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A question about Commando scaling

Started by spamclark15, June 01, 2017, 11:19:07 PM

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spamclark15

I've noticed that the chaingun commando is 90% the size of the tentacle commando, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way of modding the game to bring them to the same scale again. Is there a way this could be done programmatically in the engine or game code or a feasable way of doing this using the md5mesh and md5animations and running them through Blender?

The Happy Friar

I've done it in Blender by importing the md5mesh, scaling it, then reexporting it.  I forget exactly how I did it but I know if you scale it the wrong way (ie object vs bone) it doesn't work properly.

But that does work.

spamclark15

Could you possibly do it again?  :o It would be a huge help as I know next to nothing about manipulating the game's meshes.

The Happy Friar

Figured out how to do it again.  Each animation needs to be imported & reexported too.
Anyone know if there was ever a md5mesh/anim scaler program?

spamclark15

I don't think, but it would be nice right now. I can import and export them to/from Blender, but I don't know the process for scaling up the mesh and animations and saving it all out.

The Happy Friar

I'm using Blender 2.49b with the XReal MD5 exporter.

1) import monster & animations.
2) Unlink the bones & mesh's.  I think you select the mesh & remove it's parent, but do both just to be safe.
3) select the bones in edit mode & scale them to the desired size.  Holding CTRL while doing it goes in fixed increments.
4) Select the mesh in edit mode & scale them the same way.
5) Now export.  The XReal exporter allows you to export all the animations at once.  It has a "scale" function but not 100% sure that works all the time.  Seemed hit & miss in my tests (but could be just my tests).

spamclark15

#6
I'm pretty new to Blender. Could you go into a little more detail on each step? What import plug-in do you use?

Mostly it's the key and button controls to do the steps that I don't have experience using.

spamclark15

Alright I installed Blender 2.49b, installed Python 2.6.2, downloaded the XReal MD5 exporter and der_ton's import and export scripts for 2.49 and put the scripts in a couple of places I thought it would find them, both in Blender's scripts folder inside its root directory as well as in Application Data, but all 3 scripts aren't showing up under the import and export menus. In newer versions of Blender you can configure this stuff under User Preferences, but there doesn't seem to be any such screen for 2.49b. Help?

I'm trying to get my setup to match yours so that I can follow your steps exactly.

The Happy Friar

Use the included zip file & unzip to your Blender 2.49b folder/.blender/scripts.  Overwrite any others.  I don't think they showed up in the menu & I had to make some small changes.
Reboot your computer after you installed Python or else it won't work with Blender.

Then they should work.

spamclark15

#9
Thanks, now both show up. Now what? I noticed the import screen has a scaling feature and so I imported the tentacle commando at 1.0 and the chaingun commando at 1.1 just to see if it scaled properly and it does. The import screen only has a button for 1 animation though.

The Happy Friar

You can only import one at a time.  The commando has a lot more animations then most monsters.  :)

spamclark15

#11
So how do I import each additional one?

I went ahead and imported the mesh and his idle animation with scale set to 1.1x and then exported it to test. The animation and mesh do export, but his textures are missing in-game and he can't be damaged.

The Happy Friar

With the skelecton object selected in blender, use the import md5 plugin again but just import a md5anim, no mesh.  It will add the imported anim to the existing skeleton.

Older blender doesn't support exporting material names to md5mesh (a max length thing) so you need to put those in the md5mesh manually.  Normally what I do is have the original & new mesh open in a text editor (I like Notepad++) & search for "numverts" in the origional mesh, see the # after it, then search for that "numverts #" in the new mesh & copy/paste the respective shader from the original to the new one.

spamclark15

#13
So once I've imported the mesh and all animations, how does the export go to get all of the animations exported too? The export screen seemed to only allow picking 1 animation. Would I use the same 1.1 import scale via the script for each of the animations?

Alright I've done some animations, and all seems good until they become a ragdoll, at which point rather than falling over dead, the physics goes completely ape. Have I missed something?

The Happy Friar

With the XReal exporter it should give you the option to add more animations to export.  You give the start & end frame (should be auto set) & choose the path/filename to export to.

With a scale change you'll need to change the AF for the ragdoll.  Use the built in AF editor.  That's more work & a pain.  :)