Trying to Understand the Modelling Process

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poo

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Hello.I am a complete novice to modelling.I have read some tutorials from the forums.I think I have a general Idea of how to model.

-Make Item in Blender/Wings 3D
-UV map the object (break it into a few pieces kinda like a blueprint)
-Texture those blueprint pieces by adding colour to them save as dds file
-bumpmap? normal? specular?
-take the obj mesh put it into openbrf import dds texture and material?
-convert into brf and put in resource folder
-put textures and dds into texture folder
-add the item in module system aswell as put the load texture in module.ini

But what is a Rigged item? How do I rig a item( Body Armour) I think its scaling a object to fit the warband skeleton.
What is a material? Is a material just the texture? It has shader diffuse A diffuse B bump and specular.Is it just the texture with those different options?


I plan on taking some opensource free to use models from the internet and implementing them.Some of them can be pre rigged?Anyway,lets say I use Blender.I download a model of a man.What I download is the obj file and mtl file (apparently this is to apply the colours to the model) aswell as the textures (in this case its in the form of 2 jpegs).So since I dont have to model anything I want to make the process easier.I convert the 2 jpegs(textures) into DDS with an online tool.Is there a way to UV MAP my model with the mtl file?Its not that I am too lazy to do it myself I just want to know my options as my understanding of the modelling process is not entirely clear.
 
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Hey poo, it's good to see that you're still around trying to learn!
I'm not a great artist, and so would recommend you defer to literally anyone else, but I can guide you into learning the process and getting it working

-Make Item in Blender/Wings 3D
-UV map the object (break it into a few pieces kinda like a blueprint)
-Texture those blueprint pieces by adding colour to them save as dds file
-bumpmap? normal? specular?
-take the obj mesh put it into openbrf import dds texture and material?
-convert into brf and put in resource folder
-put textures and dds into texture folder
-add the item in module system aswell as put the load texture in module.ini

So you're not too far off here, I'm going to rephrase and expand a few things...
Before using any 3D software, you need to understand what's required. The best way to do that is to explore the assets already in the game to see the models, materials and textures. These are all referenced in brf files. To access them you need to download OpenBRF: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index...in-info-latest-ver-0-0-82e-19-jun-2016.72279/
Read through OpenBRF's features and guidance notes to point you in the right preliminary direction. Once you understand materials and rigging, then think about 3D modelling software and texturing.
 
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Hey poo, it's good to see that you're still around trying to learn!
I'm not a great artist, and so would recommend you defer to literally anyone else, but I can guide you into learning the process and getting it working

-Make Item in Blender/Wings 3D
-UV map the object (break it into a few pieces kinda like a blueprint)
-Texture those blueprint pieces by adding colour to them save as dds file
-bumpmap? normal? specular?
-take the obj mesh put it into openbrf import dds texture and material?
-convert into brf and put in resource folder
-put textures and dds into texture folder
-add the item in module system aswell as put the load texture in module.ini

So you're not too far off here, I'm going to rephrase and expand a few things to make it a little more thorough.

  1. Make the mesh.
  2. UV map the mesh, this is essentially taking a 3d model and turning it into a 2d plane. Think of skinning an animal for a rug, you cut the skin along certain seams in order to allow it to lay flat. Ideally these seams are located in areas that aren't too visible or do not have rich detail.
    1. Export UV map as an image, and the mesh as a .obj file. We do not need to export the .mtl as our engine doesn't use it.
  3. Edit the image of the UV map to make the diffuse texture (What the model should look like in the light), and then export as a .dds
    1. Unlike modern engines which use an Albedo as their bases, you'll need to add basic shadow details to this as it is what the model is meant to look like under normal Diffuse lighting conditions. Hence the name
  4. These are different texture maps the engine reads in shader.
    1. Specular tells the shader how shiny this part of the model is. This basically be added to the color of the diffuse map when the light is reflecting off the model and into the camera.
    2. Normal/Bump maps are maps that tell the shader how to displace the surface of a mesh to get more details without extra expensive geometry.
  5. Place the textures into the mod's /Textures/ folder.
  6. Import the mesh and any textures into a .brf file with OpenBrf, make sure this .brf file is inside the /Resources/ folder of your mod. If this is a new .brf we can save it to that location later.
    1. Create a new material in OpenBrf, the shader is dependent on the maps you'll have, so make sure to do your research, but choose a relevent shader, and name the imported textures (without the .dds reference) in their appropriate fields.
    2. Apply that material to the model.
  7. Add the appropriate load_mod_resource = BRFNAME reference to the module.ini, no need to add the texture. Also make sure the line scan_module_textures = is equal to 1, not 0.

