[Outdated] BRF Edit --out-of-date, see OpenBRF-- (last version 12/5/2008)
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jik
Knight
ok, it's not a new bra, but it could put your eye out...
Just a quick addition of spikes to the black armor. The only flaw I saw was a messed up normal on the inside of the left elbow. I could fix this, but I wanted to post some tips since I learned a few things in the process (ok, they're not ground breaking, but may ease some tension when trying to do this stuff for the first time)
A few things to note when doing this stuff. (I'm using MAX, so MS is probably different)
1. It's best to start with one of the ingame meshes if you've never rigged bones before. The reason being is you can save the envelope info (in the Advanced Parameters section of the SKIN modifier) of the mesh, collaspse the stack, add some junk, then add back the skin modifier, load the envelope info, then adjust the vertices that you just added.
2. It's important to know which bones rotate in what ways (examine the shoulders) if you wish to create your own mesh from the gound up.
3. when finished select just the mesh object, then go to File>Export Selected.... Export it as an SMD. For the export options choose REFERNCE (the second choice).
4. Use BRFedit to load a BRF and then import it in. If you've exported it right the Skeletal check box should be checked on it's own. (If not you may not have exported it properly). You can rename it at this point if you like.
5. I didn't mess with the rest of the BRFedit stuff (sorry Thor, but I know that the BRFview works in this area, so I switched over), so I called up the BRFview, set the name and material. BAM!
Thanks for the ability to make some major model changes. Now to try some fance stuff!
Just a quick addition of spikes to the black armor. The only flaw I saw was a messed up normal on the inside of the left elbow. I could fix this, but I wanted to post some tips since I learned a few things in the process (ok, they're not ground breaking, but may ease some tension when trying to do this stuff for the first time)
A few things to note when doing this stuff. (I'm using MAX, so MS is probably different)
1. It's best to start with one of the ingame meshes if you've never rigged bones before. The reason being is you can save the envelope info (in the Advanced Parameters section of the SKIN modifier) of the mesh, collaspse the stack, add some junk, then add back the skin modifier, load the envelope info, then adjust the vertices that you just added.
2. It's important to know which bones rotate in what ways (examine the shoulders) if you wish to create your own mesh from the gound up.
3. when finished select just the mesh object, then go to File>Export Selected.... Export it as an SMD. For the export options choose REFERNCE (the second choice).
4. Use BRFedit to load a BRF and then import it in. If you've exported it right the Skeletal check box should be checked on it's own. (If not you may not have exported it properly). You can rename it at this point if you like.
5. I didn't mess with the rest of the BRFedit stuff (sorry Thor, but I know that the BRFview works in this area, so I switched over), so I called up the BRFview, set the name and material. BAM!
Thanks for the ability to make some major model changes. Now to try some fance stuff!
Thorgrim
Knight at Arms
Glad you got it working jik, and thanks for the tutorial, I'll add some of those details to the front post some time.
re. 5: Is the issue that the material combo box doesn't show all the materials? For now you just have to type the material name in, but ill add the list of materials available to the combo box some time... and ill make sure it can show mod specific materials too.
re. 5: Is the issue that the material combo box doesn't show all the materials? For now you just have to type the material name in, but ill add the list of materials available to the combo box some time... and ill make sure it can show mod specific materials too.
jik
Knight
Actually, I was so exited it imported I jumped to the BRFview to see how it looked. I noticed that you 10x scale it, and in the BRFview, I couldn't tell if it was scaled back, so right after that I jammed it into the game to see if it works. I'm trying to put together a quick dragon mount. It may look funny, but I'm testing a few things that I'll need to have work for other mods...
Thorgrim
Knight at Arms
jik: Cool, looking forward to seeing it.
The reason I scale up by 10x when exporting (and then down by 10x when importing) is that the SMD importer I use always sets bones to 1 unit in width, so the skeleton just looks a lot better at its default scale this way in max... If you can think of a better work around let me know
I thought of adding a checkbox to scale, or not to scale, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
The reason I scale up by 10x when exporting (and then down by 10x when importing) is that the SMD importer I use always sets bones to 1 unit in width, so the skeleton just looks a lot better at its default scale this way in max... If you can think of a better work around let me know
I thought of adding a checkbox to scale, or not to scale, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
Does this mean we can "point" your editor to different textures.txt and materials.txt files - other than the ones in the main M&B commonres folder now? (IIRC Lurb's would only use textures/materials that were listed in those main files - which led to some file manipulations being required in order to attach new textures to new objects)Thorgrim said:
If so, that would be very nice...
DE
jik
Knight
Thorgrim said:jik: Cool, looking forward to seeing it.
The reason I scale up by 10x when exporting (and then down by 10x when importing) is that the SMD importer I use always sets bones to 1 unit in width, so the skeleton just looks a lot better at its default scale this way in max... If you can think of a better work around let me know
I thought of adding a checkbox to scale, or not to scale, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
No, I'd prefer it be scaled by your tool. When working in max, I sometime run into a bit of trouble (I'm used to it now after all the weapons I've done) when playing with vertices, welding, and some other stuff. I just didn't know if it rescaled it properly.
