Player Model/Animation Question

(CovertOpz) #1

Hi, im Covert of the EastFront Dev team, and im a modeler/animator and i was wondering if there was a way to make it where instead of reading the mdx and mdm player models and animations, maybe some how, there is a way for it to read md3 animations and player models,
i wonder this, because it would be nice for us to have better death animations, or even a ‘ragdoll’ effect when dead, kind of like Red Orchestra, and we are wanting to include stuff like bayonets, but there is no animation for that,

any ways it sounds possible to me, im just wondering if there is any way for it to read that, since the game reads the md3 animations and models, it should be able to read md3 for player models and animations,

please look into this, im positive that there is no known way, maybe the SD crew can help?.?

:stroggtapir:

(nUllSkillZ) #2

Might be in the game source code.
Not sure if it’s also engine related.

(CovertOpz) #3

i mean, it souds like it would work, i just need to have SD verrify that it is possible, i feel that the current 3rd person animations are outdated, and it wold be nice to have he ragdoll effect of red orchestra or the new brothers in arms game

sd help me!!

(carnage) #4

I suspect that model formats might be coded in the engine. However ET does support md3 format for some models so with some major alteration to the game code you could perhaps rip out all the displaying code for the current player models and re code the clinet game or whatever to display md3 models at the players location

for another idea a long time ago there was a bit of a hack program that could be used to get rtcw model formats to convert to the ET standards allowing rtcw models tobe used in ET. if you could make animations in rtcw foramts you might be able to convert them to ET formats this way

(Tyrlop) #5

i remember i got a mds working instead of mdm, but im not quite sure. the size was wrong i remember. best is to keep the mdm, and work on it, make us some programs that can open/edit them and export and import them, also mdx editing would be nice. Eastfront is looking for a sit animation, very high priority.

(ischbinz) #6

making a good animation is quite hard work - the orginal mdx file inclused 4887 frames - means you have to set all bones to the right position 53 (?) - i haven t done this before but you could try “lightray3d” for it, maybe you can make it
but i dunno if you can call them from the body.aninc file - maybe instead of another animation; but think the calling of the animations is hard coded - maybe the nq have a idea how to set a addtional animation :slight_smile:

for player models itself - the mdm - lightray support this too - but the don t work proper in et, because there are loosing part ingame if you go more than 1024 unita away from a model - because the model include no LOD/collapsemap… but i hope that my m8 can release a tool to fix this soon :slight_smile:

about md3 models - the problem with md3 models is that they have no bones stored - so for each frame you have a diffrent model - with moved parts - you can see the animations nice with the tool of C - and you can create your own animated md3 model with it :slight_smile:

about converting mds models to mdm - this can be done with ikonattos_conversion_tool
you can download it on wolfmap.de
but
1.the rtcw models are copyrighted…
2. the movements of the skin are not so nice as the mds models
3. the models are copyrighted - think animations too

but there are models with a sitting animation - but i don t know if you can convert it to mdx - because the mdm and mds models have diffrent tags. i tested once but didn t run, and had no interest to follow this path anymore, maybe you can get this running…

(CovertOpz) #7

hmm, the main reason for me wanting that conversion, was beause i wanted custom 3rd person animations, mainly death animations, because the et ones arent too realistic, im referingto the mg_death, where he stumbles

(Tyrlop) #8

there are alot of good death animations in the mdm, they are just not used. :wink: falckonet used them, one reason i loved their mod, we should also use them

(nUllSkillZ) #9

You could try to ask FalconET modders if they share their knowledge how to use them.

(AlphaRed12) #10

Covert, no need to worry about those. I have it all good. I found a free and legal copy of Lightray3D that is only the demo copy. It works great with the scripts and imports the players perfectly.