Mesh Replacement - [v 0.01 available, October 12th]

[Vraven]

UPDATE: Uploading an alpha release! Mesh only, unwrapped to fit the old textures. Going to be moving for the next week, so I figured I'd toss up a working mesh for people to check out if they feel like seeing something different. Face sliders do absolutely nothing at the moment, but hair, beards and helmets are essentially compatible, with negligible floating.

Download Mesh Replacement v 0.01

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OLD POST:
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Hey folks,

It's been my intention for a long while, mostly since the switch to photo textures in Native, to create alternative models + textures for character heads, bodies and possibly armours (as what's the point in reworking the body if it's just going to be covered by the same, dated content as before). This project is in no way meant to be a 'better' graphics pack, since honestly, the base graphics aren't bad. They have a unique style and charm, in my opinion. So, here I am attempting to create alternatives.

Created this head the past couple days, landing in its current state at 1010 tris - the default head mesh is one quad shy of 900 triangles, so the performance hit shouldn't be too drastic. I am somewhat of a bastard when it comes to polycounts, so I'll probably lower it further, still.

Other WIP shots for the curious: B, A

Any crits are totally welcome; been looking at it too long tonight, so fresh eyes will probably notice more than I am right now. Once the mesh seems good, I'll unwrap it and put together a first texture or something. If anyone actually knows how to get the morph sliders working for a custom mesh ingame, please help; I know I saw it done with the orc heads in TLD, but I'm not even sure what M&B uses for this, so any knowledge on the subject is very appreciated.

The goal is for there still to be plenty of variety, but also have the random heads retain some amount of realistic proportion... a balancing act, to be sure. Any opinions on what the sliders to be able to adjust are also welcome, in the meantime.

 

[cool_guy]

that looks pretty good - i've been annoyed at native's head when i tried to play with a bald character the very first time i played M&B - it didnt have enough tris and was all jagged

piece of criticism - the eyes are too small. not narrow, but actually proportionally off a bit, i would make them bigger and space them out.


you'd need to make new helmets for sure, because a lot of the headwear from native will now clip with this new model. but this is an interesting project and i'll follow its progression

 

[KON_Air]

Morph sliders simply animate a vertex animation step by step. Check the Brf, you will notice the face mesh is a vertex animated one. Say, frame 1 is the default mesh, and frame 2 is the nose width at maximum, frame 3 moves the height around... etc. etc...

 

[Vraven]

Morph sliders simply animate a vertex animation step by step. Check the Brf, you will notice the face mesh is a vertex animated one. Say, frame 1 is the default mesh, and frame 2 is the nose width at maximum, frame 3 moves the height around... etc. etc...

Oooh. I see. I suspected this but still hadn't opened up the file in an application that does animation - will have to do that. Thanks, seems easier than I thought, what a relief.

cool_guy, thanks man, I tweaked the eyes and they look a lot better now; the head is close to the old head so helmets might work at least somewhat until I replace them, but yeah I guess I'll definitely be making new hair too (something I wanted to do anyway).

 

[Scion]

great initiative, looking forward to this one 

Would be nice if you can uv-unwrap to the current face textures.

 

[cool_guy]

Morph sliders simply animate a vertex animation step by step. Check the Brf, you will notice the face mesh is a vertex animated one. Say, frame 1 is the default mesh, and frame 2 is the nose width at maximum, frame 3 moves the height around... etc. etc...

Oooh. I see. I suspected this but still hadn't opened up the file in an application that does animation - will have to do that. Thanks, seems easier than I thought, what a relief.

cool_guy, thanks man, I tweaked the eyes and they look a lot better now; the head is close to the old head so helmets might work at least somewhat until I replace them, but yeah I guess I'll definitely be making new hair too (something I wanted to do anyway).

mind posting a quick screenie?
that also solves your "randomized face" problem, if you set all the frame 2's to something less extreme than the original mesh

 

[Kievan Mereel]

You can also change the face constraints in module_skins.py.  I'm doing this for the Native American race in Liberty or Death.

 

[bravesirknight]

Cool idea! It would be nice if there was even another one with higher poly possible for people with great computers. (Not me, but might as well aim for the future while being compatible with the past)

 

[Vraven]

Scion, thanks, I know that would be best because it would make it compatible with all the skins people have already made, but part of my main thing in creating a new model was to have a new UV layout too, for easier hand-texturing... I'll see about making a template so that people can try to port their skins over if they want, with a bit of editing.

Kievan, nice, saves me from having to dig through them for it... won't have access to that until the module SDK is released for 1.003, though, if I'm not mistaken?

cool_guy, here's a screen of where it's at right now, not sure what else I really want to change, other than studying some other artists' work and redoing the ear to be more shapely and efficient, as well as possibly creating an inside to the mouth... not too many polygons, but like, just so that there's some teeth in there... final stage of tweaking and revision.

bravesirknight, I agree! It's entirely possible to have higher-res models for powerful computers... would make the vertex lighting look a lot smoother, that's for sure.

 

[cool_guy]

i still think the eyes are a bit too small,
however don't go on this by my opinion alone, what does everyone else think?

 

[Vraven]

Bonus, mesh works in game: lolol

Here are some guys I found on the internet, their eyes look pretty small, will probably do some tweaks to the profile still to be more like the punching dude:

 

[Mr_Men]

Awesome work. That's it really.

 

[dablade]

Looking good, keep it up!

 

[holydave]

Well, they look a lot better than the native 'Operation Flashpoint' style weird heads at any rate.

 

[master of the templars]

I love the look of these new heads, i will certainly download then when finished.

 

[Muglos]

LOL operation flashpoint. So many memories......
That game kicks major ass.

I can't wait for Flashpoint 2 to come out.

 

[Talak]

Looks good, looks european.
If you're keeping the smaller eyes, I'd make the brow a little heavier, but that's just me.
Good work, looking forward to seeing it implemented.

 

[HokieBT]

Here's a tutorial for making new races with own face morphs and all.
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,15707.0.html

 

[Vraven]

Thanks guys, and thanks for the tutorial link... don't have 3dsMax, but I'm getting an md3 plugin for Blender and checking out gmax. Rob made be post this progress shot (even shook his fist at me), so here you go; the model is more or less nearing its final state, and it's a few less polys than the default mesh—a whopping 26 tris—so that's cool.

If you were only able to render 100 of the default heads before, you'll get 103 of these! Unwrapping is up next.

 

[kaink]

Looks nice, at first glance I thought the cheek bones stuck out too much, but looking at the ingame screenshot, (besides the blob of color :p ) it looks quite good.
Also..the eyes look fine to me *shrug*, usually when making a face in M&B I make the eye lids closer together and slant them, then lower and tilt the brow to look something like...  ...without the smile, red eyes, and horns 
Good luck with your project