Leveling Up at Unit Creation

[tantanmen]

Hello~hello!

Along with my buddies Bagdemagus, BossDaddy, Spillsandstains, and tangjinfeng we thought we'd create a thread where we can ask questions as we attempt to move up through the ranks of unit creation.

We are eager to learn, enthusiastic to share our knowledge, and would greatly appreciate any help along the way

 

[tantanmen]

To kick things off, I'd like to ask about the issues I've been having with weapons (appearing when and where they're not supposed to).

My Main Question: Can weapons be set in Blender?

Spoiler Description of the problems :

Here are two examples which I believe share the same underlying issue:

1) Swordsman (vanilla kfm) - primary and secondary swords during fidget anims

Some of you might recognize this unit. I stumbled across a slightly different version and I wanted to see if I could fix the magic floating sword:

Spoiler Unsolved in Blender... :

This is the unit that made me want to try Blender. Notice the secondary sword position.

Pictured below is an attempt to correct this in Blender... Hmm, but this doesn't look quite right in Nifskope. What happened to the nodes for the secondary sword? I think I must've missed a step or three?

In the end, after a lot of trial & error in Nifskope and Blender, I managed to free this guy from the old scene root. My solution then was to nifswap the unit and weaponswap the swords to the Vanilla Swordsman.

But is there a way to set up the weapons correctly in Blender? Because I keep running into this issue.

2) Babylonian Bowman kfm - when idling, the unit is holding an arrow in his hand etc. This seems to be a similar issue to that of the swordsman.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[topsecret]

Nifswapping has always been my solution, although you might try adjusting the second, "invisible" sword in NifSkope and move it into the right position.

There's a neat work around that helps when animations put things in wacky positions.

1. Put the animation (kfm + kf) into the folder with your custom nif.
2. Save your work before next step.
3. Use attach kf to choose the kf with the sword in the ground.
4. Manuever it into position with NifSkope.
5. Write down coordinates and rotation without saving.
6. Reload the model and move the sword into position.
7. Now save without attaching the kf.

Note this does not fix the problem if the sword's nodes are gone.

The easiest way to fix that is to simply nifswap onto the same kfm. That is generally the accepted, easiest, and fastest fix.

 

[tantanmen]

a neat work around

Thank you very much topsecret. Pretty much everything I've been able to do so far in unit modding is thanks to your generous and thorough tutorials. I really appreciate your help and support

 

[BossDaddy]

Do I get in trouble for begging for MT's guidance on two posts?

I uploaded the MTW 2 Boromir on Topsecret's thread. It's applicable to his thread, but I feel like I was hijacking it

Also, does anyone know how the texture files are handled in Humankind? The meshes convert very easily into Civ 4. Would be great if the textures are easily accessible.

 

[tantanmen]

Do I get in trouble for begging for MT's guidance on two posts?

I uploaded the MTW 2 Boromir on Topsecret's thread. It's applicable to his thread, but I feel like I was hijacking it

...uhm I do apologize on behalf of my colleague here, but in the ecstatic throes of converting passion, he's invoked the mighty aegis of @MightyToad

Boromir Unchained (Topsecret's Unit Thread)

If you have a moment Magnanimous Toad, we would really appreciate your guidance. Please feel free to school us in this thread.

Also @topsecret, sorry if we were in fact hijacking your thread But you're almost guaranteed a nice & shiny Boromir. "Never again will the land of my people fall into enemy hands!"

 

[topsecret]

...uhm I do apologize on behalf of my colleague here, but in the ecstatic throes of converting passion, he's invoked the mighty aegis of @MightyToad

Boromir Unchained (Topsecret's Unit Thread)

If you have a moment Magnanimous Toad, we would really appreciate your guidance. Please feel free to school us in this thread.

Also @topsecret, sorry if we were in fact hijacking your thread But you're almost guaranteed a nice & shiny Boromir. "Never again will the land of my people fall into enemy hands!"

Feel free to clutter up my thread with all LOTR talk. Boromir is looking good so far. But like I said, don't look at me for converting or rigging. Now once you have him rigged up, I can NIF swap him to almost any animation...

