2251 replies to this topic

[TheSkiDog]

Heffay, on 01 March 2018 - 01:27 PM, said:

Dropbox or Onedrive. I can also host it on my Azure file storage area.

I can get it on OneDrive tonight. If you would like to host it I'd be good with that.

Heffay, on 01 March 2018 - 01:27 PM, said:

And can I share the link on the original post?

Of course.
I'm hoping this will make some things easier for people.

Edited by TheSkiDog, 01 March 2018 - 01:37 PM.

[TheSkiDog]

Ok, here it is on OneDrive
https://1drv.ms/u/s!...avpHK-mHFjI8ybI

First time I've used it, so let me know if there is a problem.

[Naqser]

Nice, so large though, going to have a go with it.

Any pointers to the weapon textures? Still haven't found them...

[TheSkiDog]

The weapon files are either variant, or generic. The generic files are included in the blend file, but if you want to find them in the game files , they are under skins/generic.

[TheSkiDog]

It should be said that the overall bulk of the file is because of the included texture files for Atlas, the generic objects, and a simple HDRI..

[Heffay]

TheSkiDog, on 05 March 2018 - 12:54 PM, said:

It should be said that the overall bulk of the file is because of the included texture files for Atlas, the generic objects, and a simple HDRI..

I've added a link to the file in the original post in this thread. That's an impressive node group!

Have you noticed an issue with some of the normal files? For some reason the depth value (blue color I believe) doesn't work properly when it's added to a bump map node. Some objects just appear flat as a result, even with the proper normal hooked up. I've tried splitting the maps up into their RGB values, setting B to 1 and recombining, but that doesn't work either.

And it's not every file. Some dds normal files seem to be ok, and others just... not so much. I've converted some to tiff files, and those work without a problem. But the dds files are just a huge pain.

I'm not even going to go into the "too many files open" bug that dds files will cause in Blender when you try to render an animation. I'm about ready to just convert them all to tiff to get around all these issues.

[TheSkiDog]

Heffay, on 11 March 2018 - 05:07 AM, said:

I've added a link to the file in the original post in this thread. That's an impressive node group!

Thanks, It's not without it's issues, especially with the canopy glass, but definitely a work of love.

Heffay, on 11 March 2018 - 05:07 AM, said:

Have you noticed an issue with some of the normal files?

And it's not every file. Some dds normal files seem to be ok, and others just... not so much. I've converted some to tiff files, and those work without a problem. But the dds files are just a huge pain.

Yes, I've noticed this, I believe it's a disparity between the encoding, and how Blender does it's decoding. I've also noticed an issue with some of the diffuse textures and to a lesser extent specular. Personally I tend to think it's the encoding side, since the change seems to follow along with the era that the mech was designed.... at least with the diffuse files.

It took a long time for me to massage this node group to work correctly with the unaltered files... at least with the diffuse and specular, altering the gamma seems to solve the issue.... I don't know what to do with the normals.
It was actually easy to figure out how to get everything working in one node group in comparison.

[Faulimir Baneforge]

I'm getting the following error when trying to convert the Timberwolf:

********************************************************************************
There was an error rendering D:\depot\timberwolf\timberwolf\Objects\mechs\timberwolf\body\timberwolf.chr

Unable to read beyond the end of the stream.

at System.IO.BinaryReader.FillBuffer(Int32 numBytes)
at System.IO.BinaryReader.ReadSingle()
at CgfConverter.CryEngine_Core.ChunkCompiledPhysicalProxies_800.Read(BinaryReader
at CgfConverter.CryEngine_Core.Model.Read_Chunks(BinaryReader reader)
at CgfConverter.CryEngine_Core.Model.Load(String fileName)
at CgfConverter.CryEngine_Core.Model.FromFile(String fileName)
at CgfConverter.CryEngine..ctor(String fileName, String dataDir)
at CgfConverter.Program.Main(String[] args)
******************************************************************************
I tried to import into Blender anyway but it won't work.

[Heffay]

Timberwolf is a known issue. I'll try to fix it in a couple of weeks, when I'm between jobs. (Yay, new job, ALL THE MONEY!)

TheSkiDog, I believe you are right on the encoding side. Cryengine shaders do some pretty weird (and wonderful) things with the DDS files. For example, in Star Citizen, the alpha channel for diffuse files is used for... emission? Something like that. They get pretty creative with how they use all the channels. Not to mention SC using their own version of DDS files, where each of the mip maps are in their own file with no header info with a master file containing info about all the levels. Makes sense for performance, but it's not really a supported DDS standard anywhere else.

And of course the standards seem to be changing over time. Normals weren't an issue, until all of a sudden they were. Unless I'm wrong and they've always been an issue and I just never noticed. I really don't want to have to manually create materials for models, so I'll have to see if I can find a repeatable, testable way to make materials in Blender. Your node layout is *way* too complicated for me to script, so that might just have to be a "and if you want a professional material, use this" note in my documentation instead.

[Naqser]

I found the weapons textures, thanks a lot.

Also, the Atlas also gives me the same error as the Timber Wolf previously told about.

[TheSkiDog]

TheSkiDog, on 01 March 2018 - 09:47 AM, said:

So I finished my shader setup for blender.
Download the file and give it a go.
I included the Atlas in the blend file so you can have instant gratification.

