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How to load a FPS Creatur model...Step by Step


Chiblue
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After making lots and lots of mistakes and getting some very useful help from the LE community I thought I would post a how to for getting FPSC model packs into LE...

 

First thing to note is that not all things are equal in the FPSC world so this exercise is one of trial and error... some model packs work some don't so note "You have been warned"

 

The FPS Creator model packs for the most part use an animated mesh called Hud.x, this mesh contains weapon hands and ammo models and textures.. (although not always all 3).. There is a file in the folder called gunspecs.txt this is a config file used by FPS Creator to load the weapon animations, sound, gun flashes, smoke etc, etc.. so take a look at this.. The other things you will need for this basic set of steps are the hud.x, and the ammo??.dds, gun???.dds and hands???.dds, these names are sometimes different but always (well mostly) contain ammo, hands and gun..

 

The tools you need are a 3D editor that supports direct.X and GMF, UU3D is the one I now use after several different not so cheap trials, get UU3D and the direct X and GMF plugins... for the textures I use Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 with the DDS photoshop plugin.. to get UU3D and PSP X2 will set you back $100 or there abouts... but well work it..

 

So now you are armed with the tools... you are ready to start...

 

These steps are my process so you can change them as you feel fit, but this works for me so use this and then try your own approach...

 

1. Take the folder for the weapon from the FPSC pack, I will use the G3 as this is my favorite FPS weapon... So in the FPS pack, copy the entire G3 folder into a working folder..

 

2. locate the 3 textures for ammo, gun and hands and now using your graphics tool open them and resave them as DXT5 8 bit alpha.. sometimes they already are but this has tripped me up a couple of times...

 

3. Find the genmat exectuable in the LE tools folder and copy it to your G3 folder, and drag one of the DDS files onto it, this creates a basic material file for each... now open up each mat file and remove all but the first line i.e. texture0="ab... leave this line as is....

 

Replace the other lines with the following lines..

 

shader="abstract::mesh_diffuse_bumpmap_skin.vert","abstract::mesh_diffuse.frag"

shadowshader="abstract::mesh_shadow_skin.vert",""

 

and save the mat files, this has to be done for all 3 dds files..

 

4. Open the hud.x file in UU3D ensure you select swap handedness in the options otherwise you are left handed... I always create both just to allow the player to pick which they prefer... kind of a fun little option....

 

5. Now I will normall scale this to 1/4 normal size using the modifiers/scene/scale option... and then I will use the modifiers/scene/move and center the model... you will still have to scale the model in LE but I prefer to keep this scaling at a minimum, if you wish you can leave it as is and scale more...

 

6. Now you will need to apply the textures... on the right panel of UU3D there will be a materials option... expand this and you will see the required materials... they are mostly names ammo, hands and gun... although again not always... so double click or right click and select properties on the first texture... click the middle tab "maps" and in the difuse select bitmap and click and assign the dds file you just saved... do this for all 3 textures as appropriate..

 

7. I will normally save the file as a UU3D native file so I can re-edit it later if I wish... your choice (you cannot open GMF files), next step save as HUD.GMF or whatever you wish.. in the GMF save options ensure you select to save animations and bones...

 

8. You are now ready to load the mesh into LE, using the loadmesh function, you will have to rotate the mesh 180, and position on the Y and Z to get it correctly positions... you will also hav to scale it... these are all trial and error, I will normally create a config file in the folder to record all these options, alternatively you can create a lua script... if you get this working I would like to see it...

 

Well I hope this helps you get these models into your project... but remember not all packs work, some require lots of manipulation and even when you get them in strange things happen...

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If it's not Tactical realism then you are just playing..

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As a side note I have recently been working on some of the less than clean .x files available in other FPSC packs, specifically pack 9 and pack 6... these HUD.x models are basically a mess when you load them into UU3D they are a disaster once you try to use animation... the problem is that the HUD.X contains animation scaling frames... these mess up big time. The question would be then if they are so bad how does FPSC load them, well FPSC always loads the DBO file if one is available and these (in all I checked) have one, so a good hint on this is if there is a hud.dbo file in the folder, watch out, until UU3D has a viable DBO import filter you are stuck with the .X file...

 

I have played around somewhat with these models in UU3D and found that in most cases if you selectively delete the scaling animation, also the set scale option in the bone properties... this really helps...

 

The other problem you see with these packs specifically are the bone influences on the vertex... It seems that TGC used the same basic hand model for many of thier hud models... as the vertex are attached to the bone but are not in the correct location... this is simply a matter of repositioning these vertices and these will work ok..

 

to some extent you do have to do this using trial and error but I have now managed to load several of these into LE model viewer, Editor and C++.

 

If you have a specific model you are trying to load please feel free to let me know and I will try and help all I can...

If it's not Tactical realism then you are just playing..

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It seems that TGC used the same basic hand model for many of thier hud models... as the vertex are attached to the bone but are not in the correct location... this is simply a matter of repositioning these vertices and these will work ok

I haven't experienced any of the other issues you were referring to but the incorrectly weighted verticies on the hand is common, as you say re-attaching these is all that's required.

Intel Core i5 2.66 GHz, Asus P7P55D, 8Gb DDR3 RAM, GTX460 1Gb DDR5, Windows 7 (x64), LE Editor, GMax, 3DWS, UU3D Pro, Texture Maker Pro, Shader Map Pro. Development language: C/C++

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