3DSMax and tool tutorials

[Tux]

An tutorial for understanding of the skin modifier.

I will not go in to the advance part of the skin modifier just some basics wich you can use to link vertexes to the bones you wan't, the advanced parts are not needed for the models you need to implment in the game.First there must be known that game needs that every vertex must have one bone weight.

1-Asign the skin modifier to the model.


2-Press the add button, here you can add the bones that are needed for the model.


3-Select the bones you wan't and then press the selcet button.


4-Press the Edit Envelopes button and select the vertices, then deselect the Envelopes and Cross Sections since they aren't needed here and can be disturbing.


5-Select the vertexe's you wan't in the viewports.


6-After you have selceted the vertexe's scroll down and press the weight table button.


7-Here You can link the vertex's to the bones you wan't, down you can make the program show the vertex after 3 ways: all vertexs, selected vertexs and selected bone(the vertexes that are linked to the bone you selected).Select the selected vertexs to be shown.


8-Then select the all vertexs that are shown, just like you have selcted the bones before.


9-After that go to the bone you wan't them to be linked and drag the mouse on the bone you wan't from left to right until the vertexes have reached one bone weight. And you repeat this until every vertex has been linked to the bones.


Also sometimes when you have made some changes to the model and the skin modifier is aplied you can select riqid wich will aproximise the vertexes to have one bone weight. But sometimes this will not work and set the vertexes and in the game they will apear some wired effects in the animation because the vertexes are set to the wrong bones.





An tutorial for learning how to make new animations.
Use XIDX to extract the animations on wich you will need to work on.

1-First import and model on wich you wan't to create the animation, it doesn't matter what type of unit it is, but i suggest an model type wich is based on the same category of the animation.

2-After you have imported the model go to the script and open an animation wich you wan't to use for your new animation, i work this since it's easier than creating an new animation from scratch.


3-Now i will show some basics that are used for creating animations.
First you can set the frames of the animation, just click on the button.

To change the number of frames just change the values in the "frame count" panel. Here you can also set the speed of the animation seen in max when you wan't to play the animation in max, just go to speed to see the options.
When you select an bone you can delete the bone moves in what keys you wan't, just select the frames you wan't that the bone moves to be deleted and right click on them and then you can choose to delete what keys you wan't.

Note that the animations are simple .cas files,contain only the bones in it without parts of the model, altough max suports models animation just by moving parts of the model in the game this isn't possible and every unit animation is becuase of the bones.

4-Now press the "Auto key" button, this will se the keys on the frames automatic and you will not have to set them manualy when using the "set key" and clicking on the key when you have finshed the moves on the frame.Also don't forget to delete the keys on the bones wich you are going to use for making the animation.


5-Now select a bone you wan't to animate, and use the move and rotate button to move the bone in wich position you wan't to be in the frame.
After you have done the moves in the frame you wan't click on the buttons pointed in the image to go trough the frames and do you your moves, in every frame, until you have what you desired. It basicaly works on the same principle as cartoons, it's not difficult but it's a lot of work that is needed to be done.


6-After you have finshed the animation use the script to export the animation in a .cas file and use the animation packer or the link posted up.
See the tool tutorials to see how to implement the new animations.

I hope this helps, if someone has any questions feel free to ask them and if there are any mistakes point them to me.

[Tux]

Some of the current tools wich are avaible:
1-XIDX, wich will is used to extract or pack the animations, skeletons and sounds and has many more functions.
Download
2-Animation Packer, is used to update animations, create new skeletons but XIDX has them too, but the AnimPacker is more easy to use.
Download
3-XPAK, is used to extract data from the rome's pack files.
Download
4-.CAS Importer/exporter for 3ds max, the name says it all.
Download

How to use XIDX to scale unit skeletons
1-Start extract_skeletons.bat.
Note, if you wish to scale a vanila skeleton skip step 2 and 3.
2-Now copy a skeleton file wich you wish to scale, for example fs_archer and after you copy it let's name it fs_archer_big or what you wish just no spaces like fs archer big.

3-Open list.txt and add the new skeleton name there, at the bottom or where you wish but again with no spaces just like in the pic, after save.
4-Now open the xidxShell.bat and type "scale fs_archer_big x", x is the scale of the unit so type any digit number you wish, see the pic, but if you wish to see the skeletons scale just type "scale fs_archer_big".

5-Now go to descr_model_battle.txt and add scale 2 after the skeleton like in the quote:

type barb_archer
skeleton fs_archer_big, fs_fast_dagger
scale 2
indiv_range 40

Note, for small scales like 1.2, 1.3 you can skip this step, if you do this the units will look taller but it will be thicker, it's hands for example will have the same thicknes as 1 scale but they will be longer,so if you don't skip the unit will be taller but it will be "fater".
6-That's all, the last thing remaining is to pack the skeletons so run the pack_skeletons.bat,.
7-The result:

Some examples for step 6:

type camel
skeleton fs_javelinman, fs_swordsman
scale 1.0
indiv_range 40
...

type elephant_african_cataphract
skeleton fs_african_elephant
scale x - you will have to add this, x is the amount of the scale
indiv_range 40
...

type barb_archer
skeleton fs_fast_archer, fs_fast_dagger
scale x - you will have to add this, x is the amount of the scale
indiv_range 40
...

