Flemeth's Armor Clipping issue

[amycus]

is this the tools you are talking about?

 

 

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/9826/desk3dmax1.th.jpg

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Its the correct software, 3ds max :yes:

Now you need to install Eshmes tools as a plugin, download here: http://social.bioware.com/project/2336/

Included in the file is a .pdf file which describes how to get it working in 3ds max. Very descriptive and with pictures included.

The last thing you need is the toolset and the downloaded mod itself. I will make sure to include instructions on how to extract the resources from the mod with the toolset, as well as the rest later on thursday (at the latest.)

 

EDIT: If you want to save yourself some time, I would run the game and try to see (might not be so easy with that long dress though) if you can see where that weird shape is "attached" on the mesh (run with your character, and pause the game while turning it around while the weird shape is still visible).

Edited July 26, 2011 by amycus

[edriano]

 

EDIT: If you want to save yourself some time, I would run the game and try to see (might not be so easy with that long dress though) if you can see where that weird shape is "attached" on the mesh (run with your character, and pause the game while turning it around while the weird shape is still visible).

 

 

 

Will this suffice ?

 

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9277/sarmorclippingcrop1.jpg

 

 

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6779/sarmorclippingcrop2.jpg

 

 

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7872/sarmorclipping.jpg

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2011 by edriano

[amycus]

It's a bit troublesome to see an be 100 % sure because of the long dress, so I guess you will just have to look around the irregularities in the colour painting. As long as you don't happen to be color blind it should be easy, it just means that you might have to zoom around every corner of the mesh while in 3ds max later.

 

It pretty much just means that you need to see if there is a single vertex painted red in an area full of blue and so on.

 

 

:excl: ...if any moderator is reading this, would it be against the rules if just the extracted mod was sent to me with PM? It would probably the easiest if I could check on it personally, but I'm not sure if it would be going against the rules. On one hand this particular mod uses resouces from DA2, on another hand what I now need is what is already available for download by the one who uploaded this originally, only extracted from the toolset. Plus that I'm not sure if it would be seen as reuploading another persons mod, even though I would only send it to one person... The only reason why I would need this is because I have neither the game (DA:O) nor the toolset on the computer I currently use while on vacation)

Edited July 26, 2011 by amycus

[edriano]

You want me to PM DarkeWolf or Thandal?

[DarkeWolf]

It's a bit troublesome to see an be 100 % sure because of the long dress, so I guess you will just have to look around the irregularities in the colour painting. As long as you don't happen to be color blind it should be easy, it just means that you might have to zoom around every corner of the mesh while in 3ds max later.

 

It pretty much just means that you need to see if there is a single vertex painted red in an area full of blue and so on.

 

 

:excl: ...if any moderator is reading this, would it be against the rules if just the extracted mod was sent to me with PM? It would probably the easiest if I could check on it personally, but I'm not sure if it would be going against the rules. On one hand this particular mod uses resouces from DA2, on another hand what I now need is what is already available for download by the one who uploaded this originally, only extracted from the toolset. Plus that I'm not sure if it would be seen as reuploading another persons mod, even though I would only send it to one person... The only reason why I would need this is because I have neither the game (DA:O) nor the toolset on the computer I currently use while on vacation)

 

Amy- In this particular situation, it's a "personal use" request. And as long as you don't transfer the files out here where anybody can DL them, (IE- do it via PM, please) or neither you nor Edriano posts them for download in other parts of the site(s) it will be ok. Unless the author gives you permission to do so. I havent checked that mod's page, so I dunno if the author has put any restrictions on it or not.

If any questions about it come up, just point them to me ;)

 

However, if you do get these fixed, you may want to go ahead and contact the author and have them re-upload their mod with the new files. ;)

 

As for it being DA2 files.....

We've inquired with Bioware about the assets from DA2 in DAO. To the best of my knowledge, we are handling that in a "Unless they change their mind and complain, it's OK" situation. Tho Thandal may be able to provide better info on that, as he's got better channels with Bioware's forum staff than I.

