Archangel35757

Yeah... I have some specific ideas I'd like to chat with about.

When the materials are imported into 3dsMax and put to the material editor, I'm planning to rename the material to the diffuse texture name (e.g., "Kyle_torso" instead of "01 - Default" etc.). They can always be renamed by the artist later. When mesh objects are imported I plan to check for the XSICustomPSet .Game template (that holds the G2Skin data-- relative texture path...) then I plan to use that G2Skin info to rename the #map name to the relative path.

Sometimes it's nice to be able to ask a question-- and get a real-time response (if there is someone on the channel that can answer it)

I plan to create a trooper.gla file for both stormtroopers and rebel troopers and make it as a new NPC.

I agree with @@DT85 & @@minilogoguy18-- but there are specific unique requirements for modeling something for JK2/JK3... for example-- only 4 bones can influence a vertex, vertex limits per object, etc. These type of requirements should be found on jkhub tutorial site. The Raven SoF2 manuals include a lot of tutorials for making game assets that are applicable to the JK2/JK3 engine. For example: first person weapon view models, map objects, etc.

First and foremost-- anyone desiring to learn to create 3D models/animations should look to, and complete, all the respective tutorials that ship with their specific modeling software. Once they accomplish that... they will be smart enough to Google for really advanced tutorials. When someone asks for a general modeling tutorial... the response should be, "Have you completed all the related tutorials that came with your software?" If they ask what are the specific modeling requirements to make a model (map object, vehicle, character, creature, etc.) for Jedi Knight (Outcast or Academy) then those specific requirements should be in tutorials available on this site (or links to them if they are on a member's own webpage-- i.e., @@Psyk0Sith 's website).

@@DT85 The texture import code is almost finished... I just need to write the code to verify the texture does exist in the import folder (looking for extensions other than .PIC) -- and if so import the data from the SI_Texture2D template into the 3ds Max material. Then put the new 3dsMax material into the Material Editor (the code for putting it to the editor is done)... just stepping back to finish the SI_Texture2D stuff. I just exported a model that has specular and normal maps... only diffuse textures get exported to dotXSI (same as Raven's exported files)-- @@minilogoguy18, could you export one of your models (that has specular, etc. textures applied) to dotXSI 3.0-- just to confirm, and email it to me? For the importer I plan to search for related specular, normal maps etc. and import them as well as the diffuse. For example-- if the diffuse texture is named "Kyle_Torso.tga" then I will search for a specular ("Kyle_Torso_S") etc. and import them as well. Key strings for additional texture map searches (forced to lower case): diffuse is given the SI_Texture2D... specular suffix = "_s" normal suffix = "_n" Can anyone think of other suffixes I should search on? I realize this enforces a naming pattern-- but it will at least import the diffuse textures. My plan is to import the materials/textures as Standard Materials in 3ds Max-- the specular, normal, etc. textures will be added as additional maps in their respective map slots.

Yeah I don't recall seeing any .PIC files used either... (that's a Paintbrush file right?) I'm just planning to search for the texture name and do a compare on the extension-- to find anything other than pic and lastly if there is a PIC then use it.

What are the most common texture file formats used on models? .TGA, .PNG, .JPG, etc.??? I've noticed that many of the LOD meshes are using a .PIC image file-- @@DT85, @@minilogoguy18, @@Psyk0Sith, @@AshuraDX -- is this some sort of mip-mapping lower detail copy of the original .TGA texture? Reason I ask is that I'm trying to optimize the material import process... and would rather use the TGA (if present) instead of a .PIC file… Thoughts?

...by eating his spinach!

Yes... it will have all the necessary bones to drive fully-expressive facial expressions-- the 6 to 8 basic expressions... as well as be able to make custom facial animations for up-close cinematics. It will have a pose library where you can store custom facial poses. As for the lip-synch'ing... the visemes will cover 44+ English phonemes... I also plan to build expandability for adding additional language viseme sets (others will have to make foreign language visemes that can be added to library of languages). I plan to use PRAAT for the sound analysis/phoneme identification-- already created the code to read in the phoneme list. PRAAT supports scores of languages.

@@DT85 -- ah... it's an optical illusion. I was seeing the back of the hair and thinking it was wrapping around his neck-- which it is not.

...but that was before all of the source code was released, right? Is he aware that all of the source code is available now?

Looking good... the UV's for the hair around neck don't flow properly-- but I'm sure you know this.

Will this model allow the cupola to be open and have the commander be standing up thru it like this?

Almost finished writing the code to import materials/textures... will do a quick test of importing only materials/textures soon! Will post results...

Looks like the letter "r" is still a pixel or so higher than the other letters in both of your screenshots.

Someone already did! Checkout out Lassev's Bespin map

Obi-wan was about 70 in EP.4 right? And Luke is about 50? He should be slimmer... thought he was contractually obligated to lose weight.

Follow the tutorial posted in my WIP ROFF thread-- where you will also find links to trial version of 3dsMax to use.

I uploaded a .ROF file exporter for 3dsMax 6,7,8... so you can create complex 3D path animation for your Origin brush and export the 3dsMax origin brush to .ROF for use in scripting complex brush movements (or if you want a "baked" physics animation for brushes). I don't think anyone has even attempted to use it yet.

@@Milamber -- so @@DT85's solution to select your smoothing group and detach to element preserves the behavior of your smoothing group when you then export using Vertex Normals option, yes? So your model now looks proper in-game?

I want to bring some gameplay features from SoF2 to JKA. I want to add rapelling, ladders, climbing, etc, and some of the character animations, AI improvements-- but its more than I can do alone.

@@Milamber, @@Scooper, @@DT85, @@Psyk0Sith: According to Rich Whitehouse, "...GLM as a format only stores vertex normals... ...by default Noesis will only write per-vertex normals." "...Everything would be converted to vertex normals [from Noesis] when targeting GLM as the concept of smoothing groups doesn't exist in the [GLM] format itself." So for now @@Milamber... use the vertex normals option. I honestly never looked into this area of the original source code-- as it didn't seem broken. @@DT85 (to my knowledge) has not had any issues with getting his models and normal maps looking proper in-game. I will look into this area of the code to see what it is doing-- and if necessary... create an option to export vertex normals respecting smoothing groups (which it could be doing already and just mis-labeled). Please post here to describe your issue, post screenshots of model and export options, etc. Thanks!!!

Is it me or does Mark Hamill still look like a fat bastard? I thought they hired a personal trainer for him, no? I mean maybe he's lost 10 lbs-- but he needed to lose like 50 lbs or more. Maybe they should've hired him one of the trainers from "Biggest losers"