Model Conversions from stw to mtw

[barocca]

I have spent many hours fiddling with the model conversions from stw to mtw,
i originally started this in the hopes of being able to supply the model set to some bright spark who wanted to create a map converter, at this time that project is not going anywhere,
BUT i'd still like to see the models included for those brave souls who are manually adjusting the maps from Shogun to medieval,

to that end i have already converted and uploaded the tile sets,
although the editor will not recognise additional tile sets recognition functionality was added to v1.1 of mtw for manual addition to the inf files.

I will experiment with those tile sets in more detail once i finish the model conversions.

At this time we cannot use the shogun bridge for anything more than window dressing, i cannot edit the *.3xx files,
SO i have made a wooden version of the mtw bridge,
http://www.totalwar.org/barocca/wb1.jpg

i am also going to try to make the shogun models destroyable, but i do NOT know if this can be done yet,

i am currently trying to convert all the model skins over to mtw's format, most work just fine, a few have hissy fits when i try to load them.
ALSO
all these models will be seen and recognised by the editor and i WILL eliminate translation errors in the editor,

what do you think of the bridge so far?

BTW - i may be able to make (within the confines of the current stw and mtw model "wireframes") almost any skin for a model that you can think of,
Shogun has open gate models that might (not entirely sure yet) but they just might work as standalones, eliminating the gate errors some people have been having trying to put gates between cliff faces, no hard promises other than i will try...

[Kraellin]

wow. very slick, bar. you using studio 3d max?

K.

[barocca]

um
no
photoshop and paint as usual
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

now for the models
i cannot get the stw gates to work - mtw has animated gates and will not recognise "open" stw gates
a pain BUT

now for the good news

i can make standalone mtw towers that fire at attackers and can be destroyed,

i can make mtw standalone gates that require no enclosure,
BUT there is one small problem - they cannot be opened by the defenders, they can however be opened by the attackers (gate destroyed) - so far i have found only one way to make them fire at the attackers - so it will cost big time for attackers to get past the gates.

with the STW gates and walls i can only make them obstacles - i can make the gates fire at attackers, but once the gate is destroyed it IS an UNPASSABLE zone - again annoying, but still eye candy http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

with the shogun bridges i can'y make them water crossings but i CAN make them eye candy and i can make them available in mulitple sizes and stone as well as wood, with the shogun walls, again they will be UnPassable zones once destroyed, same same with temples shrines and shogun castles, but still it's all eye candy

The Really Good part of all this is a whole bunch of "new" models and the StandAlone Towers and Gates will allow map makers to make some veeery interesting maps,

you can now make a canyon defended by a gate - just the defenders cannot open the gate, but the attackers can...

uncertain of timeframe, but now i know what i am doing and how to do it, this project should not take too long at all
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Lion King]

hmm just 2 stupid little semi-off-topic questions:
1- how do i make bridges work????? the units wont go over them
2-can i make passable bridges WITHOUT water under them?

BTW, looks good, keep going Bar.

[barocca]

just ran smack bang into a bridge problem myself,
it appears that there is a hard coded bridge forcing MTW to recognise only one bridge at a time,
until that little bug is ironed out we can only have one type of bridge active at a time...
(damn damn damn)
so all i have is an alternate bridge...
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

have not tested wether bridges need water under them yet...

[Kraellin]

bar,

ok, i understand now. i thought at first that you were re-doing the actual modeling. you're doing the skins/textures of the models. ok. i saw you mention the *.3xx extension and sorta brain-fogged that you were working with studio 3d max.

so, if i'm understanding this correctly, the models from stw would work in mtw if it waant for the skins and that by converting the skins you are therefore getting the models from stw to work in mtw?

K.

[barocca]

yes,
i am renaming them and making all the required text entries for them,
some won't work, shogun gates and bridges for example,

i have sent email asking dev types for some advice on the bridge problem, will see if i get any responce,

i can make towers and gates standalone - lets not hope thats hardcoded too or they will misbehave if they are on a map with an active castle,

it takes a lot of time to muck around with these,
if i make a text change to a model then i have to restart the game or it will still list the model in the wrong place or with the wrong translation - and if i forget AND select the model in editor then the game crashes in editor and i have to reboot, for some unknown reason...

but now i know what to do to change the models name, location and skin it should go fairly smoothly,

i was most dissapointed to find a hard coded bridge in there... i am dreading the next surprise...

[Kraellin]

Quote[/b] ]i was most dissapointed to find a hard coded bridge in there... i am dreading the next surprise...



it's called 'conservation of coding', bar. it's very similar to the conservation of energy principle :) and as for the 'next surprise', CA has both driven me nuts and filled me with joy at various times, so i've picked a sort of numb middle ground to keep me from going thru the roof or flying over there and kissing someone ;) i'm sure CA is quite happy about the latter one.

umm, and did you mention that you'd done a file conversion on the stw textures and did we ever fully figure out how to do stw to mtw map conversions? i know gil was giving us some help on this for a while.

K.

[barocca]

i did convert the stw tiles to mtw format
i did not check the orientation of the tiles yet,

i seem to recall some stw/wemi tiles were twisted 90 degrees when viewed in mtw,

to cjeck copy a shoogy map over to mtw,
dowload and copy one of the stw tilesets into it's own tileset folder,
write an inf file for the stw map use the folder you copied stw tiles into as the "terrain"
load the map and check if tiles line up properly or not,

as for the format of the file we figured out the "tile order/number" part of the file,
but Giljay never did find the file dumper that included the models,
so we have the "format" of the model bytes in the map file, and the mapdumper and the stw/wemi tilesets,
and if someone can take all that and make a map converter i will make an "as true as possible" models set for the converter...OR, when i have finished this, they can ask for a file list of which models names i have changed, and what stw/wemi models do NOT work in mtw..,

otherwise the current model set i am trying to convert will allow map makers to make some pretty interesting maps...

[barocca]

seems i may have run into another hard code glitch,
when i try to assign a damage class to models i run into all sorts of inconsitencies -
- (i'm working my way through the lot from beginning to end)
- so far, if the models is equipped with weapons it can be attacked and destroyed,

if it is "unarmed" it cannot be destroyed - i think their may be a "destroyable" model list in the hardcode somewhere, becuase it matters not what damage class i try, i cannot destroy unarmed models in battle...

[barocca]

ok
i figured out my errors and can make many of the shogun models destoyable,
naturally i can't do anything about "new" bridges at this time,
still i can make some neat eye candy for maps, plus stand alone towers and gates,

i especially love placing a tower near a bridge, helps the AI in defending bridges a little
:D

[PatrickNeil]

Do you think you could put one of those up on the site so I could see what your doing? I always just made the game crash.

Patrick

[barocca]

Patrick, it's a little complicated, it's going to be easier to put the whole lot up as a set,
there are several files that need to be added/changed/modded to enable extra models...
I will do my best to finish by the weekend
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif