2251 replies to this topic

[Volt]

@iqfish

i see what you mean, when i opened the forums from my phone all i got was a very dark image. it looked bright enough on my laptop screen though. i think i'd have to play around with the gamma correction next time around. thanks for letting me know.

[Seijin Dinger]

Rawyn, on 29 May 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

I'm using this node setup currently:




Put it together by trial & error, but I think it looks good enough

I need to get better at stuff like that

[DevCon96]

Hey guys,
Firstly, great work on this thread. The things i see on this threat are truly amazing!

Secondly, I come to you guys for help as I too wish to use the mech models in blender (and maybe later in maya).
So far i have converted all the .cga files to .cgf with powershell, but thats where my progress stops...

So, question 1:
Does Noesis still work as a viable tool for converting the file to .objs? I ask this as I haven't seen much talk about it recently in the thread...

and question 2:
How do you use the Cryengine converter program from the links Heffay's original post? I have downloaded them my knowledge in this program is non-existent.

Thanks for your time if you read this post

[Rawyn]

process in a nutshell:

Directory structure is assumed to be C:\MWO\objects\mechs\<chassis>\body

1) Copy cgf-converter.exe to the \body subdir of your chosen mech

2) run the following command from PowerShell in that directory

foreach ($file in (Get-ChildItem *.cga)) { .\cgf-converter.exe $file -allowconflict -objectdir "C:\MWO\objects\mechs" }

3) copy the mechimporter.ps1 to the <chassis> dir and modify the line

32:	$basedir = "C:\MWO\"

4) run the mechimporter.ps1 script

5) open the created import.txt, copy all and paste to Blender python console

6) open the .chr file in Noesis and export as Collada (.dae)

7) Import the .dae file in Blender

8) proceed as shown in Heffay's rigging video

[Volt]

@DevCon96

Rawyn's procedure above is the fastest method, but if you're having problems like me with using the cgf-converter.exe Noesis still works.

After converting from *.CGA to *CGF, batch convert them to OBJ then run mechimporter.ps1

Once loaded in blender you can export it to Maya in any format the app recognizes. For my part, I export my mechs from Blender as *.FBX files then import them to 3dsmax.

hope these clear things up for you!

[DevCon96]

Thanks to both @Rawyn and @Volt.

Most of the steps have gone to plan, but now im having issues importing the .objs into blender using the created text document...

when i copy the text from the importer.txt into blender, errors like these come up...

--
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_add.poll() failed, context is incorrect

>>> bpy.context.object.vertex_groups.active.name = "COCKPIT"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'vertex_groups'

>>> bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.mesh.select_all.poll() failed, context is incorrect

>>> bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_assign()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_assign.poll() failed, context is incorrect

>>> bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.mesh.select_all.poll() failed, context is incorrect

>>> bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = "OBJECT")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.mode_set.poll() failed, context is incorrect

>>> bpy.context.object.data.materials.append(rifleman_variant)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'data'
--

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated

Edited by DevCon96, 10 June 2016 - 05:34 AM.

[Sader325]

Is it possible to pull the mechs animations as well?

[Rawyn]

@DevCon96 can you check your import.txt file if the paths used there are correct and the files listed do exist in that location ?
Seems something is missing, but I'm just guessing here...Just search for

bpy.context.object.vertex_groups.active.name = "COCKPIT"

for example and check a few lines above and below.

Meanwhile, some *cough* eye-candy for y'all

Edited by Rawyn, 10 June 2016 - 12:44 PM.

[DevCon96]

Thanks again @Rawyn

its seems as though the mechimporter.ps1 created the paths wrong like you said, but instead of leaving out parts of the path, it add one that don't exist. i fixed all now so it's all good.

Although the rifelman's ac2s, 5s, and uac5s are way out of place and the materials didn't set to the model, but i can just fix them by hand i guess.

http://s1152.photobu...html?sort=3&o=0

[DevCon96]

Rawyn, on 29 May 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

I'm using this node setup currently:




Put it together by trial & error, but I think it looks good enough

Hey @Rawyn, I'm trying to re-create your node system for the camos from looking at your image, but I can't get it to the quality of your warhammer.

Here is a test render:
http://imgur.com/SiXZGPd

As you can see there are some black areas (mainly on the front of the upper arms, even though I have an area light shining on those sections) that I don't know how to get rid of.

