Release of Animation/3ds Max Tools

GPZ said:
On one hand, this is great news. On the other hand - The scripts are for 3dsmax, and it uses a max-specific scripting language. I hope us non-3dsmax users will somehow manage to get these processes working. I already have some concepts and ideas for new Saints, so I just hope it will be possible to make them "real" with Blender.
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Well, since Blender supports export to both .3ds and .fbx file formats, I think there shouldn't be a problem. At least as long as the tools are separate executives and not 3dsmax plugins....
Or am I missing something?
 
flow754 said:
Well, since Blender supports export to both .3ds and .fbx file formats, I think there shouldn't be a problem. At least as long as the tools are separate executives and not 3dsmax plugins....
Or am I missing something?
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They are 3dsmax plugins, but the plugins write xml currently. I wouldn't expect this would be too horrible to reproduce with a plugin from another editor, but don't take my word for it though since I don't deal with the plugins and don't know the complexity first hand.
 
Like Mike says, the 3dsmax specific exporter plugins make writing to our format easier, if you have 3dsmax and prefer to work within that application. The same could be achieved in Blender if someone was willing to script the same output from that application. Time permitting, I may be able to look at Blender and see what it takes but that will come later. I'm sure someone more familiar would likely be able to do it much sooner than I may be able to get to it. Who knows.
 
newhalo123 said:
Question, with these tools that you are working on, will we be able to add skeletons other than bipedal? I am talking of course about attack dogs and the such. It would be awesome to be able to add dogs and cats as well as other animals. With some of the other tools you are making, I assume it would be possible to script actions and such into the animals if it is possible to make animations and skeletons for them. I am not good with the talk above, so I am not sure if it was mentioned that you can only use bipedal skeletons. If it was mentioned, I missed it.
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Any skeleton hierarchy is "supported" in game. However, "characters" have many game-specific requirements that are unfortunately hard-coded, that handle rag-dolling, aiming and various other aspects of character functionality, including AI. There are flags in the characters.xtbl that should work around some of these specifications. AI will likely have other necessities such as specific animations that should be available to each character including stands, locomotions, etc.
 
I just now found out about the news of new dev tools coming to SR3 & this was the first question that popped into mind about some way to edit/create new meshes. Thanks a ton!!
 
I wanted to ask if we will be able to alter the cloth simulations on the NPC characters in case we change/add parts that need to animate independently. I saw that the character_definitions file uses this parameter:
<Cloth_Sim>
<Filename>(model name).simx</Filename>
</Cloth_Sim>
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Do you generate these .simx files automatically or do you write them by hand?
 
The .simx files are constructed and exported from 3dsmax. We have a tool to visually construct the simulation data within 3dsmax but its definitely something that could be replicated in other packages. This is actually one of the easiest xml files to write out once its understood. I'm not sure if we'll be providing the tool but it's likely we can release the format and how to create the simulations.
 
Ah, interesting. I suppose it contains simple x,y,z rotational constraints?

EDIT: I also wanted to ask about the system which makes an NPC spawn with different hair colors, sunglasses, purses, hats, heads on policemen etc., how does it work? I know hair colors and accessories might be two separate things, since the accessories are simply shown or hidden (I believe the character_definitions file includes those parameters for the accessories as well but I might be mistaken because it has been a while since I looked for these parameters). Is there a unique mask texture or something like that for the hair parts?

I'm sorry for the influx of questions coming from me, but I'm just so excited that we will be able to create new content for SR:TT and SRIV. :oops:
 
GPZ said:
Ah, interesting. I suppose it contains simple x,y,z rotational constraints?

EDIT: I also wanted to ask about the system which makes an NPC spawn with different hair colors, sunglasses, purses, hats, heads on policemen etc., how does it work? I know hair colors and accessories might be two separate things, since the accessories are simply shown or hidden (I believe the character_definitions file includes those parameters for the accessories as well but I might be mistaken because it has been a while since I looked for these parameters). Is there a unique mask texture or something like that for the hair parts?

I'm sorry for the influx of questions coming from me, but I'm just so excited that we will be able to create new content for SR:TT and SRIV. :oops:
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Regarding the simulation, in a way it could be generalized to something such as that. :)

The props on npcs can be pulled from a small pool of universal items and added to the character's definition entry. Character specific items are created relative to the character and hooked up in the same manner in the table. The hair/clothing colors consist of some shader and bitmap coloring trickery as well as table color references. Hopefully, we'll be able to provide all the details.
 
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