Lowrez Needed

Started by Shazam, April 20, 2014, 04:26:07 PM

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April 20, 2014, 04:26:07 PM Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 05:27:52 PM by Dark_Phantom
After digging through some of my old projects, I found one of my favorite reskins that I used for the Battle Royale and a custom side.lvl, but I never had a lowrez model for it.  If someone can find a model that looks very similar or could make a lowrez model, I would really appreciate it.

This is what the blue unit looks like:
[spoiler][/spoiler]


I'll need a black and white lowrez .tga so I can just colorize it for the different classes.  Each class will be the same trooper with different colors and weapon changes.  Trooper will be orange, vanguard will be blue, pilot will be yellow, sniper will be red, and the special class will be green (or stock wookiee if I make an OC version)

If anyone is interested, I can release the mod as an online compatible reskin, but I planned on using this for a mod map with weapon changes and without a wookiee. 


And btw, the link to GT link does not now work on the How-To-Thread
Quote from: Snake on April 06, 2011, 07:00:03 PM
HowTo-Make a lowrez mesh for your model

Of course you pick a link that doesn't work.   ;)
Fixed.
The BOBclan:  A Rich History


Quote from: Unit 33 on November 29, 2014, 03:44:44 AM
'Please, tell me more about the logistics of the design of laser swords being wielded by space wizards' - Some guy on the internet.

Thanks, DP!  Unfortunately, that tutorial isn't much good for me considering I have never made a new model.  I was hoping there was a way to hex edit the high rez mesh to make it low poly or something.

Can you just tell the game to read the high rez mesh?




Also, here are the rest of the skins:

Trooper
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Vanguard
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Pilot
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Sniper
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Special
[spoiler][/spoiler]

They look better ingame with specularity, I promise.  :panic:

Quote from: Shazam on April 20, 2014, 06:04:05 PM
Thanks, DP!  Unfortunately, that tutorial isn't much good for me considering I have never made a new model.  I was hoping there was a way to hex edit the high rez mesh to make it low poly or something.

Can you just tell the game to read the high rez mesh?
You can accomplish something like that with tirpider's SchMe. http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=6680.0 Having a level fill of high resolution meshes may come at a performance cost-- although the only to really know is to try it.

Quote from: SleepKiller on April 20, 2014, 06:18:20 PM
You can accomplish something like that with tirpider's SchMe. http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=6680.0 Having a level fill of high resolution meshes may come at a performance cost-- although the only to really know is to try it.

I fear that my game may be a little slower if it's being forced to always show the high resolution models.  That, and the fact that SchMe looks to be way over my head.  It may just be my laziness, but I would rather not learn how to use a new tool for the sake of one model.

I think I may just do some digging to find something that kind of resembles it unless someone can make/find one before then. 

Quote from: Shazam on April 20, 2014, 06:37:35 PM
I think I may just do some digging to find something that kind of resembles it unless someone can make/find one before then.

This is a good option.
Quote from: Abraham Lincoln. on November 04, 1971, 12:34:40 PM
Don't believe everything you read on the internet

Quote from: Shazam on April 20, 2014, 06:37:35 PM
I fear that my game may be a little slower if it's being forced to always show the high resolution models.  That, and the fact that SchMe looks to be way over my head.
Allow me to show you how simple this is. Download this to see step by step how to use it for what you want. http://mk01.site.nfoservers.com/Misc/Recording_20140421_1355.mht If you're on Internet Explorer it'll open straight in the web browser, if you're using something else like me you'll just have to double click on it to open it. Also click on the pictures to get full scale ones and see what is going on better :)

Quote from: SleepKiller on April 20, 2014, 07:03:48 PM
Allow me to show you how simple this is. Download this to see step by step how to use it for what you want. http://mk01.site.nfoservers.com/Misc/Recording_20140421_1355.mht If you're on Internet Explorer it'll open straight in the web browser, if you're using something else like me you'll just have to double click on it to open it. Also click on the pictures to get full scale ones and see what is going on better :)

Thanks, SK!  I've downloaded and looked at the file and the process doesn't look very complicated at all.  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow (probably). 

It looks like that could be attached to a rebel vanguard lowres without looking too different. Tirp has done that trick for me several times.
=AaTc= Forever

SALLY....

-Retired Modder

I can't really identify the parts on that model, but it looks like a kitbash.
If all the pieces can be produced, I may be able to cobble together a proper lowres.
(really just need that msh so I can find the model it's based on.)

And as SK mentioned, SchME can make a hacky lowres out of the hi res geometry, but it is a performance hit, and may not go smoothly if there is any weirdness about the original kitbash. (like MODL's not being numbered correctly, no NDXL chunks if it came out of ZETools, ect.)

I haven't set all my tools up and can't test in-game at the moment, but I can still blow models apart and reassemble them :)

Quote from: Snake on April 22, 2014, 01:14:29 PM
It looks like that could be attached to a rebel vanguard lowres without looking too different. Tirp has done that trick for me several times.

I actually tried that and it looks really out of place, even with a complete reskin to match the high resolution.  But if all else fails I'll just use the vanguard lowrez since it looks better than anything else I've tried.

