custom armor

[amycus]

Hi, I recently downloaded the toolset and have since then tried to create the warden's armor from the sacred ashes trailer.

So far I have the helmet mesh ready (I will try to do some better textures later, still learning :wallbash: ).

 

Update: Almost done with mesh, only the scalemail and the gloves left before starting.

http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x367/amycus_89/plate-2.jpg?t=1301181027

 

Unfortunately I have now started to have some questions that I havn't been able to find an answer to:

I think I have managed to find answers to all my questions but one, and that was the first question: I want the player's head to be visible beneath the helmet, not just the generic deafult one that I have currently imported. So how do I do that?

FACEPALM - havn't tested it yet, but I realized that I could just use a head imported from the "executioner" helmet or similar. Havn't tested it yet, but assume that should be enough.

Edited April 11, 2011 by amycus

[amycus]

http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x367/amycus_89/wardensburden.png?t=1302559173

ok, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong now. The whole mesh is textured, and I have divided the gloves, boots, cuirass and helmet to separate save files.

When I start with the helmet, I begin by importing another one from the vanilla game (in this case hm_hlh_e01a_0). I get the skelleton, the mesh, and a whole bunch of green boxes that I suppose are the collissions. I mark the vanilla mesh, copy the "skin" and "edit normals" modifiers, and paste them on my custom mesh.

 

However, when I press export (I use eshme's tools) I just get a runtime error after it is 90 % complete.

 

Did I do anything wrong in the process, or what?

 

Great, this is the third time I've made an ass out of myself. Turned out the reason for the error was because I had moved the folder that the exporter was trying to put the files in long ago. I'm officially an idiot :blink:

 

Not completely sure if I really get how the GOB things worked, so if anyone can explain that a bit closer that would be great. For the moment it seems like I got the helmet exported successfully at least. Will continue on the project tomorrow, it's getting pretty late over here

Edited April 12, 2011 by amycus

[amycus]

Ok, I will risk to anger the moderators by posting agin on my own thread, but now I seriosly have a problem that I can't seem to solve. I Have managed to export the helmet to the toolset and put it in the game - problem is, the helmet is hoovering in the air, and the eyeballs are floating around when running. I have searched the forums and found a person who once had the exact problem I had, but there it turned out to be because the skin modifier was missing. I have already checked that twice. I imported a samilar vanilla helmet and copy pasted its skin modifier to mine,

 

This is my process:

1) Open the scene with my custom helmet. Only modifier present at this time is unwrap uwv.

2) import a vanilla helmet, complete with collissions, skelletons and everything.

3) select the vanilla helmet, select the skind and edit normals modifiers, right click and select "cut". Delete the vanilla mesh.

4) Select my custom mesh and paste in the two modifiers.

5) Select and cut all modifiers so I can select the mesh itself and tick the boxes about shadowing, and then pasting them all back.

6) export them with eshme's tools.

 

Any suggesstions of what I should do? :/

 

EDIT: I tried to see if it would work if I just imported an unedited vanilla helm, and then exported it again immediately without changing anything. Even then that helmet met exactly the same problem. Thought I should add that piece of information...

 

2nd EDIT: I thought I should add the file with the helmet as it is right before I try to export it: http://www.mediafire.com/?0imd3vaohgk1o9x (.max file) .

I have also uploaded the exported files (+textures and .GDA) here: http://www.mediafire.com/?oo9q2xf4crtjx1c

Would appreciate if anyone could take a look at it so I can at least figure out the problem. Still havn't had any success myself so far, but at the moment I suspect that the bone weight just won't get exported when I do it.

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/imageshare/images/804796-1302700779.jpg

Edited April 13, 2011 by amycus

[amycus]

I'm sorry to say that I'm giving up. I still don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong. Still, I think it would be a little sad to just delete all my work, so I've decided to upload the files (scene is now .obj) in case anyone wishes to continue the work. And no, I don't care one bit about credits, you are free to edit them as you like, whether it is the textures or the mesh. UW mapping is obviously done, so all that is left should be to rig and export it to the toolset.

 

Mesh: http://www.mediafire.com/?n936darw12kp84b

Textures: http://www.mediafire.com/?rc1hs3k91uroipr

[rainshock]

I'm sorry to say that I'm giving up. I still don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong. Still, I think it would be a little sad to just delete all my work, so I've decided to upload the files (scene is now .obj) in case anyone wishes to continue the work. And no, I don't care one bit about credits, you are free to edit them as you like, whether it is the textures or the mesh. UW mapping is obviously done, so all that is left should be to rig and export it to the toolset.

 

Mesh: http://www.mediafire...n936darw12kp84b

Textures: http://www.mediafire...rc1hs3k91uroipr

 

Awww, Don't give up. If you want I could take a look at the files and see If I can help you out.

[amycus]

I'm sorry to say that I'm giving up. I still don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong. Still, I think it would be a little sad to just delete all my work, so I've decided to upload the files (scene is now .obj) in case anyone wishes to continue the work. And no, I don't care one bit about credits, you are free to edit them as you like, whether it is the textures or the mesh. UW mapping is obviously done, so all that is left should be to rig and export it to the toolset.

 

Mesh: http://www.mediafire...n936darw12kp84b

Textures: http://www.mediafire...rc1hs3k91uroipr

 

Awww, Don't give up. If you want I could take a look at the files and see If I can help you out.

 

I would be really grateful for that. Believe me, I really would like to get this working and then move on to other projects like stens trailer armor. The main thing that bother me is that I'm not completely sure if the error I get depends on me or some error in my installation somewhere. Can I just get one part working I should be able to get the rest (whether it be cuirass, helmet, boots or gloves) one way or another.

