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I noticed the Builder's Guard's head got sucked down into his chest some (so that it looks very wrong). I'm trying to figure out if my recent attachment code change caused this problem, or if it has to do with new meshes/animations? Before I committed my attachment code change, I tested with the citywatch guard in test/endlevel . map. Before and after my change, his sword was in the same place, his head was in the same place. So it seemed like the attachment code change didn't change attachment positions. Is something else responsible for the Builder guard head move?

When I exported the anims using the FBX workflow (load fbx_import.mb into maya, import my FBX on it, then do exportModels in Doom) it worked fine, but now that I'm animating with citywatch_rig_00.mb and saving the .mb anim files directly, I get this error when I try to load a map; Game Error: Join 'Spine2' not found for attachment position 'slung_across_back_rl' on entity 'atdm_ai_builder_guard_1' I don't understand it though - I'm exporting using tdm_ai_citywatch.def, and it has "Spine2" in the -keep options, and tdm_ai_builder_guard.def also has "Spine2" in the -keep options. I can only think that citywatch_rig_00.mb is out of date somehow... but I found a "Spine2" joint while browsing its heirachy... Hope I'm missing something simple - the new dummy combat anims are all ready to go except for this...

Just returned from a 7 day holiday, opened up this forum, had at least 4 pages of "new content". Made it past page 2 (to about June 03), and then had to take care of a few things here. When I came back, the forum had logged me out (timeout?), and when you log out, it forgets all "new content". So you log in, and it says "there is nothing new for you". Great, now I never know what I missed between May 30th and June 03.... grrrrrrrrr With email, you would still have all unread messages *sigh* Is there a way to change this behaviour? It has annoyed me in the past, but not as much as this time.. Edit: It's even worse, there is "no new content", but when I go f.i. into the "off topic" sub-forum, it still shows me threads as unread that I definitely already did read an hour ago. So I can't even just look at all the "unread" threads. Oh boy...

Announcement: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=8900 Please post any comments, bug notices, etc in this thread. If you have any issues with the new forums, please try to refresh/remove your Internet browser cache. Thanks ~m2

http://www.pixelwerks.be/pictures/MB_tut_01.avi oDDity's motion builder tutorial for all us animators. Requires this codec: http://www.divx.com/divx/play/ One thing - layers are actually for seperating animation timelines for the entire body, not seperating body parts. Body parts already have their own channels within a layer - just select the body part and the keyframes shown in the timeline will only be the keyframes for that body part (provided you are in "body part mode", as shown in the vid). Layers can be used to easily layer movements over one another and keep them seperate and editable. This has two major uses; Layering movements Just say you animated a walk cycle. The hips will have maybe keyframes that twist it left to right. You decide you want to add some up & down bobbing movment. Using layers, you can seperate your "bobbing" keyframes from your "twisting" keyframes, so that you can edit one without modifying the other. Make a new layer, and select the hips. You will notice the are no keyframes visible. That's because they are in the other layer. Now if you define keyframes here in this layer that make him bob up and down, you will only see those keyframes - BUT - and this is the most powerful feature of MotionBuilder - the effects of both the twisting AND bobbing keyframes will be blended together as if they were on the same timeline. Because they ARE on the same timeline - but when you seperate them using layers, they are hidden from each other, so you can edit them independantly, and if you happen to have a "bobbing" keyframe on the exact same frame as a "twisting" keyframe, the two will NOT be permanently welded together (as they would be if you had them on the same layer), so you can freely change one layer's animations without screwing up another layer's animations. Pose tweaking Say you have a walking animation. You decide that he's not leaning forward enough for the entire animation. In Maya, with only a single timeline, you'd have to go through every keyframe for his back and rotate it forward. But in motion builder, you just make an empty layer, and set one keyframe a the start for the back, rotate it in the positoin you want it, et voila, the entire walk animation has him walking the way you want him to. I have a layer specifically for this, that I call "pose tweaks".

