Mek Models -

[cdxbow]

Team HQ are celebrating wildly because of the birth of a new 80 ton meka. A human walker named 'Adam'. In the pic you can see a player Adam, looking at another Adam.



The artist sent us this 6 months ago, after a ton of mucking around we finally fixed the problem with the animations screwing up the model in RE/MekArcade. There were 2 problems, firstly, spaces in the bone names and secondly some vertices had more than 4 inflences in some cases (a no no for md5). Having fixed these I am up to cutting up the animations in Misfit Cubed. Once the model has the animations set up properly it is really easy to export all the md5anims in one go. I am expecting to get 3 or 4 meka from this chassis. I will post it when done.

I have put some working chicken walker md5 models up at Quad http://quadropolis.us/node/3073, done by Walter an artist who was with us last year. They should work as is. Download from http://teamxbow.org/cube/models/models-mek/mek_chicken_walker_pack.rar All the models still lack torso rotation and ragdoll deaths. Any helpers?

I tried (and failed) recently splitting the mesh on light battlearmour (see below) and if I can't do it myself in the next little while I may put up at Quad with a please help request. It is set up ready to export in Misfit Cubed but needs the mesh split in the cfg so as you can run and shoot. we also have a fatter version skinned with a martian sort of skin.

[raiden]

Great work cdxbow. When these material becomes usable, this could be added to the onslaught mode or define a complete new one some day (juggernaught, the mek as a suit or a battle mode?). ... however congrats for finding the reason for issues.

[riidom]

Hey, congrats to these cool models first

If you seek helpers to further refine the animations, it would be vey helpful to provide source files.
The import of mesh+anim failed (for me) on Blender 2.49b. Maybe someone else can confirm on that one, I get the mesh and the rig, but no action.

More important: MD5 degenerates the rig to a point where it is just able to replay an animation. Working on such a re-imported rig is a pain. The bones are all disconnected, everything except deform bones is stripped, constraints or custom bone shapes are gone as well.

If there is a choice between several file formats, I am happy to help at least with confirming about how well files import into blender.

[cdxbow]

raiden:
Thanks, it's nice when persistance pays off. Mind you, no one told me despair was an essential part of the modelling toolchain, but it certainly is. You should ask Quin to add a few extra NPC, you must be getting sick of grunts and turrets, more grunts and turrets, even more grunts and turrets......

riidom:
The meks in the chicken walkers pack are probably not the best to play with, they have been through a lot. They came from the artist as an smd because there was no md5 exporter for later 64 bit versions of Max and I don't have the original Max files. The smd should be much 'cleaner' and I think you should try them. I have put them up here: http://teamxbow.org/cube/models/models-mek/beholder_smd.rar You will find they lack left/right leg turn and a couple of the other animations which I did. Let me know how you go. We have found smd a very good intermediate format between modelling packages, and I hope this is true of Blender.

I noticed your said you were importing into Blender 2.49. Is that because its the last version with an md5 importer?

[riidom]

I noticed your said you were importing into Blender 2.49. Is that because its the last version with an md5 importer?

Yes, it is pretty outdated.

SMD works very well. The rig has a bit loss too, but a game format focuses on efficiency, so I guess have to live with that.

I will keep you updated when I finish an anim.

[cdxbow]

I've nearly completed the first variant of the Addams family, a medium meka that has come together real well. Was going for a heavy but this looks like a medium to me. I've just about finished chopping up the animations, I will post when done.

[cdxbow]

Finally got the animations Battle Armor 2 (Version 0.4) chopped up better. Gabriella is not helping anymore so again I've had to finish off without assistance, yet again. You can download it from http://teamxbow.org/cube/models/misfit/battle_armor2_v04.zip. Note that this is a work in progress and we have put it up because we need help with configuring the md5.cfg to seperate the mesh in upper & lower functional parts. I have had a couple of fruitless attempts, so now I need to ask for help.

What's in the zip?

Misfit Cubed Model - with 20 animations set up ready to export, basic skin
Milkshape 3D - as above but all animation in one long sequence
Working MD5 mesh & Animation files (see below)
SMD export of a reference mesh and a big long animation file with them all in

