TUT: IMPORT NIF FILE TO 3Ds MAX

[asioasioasio]

it works with max 8
downlaod version for max 8

 

[sharick]

Just letting you know. New plugin version is available. It supports Civ4 Shader and is less buggy. I hope they will continue working on it till we'll be able to fully import units with animations.

 

[Rabbit, White]

Just letting you know. New plugin version is available. It supports Civ4 Shader and is less buggy. I hope they will continue working on it till we'll be able to fully import units with animations.

Thanks for the heads up

 

[asioasioasio]

yep still don't know how to make animation for airplane with two propellers
it would be nice to merge them like this tank with existing files

 

[tazpn314]

Jeez, I didn't think you guys were using my addin as nobody posts anything over at the niftools forum about its problems. Well now that I found this topic I'll try to keep a better eye on it.

I think I might start some work on getting animations to playback better on the leaderheads as one of my next projects. I can get elizabeth largely working but her mouth is severely distorted when playing back animation. Feel free to post over there to get my attention if needed.

My primary focus has been with Oblivion but in reality I've spent more time playing Civ than anything else.

--

Any specific requests for me to investigate regarding importing units and/or their animations?

 

[Rabbit, White]

I wasn't even sure there was a discussion forum for this, it wasn't evident from the SourceForge's download page. Now that I found them I might go ahead and starting posting there but you will definitely should keep checking this thread as most people will probably just post here. Anyway, I'll quickly tell you my main concerns with the plugin although I haven't yet installed the latest version (0.2.2) and I'm pretty sure at least one of these have been resolved (though that's just based on version notes), anyway...

(these are all about the importer btw, haven't used anything else)

Other than animations, two main things bug me - one is that the material imported doesn't use civ4shader but rather the standard Blinn. Second, is that the model (after import) has all the vertices broken up (i.e. a corner of a cube would have 3 vertices instead of 1) and either incorrect or non-existent smoothing information resulting in flat shadows.

In any case I want to thank you for the great work you have done. This plugin has greatly enhanced our modding capabilities, even at this early stage. Hopefully you'll figure out the animations and I'm glad you're playing Civ instead of Oblivion 'cause that means you have more motivation to have the plugin "play nice" with civ4

 

[sharick]

The new version does import Civ4 shader and it works pretty well.
My biggest concern though is that plugin is only capable of importing single animation files. Is it possible to make it import .kfm file that will assamble all separate animations in one scene?

 

[tazpn314]

I think I have fixed both the shader and the normals but not the vertices issue per se with the last release. Not sure where that's coming from but I do think its working much better now.

I actually can import KFM but I think its disabled in the release version because we dont really understand the kfm format fully and we dont like using unknown data in code.

My big issue with kfm and to some degree kf files is I need to figure out how the animation manager gets data in/out so that I can import sequences correctly. The SDK is very different from the maxscript used which slows me down though I can actually call ms from the sdk so its not infeasible.

I've been playing various versions of Civ since 1997 or so so no problem with that. I dont think its possible for me to lose interest in civ. I just wasn't perceiving a need from this community while the Oblivion one is in desperate need of help. I mostly lurk over in the strat forum so thats probably why.

 

[sharick]

@tazpn314 - thanks a lot for your work. Actually Civ community is i desperate need too . It takes so much time to create new unit with animations and all so if we could just import existing ones and modify them it could be a real help.
Keep up the good work.

 

[woodelf]

I echo sharick on the desparate need and the thanks. I'm so far from being able to do my own animations that this is my only chance.

 

[asioasioasio]

hey thanx for this plugin and all efforts

yep still animations are difficult one

I need to figure out how the animation manager gets data in/out so that I can import sequences correctly.

i'm not sure if it would help you, because i'm 3d animation and programmming noob
but there's something made with MD and some maxscript - it describes in wich order should animation goes and slice it in many kf files (and produce kfm file) check this thread
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=159481
there's documentation where it is described
example files from firaxis (watch for maxscript - to see how it slice)
and plugins - version of plugin made for civ4 (by firaxis?) but it only exports

and you're plugin we're using for import, is real help and huge jump ahead,
but still makes difficult to work with animated objects
if it could load all the animations and kfm files
even unstable version of plugin with kfm support could be next big jump

 

[asioasioasio]

check also this sharick tutorial
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184327
thx sharick for that - i finally learned making new animations

 

[tazpn314]

General heads up. Niftools Max Plugins 0.2.4 is out. http://www.niftools.org

Another largely bug fix release with updates for normals and skin and animation. Oh yeah, Civ4 is working rather well but I have noticed a number of Leaderhead animations not working properly (this seems to be due to our BSpline Interpreter code and may be tough to sort out).

0.2.4
-----

• Exporter
  • Add animation export.
  • Available as "Netimmerse/Gamebryo (*.kf)" in export menu
• Importer
  • Add option to ignore UPB buffers.
    • Useful in preventing LOD Bone warnings from the Civ4 Exporter
  • Fixed problem with Animation Note Tracks not being cleared
  • Fixed issue with BSpline animation when too much data was present
    • Specifically the Civ4 Leaderheads now import animation very well
  • Import Animation Priority into user prop buffer
• NifProps Utility
  • Added Animation Priority
  • Removed unused Globals

0.2.3
-----

• Exporter
  • Fix issue when exporting a mesh with a skin modifier that had bones that were not used.
  • Fix bug with normals introduced in 0.2.2 when fixing previous problem
  • Changed code to scale the mesh so that Reset XForm is not required
  • Added support for Bone LOD code. Works with Civ4 Bone LOD Manager.
  • Added support for Lights and Cameras
• Importer
  • Alter code to create Camera nodes when name begins with Camera.
  • Initial pass at Lights
  • Fixed issues with skin modifier on Civ4 Units and Leaderheads
  • Added support for Bone LOD code. Works with Civ4 Bone LOD Manager.
  • Added support for Lights and Cameras
  • Fixed issues with Textures with multiple UV Sets

Forget to mention in the official list that I now support importing animation note tags and its completely compatible with the Civ4 animation manager.

Edit: Nobody posted since last time. Here is 0.2.4. Fixed the leaderhead issues so now they import damn near perfectly. Well transforms do anyway.