Predator Mod WIP video and help needed

[Obelixdk]

Here is the current build of me and Sacred Soul69's updated Predator outfits mod.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQZWR-XmJeI

 

There is still some graphical bugs we are trying to sort out (Hardpoints i think Zyx called it) but to be honest i have no idea how to fix that yet.

 

We tried to remove the Wrist blades from the arm by default and replacing the area with another mesh we made, imported fine and looked good in the SDK, but as soon as the upk was saved and mod was build, ingame the arms looked the same as always, and did not show the bracers.

Help to fix these 2 problems would be VERY welcome.

 

Further more we got another contributor to the mod, and that guy is Musashi (creator of the Combat Knife mod). He is going to be helping with making the wrist blades into actual melee weapons.

 

There is still things that we need to fix before releasing this version, but things are looking good.

Suggestions / ideas are welcome.

 

[kexx456]

I regret I have no suggestions or ideas, but I wanted to chyme in and congratulate you and your team. That looks fantastic. Looking forward to it. Hope you consider adding him as an enemy as well. Could be interesting to encounter!

[Obelixdk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=4M2Wwvef7f0

 

one of the problems described above..

[TeamDragonpunk]

This looks amazing! So are those 3D characters now, or just outfits on top of the character?

[Obelixdk]

The predator model is it's own model with the skeletal bindings of a normal xcom 2 soldier

 

The helmets / armor are individual meshes too

 

I / we can't take credit for the original mesh though as it was found on a free 3d model sharing site (http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/predator-youngblood-38854.html) and some the helmets was gathered from AvP2010..

 

All the refitting / retexturing + a few new additions to the model are all our work though.. It is a slow process as both of us had (have??) no idea how things worked before we started out doing this..

 

Sacred is learning Substance painter as we go forward in the project and we are both trying to learn how blender works (Sacred is a lot further along than me though) and I am trying my best to learn how Modbuddy and the SDK program works but only thing I ever made before this was voicepacks, and I have no coding experience, so the process we have been through to get to this stage has been LONG :)

 

This playlist shows the progress of our work over the last few weeks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8siSaS77bB4&list=PLJIIUUgBKT8g35TtM7198-WNZa8imKXCu

Edited June 28, 2016 by Obelixdk

[Obelixdk]

Wristblade animation and sound test

 

basicly just a slightly modified version of the skullhack animations :)

[Obelixdk]

Initial ingame test of animations.. the weapons are not hooked yet, so thats why they are floating, but i am pretty happy with this first test

 

 

Now to figure out how to sync the damage and have the kill animation trigger an animation on the enemies too..

Edited June 30, 2016 by Obelixdk

[kexx456]

I'm creating my own new enemy and it also has a new mesh, so I've been tried and tested just like you have. Luckily, I have a potential solution for you. I really hope it works and helps you, because your predator looks amazing! This is gonna be long, but only because I'll try to be as detailed as I can, so bear with me.

 

Let's assume you have Blender open and your mesh imported, said mesh is comprised of only 1 object and not several (Ctrl+J to join, select each object, but make sure the last object you select is the one with the root armature), and that the mesh has an armature. Now, you've said the animation is based off the base soldier, so this should be even "easier".

 

1. Select the Armature.

2. You know where you click to switch between object mode and edit mode? Go there, with armature selected, and choose Pose Mode.

3. The armature should now have black outlines and dotted lines connecting all over the place.

4. without leaving this pose mode, now right-click on the mesh to select it.

5. That same button with Object Mode? Go into it, and select Weight Paint.

 

Here it gets a bit tricky. Basically, this area here let's you control/change what parts of the mesh are controlled by which bone in the armature. Right-clicking each bone will likely highlight in bright RED the mesh areas that it controls the strongest, and dark BLUE the ones the least, and orange/yellow/green in between those strengths. Now, since you downloaded this mesh and it's not an extracted mesh from the game, I'll assume that absolutely no bones in the armature control the bracers. They should in theory remain dark blue no matter which bone you select. But,

 

6. If for some reason there's a bone that controls it (is RED) that you don't want it to, look to the far top left area of the Tools section, you'll see: Weight: 1.000. That's what the brush is set to. 1 for full strength, 0 for none. Drag it down to 0, and Left-Click on the mesh to paint over it. It's really finicky here, so pressing Z to show you the wireframe will help. Rotate around it like crazy to see you didn't miss a spot.

7. Once done, right-click to select the bone you actually DO WANT to control it, guessing the forearms. Same thing, increase the Weight back to 1, and paint all over.

8. Remember, L bone for left bracer, R bone for right bracer, otherwise both arms will control it and make a mess in game.

9. Mesh go back to Object Mode.

10. Armature go back to Object Mode.

11. Export!

 

In theory, this should fix the bracer issue. Hope it does, or at least informs you better as to what the problem might be. Let me know if it worked!!

[Obelixdk]

Shoulder Cannon animation test + sound sync