Animations

idle ba2c_idle.md5anim 20
forward ba2c_forward.md5anim 30 //actually a run, there is a walk, too
backward ba2c_backward.md5anim 30
left ba2c_forward.md5anim 24
right ba2c_forward.md5anim 24
jump ba2c_jump.md5anim 20
dying ba2c_dying.md5anim 35
dead ba2c_dead.md5anim 1
fly ba2c_fly.md5anim 1 //single frame only
melee ba2c_ melee.md5anim 25
pistol ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
sword ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
shotgun ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
smg ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
flamer ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
plasma ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
rifle ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
grenade ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
rocket ba2c_idle.md5anim 10
impulse forward ba2c_forward.md5anim 30
impulse backward ba2c_forward.md5anim 30
impulse left ba2c_forward.md5anim 30
impulse right ba2c_forward.md5anim 30
dash forward|dash backward|dash left|dash right|dash up ba2c_forward.md5anim 30
sink ba2c_sink.md5anim 8 //single frame only
swim ba2c_idle.md5anim 8 //single frame only
crouch ba2c_idle.md5anim 10 //TO DO
pistol primary|rocket primary|etc ba2c_shoot.md5anim 20
pistol secondary|rocket secondary| etc ba2c_shoot.md5anim 20

The model has walk, kick, limp and a few others which are exported but unused

What's missing?

Seperation of the mesh in upper & lower functional parts ***** CRITICAL *******
Missing animations include a pistol shoot, grenade throw, reload/change weapons, crouch and a few more
Ragdoll deaths
Some of the texturing has got a little stuffed up
Normals/masks

Using Misfit Cubed

If you want to play with the model, or are just learning modelling then try Misfit Cubed - get it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/misfitcubed/. Read the wiki about tags and using it. The mesh & all the animations get spat out, each time you do an md5 export, it is very efficient. There is a back up md5.cfg in the models file so just delete the one the exporter makes. if you change names of things then you will have to make your own.

Tomorrow I am going away for a week, and will probably not have an internet connection, but I promise I will have the new meka ready for uploading when I get back.

[cdxbow]

Finally the first variant of the Adams chassis, grandly named Mek6 at this stage, and pictured earlier in the post, is ready. Download it from http://teamxbow.org/cube/models/models-mek/mek6_v04.zip. I am pretty pleased with the way this one came out, although it has ended up looking like a medium or possibly a small mek.

Contents

1. Misfit model format - animations set up ready to be spat out as seperate md5 if you use Misfit Cubed
2. Milkshape format - all animations are contiginous.
3. Md5 export: configured and ready to go - works in RE and MekArcade.
4. Licence

Animations

idle
forward
backward
left
right
jump
dying
dead
melee - stomp
pain
walkshoot
crouch
crouchwalk
fly - placeholder only
sink - placeholder only

Issues!

Need seperation of the mesh in upper & lower functional parts - CRITICAL! HELP NEEDED
Ragdoll deaths - HELP NEEDED!
Textures - Normals/masks - in the pipline
Animations
- the speed of the legs is too slow for a medium mek, came as 30 fps for a full walk cycle
- when switching between left and right leg animations in RE the body appears to turn, I didn't notice this until I put the package together. I will have to fix this.

[riidom]

Need seperation of the mesh in upper & lower functional parts

Can you explain the problem please? I looked at the .ms3d, and the mesh is divided into many parts already, only thing to do would be to make two objects out of one - that is how I see the problem so far, and obviously there is some part I am not getting, I guess.

[cdxbow]

Its not a physical seperation of the mesh file, rather a functional seperation using the md5animpart command, which essentially allows you to combine 2 seperate animations such as forward and shoot to run at the same time. From the modelling guide:

md5animpart B
Starts a new animation part that will include bone B and all its sub-bones. This effectively splits animations up at the bone B, such that each animation part animates as if it were a separate model. Note that a new animation part has no animations (does not inherit any from the previous animation part). After an "md5load", an implicit animation part is started that involves all bones not used by other animation parts.

Each model currently may only have 2 animation parts, including the implicit default part, so this command may only be used once and only once per md5mesh loaded. However, you do not need to specify any animation parts explicitly and can just use the default part for all animations, if you do not wish the animations to be split up/blended together.

I have tried copying the config current RE player model and others including those with Sauerbraten, but after many hours of trying I gave up. I may post at quad and see if anyone there can help.

[fawstoar]

ETA of a playable release? Even if it's buggy and utterly lacking in features?

[cdxbow]

Good question, fawstoar!

I really wanted to get something out for November because that would be a chance to celebrate 3 years of pain and suffering with this project, but the fact is we have a couple of big things to sort out, one of which is we have to make a decision about using the dynamic lighting from Tesseract. Mek games, being outdoors, are good candidates for Tesserect, so we are trying to work up a plan now.

It may be we put something together before that beacuse we will need to build, test and balance new weapons against the mek classes, which can be pretty time consuming. I'm afraid haven't thought much about the weapons and they have been pretty much ignored, though looking through these forums, they seem to be the most popular mods.

[quintux_v]

It may be we put something together before that beacuse we will need to build, test and balance new weapons against the mek classes, which can be pretty time consuming.

I've been pretty interested in this project for a while, I'd be willing to test it if you have a version ready.

[cdxbow]

Thanks quintux_V, we will be calling on you in the near future.