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Love these units Tant. Sort of have a Minoan feel to them. Animation weirdness is always an issue. I have yet to experiment with something like that, I'd like more to get better at making unit models myself. Reskinning plus importing objects and such. I'd love to learn full modeling. Importing and rigging ships and other stuff.

In due time. In the meantime Great work here Tant!

 

[MightyToad]

I haven't looked at the unit, but I am positive it is missing the viscontroller for the sword (same for the archer).

Blender doesn't include this in the export. It also doesn't include the footsteps, or attachables like bow froth or damage smoke. This is why you always swap into the original nif. In theory you could just copy over the missing stuff, but why not just swap out the thing you want to change rather than fixing a broken nif?

The viscontroller is like an on/off switch. In the case of the this swordsman; the floating sword is hidden except during the die animation. Then it is switched on, and the other is switched off. Kind of pointless I think. Why not just use the same sword for everything?

The archers have a ton of these hiding different arrows and bows depending on circumstances.

 

[tantanmen]

The viscontroller is like an on/off switch.

This is precisely the thing I didn't know I was looking for, thank you MightyToad! You and topsecret have both saved me a lot of trouble. I was going bonkers with theories about the swordsman.

This is gonna make everything so much easier Thank you both again for all your help!

 

[Bagdemagus]

Any help Top Secret is greatly appreciated, given time and patience I’m sure this thread will help me to the next stage. UV mapping had always been a stumbling block for me. What add ons or plug ins does blender need for Uv mapping?

And specifically where and how do you put this plug in , into Blebder? Sorry I’m very noob with some aspects of modding (most).

In fact any help from anyone is greatly appreciated!

 

[topsecret]

UV mapping had always been a stumbling block for me. What add ons or plug ins does blender need for Uv mapping?

What unit do you want to map?
Adding a texture map can be a pain, honestly. Blender can do it normally with unwrapping, but making it look good can take a while, at least for me. It's why I usually only use things that already have a texture applied.

 

[topsecret]

Here's the Blender manual on it.

 

[BossDaddy]

To me, the hardest part of blender was getting it set up. You'll want version 2.49b and 2.79. Version 2.79 is the last version that handles .nifs I believe. You could probably use a more current version and use the resulting .blend file (that's the blender save format) in 2.49b and 2.79. You need to install python as well. After that, there are plugins for 2.49b and 2.79 that you'll need. I could upload the plugins I use if you decide to use blender.

Thanks for that nifskope info TS and MT. As a work around, I was swapping the weapon and node into my finished version.

 

[topsecret]

To me, the hardest part of blender was getting it set up. You'll want version 2.49b and 2.79. Version 2.79 is the last version that handles .nifs I believe. You could probably use a more current version and use the resulting .blend file (that's the blender save format) in 2.49b and 2.79. You need to install python as well. After that, there are plugins for 2.49b and 2.79 that you'll need. I could upload the plugins I use if you decide to use blender.

Thanks for that nifskope info TS and MT. As a work around, I was swapping the weapon and node into my finished version.

Yeah Nifswapping is just the easiest way; it's how I have always solved those types of problems.

 

[MightyToad]

UV mapping had always been a stumbling block for me.

This was all done in Blender 2.49. At this point all the key binds are practically muscle memory for me. They are all changed for later blender versions. So, I struggle for hours trying to do basic stuff on those.
Most tutorials unwrap a cube to show you the basics. I'm going to do a head since that is something you would probably actually want to do.
I imported my favorite head (obj file) into blender. I also picked a face texture I found on Google images. I pasted that into the corner of a new texture file in Gimp2, and saved as a dds.
The head has already been UV mapped using a profile view. However, this texture is mapped from the front. So, we will have to add a seam going along the back and top of the head. That is basically where it will "unzip".


I'm doing the ears separate. Select the faces for both ears. Looking from the side(3 on numpad) unwrap, but for this use the "project from view". This unwraps the faces exactly as the are seen in the 3D view above. You can get both ears at once this way. Then I press "H" to hide them for now.