Does anyone have Motionbuilder running in XP with an 8800 GTS type of card? I've got myself a new rig with an 8800 GTS but the current nvidia drivers screw up the realtime playback It skips a few frames ahead when playing in 24 fps (or whatever speed). When playing animations with the show "ALL FRAMES" option it does like it says play all frames but that's of course too fast. i read on some cg forums that it's a general problem with the current 7XXX en 8XXX series and autodesk is apparently working on this issue. So be warned

I've just completed the upgrade from IPB 2.2.x to 2.3.6, the newest official release of IPB. This was done to stay ahead on the IPB version 3 that is currently in the beta stages. Please post any comments, bug notices, etc in this thread. PS: If you have any issues with the new forums, please try to refresh/remove your Internet browser cache. Thanks, ~m2

http://www.metamotion.com/mb_page_assets/3d_paths.html You can create a path from nothing, or you can automatically create one based on the keyframes of whatever body part. SOOO useful, for getting limbs swinging realistically. It was complicating things so much adding all those extra key frames to emulate curved movement. I'll add this to the wiki.

PM from squill; First, load the AnimRef_idle.fbx into Motion Builder, and animate with that. (I think that's the filename, but I'm at work and can't check). Hm I'll be able to make more reliable instructions when I get home and look at my notes. Before exporting, you have to do this ritual; up on the top right where the picture of the man is, there are some drop down menus... I think you want the one called "Edit". Anyway the option you need to find is "Plot rig" Just click OK on the dialogue box that comes up. Then click File, export, and it will be a special FBX that only has animation. YOu can tell because the file-type selector says "FBX - Animation only." Save this as an fbx file. In Maya, open the fbx_import.mb. THen go File, Import, and choose your FBX file. You may need to install the FBX importer plugin. Choose the Merge option on the importer dialogue. The animation should play correctly and you should be able to save this as walk.mb or whatever animation name you want, and then use the usual Doom 3 export process to get it into Doom 3.

I added new animations to the builder guard: main - painchest, painleftarm, painrightarm, painhead, death head - head_pain (no scripting support yet), head_tongue_out (I added teeth and a tongue to the mesh, just for fun), head_yawn (no support yet) & no screenshots or video so you'll have to try them out for yourself

The builder guard with the doom 3 skeleton is ready for testing. Revised pk4! 9/22/06 http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/models/as...erguard_new.pk4 Known problems: Head is still too big Death animation for head doesn't activate on death Rigging funkiness No hammer WIP hand texture Changed/Added files builderguardmesh.md5mesh, builderguard_head.md5mesh, builderguard_head_death.md5anim chars.mtr, npchand_d.tga tdm_ai_base_d3.def, tdm_ai_builder_guard.def, tdm_ai_humanoid.def ai_darkmod_base_d3.script, darkmod_include.script I probably forgot something . . .

Screenshots of my first map. Custom sky I downloaded off the net, not great. I'd prefer to have TDM official resources one of course. Other textures all hand made. I know the most used brick ones needs some tweaking. However I don't have much incentive to make a perfect neat brick texture when TDM must have better ones already. It's a placeholder really. The other brick textures (the black one, and the variegated one) are better. Problem: the light bitmap shows through walls. Mind you they always do don't they? In many games this happens. E.g. GTA3. It started off as a warehouse affair, but I've attached a chapel onto the side. It could be a Builder chapel with a bit for the staff off the side. It has classic Thief II style toilets, a room with a cardboard box, and an upstairs officey space, with a cubicle. It is a kind of off-duty space also. Crude wine rack. Broken wine bottle on the floor. Struggle to do much with only the Doom 3 models, being lacking in Thiefiness. I'd like to be a beta mapper so I could get my hands on the resources. Of course I'd also throw in any interesting textures I've made, into the project. The ones you won't have anything like as they are made from real life photos. Dunno how realistic that is. Comments welcome, I'll make a second improved map if this one is too rubbish. If you don't have firefox I don't recommend you open these links. Apparently you people with IE get popups.

He's up & he'll need some rigging tweaks. The major problem is the legs sticking out of the robe. Also the normal maps are incomplete so the height maps are used. He's using the citywatch's skeleton so he's mostly up to date with the recent animations. EDIT: Not the latest screenshot. Most of the issues in this one is resolved on cvs.

As usual, he has the basic animations (idle, walk, run). The helmet/visor is on the main mesh (can't control how it goes on the head rig) so when he starts work, he puts the visor down & vise-versa. * committing meshes/animations/textures atm . . .