FEATURES
This Material shader dubbed the MWO Ultra Uber Shader, allows for input of all texture map files... Body, variant, window & generic on one screen. The three color channels for the camo can be designated as metallic (not paint but metal), dialectric (paint), luminus for a glow effect or passthrough if you want to attach a separate material to that channel (car paint etc.), and attributes for each channel can be adjusted individually.
All adjustments to the settings will update globally across all objects.
Once setup correctly, there will be no need to change settings between screens, everything can be done using this all inclusive setup.... Oh, and yes, you can add glow to your cocpit glass too... For those of us that miss the atlas' glowing eyes.

Instructions for use are in the blend file.
If you have any questions, give me a yell, I'd be more than happy to help with anything.

http://www.filehosti...DER%201.0.blend

Update coming soon.
Refined and more accurate mixing of base textures.
Revamped camo mixing to better handle some of the more complex camo patterns that use the specular map to do mettalic effects.
I've also figured out how to isolate colors in the diffuse and specular maps to make running lights work.

Edited by TheSkiDog, 12 April 2018 - 07:41 PM.

[TheSkiDog]

Heffay, on 14 March 2018 - 01:35 PM, said:

TheSkiDog, I believe you are right on the encoding side. Cryengine shaders do some pretty weird (and wonderful) things with the DDS files. For example, in Star Citizen, the alpha channel for diffuse files is used for... emission? Something like that. They get pretty creative with how they use all the channels. Not to mention SC using their own version of DDS files, where each of the mip maps are in their own file with no header info with a master file containing info about all the levels. Makes sense for performance, but it's not really a supported DDS standard anywhere else.

And of course the standards seem to be changing over time. Normals weren't an issue, until all of a sudden they were. Unless I'm wrong and they've always been an issue and I just never noticed. I really don't want to have to manually create materials for models, so I'll have to see if I can find a repeatable, testable way to make materials in Blender. Your node layout is *way* too complicated for me to script, so that might just have to be a "and if you want a professional material, use this" note in my documentation instead.

So, I figured out where the disparity lies in this.
Blender combines the alpha channel by default when an image texture is used in nodes.
Normally not a problem, except that PGI covers up a whole slew of data with the alpha channel in several of their dds files, including a lot of the variant ddn files.
So, in the node editor, I clicked on on of the image textures I was having a problem with, hit n for properties, and unchecked use alpha.
This fixed the problem I was having with flat normals, and the issues I was having with other maps.
I will be unchecking these in the update I am working on... almost finished with.
I'm not quite sure what PGI is using the alpha channel for, but it isn't needed, except for the specular maps... I was able to pull some useful data from there.

Anyway, until next time
Cheers!

[Heffay]

The alpha channel does need to be separated from the RGB ones. In Star Citizen, alpha on the diffuse texture is used for illum... if I remember correctly. Specular alpha may be roughness, but I'm not positive. The B channel on the normals is set to 0 instead of 1, which leads to normals that just don't work right. I've been editing those in GIMP and replacing that channel with all white, so they look right in Blender. No idea what the alpha channel is in the normal texture, but I'm sure it's used for something.

There are material definition files, in the Shaders directory. Illum and Mech seem to be the right ones for mechs. The material file says which shader each material uses. For example, the Mech.ext file says if the material uses GLOSS_DIFFUSEALPHA, then the diffuse alpha channel is a specular mask. Pretty creative way of getting extra data out of the existing files.

But yeah... check out the .ext files. Can help explain what the node layouts should be.

[TheSkiDog]

A preview of the work I am doing on the shader update.
no map processing, no editing, everything done in Blender with PGI's assets.

Edited by TheSkiDog, 19 April 2018 - 06:58 PM.

[mad kat]

TheSkiDog, on 19 April 2018 - 06:55 PM, said:

A preview of the work I am doing on the shader update.
no map processing, no editing, everything done in Blender with PGI's assets.

that's amazing how do you get that glow around the PPC's is it like an invisible light with a volume?

[TheSkiDog]

It's a simple compositor effect in blender... will be included in the blend file.

[TheSkiDog]

Number two

[CK16]

To 3d print models. Is Soldiworks useable to convert properly?

[mad kat]

Hi Heffay,

I'm trying to use the new CGF converter but i must be doing something wrong as it keeps failing.

I've attached two screenshots to see if it makes any sense?

https://drive.google...tYWN7WljxpInE0s

https://drive.google..._qx5v4A0Zf4SMpK

TIA.

*EDIT**

It seemed to worked when i changed the script to:

foreach ($file in get-childitem -Recurse *.cga,*.cgf,*.skin,*.chr) {.\cgf-converter.exe $file -objectdir "C:\Users\********\Pictures\mwo_temporary_backup\Objects\mechs"}

I had to remove the extra set of brackets around get-childitem and file type and add the '.\' before the cgf-converter.exe
However i first have to run the script without the '.\' where it fails and then suggests adding the '.\' wherein it works afterwards. Weird.

Edited by mad kat, 25 May 2018 - 04:03 AM.

[Heffay]

The .\ tells it to look for cgf-converter.exe in the current directory. If you have it in the path, then you don't need that.

If you don't want to put it in the path, you can replace the .\ with the full path. For example, if you have it in d:\scripts, you can use "d:\scripts\cgf-converter.exe", which will tell it where to find the program.

Hope this helps!