Using XIDX to create a new skeleton
1-Use extract_skeletons.bat and extract_animations.bat.
2-Copy a skeleton wich you wish to use to create a new one, for example i'll use fs_2handed and i'll name the new one fs_2handed_sword.
3-Now we must add fs_2handed_sword in the list.txt
4-After open xidxShell and now we must use the chpath comand, if you wish to see exactly how it is used type "help chpath" anyway now let's go to work,i will have to type "chpath copy fs_2handed_sword data/animations data/animations/fs_2hs" and after "chpath ALL fs_2handed_sword data/animations data/animations/fs_2hs", the ALL function will change the path of the skeleton animations and the copy will copy therm in the folder you wish.
5-After this is done we must type: fork echo chpath fs_2hs list all data/animations/ | xidx --shell >> list_anim_2hs.txt
Now copy all that is in the list_anim_2hs.txt into the anims_list.txt and you're done with adding the animations and skeletons to the game.
6 - After you're done with the new animations path and after you have changed what you wan't on them you must pack the skeletons and animations and don't forget to go to descr_model_battle.txt and make the units use the new made skeleton.



How to use XPAK
1-Open xpak.bat with notepad.
2-Delete or add the packs wich you wish or don't to extract data from.
For example if you wish to extract data only from patch_0.pak edit the xpak.bat like this:

xpak.exe -mkdir patch_0.pak
xpak.exe patch_0.pak

3-Save the xpak.bat and run it.

Thanks goes to Vercingetorix for his great tools and for his help he gave me.

[Suraknar]

Very Nice Indeed!

Thank you Alin!

[Tux]

Thanks Suraknar i'm glad you like them.

[bowly69]

alin you got those animations in-game yet? I have no problem making the animations just getting them ingame.If you have please could you give me a brief discription of wot you did? thx

[Tux]

Why don't you download Animation Packer, i posted the link in the tutorial, the readme is excelent to understand how it's used if not i will make a little tutorial for it.
Off course i got them working in the game if i wouldn't then i wouldn't made the tutorial.
EDIT:
Old post, i recomend XIDX.

[Tux]

Tutorials updated, also made some new ones not for max so i ask for a mod to change the name of the thread into something wich defines it's contains,t hanks.

[Sundjata Keita]

Excellent work, I did not know about the copy function to copy all the animations, that will save me some time for a whole new skeleton. Don't forget that once you have made a new skeleton with animations you must edit descr_model_battle.txt and change the units to use your new skeleton to see the changes in game. Thank you very much for this tut

Sundjata Keita

[Tux]

Thanks, oh yeah i forgot now but now i've updated and everything is in place.

[wlesmana]

Animation questions:

How do you copy one frame's animation to be used on another frame? For instance, I edited the animation of the first frame, and I'd like the last frame to be the exact same one as the first but everything in between unedited.


Also, is it possible for me to copy the animation of said first frame, and then somehow paste/merge it into the first frame of another animation file?

Thanks guys!

[Tux]

Select a bone and after you have selected one you'll notice that some green boxes appear,see pic 1, so left click on that box of wich frame you wan't to edit and hold down the click(this will let you move the frame) and press and hold shift(this will copy the frame changes), and move the frame to the last fame or where you wan't,see pic 2.
Pic 1:

Pic 2:

Yes but you must save that animation in a max file and after go to file-merge animation,see down pic, about how to use i'm sure you will know it's pretty simple but if you have any problems let me know.

Guys if you have any ideas of modeling tutorials please tell them since i really don't know what tutorials the community needs related to modeling and don't know what's out there.

[wlesmana]

Thanks a million, alin! :)

How about UVW tutorial? Which is something I'm having a problem with right now.

Ok, I know how to edit UVW on existing meshes (although more info on modifying it would be nice, like using Unfold, Normal, Flattened etc). But what I'm still struggling with is using UVW on objects I made from scratch.
Here's a sample:

The horse head on the helmet looks fine in 3dsmax. It was made from a regular box object, after welding verts, etc. Another I notice that'd odd is that the box I made (after converting it to Editable Mesh) doesn't have the diagonal lines on the faces. Could this be the culprit? Did I forgot or made a mistake when converting it to editable mesh?

[Tux]

Yeah great idea, will try and make one soon, thanks.
About the mapping using those those types of mapping, normal,unfold and flatened are just some shortcuts for the mapping and i almost never use them, i make my uvw from scracth.
That problems happens because of the .cas, the .cas doesn't support more than one vertex texture so the vertex can't be in 2 plans(2 different postions in the uvw) when you export it,i don't know how to explain better but anyway let's fix it, i presume the that box has a width and isn't just a simple plane so select the width and detach it and after atach it again and this should fix the problem since now there are 2 vertex in the same postion in 3d and in the uvw as it should be, if it still doesn't work i'll explain better by msn.

