2255 replies to this topic

[Tekadept]

You can get a Perfect alignment of everything in under 10mins. the CDF is your friends, Below is an example for Blender, but you can take the co-ordinates and use in any program.

I will take the Trebuchet as an example. Amongst all the extracted files you have awesome.cdf.
If you look at this text file you have a heap of lines for each body part. like below.
<Attachment AName="tbt_centre_torso" Type="CA_BONE" Rotation="0.70710677,8.5797047e-010,-0.70710671,-8.7725088e-010" Position="-5.0041115e-007,9.7251394e-011,10.983341" BoneName="Bip01 Spine2" Binding="objects/mechs/trebuchet/body/tbt_centre_torso.cga" Flags="0" Material="objects/mechs/trebuchet/body/trebuchet_body"/>

The key parts are the Attachment name=XXX" this isthe object name, Rotation ="X,X,X,X" THis is the rotation of the part in quaternions, and Position = X,X,X,X is the positition. You can use find/replace or a regular expression to go through and strip out the useless guff. Now if you are a clever cookie using blender you can import into excel to give you a nice table and setup some forumula merging some blender python code. THis will net you the result of below.
Example I cam doing the centre torso which is
tbt_centre_torso" Rotation="0.70710677,8.5797047e-010,-0.70710671,-8.7725088e-010" Position="-5.0041115e-007,9.7251394e-011,10.983341"

I merge it together in excel with formula to get this net result
"bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath =""K:\\Mechs\\Blender Projects\\trebuchet\\Extracted\\OBJ Parts\\7K\\tbt_centre_torso.obj"")
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = bpy.data.objects[""tbt_centre_torso""]
bpy.context.active_object.rotation_mode = ""QUATERNION""
bpy.context.active_object.rotation_quaternion = [0.70710677,0.00000000085797047,-0.70710671,-0.00000000087725088]
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(-0.00000050041115,0.000000000097251394,10.983341))"

This can be copy and pasted into blenders python console. Now you wil encounter a few issues, a few of the mechs the CDF file might say "Centre torso" but the object file will be DRAGON_Centre_torso, so you just have to again in excel figure out what the prefix should be and just insert it. The 2nd problem with this script is it will fail on the few multi part objects, ie the cockpit, which when you import cockpit.obj will insert cockpit001 and cockpit002, the part that fails is the "objects.active" so what you do is find out which parts are skewy, parent 1 object to the other, then manualy select it and paste from rotation_mode line.

Hope that makes sense?? The key part is you can easily get the position and rotation and work from that into your workflow depending on your program of choice.

Edited by Tekadept, 27 May 2013 - 07:27 PM.

[Adridos]

......

I't funny, because I tried to more or less do the same manually (by copying the coordinates into it) in Blender and never got any results out of it.

[Dauphni]

Thank you, Tekadept! That was exactly what I was looking for!

I'm not really much of a programmer though, so getting those scripts generated automatically is a bit too complicated for now, but manually copy/pasting the relevant values is working quite well, if a bit tedious.

[Adridos]

Liquid Leopard, on 21 May 2013 - 08:39 PM, said:

Perhaps you could bestow upon us a new scale with the Blackjack added in.
Pretty please?

*Heavy's voice*

Wish granted!

[Nakamura Takeshi]

I wanted to submit this regarding PGI copyright info. It applies to youtube videos and making money but I thought it may apply partially for this thread in some form:

http://mwomercs.com/...e-monetization/

[Tekadept]

Nakamura Takeshi, on 01 June 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

I wanted to submit this regarding PGI copyright info. It applies to youtube videos and making money but I thought it may apply partially for this thread in some form:

http://mwomercs.com/...e-monetization/

I cleared it with PGI via email, so long as you dont claim pgi work as your own and dont monetize its all good.

[Koniving]

Has... anyone compiled the mechs and tossed them into some place to mass download 'em for some of us to try and animate? o.o;

[Magic Murder Bag]

this may seem off but bear with me:
i was wondering if anyone here would be kind enough to post detail shots of the Highlander, Stalker, Blackjack, Awesome and Jagermech (preferably in angled front and rear shots)?

I've been building Metal Gear Rex in maya for a long while now and have been using MW:O's mechs as inspiration amongst others, but the buld has now become a ridiculous grind and had lost touch with it (im stuck with the railgun for pete's sake). the requested images should help me out with the build...hopefully. dont know how to post pics here so i could show you guys my current progress, but i'll link my deviantart page instead( though its outdated as i built the Radome).

thanks

http://commanderalph...WIP-2-369754221 (note you have to zoom in to see it properly)

edit because I cannot spell for some reason...and can't grammar

Edited by Magic Murder Bag, 01 June 2013 - 05:40 PM.

[Tekadept]

Koniving, on 01 June 2013 - 05:23 PM, said:

Has... anyone compiled the mechs and tossed them into some place to mass download 'em for some of us to try and animate? o.o;

I have posted a couple if you check my previous posts.

[Koniving]

Tekadept, on 01 June 2013 - 06:56 PM, said:

I have posted a couple if you check my previous posts.

*Shuffles through 6 pages of memes...* Still lookin'. Don't suppose there'd be a shortcut handy?

[Skoaljaw]

Sweet! thanks for posting this!

[Durahl]

Took some time to look into the Model of the AS7 in terms of 3D Printing it and was quite surprised about the, in general, rather unsatisfying quality of the model.

