Ai Models

[Springheel]

Ok, it seems like the models currently on CVS (builder guard, elite city watch, pro guard, revenant, prelate) are good to go.

 

Can we confirm that we have the necessary files for the following characters? That means model, textures, and normalmaps.

 

Builder Acolyte

 

Noblewoman

 

Builder Priest

 

House Guard

 

City Watch - safe -

[Ishtvan]

We should have the Pagan female model up on the ftp also right?

 

In order to get ingame the ones that aren't ingame they'll also have to be "weighted and rigged," for animation, whatever that means.

[Springheel]

We should have the Pagan female model up on the ftp also right?

 

Nope. Oddity put up something that looked like a uv-map, but that's all. Of course, we have the naked woman template, so if we wanted to make another naked woman pagan, that wouldn't be very difficult.

 

they'll also have to be "weighted and rigged," for animation, whatever that means.

 

I think that can be done as long as we have the model though, correct?

[Dram]

I think that can be done as long as we have the model though, correct?

afaik you only have to assign vertices to bones and thats it...or is there something more sinister ?

[sparhawk]

I think that can be done as long as we have the model though, correct?

 

Right.

[sparhawk]

afaik you only have to assign vertices to bones and thats it...or is there something more sinister ?

 

If you change the polys, then you may have to redo the UV texture, and also reweight it.

[Domarius]

Here's as much confirmation as I can give at the moment;

 

In most cases, its not simply a case of "we have everything" it's actually a sliding scale of how much work there is to do for each model to fill in what's missing.

 

With the alcolyte and priest, they are the final meshes, so if we ever wanted to change them, we'd have to re-create a high poly version, to generate normal maps from.

And since I've seen posed pictures of them, I'm guessing oDDity had already rigged them, and this information is missing in the final meshes, which means they need to be re-rigged too.

 

What we can do with them in this state is rig them and animate them and get them in game, But if you want to change geometry, that's going to require modelling work to build a high poly version.

 

With the Elite City Watch - he's in the same state except he's already rigged (and I'm animating him - you should add him to the list too). The regular City Watch is the same - final mesh but already rigged.

 

I can't comment on the others since I dont' have lightwave. Maybe BT can comment? Otherwise it'll be downloaded by morning, and hopefully it works, then i can give you a full list on what we can do with the existing stuff, and what we will need to do to fill in the holes.

[Springheel]

With the alcolyte and priest, they are the final meshes, so if we ever wanted to change them, we'd have to re-create a high poly version, to generate normal maps from.

 

Does that include resizing them? I don't recall how big Odd made them, but I know we're having to resize most of the other AI models. I suspect trying to recreate a high-poly version that matches the uv-map and textures would be more work than remaking the models from scratch.

[BlackThief]

no resizing is no problem. actually we CAN do some smaller changes to the mesh without having to recreate the highpoly. just no significant changes...

[Springheel]

That's good to hear...I don't think we really need to make any major changes to the models themselves.

 

So City Watch is safe, that's great.

 

Do we currently have the normalmaps for the priest and acolyte?

[Dram]

The prelate, what about him? It should'nt be too difficult to re-add the cloak and remove the armor should it?

[Domarius]

I just got lightwave, but I need to be told how to view any rigging if it exists.

 

There are just basic texture maps for the Alcolyte and Priest. No normal maps or specular maps etc.

:/

So we will kinda need to re-model them to make some normal maps.

 

There is a noble man, but there are 2 versions. One is called nobleman_fixed, and is in lightwave format, with only texture maps and no normal maps or anything.

The other is called just nobleman, and has normalmaps and texture maps, but the file format is .ase, which is 3D Studio ASCII format, and although I have 3DS, I can't for the life of me find an importer that works. You can export to ASE but you can't import it without a plugin I guess.

 

The noblewoman, although exists as a lightwave file, is actually also the final mesh. However, she actually has all the required maps - normal map, specualr, etc.

But I can't check if she is rigged or not because I don't know how to do that in lightwave.

You can regard her as "safe" I suppose.

 

You should also add the elite city watch to the list

But I don't think you can regard either the regular city watch or elite city watch as "safe" since we don't have normal maps for them either.

[Dram]

about no specs or normals, are you sure? I remember the pic oDD showed the priest specifically had a normal and specular.

[Domarius]

Yeah but he also showed a pic of a naked pagan woman - that doesn't mean he uploaded any files to FTP.

[Dram]

ahh, I getcha. Annoying indeed. Hey, where is that priest btw, I'll try and see if gimp can make a good normal - i doubt it but it's worth a try.

[Domarius]

On the FTP under files/robedbuilders.rar

 

Once I'm sure I have all the files I'm going to organise them, they're all over the fucking place.

[New Horizon]

On the FTP under files/robedbuilders.rar

 

Once I'm sure I have all the files I'm going to organise them, they're all over the fucking place.

 

Dom, perhaps you could email oDDity at the email address on his website and see if you could appeal to his sense of honor and see if he would provide us with the materials for the models we have promoted? That would include the Thief. I think it might work out better if you approached him.

[Domarius]

I was thinking of doing that myself anyway - which is better, because it would be from me to him, and not like you guys put me up to it or something. I'll do it when I feel I've got the words right.

[Dram]

Now that you mention it, I think Dom was one of the only people that never got into an argument with him (to any angry degree that is)....hehehe...

 

edit: good luck

[Ishtvan]

Yeah that's a good point, we were so close to getting the player model ingame too... argh.

[Domarius]

I had to work closely with him for animating etc. and he was really helpful with advice and making video tutes and stuff.

[Dram]

Gah...those are'nt in a formatt I can open.

 

Umm...Dom, if you get time could you please export those models as lwo or maya ascii files or something? Don't worry about it for now though I guess, we'll wait to see what oDD says.

[Domarius]

Those .mb "robedbuilder.rar" files open fine in Maya 7.0.1, tha'ts the version BT and I recently downloaded. What version do you have?

 

Oh, I'm assuming you are opening in MilkShape and it can import ASCII files from Maya or Lightwave?

[Darkness_Falls]

Où est l'oDDity?

[Darkness_Falls]

Does this help, with your rigging question?

http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/t...ging/index.html

 

PS: Disregard my oDDity question. I did a search. Niiiiiiiiiiiice~ heh, that's just great.