Quote from: tirpider on April 22, 2014, 04:42:54 PM
I can't really identify the parts on that model, but it looks like a kitbash.
If all the pieces can be produced, I may be able to cobble together a proper lowres.
(really just need that msh so I can find the model it's based on.)

And as SK mentioned, SchME can make a hacky lowres out of the hi res geometry, but it is a performance hit, and may not go smoothly if there is any weirdness about the original kitbash. (like MODL's not being numbered correctly, no NDXL chunks if it came out of ZETools, ect.)

I haven't set all my tools up and can't test in-game at the moment, but I can still blow models apart and reassemble them :)

If you're willing to put together a lowrez, here's the original .msh. (below)
The only thing I've changed to it is what .tga it reads and I added specularity using Sereja's code.

Please don't feel like you have to do anything with the .msh, but I would feel much more confident releasing this mod if the lowrez looked nice.  :cheers:






April 23, 2014, 03:17:09 PM #11 Last Edit: April 23, 2014, 03:35:56 PM by -RepublicCommando-
Rewrite-

Several solutions:
I think it's the SWBFII rebel vanguard, so you might just go and find SWBFII model's lowrez and convert it over, and unless Shazam edited the Uv map, you won't need to move any UVs, just export as a different name looking for the texture he uses. - Problemo Solv-ed.

I found it quite easy to mess with the shadow volume the model already had when in xsi, and made it look quite like the original model just by moving some verts around, and since it's already animated/weighted/wateva the only issue is UV mapping and needs to be formatted like a lowrez model (don't have a clue how to do that..).  The uv mapping is easy, and I could do it in 10 minutes, so the only issue then would be my lack of knowledge on how lowrez is assembled, and I know of at least two folks that could tell me in a jiff ;)

Quote from: Shazam on April 23, 2014, 03:01:50 PM
If you're willing to put together a lowrez, here's the original .msh. (below)
The only thing I've changed to it is what .tga it reads and I added specularity using Sereja's code.

Please don't feel like you have to do anything with the .msh, but I would feel much more confident releasing this mod if the lowrez looked nice.  :cheers:

I won't alter the msh at all. I just need it to identify where some of the parts came from so I can go get the lowres versions of those parts and build a lowres.

Working on this and one other model at the moment. Shouldn't take long, but I am a bit rusty. Plan on a week and we'll all be happy if it doesn't take that long.


@RC
Internally, there is nothing special about how a lowres unit is arranged. Just a biped mesh, enveloped to the lowres skeleton instead of the highres skeleton. You can import a lowres with ZETools to see it all or to get a skeleton to use. (only a few are different in size like the wookiee and yoda.) You can still have multiple mesh's, just like the highres models, like detached hands, heads, helmets, ect. All the pieces still go under "dummyroot". The only thing different is the skeleton that it's all enveloped to.

It just seems weird cause the game handles them independently instead of in a sane way (embedded LOD's) like all the other models in the game (and in every other 3D game ever made). It's easier for me to work with them as discrete files, so I guess I can't complain too much.

SchME does a trick. It changes the weights of the bones NOT in the lowres skeleton, to an appropriate bone that is. It's a hack, and different folks have had mixed results with it. But it shows that the animations only care about the weights and the bone names.

As for the texture, it can have it's own, independant texture by simply feeding it a different filename. But you are doubling your work (making 2 TGA's,) and increasing the number of textures that need to load. Some of the stock models have different textures for lowres units. Really unnecessary imo. At best, an independant texture for a lowres should just be a scaled version of the highres tga.

If you are changing the UV's for your lowres, then you are working too hard. It should just be a simplified version of the same model used for the highres. Softimage has a tool to project UV's from one model to another (i forget what it's called atm), Polygon Reduction (Model>Modify>Poly.Mesh>Polygon Reduction) works good if you work on small selections at a time, and just adding/removing edges should be good enough as the lowres is only going to be seen through scopes and at a distance. (just my $0.02)

Does that count as a "jiff"? ;)

Quote from: tirpider on April 24, 2014, 08:46:22 AM
I won't alter the msh at all. I just need it to identify where some of the parts came from so I can go get the lowres versions of those parts and build a lowres.

Working on this and one other model at the moment. Shouldn't take long, but I am a bit rusty. Plan on a week and we'll all be happy if it doesn't take that long.

A week is great.  Thanks in advance! 

I hate to bump, but I feel an update is necessary.

I thought my summer schedule would be mostly free, but I was wrong.  I don't think I'll be able to undergo any big modding projects or complete any of the many maps that I have started, unfortunately.

If anyone wants the .msh and .tga's (see below) for my units, feel free to ask.  I don't mind sharing as long as I am given credit.
Quote from: Shazam on April 20, 2014, 06:04:05 PM
Also, here are the rest of the skins:

Trooper
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Vanguard
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Pilot
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Sniper
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Special
[spoiler][/spoiler]

They look better ingame with specularity, I promise.  :panic:

@tirpider:  If you have already started or plan to create the lowrez, I can still complete and release this, but it won't be very soon--probably by the end of my summer break.