Ideas for alien low mesh solutions?

[Phobos]

Most of the alien msh I will use for alien wars era do not have low mesh only regular. Does anyone have some ideas for solutions / workarounds to this? I have tried copying the msh and renaming it to _low1 but it spikes out in game.

[Sereja]

I am use some lowrez models from assets, and just reskin them. It look's nice to me...  I am even use Naboo Guard lowrez, for ithorian, and in the action of battle, it's almost look's well...
Still, if you want a perfection, the only way to solve this, it's Hex Craft skills, plus custom maded 3D parts.

[Phobos]

I am use some lowrez models from assets, and just reskin them. It look's nice to me...  I am even use Naboo Guard lowrez, for ithorian, and in the action of battle, it's almost look's well...
Still, if you want a perfection, the only way to solve this, it's Hex Craft skills, plus custom maded 3D parts.

okay thanks i will try using various assets for now

[tirpider]

I found a trick for the lowres msh's

It's a hex edit trick though.

I took the main geometry from the normal msh and put it as-is into a lowres skeleton (after removing the lowres's original geometry.)

After making sure the MNDX and parenting were set up, and making sure the materials were in place, I went through the ENVL, replacing bone entries with a closest equivalent.

For example, a basic unit skeleton would look like this:

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MNDX/ENVL entry - bone name
5  - bone_a_spine
6  - bone_b_spine
7  - bone_ribcage
10 - bone_l_clavicle
13 - bone_l_upperarm
14 - bone_l_forearm
17 - bone_l_hand
20 - bone_r_clavicle
23 - bone_r_upperarm
24 - bone_r_forearm
27 - bone_r_hand
31 - bone_neck
32 - bone_head
34 - bone_pelvis
36 - bone_r_thigh
37 - bone_r_calf
40 - bone_r_foot
41 - bone_r_toe
45 - bone_l_thigh
46 - bone_l_calf
49 - bone_l_foot
50 - bone_l_toe


And a basic lowres skeleton might look like this:

Code Select Expand

MNDX/ENVL entry - bone name
3  - bone_pelvis
4  - bone_r_thigh
5  - bone_r_calf
6  - bone_ribcage
7  - bone_r_upperarm
8  - bone_r_forearm
10 - bone_l_upperarm
11 - bone_l_forearm
12 - bone_neck
13 - bone_head
14 - bone_l_thigh
15 - bone_l_calf


I just compared the 2 and made an approximation of the best lowres bone to use to animate the highres bone.

Code Select Expand

Original ENVL                 New lowres ENVL

5  - bone_a_spine             3  - bone_pelvis
6  - bone_b_spine             6  - bone_ribcage
7  - bone_ribcage             6  - bone_ribcage
10 - bone_l_clavicle          6  - bone_ribcage
13 - bone_l_upperarm          10 - bone_l_upperarm
14 - bone_l_forearm           11 - bone_l_forearm
17 - bone_l_hand              11 - bone_l_forearm
20 - bone_r_clavicle          6  - bone_ribcage
23 - bone_r_upperarm          7  - bone_r_upperarm
24 - bone_r_forearm           8  - bone_r_forearm
27 - bone_r_hand              8  - bone_r_forearm
31 - bone_neck                12 - bone_neck
32 - bone_head                13 - bone_head
34 - bone_pelvis              3  - bone_pelvis
36 - bone_r_thigh             4  - bone_r_thigh
37 - bone_r_calf              5  - bone_r_calf
40 - bone_r_foot              5  - bone_r_calf
41 - bone_r_toe               5  - bone_r_calf
45 - bone_l_thigh             14 - bone_l_thigh
46 - bone_l_calf              15 - bone_l_calf
49 - bone_l_foot              15 - bone_l_calf
50 - bone_l_toe               15 - bone_l_calf

(all the numbers are in decimal and would of course need to be converted to hex for long integers)


You will notice that some of the bones are mentioned more than once and are not in sequential order.
The munger doesn't care.
Also, on my test models, there were lots of soft-weights (vertecies weighted to more than one bone) so it works on them as well.

The only catch I can foresee with doing this is that the high resolution 'lowres' msh's might cause too many polygons to be on the screen at once.
I haven't tested for this.
My test map is a high population map, but with no props, vehicles or complex terrain. Just flatland, a bunch of clones and tuskens, and whatever msh I am testing.

[Sereja]

So, this mean, you found the way, how to adopt normal rez model, for lowrez sceleton? If that so, it's realy nice, and may save many time, for creating lowrez. Still, I think,  you better decrease theyr quality somehow or it may cause possible lag or crash the game. Specialy if the map already overload by building lowrez.
Did you try to use XSI Mod Tool and ZETools? It's cud be helpfull in this.

[tirpider]

I wish I could decrease the resolution of the main msh some.
I'm only using the tools I have made to do this, so I can't decimate or degrade the mesh's.

I haven't tried XSI or ZETools yet.  He just got the import working and I would like to, but have been too busy to learn XSI's interface.
The easiest route (for me) would be through Milkshape3D (it has a DirectX mesh Tool that can decimate and subdivide a mesh pretty well,) but I have yet to succesfully get a full unit from there and into the game.

With that in mind, XSI would be the best solution for making a lowres msh.

You are right about the lag or crash. I remember testing a highres msh that had too much going on. Units would randomly disappear. They could still fire and be shot, but not even their weapons were visible.

The 2 I have tried this on (trying another right now) have not had this problem.  But if I were to do it to a very high polygon count unit, then the problem would literally double.

[Phobos]

Very interesting Tirpider.

On a side note I've found that sometimes my tusken raider low meshes sometimes go invisible (im using stock high and low msh). Sometimes they are right up closing firing at me and all I see are shots coming from an invisible AI tusken   

[Kit Fisto]

Very interesting Tirpider.

On a side note I've found that sometimes my tusken raider low meshes sometimes go invisible (im using stock high and low msh). Sometimes they are right up closing firing at me and all I see are shots coming from an invisible AI tusken   

This happens to me on certain maps when I have my LOD distance to low. I know it happens on Mygeeto. Me and my little brother would sometimes say they "Bothan-ized" 

[tirpider]

sometimes my tusken raider low meshes sometimes go invisible

I remember this happening on Mars Siege (still one of my favorites). I think it was just too many guys in one place.

I wish there were more control over how the game handles lod distances. The slider in options doesn't really do much outside of the stock maps.

[RepComm]

I have units disappear on RhenVar (both of 'em) Mygeeto conversion, and Mars Seige

I remember this happening on Mars Siege (still one of my favorites).

Me too!