Hi,
I want to create an animated model with this export script for Blender: http://www.katsbits.com/tools/#md5
Where do I place the models (in what entity)? What files are needed and how do I create the clipping? Anyone any experience on that or ideas?
Thanks,
Paz
I can so help you out with that.
You should reply with what type of object you’re trying to create, by the way, if you need further help. That could be important.
Before you start, you should probably find notepad++ because it’s super awesome for editing stuff in ETQW, since they’re mostly text files. You can have multiple tabs, split views, and extra instances, in case you want to open all the scripts or defs in ETQW, and use ctrl+f to search through every last one. Really nice.
Okay, so you don’t place the models in an entity, really. Here’s how you set them up:
Set up a folder directory in your mod’s “models” folder, and place your md5meshes and md5anims inside.
Create a .def text file for whatever type of asset you’re creating. Open the .def files for whatever object is most similar to what you’re creating, which are all located in the SDK 1.5/base/def folder. For example, you would open the goliath.def file if you were attempting to create your own walker.
Ignore the export lines that are commented out with /*'s, */'s, and //'s. Below that, you’ll see how to set up your md5mesh and md5anim files, and even add sounds to the appropriate points within the animations.
If you’re going to create a vehicle, you probably need parts to come off of it when damaged. If you want to do this, you are going to have to edit the name of your parts within your md5mesh file. The “name” field comes just before the “shader” parameter, which also needs to be filled out to give the model an appropriate texture.
If you need collision for a vehicle or projectile, you need to set that up in your <modname>/vehicles/<vehiclename>.vscript with vehicle parts or cm_ (collisionmesh) models.
***IF YOU’RE CREATING A COLLISION MESH make sure that no two faces are concave, THAT IS BENDING INWARDS. This includes quads that are being triangulized during export. Make sure that the faces are all FLAT, so that if you were to triangulate using either ctrl+t(triangulization) or ctrl+shift+t(reverse triangulization) the triangles would still be co-planer, meaning they face the exact same direction. Or else ETQW won’t load your collision mesh and you will be pissed. Also make sure that your mesh is unwrapped, or you will be given a UV coordinate error. If your mesh isn’t supported the engine will not load it with the reloadModels command, but will instead load the old version.
Also. If you ever get this issue: Meshes, parts, or vertex points within your model shrink or become giant:
Make sure that you’ve cleaned all of your vertex groups, and don’t have vertex points that are bound to vertex groups that no longer exist within your blend file. This will ruin the appearance of your animated mesh. use r_showtris to figure out which vertex points are having issues in game, then use the “Transform Properties” or N in edit mode to figure out which non existent vertex group that vert is bound to.
There’s a mesh script called Clean Meshes that’ll take care of some of that for you.
If you reply to me, you probably should PM me, or else I might forget. We should keep the discussion here for more people that need help, also. Blender is really nice for doing quick things for ETQW. I’ve made a ton of animated and textured things with it, even a bunch of stuff for the characters, so other people should look into it, too.
Scheisse, I should release my IK rig. It’s nifty.
Excellent. Thanks a lot for this post. This is what I more or less expected: you basically create a new entity if you want animation in a model.
What I want tp create is a jump-pad that get’s dropped for the Strogg via scripting.
Similar to this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leXWLr8xMAs&feature=related but for Strogg. Maybe a animation a bit like this (part where it lands supported by the rockets): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaPt6Y9nZVA
You need to pull everything from the supply crate script that is relevant to what you need and work that into your script code, IE, the function that figures out the world position of the smoke canister, then calls down the crate, or the portion that stops it from killing people once it’s not moving.
You can probably use whatever script information gets information for the binocular’s distance readout for your pad. You would have to have it point at the direction the pad is flying into, then call an animation from the .def(what you call the entity) file when the pad is within that distance.
I thought of the jump pad of something more similar to the mining laser that gets dropped once a stage is completed in the map (constructing it would be interesting too).
Have a look into the energy cell, shield generator and mining laser drop entities.
Chris, you never got back to me about the Strogg thing.
I can do it RIGHT NOW. I have access to all the ETQW files, the QW files, and a bigass way too expensive Intuous 4.
Problem is I need to make sure you want me to do it, as I’m texturing other things right now.
Blender is really nice for doing quick things for ETQW. I’ve made a ton of animated and textured things with it, even a bunch of stuff for the characters, so other people should look into it, too.If you reply to me, you probably should PM me, or else I might forget. We should keep the discussion here for more people that need help, also.