If this will take over for the BRFview, then modelers need to be aware of it. I'd say leave it alone, or as you say have a check box that's defaulted to YES, SCALE 10x.
jik
Knight
A couple more quick pics. Made a 2 legged dragon (ok, it was quick and I didn't want to waste time trying to make the front legs work... nor did I have time to apply the texture I made... I just wanted to see it run) to see how much I could possibly vary things.
Unfortunately it kind of hops along when runing...
Unfortunately it kind of hops along when runing...
Crazed Rabbit
Squire
So, we have to import the mesh into the editor as an SMD, then? Anyone know how to export SMDs from gmax, or otherwise get the gmax file into an acceptable format for importation? I've already DLed one script for exporting by Chris Cookson that doesn't work.
Thanks a lot.
Crazed Rabbit
Thanks a lot.
Crazed Rabbit
jik
Knight
guspav said:
ya, I noticed that too. Probably gotta go back and check all the normals. The face is probably there, just upsidedown-insideout-whatchamacallit.
EDIT: my mistake. I just imported the leather jerkin and a face is actually missing. Thor, I'm not sure if it's your BRFedit or the SMD importer. I'm going to have to say it's the BRFedit though, since the dragon I made seemed fine...
Thorgrim
Knight at Arms
Deus Ex: Right, the idea is basically to have a setting that specifies the current mod that the BRF is for, it will then read the module_info.txt, and find the materials etc specifically for your mod.
guspav and jik: Thanks for pointing this out, I had noticed this when testing and forgot to fix it!
I'll try fix it today
jik: With a bit more work on the textures that dragon mount will be great
Crazed Rabbit: Chris Cookson's script should work... if your sure it doesnt, keep searching, there is definitely SMD plugins that work with gmax that are out there. If you do find one that works, please let me know, and I can put it on the list of resources on the front page.
EDIT: just uploaded a tiny update to fixes the missing face problem, and now also supports shaders.
guspav and jik: Thanks for pointing this out, I had noticed this when testing and forgot to fix it!
I'll try fix it today
jik: With a bit more work on the textures that dragon mount will be great
Crazed Rabbit: Chris Cookson's script should work... if your sure it doesnt, keep searching, there is definitely SMD plugins that work with gmax that are out there. If you do find one that works, please let me know, and I can put it on the list of resources on the front page.
EDIT: just uploaded a tiny update to fixes the missing face problem, and now also supports shaders.
cotdamn
Recruit
so how would you do the dragon like jik did? i'm working on a speeder in milkshake, but i don't understand what you assign to joints (e.g. legs) that you don't plan on seeing once you import it into the game?
do you just assign it to the nearest vertice anyway, even if its far away?
do you just assign it to the nearest vertice anyway, even if its far away?
jik
Knight
cotdamn said:
Actually that's one of the things I was testing. For the speeder, just link all the vertices to object 0. Since there are no moving parts. Well actually, you might have to link it to 1, for when the horse/speeder rears up.
Thor, I have textured it, but I didn't want to go through the hassle of adding the texture properly at first. I may also go back and give it some front legs. Unfortunately, the legs are too far back to make a 2 legged walker. There are some things to try out...
Thorgrim
Knight at Arms
The way things work in M&B is like this:
Animated meshes require 2 resources: the mesh, and the skeleton. The skeleton contains all the animation data on how bones are positioned and rotated, and the mesh simply stores how each vertex is bound to the skeleton.
Currently only the mesh is imported from the SMD. The only reason the skeleton is exported is as a reference for binding your mesh to. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it is bound... it will just move whatever vertices are bound to whatever bone. Note that all vertices must be bound to some bone, and they dont need to attach them to the closest one, it is perfectly possible to attach arms to leg bones, and legs to arm bones. Doing this would create strange results, but it only effects the movements of these vertices from the original location, it will not mean the arms are moved to the legs and legs to arms. So as jik has shown it is perfectly possible to bind any shaped mesh to any skeleton, it will just be hard to get it animating right.
Hope that sort of answers what you wanted to know Janus
Animated meshes require 2 resources: the mesh, and the skeleton. The skeleton contains all the animation data on how bones are positioned and rotated, and the mesh simply stores how each vertex is bound to the skeleton.
Currently only the mesh is imported from the SMD. The only reason the skeleton is exported is as a reference for binding your mesh to. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it is bound... it will just move whatever vertices are bound to whatever bone. Note that all vertices must be bound to some bone, and they dont need to attach them to the closest one, it is perfectly possible to attach arms to leg bones, and legs to arm bones. Doing this would create strange results, but it only effects the movements of these vertices from the original location, it will not mean the arms are moved to the legs and legs to arms. So as jik has shown it is perfectly possible to bind any shaped mesh to any skeleton, it will just be hard to get it animating right.
Hope that sort of answers what you wanted to know Janus
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