And here is my re-created node system:
http://imgur.com/ZZQovKm

As I don't know what image you used for the "detail" section, I just left it disconnected.

How did you get it to look so good?

[Gryphorim]

Volt, on 05 June 2016 - 06:29 PM, said:

got bored the other day, decided to make a Jade Flacon Camo Black Lanner since it was my favorite MW4:M Medium Mech. I used the following parts:

Mad Dog Feet and L/R Torso
Stormcrow Legs and Pelvis
Nova Torso and Left Arm
Shadow Cat Right Arm

Not as pretty as I wanted but here are the Prime and A to D configs

I'd have taken a slightly different take on the Black Lanner, with:
Ebon Jag rear half of CT with forward section from S-Crow
Nova ST's
S-Crow LA.
RA from EBJ, but with Energy mount from Mauler or Orion (or IIC), to make it cylindrical.

Edited by Gryphorim, 14 June 2016 - 10:32 PM.

[Rawyn]

DevCon96, on 14 June 2016 - 08:02 PM, said:

Hey @Rawyn, I'm trying to re-create your node system for the camos from looking at your image, but I can't get it to the quality of your warhammer.

Here is a test render:
http://imgur.com/SiXZGPd

As you can see there are some black areas (mainly on the front of the upper arms, even though I have an area light shining on those sections) that I don't know how to get rid of.

And here is my re-created node system:
http://imgur.com/ZZQovKm

As I don't know what image you used for the "detail" section, I just left it disconnected.

How did you get it to look so good?

It's probably because of a bug (?) in the mechimporter or new settings in Blender, don't know for sure. Whatever
it is, it messes up the surface normals, especially in the arm sections and thus the lighting is not computed correctly.

However what fixed the problem for me was to delete the custom split normals data on all (yes...) vertex groups.



Or turn off auto smooth, but I think clearing the custom data is the correct way and leave auto-smooth on.

The detail texture is called mech_metal_a.ddn if I remember correctly. It's in a different .pak file than the 'Mech models,so you might not have extracted it already.

Edited by Rawyn, 14 June 2016 - 11:26 PM.

[Volt]

Gryphorim, on 14 June 2016 - 10:27 PM, said:

I'd have taken a slightly different take on the Black Lanner, with:
Ebon Jag rear half of CT with forward section from S-Crow
Nova ST's
S-Crow LA.
RA from EBJ, but with Energy mount from Mauler or Orion (or IIC), to make it cylindrical.

hmm not a bad combo. I'll give it a go when I have some free time. I did have a modified version of this using the SCR's right arm (the one with the six energy slots) mirrored to make the Black Lanner left arm.

I'm actually waiting for the Huntsman and Night Gyr to come out so I can kitbash a Nova Cat 'mech

[Justin Kase]

First off - thank you for this great thread

Now for my question - a while back, there was a Gazelle model in the RiverCity.pak, but it looks like it was replaced with the Leopard ... or maybe I am just not looking in the right place.

Would anyone happen to have the old Gazelle files?

Thanks - in advance!

[mad kat]

(City by Konstantin from tf3dm)

[Justin Kase]

Nice flame effect

[Mcgral18]

The Enforcer is giving me cancerous blobs...I had a similar issue with the BK, but removing the LODs helped that, while it did not with the Enf




The head isn't round, and the back is...jagged

Atlas and Banshee, using the same method, work as you'd expect. Is it a Resistance thing? BK and Enf, I guess I should try the other two

[Mcgral18]

Also failing to get the Commando to load at all...just giving me the oversized cockpit

[TheSkiDog]

Any advice for a noob trying to get his hands dirty with this?

Specifically towards importing models textures, etc. Lot of info in this thread, and I'm not quite sure what is up to date, and not.

[Heffay]

TheSkiDog, on 20 June 2016 - 07:43 AM, said:

Any advice for a noob trying to get his hands dirty with this?

Specifically towards importing models textures, etc. Lot of info in this thread, and I'm not quite sure what is up to date, and not.

Patience. There are a lot of things that need to happen to get it to work right, and it is a frustrating process. However, even I was able to get it to work, so there is definitely no minimum intelligence required. Just a lot of persistence.

Be sure to ask questions here if you run into problems too. We're a pretty helpful lot.