| 03-10-2004, 07:00 PM | #1 |
| 03-11-2004, 02:46 AM | #2 |
| 03-11-2004, 12:03 PM | #3 |
| 03-11-2004, 01:37 PM | #4 |
| 03-11-2004, 03:10 PM | #5 | |
Quote:
What are you talking about? If you edit models you don't have to touch the unwrapping at all... I'll give a simple tutorial here about how to edit models with Gmax. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this tutorial we will be editing the footman model, so we "remove" his sword and shield. First you need to know the tools of the trade: KMK's importer/exporter KMK's importer/exporter (mirror) Wc3 viewer by TheProphet (for extracting the models, and so on). Yobguls file converter Republicas exporter (Right click and choose save as). Gmax -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STEP 1: EXTRACTING THE MODEL First on we will need to extract the footman model because that is the model we are going to edit. Do that by opening up the wc3viewer and use the treeview to browse to the model. Like on the picture here:  Now click on the 'Current File' tab, and click 'Extract MDX' like on the image here:  Then find a folder to extract it to. STEP 2: GETTING THE IMPORTER/EXPORTER INTO GMAX Remember the files you downloaded? One of the files were KMK's importer/exporter for (mostly) importing MDX files. Find that file and copy it into you a folder in you gmax directory called "Scripts". Also copy it into the "Startup" folder in the scripts folder if you want that. If you have Gmax open, close it and open it again. Now find the hammer icon over on the right side (by default).  When you have found it, click it. After you have clicked it a menu like this should appear:  *Note that this part of the menu appears after you have clicked the "MaxScript" button.*  If you do not see the text:"MDX Importer/Exporter" in the roll out menu like on the picture, click run script, locate the script and then select it there. Assuming everything is as it should be, click the "MDX Importer/Exporter" text in the roll out menu. A new sub-menu should appear:  This is the script. STEP 3: IMPORTING AND EDITING THE MODEL Now for the fun part! :> Okay, now you have got the script open. Now set-up the script like I have done on the picture I showed before. Click the "Static" option under animation, and turn "Bone rotation" off. When you have done that click "Import MDX". Locate the footman.mdx and click "open". Now the script imports the footman model without animations or skin, but that doesn't matter since we are just editing.  Now, in this tutorial, i said before that we are going to "remove" the footmans sword and his shield. REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN'T ADD OR DELETE VERTICES, so we will have to scale the sword and shield to 0, that way it's practicly "removing" them (you can't see them after that). After some time of editing this is what I have come up with. I have scaled all the signs of the sword and the shield to 0.  STEP 4: FINISHING Now to finish this up so we can get this model edit working rotate everything so it faces towards the X axis. Next, find the DeX exporter script you downloaded. Click the hammer icon in gmax, goto maxscript and click run script. Locate the exporter script from there and click "open". Now a new window should pop-up. That is the exporter script.  Now, before exporting select all the meshes by clicking the  icon.A new dialoog should appear now. It should have a list in the left with names like Footman1, Footman2, Footman3 and so on. Click the Footman1 text out in the list. When you have selected that hold down the left ctrl button while clicking on the other names in nummeric order (Footman1, Footman2, Footman3, Footman4 and Footman5). When you have selected them click "Select". The meshes will now be selected, and you are now ready for exporting. In the exporter script dialog click "Print to listener". That is the only function that works with Gmax when you use DeX. Now the DeX script has printed a whole lot of .MDL information into the gmax listener. We need that information, so click the hammer icon, choose the maxscript button and find the "Open listener" button. When you click that a window should pop-up, or it may lie minimized in the lower left corner. The listener should look like this (this is at the top):  You now have *parts* of the edited footman in the listener, because as I said before the MDX importer script doesn't support importing of animations. But that is why this is called model editing :8 So we need the original footman model in .MDL format too. Do this by finding yobguls file converter (it's at the top of this thread). Install it with the self extracting exe. When the extraction is finished, open up the file converter.  Click the "Load File" button, and find the footman.mdx (remember, the one you extracted using the wc3viewer). Now convert the .mdx to .mdl by clicking the "Convert to MDL" button ;) Now close the file converter (it may give you an error when you close it, but just ignore it). Open up the footman.mdl (using notepad).  It should look like that (It may seem like alot of jibberish to you at first, but you will understand it later when you decide to advance with mdl editing. I suggest you read Mad[Lion]'s description of the .mdl in general, if you decide to advance with mdl editing. But let's go on with the tutorial. You have the notepad open, right? And you have the listener open, right? (You should have both open). You might see a recemblance of the text in the listener to the text in notepad, but that is because they are both .MDL files/data. In notepad use the search function and search on "vertices". You should get to a point where it says: Geoset { Code:
Vertices 447 {
{ -6.74948, 16.9564, 1.479 },
{ -0.16994, 4.55527, 1.19818 },
{ -6.91293, 6.06172, 1.45068 },
{ 2.08111, 5.23104, 97.4311 },
{ 0.1269, 0.5825, 99.0442 },
{ 7.12978, 0.54751, 99.3541 },
{ 2.08111, -4.136, 97.4311 },
{ 7.38323, -4.22685, 94.6158 },
{ 0.68207, -6.69847, 90.3898 },
...And it continues on with the numbers. What you want to do is to replace all those numbers with the vertices from the listener (which is our edited models data). Before you go to the listener select all the vertices inormation. Right from the: Code:
Vertices 447 {Code:
{ 11.2232, 4.01308, 1.22363 },
{ 20.4496, 12.861, 1.39557 },
{ 7.40423, 11.1997, 12.6009 },
}So you should have it selected from the top (vertices place to the bottom })   Now, in the listener use the search option, look for "vertices" (like in notepad), and you should get to a part which looks alot like the part in notepad. Select that the same way as above and copy it (ctrl+c). Now open notepad where you have the selected text and press "paste" (ctrl+v). You have now replaced all the vertices data from the old Footman1 mesh with the edited vertices data from *your* Footman1 mesh. Do this with all the other meshes (about 4 times more I think). Do NOT (and I repeat NOT) replace any other of the data, unless you know what you are doing. Do NOT replace the TVertices, do NOT replace the normals. Only the Vertices data. When you have replaced all the vertices data, save the file and convert it to mdx by using yobguls file converter (this time when you load the file, load the MDL. And when you convert click the "Convert to mdx" button). This is how it should turn out:  Congratulations! You should now have sucessfully edited the footman model. I hope this tutorial helped you! ******************************* Executing this tutorial is on your own risk. I cannot be held legally responsible for any action the tutorial, or the tools listed there may do, or already may have done. ******************************* |
| 03-11-2004, 06:39 PM | #6 |
| 03-11-2004, 06:43 PM | #7 |
| 03-11-2004, 06:48 PM | #8 |
| 03-11-2004, 06:56 PM | #9 |
| 03-12-2004, 12:37 AM | #10 |
| 03-12-2004, 12:48 AM | #11 |
| 03-12-2004, 04:50 AM | #12 |
| 03-12-2004, 07:22 PM | #13 |
| 03-12-2004, 07:31 PM | #14 |
| 03-12-2004, 11:12 PM | #15 |