[Sundjata Keita]

Just a thing to note that once had me confused for a while, when breaking the culprit "overlapping" verts (which is a different way to fix the problem than the one Alin explained I think) you have to break them from the parameter rollout NOT from the UVW editing screen.

[wlesmana]

Thanks alin!
I got that now. I did separate the vertices since I thought that would be easier to identify. Is there a way to identify which vertex in UVW map is which in the mesh viewer? Or is it only identifiable by observation?

[wlesmana]

I tried using the file animation-merge function but it hasn't work properly so far.
I saved the animation I wanted to merge into another as a one-frame animation .max file so there's no confusion which frame to use. Then I opened the file I'd like it to be merged into, use the anim-merge and not quite sure what the options are for. I kept trying and use every possible combination of the options and some occurances the one frame animation did get merged, but it replaced every other animations too, except the Scene Root so the figure is static yet scooched over a bit.

What I'd like to do is just replace the first frame of the new file and keep the rest of the animation.

[Tux]

Thanks alin!
I got that now. I did separate the vertices since I thought that would be easier to identify. Is there a way to identify which vertex in UVW map is which in the mesh viewer? Or is it only identifiable by observation?

Sorry but i'm in a hurry, will be quick will respond to other later or if you wan't let's talk by msn, it's easier to explain, my id is allindaniel@yahoo.com.
Anyway to your question, no, you'll have to notice that but it's pretty easy to know when this hapens and it mainly happens at box models.

About the merge animation i don't see any problem with what you're doing and it should work but i'll tell you another way to match the frames, i'll explain it later by pm or msn, we're flooding to much the thread.

[Ciaran]

Would you mind posting how to add a new animation/skeleton? For example, how would you get a, say, rifle-using animation into the animations list?

[Tux]

Don't get what you mean, if you use the xidx to create a new skeleton all you have to do after is to the folder were are the anims are copied and edit them and if you wan't to know how they are used in the game to understand how better how to change them go to root/data and open descr_skeleton.txt and you'll see there, i hope this is what you wanted if not explained it to me more detailed.

[Ciaran]

Don't get what you mean, if you use the xidx to create a new skeleton all you have to do after is to the folder were are the anims are copied and edit them and if you wan't to know how they are used in the game to understand how better how to change them go to root/data and open descr_skeleton.txt and you'll see there, i hope this is what you wanted if not explained it to me more detailed.

Sorry if I wasn´t precise. I was talking about an animation or skeleton (I´m not sure which is the proper expression) for some kind of unit that´s not in the stock game, as I said, a rifleman, for example. Now I know you can make skeletons and animations for that, a couple of people have done so, but if you do, they´ll be outside the skeleton and animation idx and dat files. So my question is, how would I get them into these files? I hope this makes it a bit clearer.

[Tux]

No problem, not that my enlgish is very good so i needed something more detailed about what you wan't. Ah i see now but the animations will still be in the .dat and .idx files, you cannot make the game to use animations and skeletons out of those packs for now, there were some who were trying to find a way but they gived up for now, anwyay if you read the Using XIDX to create a new skeleton, so after you done that you must edit the .txt files XIDX generated, list.txt is where you will add you new skeleton and anim list.txt is where you must add the anims you have changed, so after you've done all and you created a new skeleton file and changed the path(using xidx) of it's animations, for example, you made a new skeleton fs_pike copied all it's animations to data/animations/fs_pike and changed the path of skeletons anim there you must go to anim list.txt and add those files in the fs_pike folder so after you changed them in max all it remains is to to pack sthe skeletons and animations.
I hope this helps and i'm sorry if my rusty english is confusing you.

[Ciaran]

Thanks for taking the trouble in the first place.

[miak]

Sorry Im new here where can u dl the 30 day trial?

[Tux]

Sorry Im new here where can u dl the 30 day trial?

Here

[killerxguy]

i dont get why scaling units using max wont work i scaled the catapult for K&K as an experiment to scaling in max, it actually appeared big ingame and no bugs...so why not?

Another question.: How do i get animations ingame i cant seem to pack them, can u tell me how to pack using ver.'s tool the readme didnt help :( .


Good toturials alin!!

[Tux]

Another question.: How do i get animations ingame i cant seem to pack them, can u tell me how to pack using ver.'s tool the readme didnt help :( .

You must add the new made animations in the anims list.txt(the filename, path) and after use the pack_animations.bat

[hhaez]

Hi to all
im working wit 3dmax 7 and i want to now how i can simulate the wool object
tanx to help me

[Sundjata Keita]

You want to simulate an object made out of wool? You do not do this in 3dsmax but change the texture to look like wool. If you made wool in 3dsmax there would be too many polygons per model.

Regards,

Sundjata

[hhaez]

You want to simulate an object made out of wool? You do not do this in 3dsmax but change the texture to look like wool. If you made wool in 3dsmax there would be too many polygons per model.

Regards,

Sundjata

I want to show how wool change to the warp

[Tux]

I want to show how wool change to the warp

Sorry but i really don't understand what you mean, english pls.