Edited July 28, 2011 by DarkeWolf
added information

[amycus]

@Darkewolf

Great, thanks for clearing that up. I will put up a tutorial so people can give it a try themselves later today, but if the specific vertexes that have been weight painted wrong are hard to find it is good if I can take a good look at it myself.

 

EDIT: I will slowly start on it here. I will update the tutorial throughout the day, I'm just posting the first few parts now in case the page suddenly updates by itself (it does that sometimes on this laptop).

 

2nd EDIT: DONE! I will add some pics to help later on too though. Also, since the rules on this site doesn't appear to dissaprove it, you can choose to just follow steps 1-3 and then send the extracted files to me in a PM (DO NOT POST A DOWNLOAD LINK IN THIS TOPIC). If you choose to let me do it I will try to get it done tomorrow or the day after that.

 

Also note that this might seem overwhelming at first, but I've just tried to be as descriptive as I can.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

1) Install the toolset, 3ds max (with eshmes tools installed), and download the mod in question.

2) Select the mod (.dazip file), change the ending to ".zip". browse its content with winrar/winzip. When you first open it up you will likely first see a manifest file, as well as some folders. Look through the top folder, and then look through everything there until you find an .erf file. Extract it to your desktop.

3) Run the toolset. In the toolset, select file -> open file. then choose the .erf file you extracted to yor desktop, and the toolset will show you a long row of files. Right click on one single file and choose "extract all" to a folder of your choice after right-clicking. That should give you all the files needed.

4) Run 3ds max. Make sure that you also have eshmes tools setup properly there (refer to eshmes readme if you havn't already done this).

5) Now, go to wherever you put eshmes tools on the menu and choose eshme's "Importer". In the middle right of the window that pops up, choose to select the file. Then browse to the folder where you extracted all the mods content with the toolset and select the .mmh file that should be there

 

note that this particular mod appears to have isabellas suit too, so you might have several .mmh files to choose from. Since I don't know what kind of resource name the original modder used, you might have to try each one, and create a new scene to repeat until you find flemeths robes. Since it from the screenshot appears to be a one-piece suit, you shouldn't need to change the deafult settings on the importer.

 

Then click ok, and "import" in the lower right corner of the "Import" window. Give it some time to process. Note, that it might have some trougble to find the textures. I usually skip that part and put them on manually later since that's easy enough with eshmes tools.

 

6) Well then, if everything was done right you should have the mesh in front of you. Select it and look at the upper right corner, where you should read something like (might be in a different order than I remember it to be, I will try to add pics on it later too):

Unwrap UWV ch1 (might just be named "Unwrap UWV")

Skin

Edit normals.

 

Whatever the order is, rightclick on the modifiers that lies above "Skin" and select "cut" (so assumiming that the order is as above, you would only "cut" "Unwrap UWV ch1".

 

7) When the word "skin" is at the very top of the field in the upper right menu, select it. The lower right menu will change. On the middle of the right menu shoul should see a button called "Edit envelopes". Press it. Then select a bone in the list further down. You should see that depending on which bone in the list you select, the vertexes of the mesh gets different colours.

 

Note: The colours tells the vertexes how dependent they should be on that particular bone. The warmer the colour the more dependant the vertexes are on the bone you have selected at the moment. So if I select the bone for the lower left leg, I expect that most of the vertexes of the mesh's lower left leg will be colored bright red. In the areas close to the knee and thig, the colours should gradually get cooler, from red to orange, to yellow and finally blue. That way when the character moves the areas like the knee will be bent smoothly, since those vertexes are dependant on 2 bones of various degree. Sometimes there are some vertexes that gets coloured wrong (like when you select the skeletons left leg, you see some vertexes on the mesh's right leg being coloured too). That is what seems to have happened to this mesh, and now we just need to find them. So, now when you know this, lets move on to step 8.

 

8 ) From the liest of bones, select one and try to find vertexes that have been coloured in an opposite colour of all the others surrounding it.

 

Note: It might be easier to find the clipping vertexes if you move the skeleton around. Just remember to back a few steps after each movement. When you find a movement that recreates the clipping you saw, it should be easy to see were those vertexes are placed, saving you a lot of time later.