The dark mod has come along way. with dark radiant released and many Thief FM makers out there along with the hype about this mod in the thief community maybe You guys should add in some new parts of the forums. For editor Discusion, and just general mapping. along with coding and stuff. so there is help here for the mappers that are at work learning and using the D3 editor. just a thought it would be a good move to create a really good base of DM editors for the release. it would help us solve the problems we are having and get better as we talk about it and learn the editor. also maybe a FM concepts forum to. to talk about ideas for good maps and for ppl to req mappers and coders for DM projects... i think its the right move. it would also bring a lot of new people interested in the mod's comunity on a daily bases. maybe we can steel some of the fm makers from the first two thiefs haha. hopefully. theres alot of amazing FM's out there for the first 2.

Gentlemen, I present you: The Builder Theme!

I will upgrade the DarkMod forums this Friday to the newest IPB version. This will hopefully help us stop the spammers from signing up so we can get rid of the manual authentication process. The forums will be unavailable for some time, and the skin might not look normal after the upgrade. Just a heads up. Cheers, ~m2

Hi folks, here are some screenshots of a high-poly builder-statue I've been working on for about 3 days (3 evenings actually). Lowpoly model will follow. My *very first* hands and that's my second attempt in modelling a human head: not perfect I know, but I think it's a lot better than my first try. I don't like the mouth on this one yet though. Head wireframe: http://www.thedarkmod.de/intern_screens/builder_statue4.jpg wireframe of the whole model: http://www.thedarkmod.de/intern_screens/builder_statue5.jpg I haven't started on the cloak and on the upper arm yet - they're just placeholders. Legs and feet are WIP too. I mostly posted it to get some tips, how to do the cloak (I'm a bit afraid of all the creases and stuff.... ), and to get some general feedback.

UPDATED: August 10th - Sidestep v2 added I'm not sure which models will share which animations but the only ones completed so far could pretty much be used for just about anyone. I'll edit this post as those things get decided and as I finish more animations. At the moment the upper chest/spine doesn't really have any rotations since I've been working with these animations on the builder guard and he's wearing a breastplate. It's not hard at all to add it in if the animations need to get used for a different model though. Oh and I haven't done work on the shoulder pads yet, but that's also easy to add in later. I'll try to explain the action as best as possible so you guys can figure out which model you think the animation does or doesn't belong on. (all 24 fps) Casual standing - Average standing around. Head is looking mainly forward. Breathing is the most noticeable movement in this one. Brush chest - Looking around, happens to notice something on his chest and looks down at it. Raises left hand and brushes it off with 2 fingers. About 6 seconds. Brush Chest Cough - Coughs twice. Tries to cover mouth with right hand (hand is in a fist). Just over 2 seconds. Coughing Itching cheek - Leans and tilts head to the left to itch cheek with right hand. 3 seconds. Scratching Cheek Hand on hip/shifts weight - Looking around, left foot steps forward as right hand goes on hip and he leans on to his right leg, looks around a bit more and left foot steps back into place. 5 seconds. Shifting Weight Stretch - Right hand (in a fist) goes on the back of his right hip as he stretches and arches back. 3 seconds. Stretch Glance back - Hears something behind him, quickly turns and looks behind him all startled. Glance Back Failed Blackjack KO - Hit on the back of the head and stumbles forward just barely keeping himself up, shakes head. Failed blackjack KO Calm Glance Back - Hears something behind him, slightly and calmly turns to look over shoulder, then returns to regular pose. Calm Glance Back Combat Stance - Short combat stance that would be played in loop i guess. Corny hammer is just a placeholder obviously Combat Stance Side Step - Side step to the right/left (avoiding an arrow possibly). Placeholder hammer equipped. Still not sure about how the weapons' animations are supposed to transfer over into the game exactly. Side Step v1 (old) Side Step v2 (new)