There’s quite a bunch of geometry that is never visible during gameplay probably caused by lazy mirroring without proper cleanup afterwards where it would deem necessary ( to my standards )

On the other hand, there are rather large gaps in the model that actually explain how an Alphastrike in the back could also hurt all my front armor segments ( teammate standing perfectly behind me shot me at the beginning of a match ).

Currently evaluating if it wouldn’t actually be easier to just remodel the problematic parts as I have to hollow them out and articulate them anyway when preparing the model for a large and posable 3D Print.

[eraser]

Sentin2l373 has already cleaned up and fixed a bunch of them and has printed them up. If you have not seen his work I would recommend hunting the thread and picks down. His work with them is amazing. I know he is talking with the developers about his work and hopefully being able to share them with the community. So hopefully that does happen at some point if not the process of cleaning and fixing the models is a fairly daunting out for those of us without 3D modeling skills.

[Durahl]

Fairly daunting is kinda an understatement when considering the requirements of 3D Printing.
I've recently seen a thread somewhere around here in which they asked how to make these models and they even got some information of the process.

Reading the conversation it looked like someone was asking for how to stop the bleeding on a papercut, got the answer how to compress a severed leg when the actual process would have been how to stitch 2 body halves together ala Frankenstein.

When I started 3D Modelling like 15 years ago that stuff was pretty hard and we're just talking about modifying the primitives I added myself to the scene.
Understanding the work of someone else and successfully fixing the problems of an unsuitable mesh in terms of 3D Printing is something I do not quite see happening with these Models.

Unless you're a prodigy when it comes to 3D Modelling but I guess that's a different story then ツ

[Valcrow]

It's daunting for sure. And not totally consistent between models too... It's really a clash between two opposite 3D mentalities. On one hand, game models want to be lean on polygons, so all the interior pieces where you don't see in game have been deleted to save processing power in game. Also, things intersect so there are no holes when the parts animate.

These are exactly the two problems for print ready models. Which require your model to have no interpenetration of geometry. and no holes along with polygons that have no thickness or that exist on top of each other.

So basically all that effort that PGI has used to make your game run smoothly works against you in printing, and you must first reverse all of that work. Which is monotonous at best. And then we have the issue where the majority of the detail is created by the normal map which doesn't translate into geometry, which doesn't translate into the printer... So you'll have to model details in if you want it. And the last straw being that everything comes in as triangles instead of quads, which just makes your eyes twitch. Especially when you can see how it was originally quads at one point.

Sentinel's got the process down though. I think he's done almost all of them and even modeled in detail. Should check out his thread.. I think its 'sentinel's mech toys' or something similar.

The printing is the easy part... 90% of the work is in the 3D.

[Ghogiel]

Valcrow, on 03 June 2013 - 01:01 AM, said:

Which require your model to have no interpenetration of geometry.

That is not a problem these days. The other issue with open edges is for obvious reasons. Usually all it needs to do is pass an STL check.

[Sentinel373]

Valcrow, on 03 June 2013 - 01:01 AM, said:

It's daunting for sure. And not totally consistent between models too... It's really a clash between two opposite 3D mentalities. On one hand, game models want to be lean on polygons, so all the interior pieces where you don't see in game have been deleted to save processing power in game. Also, things intersect so there are no holes when the parts animate.

These are exactly the two problems for print ready models. Which require your model to have no interpenetration of geometry. and no holes along with polygons that have no thickness or that exist on top of each other.

So basically all that effort that PGI has used to make your game run smoothly works against you in printing, and you must first reverse all of that work. Which is monotonous at best. And then we have the issue where the majority of the detail is created by the normal map which doesn't translate into geometry, which doesn't translate into the printer... So you'll have to model details in if you want it. And the last straw being that everything comes in as triangles instead of quads, which just makes your eyes twitch. Especially when you can see how it was originally quads at one point.

Sentinel's got the process down though. I think he's done almost all of them and even modeled in detail. Should check out his thread.. I think its 'sentinel's mech toys' or something similar.

The printing is the easy part... 90% of the work is in the 3D.

thats funny because the printer i use actualy requires everything to be intersecting. i dont have to merge them all into a single mesh when printing. so that saves me alot of cleanup time. but hey different printers different rules.

[Heffay]

Sentinel373, on 03 June 2013 - 01:50 AM, said:

thats funny because the printer i use actualy requires everything to be intersecting. i dont have to merge them all into a single mesh when printing. so that saves me alot of cleanup time. but hey different printers different rules.

What printer are you using? I'm sure you posted it in the other thread, but I'm lazy and having a bad day at work. ;-)

[Valcrow]

Sentinel373, on 03 June 2013 - 01:50 AM, said:

thats funny because the printer i use actualy requires everything to be intersecting. i dont have to merge them all into a single mesh when printing. so that saves me alot of cleanup time. but hey different printers different rules.

That must be nice.. Anything intersecting makes my slicer think it's hollow between the intersection. Also using support material must save you a ton of time too.. I was really considering a duel extrusion printer so I can print the support in water soluble PLA or something... but alas, I only have 1 extruder.

[Tekadept]

I'm a bit time poor at the moment, but I did a bit more jigging with a few more details on the mechbay and added some basic lighting.
**EDIT** Posted wrong image..

Edited by Tekadept, 05 June 2013 - 04:56 AM.