But what is a Rigged item? How do I rig a item( Body Armour) I think its scaling a object to fit the warband skeleton.

An item that needs to be rigged, i.e. armor, uses a skeleton to tell the engine how to deform the mesh. OpenBRF has a powerful copy rigging option that I recommend using. You can also export the skeleton from OpenBRF, import it into a modelling software that supports rigging meshes (Basically anything that isn't Wings3D) and rig it yourself, that will give you the best results.

You can play animations on the rigged meshes in OpenBRF to check for any rigging errors such as clipping or warped geometry.

What is a material? Is a material just the texture? It has shader diffuse A diffuse B bump and specular.Is it just the texture with those different options?

Materials are basically a register of the appropriate shader, maps, and flags to apply to a mesh in game.

  • Shader: What shading model to apply to the mesh. Reference here to better understand what to use.
  • DiffuseA: The colors to apply to the mesh under normal diffuse lighting conditions
  • DiffuseB: Used only in very specific shaders. You can safely ignore this unless you are doing facegen
  • Bump: Used by shaders to visually displace details on the mesh to save geometry.
  • Specular: Used by shaders to determine the level of reflection the mesh has. White being 100% reflective, black being completely matte. All Native shaders only use a black to white scale with no specular color.
Some of them can be pre rigged?

Unless the model was made for the M&B engine, the skeleton will not apply to the one we use. You'll need to rerig the mesh.

What I download is the obj file and mtl file (apparently this is to apply the colours to the model) aswell as the textures (in this case its in the form of 2 jpegs).

An .mtl file is essentially the Material register but specifically for a .obj file as the .obj cannot store this information on its own. We don't use these at all. You can get rid of this.

Is there a way to UV MAP my model with the mtl file?
If the model already has textures, then it's UV mapped. The UV map basically is an unwrapped version of your model to make it 2d so you can apply the 2d image to it.



This is pretty long winded and maybe not the best written, but it might be helpful. If anyone wants to join in and further add information on top of this, I encourage you!
 
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To add to that, Make as much use of OpenBRF's features as you like, because it's a very good tool and will cut out a lot of the annoying stuff like rigging by allowing you to copy the rigging (fairly accurately) from one model to another, even if the models are nothing alike. I made hundreds of models in warband and never had to do manual rigging even once.

Also bear in mind that some programmes generate normalmaps that are different to others and store different data in different channels. Usually the problem is that the green channel is flipped. This is more just an annoyance, and it will make the lighting look sort of "off", but you can easily fix it by using something like the levels function in photoshop to invert the green channel.
 
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I have created a monster...


Edit: I made this by copying the rigging from an armour to it.Before this I used autorotate scale to scale down my model.But if i tick on hitboxes the hitbox skeleton doesnt fit to the model
 
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Make sure to find a rigged model that closely matches the target. So, this one has full limbs, make sure the model you're copying from does too.

Also, IIRC, hitboxes are stored in the skeleton and do not change on a model by model basis.
 
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Make sure to find a rigged model that closely matches the target. So, this one has full limbs, make sure the model you're copying from does too.

Also, IIRC, hitboxes are stored in the skeleton and do not change on a model by model basis.

My problem is that for the copy rigging to work right in open brf like you said it needs to closely match the target. Mine is like this. https://gyazo.com/92fee17fee5085e78ad63203623f0deb

His arms are to the side and legs too wide.I need to make him do the T pose to match what its like in Openbrf.Currently im trying to figure out how to do this in blender because I am so asscheeks at blender xd.
 
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