NOw that we have an animator again, and the first faction model set are done, we should detail exactly which animations the various builder models will need. There is already a comprehensive animation list in the thread below this one, so refer to that for the generic animations that all Builders can share. You should do those main ones first I think. THe individual charcaters will need some animations of their own as well though. Priest - The priest can cast various spells, and lay on hands to heal people, thoug that could be shown by him standing with outstretched arms, in a palm out type of stance. Forge workers will need blacksmith type animations, hammering particularly. Prelates wield a hammer in each hand, so they'll need a lot of their own animations for attacking, and they can cast bolts from their hammers. THe Acolytes are basically servants, so they could do with anims like brushing floors, or on their knees scrubbing etc They wear a heavy weight around their neck as a kind of test of strength and devotion, so it woud be nice if their walking anims and posture reflected this, but it's not absolutley necessary. We dont want to swamp you with work. All of the builders, except the acolytes wield hammers. Feel free to add any character specific anims anyone can think of. For some technical details. I've tried to model the characters with good vertex positioning around deformation areas. If you find you need tham set up differently, then I can adjust them in lightwave quickly without affecting the UV mapping, IF you can adjust them yourself, then that's fine. Animations for Doom don't need to be done in cycles of one. For a walk anim for example, you can animate two full strides with forward motion. This is nice, since it gives more room for creative cycles with mre character. If you need any technical details of how to animate or set rigs up for doom, PM me. There is some technical information I need to give you for Maya, but I don't know which app you're using yet so I'll leave that for now. I haven't uploaded the models to the FTP yet, since I don't know which format you need them in.

Hey guys. The forums have been successfully upgraded, although it took longer than I thought due to some extensive mysql queries that had to be run. This version of IPB is the newest, and it includes changes, new features and more. Please have a look around! IMPORTANT: Since a lot of the client-script files have been updated it is mandatory to empty your cached files from this forum. You can either empty your browser cache if you want to (check the settings), or you can do a hard refresh (this is usually done by holding the Ctrl-button while you hit 'Refresh'). Yes, the skin is currently toe default IPB skin, but this will be changed ASAP. It takes some time to update the changes in the original darkmod-skin, so please be patient. If you spot anything out of order (e.g. bugs) or you have suggestions or general feedback, please use this thread. Because of a new CAPTCHA (Completely Automatic Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) system introduced in this version, I have now disabled the manual validation process of new members. Cheers, ~m2

I'm starting to play around with Builder Priest concepts. This is the first one I've come up with, but it isn't drawn in stone. Some things I've thought about: Metal is almost a religious substance to builders, so even the priests should wear some metal. So I gave him some chains and metal shoulder plates, among other things. Hammers are their holy symbol, so even the priests should carry one, and be able to use it in melee combat if necessary (though less effectively than the guards). I presume we will want them to throw fire like the original games? That's easily done. Should they do it from their hands? A wand? Or perhaps the hammer? I was also wondering if we should give the priests other abilities? Someone mentioned a shining hammer in another thread, what if the priest could use his holy symbol to light up the area around him? Anyway, all comments welcome. Edit: Ok, a new version, Oct 11th I've made the shoulder metal smaller and more decorative. I've also given him a hat and more robe-like clothing. The strips at the bottom of the robe are decorative metal, and there are metal plates on the scarf-like things hanging from his shoulders. A ceremonial hammer completes the outfit. It could be used in combat if necessary, and could also function as his wand (which always struck me as too 'magicky' for a builder). What do you think?

I don't know if Odd has modeled these guys yet. I was thinking that a simple robe may not be enough for Builder acolytes. The Builders are all about rigid, unyeilding devotion. I was thinking they would probably put their acolytes through some kind of discomfort to test them, making them wear heavy weights or something. Plus, they really should carry the metal motif of the rest of the religion. Anyway, I was doodling at work and came up with this: I realize this might make them look too much like Prelates, but I liked the look of these guys so I thought I'd post them. If you like them I can do up something more detailed.

Are we just using the same model as the Builder guard, but with a skull for a face like they did in Thief, or are you thinking of doing some specific artwork. Haunts are supposed to be undead Hammers/Builders, so it makes sense they'd be wearing the same gear. I could give him a skull face and hands, make the armour old and rusted wth holes, and tattered cloth. Are they basically skeletons wearing armour, So if I tatter the leg cloth, you can see the leg bones inside? Is it also true that the hammer priests become ghosts and not haunts? There's a very simple effect you can do in doom to make charcaters look ghosly - just add the word transparent in the shader. I suppose we'd need some sort of 'blue glowie' effect on top of that.

Alright, the forum has successfully been upgraded to IPB version 2.2.2. If you have any comments, bug reports, suggestion or general feedback, post it here. IMPORTANT: Since a lot of the client-script files have been updated it is mandatory to empty your cached files from this forum. You can either empty your browser cache if you want to (check the settings), or you can do a hard refresh (this is usually done by holding the Ctrl-button while you hit 'Refresh'). Cheers, ~m2