 

I will try and write the steps I would take from the files I have uploaded (maybe a bit too detailed, but whatever):

 

1) open up the mesh (warden.obj) and put on its textures with dragon age material (from eshme's tools)

2) Delete the part that you are currently not going to export (that is, if I'm doing the cuirass, I delete everything besides that and save as a new scene)

3) Use eshme's tools to import a corresponding, similar vanilla item (when I do the cuirass I import hm_arm_dwpa_0.mmh - doubt it means anything but I never bother importing its textures)

4) Use "smooth" modifier on the custom mesh, collapse the stack. Use "unwrap UVW"

5) Select vanilla mesh, cut its "skin" and "edit normals" modifiers. Delete the vanilla mesh.

6) select the custom mesh, and paste the 2 earlier modifiers. 3 active modifiers are now present ("unwrap uvw", "edit normals", and "skin").

7) Use "select and link" tool on the mesh and the "GOB" (found at the very center of the scene.)

8 ) Use "model manager" in eshme's tools. Find the name of my custom mesh, and edits its parameters to "mesh".

9) export it with eshme's tools, with the option of creating a .mao file too (world scale is set to x100).

10) locate the exported files, and then I continued from there with this walkthrough to get it in the game itself:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvJ8yhGborY&feature=related

 

 

And the result you could see above... If you can't find any error in the steps above, might I just ask you to do step 1 to ten with one part and then send me the files? That way I would at least be able to tell if the problem lies in the exporter itself. EDIT: I actually managed to conclude that there is SOMETHING weird that happens with the skin modifier when I export it. when I imported the same model I had exported before (now .mmh file) I noticed that the skin modifier was still there, but when I select, there are barely any vertices that are weightpainted (just one shoulder and the area around the throat, after looking through all the parts in the list). So if you are still interested in helping (and it isn't because I did something wong in the process above), it would be a big help if you could just import it, and then export it to create the mao, mmh, msh,met, and phy files. In that case I will make sure that all the parts have gone through part 1-9 now (with dds versions of the textures) and upload it here again. Should mean less hassle for you. The rest of the files and the toolset is something I should be able to handle myself.

 

UPDATE: Here are the files, as I prepare them before export (textures in .dds format, mesh had to be saved as a .max file to preserve the bones). Assuming that I didn't do anything wrong in my description (step 1-10), you should only need to load it, put on the textures and export it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?61lemt3rp2rocrh

 

Thanks once again for any help

Edited April 15, 2011 by amycus

[rainshock]

Got the cuirass working no problem. There's a few clipping spots on the model you might want to look at. If you could tell me how you want the files named I can finish the other armor parts and send them to you for editing.

[amycus]

Got the cuirass working no problem. There's a few clipping spots on the model you might want to look at. If you could tell me how you want the files named I can finish the other armor parts and send them to you for editing.

 

o_O By the maker, you actually got it working!! *sheds tears of joy*

THANK YOU RAINSHOCK! WHen I finally release a finished version of this armor I will make sure to give your name proper credit in the description. Shiny letters. With sparkels.

 

I do see the clipping issues though, so I will try and fix that. Is it too rude of me to ask for a week though? Don't want to bother you more than necessary, so you don't have to go through the same process more than necessarry. I promice that I will post an update either this weekend or the next.

 

As for the name on the armor, I wanted it to be "helmet of the wardens burden", "gloves of the wardens burden", etc (name shamelessly taken from Trauma3x's suggestion that I found while looking for reference pictures, http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/634204).

 

Edit: assuming you meant the file name used on the mmh, mao, etc files, then the same name as the .max scenes were named (cuirass was hm_arm_wb1a_0 for example)

 

No need to waste any more time on the armour at the moment though, since I plan to try and fix the clipping issue (looked on the armor in max and noticed the weird... movements when making the skelleton walk). Hopefully I won't need to take advantage of your kindness after this armor. Now when I am 100% certain that the problem lies in the exporter, I will try to reinstall dragon age, the toolset, and max after this project is finished (something I wouldn't want to do voluntarily otherwise... especially the toolset that always manages to be a nightmare... already reinstalled that one 2 times just this month)

 

EDIT: Oh right... KUDOS TO YOU!!

Edited April 15, 2011 by amycus

[rainshock]

It was no problem at all :) And I've gotten really fast at the whole model adjustment/import/export thing. And thanks for the kudos.

[amycus]

Alright! Thanks once again then :happy:

I think I have managed to fix the weight paint now (the boots also needed to be fixed apparently), it looks fine at least when I import a running and falling animation:

http://www.mediafire.com/?adwg978fozbq63z

 

Havn't changed the textures, but included them again so you can find everything at one place.

 

I'm off to make some icons now for the armor :biggrin: (I know how to implemet that myself later at least :sweat: )

 

EDIT: I just started max again when esheme's tools suddenly acted as if I had just reinstalled it (even though I hadn't, this time at least), and I thought that it woulodn't hurt to try the export, even though I wasn't expecting anything... but what do you know, NOW the weight paint was the same as before when I imported the same model as soon as I had exported it. The weight paint SHOULD then still be on my new mmh file, so I will try adding it all to the game again. Might take some time to test it though, so I thought I would just ask you to wait doing anything until I have checked it out (so that you don't have to do the work unneccesarily again...). Will update again soon with news

 

False alarm, same problem as always... should have known it was too good to be true... :wallbash:

Edited April 18, 2011 by amycus