Once the ears are hidden. Press "A" so select all in the 3D view. Then Ctrl + U to unwrap again, but this time select the normal "Unwrap" rather than "Project from view". You see the proportions are way off. The face is too small, and the rest too big. This is what topsecret meant when he said it is "a pain" and can "take a while".

Down below in the UV window I pressed "S" for scale. Scaled up the UV map so the face was the correct size, but the rest is way outside the where it needs to be. Some even spills outside of the texture file itself.

Once the face looks right Deselect vertices in the UV map area that the correct scale. The fastest way is to Press "B" twice. A circle will replace the mouse cursor. Pressing the middle mouse button anything inside the circle will be deselected. Press "S" to scale again, but this time shrink. I did this in 3 stages. As the inter vertices got close I deselected them, and proceeded until they were all inside the texture.

This turned out better than I expected. I used a ready made texture, so it was pretty straight forward. In my experience I probably spend 80% of my time in GIMP working on the texture rather than in Blender.
There is no pluggin to UV for you that I am aware of (unfortunately).

 

[topsecret]

That's a great tutorial, MightyToad.

And yeah, that's why I'm not so crazy about porting stuff or unwrapping it. Sometimes my (lack of) free time doesn't make that easy

 

[BossDaddy]

Oh man. Thanks so much MT.

Could you help with this? I've managed to get Total Warhammer meshes converted and in-game. The mesh doesn't show up in nifskope though. I haven't tried to convert textures yet, but that's next up. Once I have that, I should be able to convert the Age of Bronze units. The invisible nif doesn't seem to be a big deal, it's going to bother the heck out of me. It always made a duplicate of the mesh for some reason.

I've included a bunch of different file types in the zip. The blend file opens in 2.79 and 2.49b this time too.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here are the textures for the minotaur head. It's very strange though. The textures would not show up at all in Blender. I opened them with Gimp, made zero changes, and exported the file. Then they show up in blender. Those textures are saved as Gimped.bst_minotaur_head_01_diffuse.dds and Gimped.bst_butchers_of_kalkengard_head_01_diffuse.dds. That solved that problem, but it seems like the UV map is mirrored from what it should be. It's not an issue with rotating the UV. Is there some way to mirror or invert the UV map? If so then I think we're golden.

 

[MightyToad]

I wanted to test exporting with 2.79, but I don't have nif scripts installed for it.
Anyway, the reason there are two meshes is you have two materials assigned in 2.79 (although, not in 2.49). This extra material is created when you import "obj" format for some reason. Looks like you already deleted it in 2.49. It's worth noting if you want to separate parts of a mesh on purpose you can create a new material. Then select the faces you want separate, and assign the new material to that( like if you only want team color/gloss for those parts, ect).

Here is the export settings I have for 2.49. The only thing I ever change is switch to animation(kf) only for exporting KFs, and set the scale to 1 (from 10) for civ 5 units. Some people think "Stich strips" is better. I don't know. I don't see a benefit, but I don't know everything.

As for setting up the texture for the material. It sounds more complicated than it is. It literally takes like 15 seconds to do, but seems complicated when you spell it out).
Starting in the object 3D view. Press "Ctrl + Right Arrow" to switch to material view.


At the bottom press the texture tab (square) next to the material tab (sphere).
Select "add new. Then in texture type select image. I think this is image/video in 2.79)

Then select "load", and browse to where the dds file is located (Gimped.bst_minotaur_head_01_diffuse.dds).

At the bottom switch back to material (sphere tab).

Set the map input to "UV" from "Orco".

Done in material view. So, press "Ctrl + Left Arrow" to switch back to 3D view.
Nothing will apparently change, but if you exported right away the nif should now have a texture property. However, to actually see it you have to go to edit mode, and bring up the UV editor in the window below.
The "minotaur_head_01_diffuse.dds" will now be available.

Yeah, it's upside down.
In the UV window select all (Ctrl + A). Then press "M" (not ctrl + M in the screenshot) for "Mirror". "X" is side to side, and "Y" is up and down. There you go. Looks cool.

As for why the original dds files wouldn't load? I donno. They are in DXT10 format instead of the usual DXT3 or 5. Maybe blender doesn't like that? Otherwise they seem ordinary to me.