R&D - Materials

[Drakous79]

I created a cube in Blender, exported it to *.fbx, which I imported to UDK along with diffuse texture. Next I created parent material with the same name and parameters as existing one. When the result loaded in XCOM, it had weird texture (due to bad UV map scaling set in material instance constant). No complaints in the log.

 

When I changed material's name, checkboard in the game and compile errors in the log:

Log: Material PROP_DifEms_Omg has outdated uniform expressions; regenerating.

An error, which stopped me 3 years ago.

 

Btw materials seen in cooked *.upk files are far away from their actual look in UDK material editor. There are node connections, altered by hidden parameters like multiply, lerp, mask aso.

Edited August 20, 2017 by Drakous79

[Drakous79]

Existing parent materials can be used without touching RefShaderCache, if they are properly reconstructed in UDK.

 

http://i.imgur.com/dBvwPPg.jpg

 

There are still issues with lighting, where 1 or 2 sides are not lit well and missing text. That'd be my poor modelling and UV mapping skills. And proper map usage would need blocking volume, no walk grid volume, cover volume.

 

Here are my files: Shipping Crate Nexus A.zip (Dropbox) if you want to check it out.

 

Unzip "Content" to UDK

- In maps folder is Test.udk map that can be loaded into UDK.

- In Nexus folder is package GEN_MaterialParents (parent material) and ShippingCrate_Nexus (static mesh, textures).

 

Unzip "CookedPCConsole" to XCOM EW.

- There is cooked and decompressed Test.upk ready to be streamed and texture file cache ShippingCrate_Nexus.tfc (sorry for the size - UDK put in more data than was needed).

 

Add Test.upk as streaming map to any map you like. The box will be around coordinates 0, 0, 0. Works on saved games too.

// StreamingMaps[1]=( MapName="Test", Loc=( X=96, Y=0, Z=0 ), Rot=( Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 ) )

Maps=(MapFamily="LAbductor_FarmOutskirts", Name="LAbductor_FarmOutskirts", DisplayName="LAbductor_FarmOutskirts (Art Complete Landed Abductor Farm OUtskirts)", MissionType=eMission_LandedUFO, bInRotation=True, TimeOfDay=eMissionTime_Day, ShipType=eShip_UFOAbductor, eRegion=eMissionRegion_None, CouncilType=eFCMType_None, NewMap=False, InitialChance=20, InitialGain=1.05, DynamicAliens[0]=eChar_None, DynamicAliens[1]=eChar_None, StreamingMaps[0]=( MapName="CIN_DropshipIntros", Loc=( X=0, Y=0, Z=0 ), Rot=( Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 ) ), StreamingMaps[1]=( MapName="Test", Loc=( X=96, Y=0, Z=0 ), Rot=( Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 ) ) )

---

 

If you cook the map, here is mod file to change texture file cache name to ShippingCrate_Nexus.tfc.

UPK_FILE=Test.upk

// Change TextureFileCacheName from Textures to ShippingCrate_Nexus

REPLACE_CODE=
<TextureFileCacheName>
<NameProperty>
<%u 0x00000008>
<%u 0x00000000>
<Textures>
:
<TextureFileCacheName>
<NameProperty>
<%u 0x00000008>
<%u 0x00000000>
<ShippingCrate_Nexus>

---

 

If you want to cook to PCConsole folder, edit build.properties file in Binaries folder and add a semicolon in front of this line:

;UDK=1

This action will give you more options in Unreal Frontend. You can delete CookedPC folder anytime.

---

 

And lastly "Blender" folder with art assets.

- Most created by me, except Firaxis' diffuse and normal texture for parent material (UModel2 exported). I used Blender version 2.78.

 

Have fun.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Drakous79

[Dethraker]

wait, were you able to actually edit the maps in EW? I thought that was something that wasn't possible for the game, at least hasn't been so far.

[Drakous79]

I wasn't. UDK cannot load them. For that I'd need XCOM SDK, like XCOM 2 has.

 

LiQuiD911 did some patches for original maps, but everything is streamed in. The box 2 posts back is streamed in as well.

 

BUT :) if we master static meshes and everything needed for map creation, we should be able to create new maps.

[Drakous79]

Small update about fixed lighting.

 

So many options and tick boxes in UDK.

 

When I streamed the cube into existing map, it wasn't lit well. Unlit sides were not picking level's sky light. And when I added sky light to my stream, it changed lighting in entire level. For example it made night map URB_GasStation to day map.

 

What to do?

• Convert static mesh to "Mover" (Interp Actor) in UDK. Will receive dynamic lighting in XCOM. Looks good, shadows not so soft.
• Convert static mesh to skeletal mesh in Blender (or in your favorite 3D modeling tool). Will receive dynamic lighting in XCOM. Looks weird, shadows not so soft, dominant directional light reflection.

 

http://i.imgur.com/SgQAuAv.jpg

 

Still need to verify, if the material in my package works or not and that'd be done in new map.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Drakous79

[Drakous79]

Commander: "So, what do you say?"

Colonel Matthew Hawkins: "I will never, NEVER, wear this, commander!!!"

Commander: "Come on. I'm gonna tell Bradford to order the proper XCOM size."

 

http://i.imgur.com/WHNoiK8.jpg

 

Hello skeletal meshes.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Drakous79

[dubiousintent]

Congratulations! That is a major achievement. Carry on, Commander, and report to Dr. Valen!

 

-Dubious-

Edited August 25, 2017 by dubiousintent

[Drakous79]

Sir, yes sir :smile: Thank you, sir. We've got new shipment of caps and tactical glasses!

 

http://i.imgur.com/jia1oSR.jpg

 

Needs a bit of fine tuning:

• Rebuild CHH_Soldiers parent material in UDK. The one you see is PROP_DifEms_Nrm. No color tints.
• A tool to recreate *.tfc (with textures we need, without additional bloat) and produce PatcherGUI mod file with new *.tfc offsets.
  Edit: UDK can produce *.tfc files without additional bloat.
• Reference head in Blender. [in progress, I have male, needs female (they are smaller), adjust scale of models.
• Example mod.
• A tutorial with tips.

I need to take few days off.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Drakous79

[Dethraker]

That's really impressive work! Have you tested to see if they work in Tactical and also if they stay with the soldier properly?

 

 

I hope this brings some people back to EU/EW to add some new armor deco and such(without Texmod) it would be great to see the modding scene get a bit of a boost.

[Drakous79]

Thank you :smile:

 

I hope too. That'd be our second wave hehe. I wish I had more time few years back.

 

Tested the model in tactical and it works good, except mimetic skin re-appearance applied default material. That'd need proper CHH_Soldiers to fix, which is on todo list.

 

http://i.imgur.com/NKjmQf9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Z4FN7Pj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/BjhkMTg.jpg

 

My ultimate modding goal for this year are new maps and glasses that had Mila J. as Ultraviolet. Too bad we don't have prop slots like XCOM 2. Glasses count as hair and make characters bald, when they wear them. Maybe Ascension could use new system. I know, that XCOM stores selected hair as 32-bit integer, but those 4 bytes can hold four 8-bit integers (value 1 - 255). The same goes for storing up to 4 separate armor tints (primary, secondary, weapon, prop). It'd need new spinners and rewrite of some functions.

 

Found old thread: How to use four byte integer to store and retrieve up to 4 integer values

 

http://i.imgur.com/5pjJUoV.jpg

 

Join us today! Come to mod XCOM. This girl needs your skills!

Edited August 26, 2017 by Drakous79