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Rope Mesh Request


Domarius

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For now I'm going to spawn the hanging light for the rope, but its going to get in the way, with the huge light fixture at the bottom.

 

It would be really good to have a working rope mesh to work with.

 

We have a lot of aesthetic models, but nothing functional. No weapons or anything. Does anyone else think that the modelling really has to start to focus on the things us programmers are going to have to test with?

 

Modelers will need to go here

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...indpost&p=14120

to see my post on how to find the good tutorials, and learn how to name joints ready for rigging in the game to rag-doll physics, which is what I need for the rope arrow.

 

Well the direct link to the tutorials is here

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic...3017&highlight=

Just remember to follow my tip (in that post I linked to) about scrolling down PAST the video tutorials till you get to the text tutorials.

 

Then scroll down to the modelling section, it has the info you guys should need. (If you see "modelling the plasma tick" then you're in the right section)

 

(Also there is how to get animated models in the game, which you guys will need to know to make the weapons)

 

Well the most pertinent link I could find quickly is this

http://www.planetdoom.com/leveled/videotut...ain/index.shtml

Which actually has tutorials on animating and rigging. However, they're all video tutes. They are all about 20mb, but you should only need the one that has rigging in it (down the bottom).

I'm sure if you search, you'll find some text based tutorials.

 

 

 

I found built in stuff for a ROPE in Doom 3 - yes a rope, that has physics applied to it and everything - however you can't climb it, it's just another form of rag doll. What it does mean is that probably the hardest part of the "visual" part of the rope has been done already, but the game is missing a rope mesh. Looks like they half implemented it and didn't make the mesh.

 

So all you guys really need to do is model a rope mesh with the appropriate number of joints, and name them correctly.

But I'm going to tell you guys how to look into the parts that links your model to the physics in game. At the very least, you can see where your joint names need to match up with what's listed in the .af (articulated figure) files. Either you'll have to make your own .af files, or at least give us programmers a list of joint names in your model.

 

So here's how to get your hands dirty by looking at .def files. There's no programming in there, its just a bunch of file name associations and settings for individual objects. It's where meshes and animations are linked to the in-game objects.

In pak000.pk4, there is a folder called "def". That is where all the def files are. The one with the rope in it is called "env.def". Open it and search for rope. Here you can see it is pointing to mesh files at

models/md5/environments/ropemesh.md5mesh

and

models/md5/environments/ropeanim.md5anim

 

But if you go to the "models" folder (in one of the other pak files, I can't remember which one), you'll see that neither of those files exist.

 

You'll see a line that says

"articulatedFigure" "env_rope.af"

 

To get to the env_rope.af file, no need to delve through pak files - in the Doom 3 editor, type "editAFs" in the console tab. It brings up a window where you edit "articulated figure" properties. Choose "env_rope". Now you can see a bunch of settings, but really, I think I will take care of the details there. But you guys should know about it because I THINK that's where you start telling the game what you named your joints when you were modelling.

That's pretty much all I can tell you for now. The rest should be found by searching www.doom3world.org or the rest of the web. The link I put up there is still a good place to start.

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Yeah, alright, ok, we 're not complete idiots you know, I've already got a character in the game, but yes, I will need to lookminot the whole AF thing, for characters as well as some weapons.

I'm working on the player arms model and the bow and arrow models and animations ATM, and will do the rope arrow next.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Sorry I was just getting worried.

 

A simple rope with joints would be really good. Aside from what it might take for you to work out how to get all the naming joints thing working properly, the effort for actually modelling shouldn't be much (just a straight pole divided up into segments so it bends at the joints), with some flat brown texture so I can see it. It would be REALLY helpful. Spar says the rope arrow is the priority, so I hope someone can do a rope. Just a cylinder with joints (named properly though).

Edited by Domarius
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We have a lot of aesthetic models, but nothing functional. No weapons or anything. Does anyone else think that the modelling really has to start to focus on the things us programmers are going to have to test with?

 

Actually, we have quite a number of functional models, including weapons. The problem is, almost none of them are textured yet. That's where our backlog is.

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What length does this rope model have to be?

Does it have to be the maxium length a rope can be in the game?

Are we having a maximum length for the rope arrow, or can it stretch any distance?

There was a limited ditance in Thief wasn't there?

How many times the hieght of the player should this maximum distance be?

 

These questions and more, all answered in next months edition of Modders Monthly.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Just throw in however many joints you think looks right.

 

The model will stretch and shrink in-game, and we can decide how many joints we need for the maximum length to look right. For now, anything will do. Make it 5 or something.

 

Here, please have a read of this :)

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=1052&hl=

 

It describes what the rope will be, in detail.

Edited by Domarius
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What length does this rope model have to be?

That depends on where the player shoots it. It shouldn't stick into the floor, so this means that the model has to be cut dynamically. There is a thread on Doom3world about how to create meshdata on the fly or manipulate meshdata in game.

The length should be about 2 and a half stories at maximum.

Gerhard

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I've made the rope mesh to replace the missing one you were talking about. I just used the same names so nothing has to be changed.

It only has four joints in it and I don't think it's working properly.

IN the editor, the rope mesh is horizontal, and when you launch the game it swings down to a vertical position and jerks about a bit like normal, but after it stops, there is no way to interact with it again. I've tried using the g_dragEntity on it, but I can select it with that.

What I need to know is how to create my own AF file from a rope mesh and bones, bit as usual with Doom, the documentation for the AF editor is worse than useless.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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You'll just have to see if you can operate with this, Domarius. I can't make head nor tail of the Af editor, and there is zero documntation for it. I have other things to do.

I think this will do anway, we only need the rope to fall down convincingly, and then we're not able to interact with after that anyway.

 

Here are the files.

Make folders under models called md5 and then environments so it's models/md5/environments , and put them in there.

then use use any 256x256 image you want for the diffuse map, it doesn't even need a spec or normal map yet, and edit the md5mesh fil to pint it to the directory you put the diffuse map. And obviously you'll need a shader pointing that that directory as well.

ropemesh.md5mesh

Edited by oDDity

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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I think this will do anway, we only need the rope to fall down convincingly, and then we're not able to interact with after that anyway.

You got it :)

 

Spar, please read the executive summary I posted. I am dynamically stretching the rope mesh. I'm not cutting anything. I know they stretch the mesh in T2 because the joints seem closer together the shorter it is. For a rope with a maximum length, this will do just fine. We only have to give it enough joints to look right at the maximum length.

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I don't think the 4 joint in this rope will be enough though, it already looks pretty angular over a short fall, but I have no idea how to make my own rope AF rig using more bones in the mesh. I'll try to work it out sonme time, but this should do for testing anyway.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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