 

If you do find some suspicious vertexes, select them, and go to the lower left menu. Scroll down until you find (should be at the very bottom of that menu) something that says:

 

Weight properties

Abs. Effect: x,x

[Paint Weights] <--(This is a button)

 

If you then select a surrounding vertex (with the colour you want to correct the other vertexes with), the "Abs. Effect: x,x " will say a number in place of "x,x". Note that down, and then select the weirdly couloured vertexes again, and now put in the same value for those under "Abs. Effect:". Then press the button "Paint Weights", and their colours should be changed.

 

If you want to try if it worked, try and move the skeleton around. If the problem is fixed, it is time to get it in game again.

 

9) Paste the "Unwrap UWV ch1" back into its place where it was. Make sure that the order is as before.

 

10) You might want to look at this video if you have problems to understand what I say in this step:

Go to the material editor, select any grey ball and press the button "standard" Choose "Dragon Age material". Then go to "material type" and choose "character".

Under "render semantics" choose "[additive tint] [no alpha] [no emissive]".

 

Then expand the menu for "texture maps" and look for the foolowing rows:

Diffuse map: none <--This is the texture map that gives the mesh its colour.

Normal map: none <-- This is the texture map that gives an illusion of extra structure on the mesh's surface.

Specular map: none <-- This is the texture map that tells the game how much each part of the mesh should glow in light.

 

Press a button named "none" for one of these 3. A window will pop up. Choose "bitmap". Browse to the extracted content that you got from the toolset and look for files with the ending .DDS. I'm not sure what the original modder named this, but you can otherwise figure it out from their looks. The diffuse map should have the one with the most color. The normal map should be grayscale. The specular map will look like a washed out version of the diffuse map. Choose the appropiate one and hit OK. Repeat for the other slots.

 

Finally, make sure that the name of the material is the same as the ".mao" file that the toolset should have extracted earlier for you from the .erf file. Then just select the whole mesh ad drag the selected ball from the material editor to the mesh. If a pop up shows, choose "assign to selection".

 

Done, time to go to the export window.

 

11) Choose the "Model Exporter" from eshmes tools. The relevant GOB should already be selected in this case, and as for the name on the .mmh and .msh files, just put in the same name that were used in the files you earlier extracted. Choose to create a .mao file as well (you probably don't need to, but I prefer to do it just in case). Then hit "EXPORT", wait a while (sometimes it looks like the progress bar has frozen, but don't worry, it always look like that. Just wait a few minutes and it will be done).

 

12. Now go to the folder were you exported these new edited files. Then just go to the override folder, look for the folder for this particular mod that should have been created there, and paste these files. Now run the game and if you did everything right, the problem should be solved.

 

Done :dance:

If you have any questions you are welcome to ask

Edited July 28, 2011 by amycus

[Thandal]

Coming to the conversation late, but yeah, DW had it right about BioWare allowing NON-DLC assets to be ported between DA2/DAO (either direction). As long as the resulting mod still requires the player to have a legit copy of the game, they're OK with it.

 

I have a current query into a senior Dev regarding issues with DLCs. They are a different category since the result of modding those assets could be that people who didn't pay for them get to use them. So far, the only reply has been that "Re-textures that still require the original (legitimately acquired DLC) mesh to use are probably alright."

[edriano]

Cool, we have a green light.

[amycus]

Cool, we have a green light.

 

Then you have 3 choices:

1)Follow the whole above tutorial. Not as hard as it sounds, but it might not be a popular choice if you have no plans to ever make custom content of your own.

 

2) Only follow step 1-3 and send me the content (since I'm on vacation and have neither the toolset nor the game itself on my current computer of use). Once again, send the content with a PM in that case. Depending on when I get it (because of the timezones) I should be able to send the fixed files 1-2 days after you have sent your PM. You would only need to move the files I send you to the appropiate place in the override folder.

 

3) wait another 2 weeks for me to get home to my main computer and let me do the whole work for you. In that case I would even be able to put it as a .Dazip file for you.

 

I'm fine with either, I'm just offering whatever option you prefer out of these.

[edriano]

I think I will go with option number 2. Be back in an hour or two and send you the files. http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif

 

Done!, please check your PM http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif.

Edited July 30, 2011 by edriano