You also should apply the binormal custom pSet in the same menu as tangents only applies to the U coordinates or X where binormal controls the Y or X and your standard polygon normals which you're most familiar with editing by way of smoothing groups is Z. The reason these properties are needed is to accurately compute which direction the normal map displaces the mesh so there isn't a completely inverted area. If you want to smooth out all the awkwardness just go into the clusters under the object in the explorer and find the tangents, a PPG will open with a slider that will allow some smoothing. I'm having a tough time remembering every little detail since it has been years since I've used this stuff as I'm not modding games anymore that use normal maps. At that time I wasn't even using xNormal, just the Mental Ray renderer in Softimage with the Ultimapper baking tools.

I didn't see the splash effects, would be cool to have droplets on the screen when in first person also.

@@Archangel35757 On the left pane no matter what mode you're in... Get>Property>Tangent You'll also see Binormal in there as well. I just can't get around to this right now, company at the house.

@@Archangel35757 I would have thought that you would have Softimage installed considering you're trying to check for errors against files coming from max with all your exporter work.

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.