Custom Content Challenge: August 2014: African Adventures / Tileset Expansions

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

Right on !

 

That is exactly the sort of increased visual drama that I'm envisioning for the future of this beloved hobby.

Maybe scripted into some sort behavioural routines (aka prey/predator)

'>

 

Well that's something to consider...the sort of thing a Killmonger might seek out

 

<gnashing teeth, veins and gore....bring it on...>

 

 

<sigh>

 

 

But first things first....

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Got the larger 12-ft Girallon finished, and then realized that I had screwed up the scale on the smaller one, so using the scale wizard screwed up the secondary limb bones...Shouldn't take long to fix this weekend. I've named it Illthur after the John Carter comic (not the Disney movie) White Apes. I did fix the white texture for the white gorilla and it is shared onto the Illthur.

 

Slap a tail on either and you have the tailed fiendish girallon from dnd minis.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

Still having weirdness....

 

So I found my supersetted model was pivot misaligned and had broke some of the original models

I went in and surgically realigned everything (max Xform reset) from the best test model cases, including seven reskins.

Now all but the wildebeest appear in the toolset dialog box (animated) but won't appear when selected from the dropdown list.

Only the reworked white rhino appears.

(?)

 

The wildebeest is a special case (it still causes an Access Violation)

but the others were working before "when broken" (u can see em in the wip photo)

 

I have a similar problem with the Oryx.

When packaged alone it will appear.

But when packaged with the others (of the same superset), not.

All the others (of the same superset) will appear.

 

Any thoughts? (All textures are Blinn, tga) How many characters are allowed in a texture name 16 or 12?

For now I don't see the error...

Could it be 2da related? I've been using basic working copies from the Ox and Deer...

 

Curiously, upon export from max, the mesh object property dialog box again says "cast shadows" and I know I deselected it before saving and then export. The skin mesh should not be set to cast shadows.

But the "appeared" white rhino's skin does have "cast shadows" selected too. Hmm

Perhaps I'll have to try again real soon after a brief respite.

 

Btw

Should the superset model's parts (animated) each be modified with an Aurora Trimesh (No render, no shadow) or not?

 

<Perhaps I'm just too close to it.>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ia.Pepper]

               

 

 

 

 

We seriously need this for Fallout: New Orleans

 

*begs*

 

 

That plant has got some luscious lips.. lol.

 

Also, what is Fallout: New Orleans...?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

ps The Oryx tga is 1024x1024 pixels with 72pixels per inch  <perhaps a tad too high?

 

The other tga's appear to be 512x512 with 72pixels/inch < should be de resolved?

 

<doggedly>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

ps The Oryx tga is 1024x1024 pixels with 72pixels per inch  <perhaps a tad too high?

 

The other tga's appear to be 512x512 with 72pixels/inch < should be de resolved?

 

<doggedly>

 

I think you'll find that it is never the textures causing issues. But from everything you've said about your models so far, I think it's turned into spaghetti by now and probably needs to be looked at. My guess is that your pivot edits are not being baked properly, which is why I have custom functions to remove those after I use them. But to crash entirely is very much likely just your mesh having physical problems with faces and extra verts here and there.

 

I have this afternoon to play a bit, so if you'd like me to take a look at some stuff, pop it in a dropbox account or something and lemme see the base anims and whatever model is screwy. It shouldn't take long at all to figure out. And once it is figured out, you should know exactly what is going wrong for future skin making.

 

I can either fix one up for you so you can see the difference between files/meshes, or I can just point out exactly what you need to do to fix one and why.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ZugothNDeadly]

               

To scale up a model, what I usually do is make sure that I first have an animation set with any position keys ONLY on the root dummy. Then I use the scale wizard to scale up all the nodes in the scene. This will increase the size of all nodes in world scale, moving the rootdummy up to the proper position. If your version of NwMax does not do that, I can assist by offering mine. This will usually corrupt a skin. So to undo the damage, what I do is select the skin node, turn off its "always deform" (sp) checkbox, and then turn it back on. If you have to change the position of the skin, you should find that it just needs its position scaled. But be sure to do that AFTER you turn off the deform. Again, if your nwmax version does not have that ability, I can offer my skin scaling functions. After you do that, and the bones rely solely on rotation keys except for the position keys on the rootdummy, you can then set the animscale value to 1.0 safely in the aurorabase. This lets you save the larger animation with the current model. If however you want the animation linked externally, you use the animscale value equal to the rate you scaled up, which is normally what the scale wizard sets it to.


Simply using the animscale will also not give you proper shadows from the bones inside your model.

 

Edit:

 

Just to be clear, what the anim scale value seems to do is scales the values that position keys move. So if the base model has a position key that moves the root dummy up 100 points in a jump action, then the unscaled larger model will also only jump up 100 points, even though a 2x size model would need to jump up 200 to look the same.


This is also where the sunken into the ground, or floating appearance comes in. The intial position key of the rootdummy remains the same as the original model, so your 2x creature is half under ground, or a 0.5 scaled down model is floating half the original height (of it's root dummy) in the air.


From my experience, ONLY position keys are based on this. It has absolutely nothing to do with rotation keys. I do not use scale keys, so I don't know about those.

when i turned off the "always deform" checkbox, the skin nodes didnt scale up with the rest of the nodes when i used scale wizard on them

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

when i turned off the "always deform" checkbox, the skin nodes didnt scale up with the rest of the nodes when i used scale wizard on them

 

leave the always deform turned on when you run the wizard, then if the skin is deformed after that, then turn off the always deform and put them back on. You probably should only have to do that with skinned bits which rely on a bone with position keys, which I have encountered with some skinned wings and tails.

 

What should happen with the NwMax scale wizard is every single object in the scene should scale up, independent of others (except in the case of position keyed bones in animations), based on frame zero. You should also be able to notice the order of application of mods on those objects is preserved when the nodes are cloned. I have an object error on my machine which fusses over skin mods so I know when the skin is applied again, which led me to realize many of the functions in NwMax are not functioning on the original object, but making clones to work on (which is a good idea).

 

If that still doesn't upscale the skin, I will share the code from my version of the NwMax I am using. It may be personally modified and I just didn't write in comments for my edit.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Illthur Girallon is ready, but I still want to modify the base girallon anims for the top arms. I also figured out why white is not white on the white ape skin: the default skin exports with non-white ambient and diffuse colors. So I tweaked the white apes to appear more white but still accept tinting. The eastern and western gorilla textures were apparently perfected for use with a gray diffuse modifier, so I just left those as they were since they look great already.

 

Here is a picture of the 12-foot Illthur. The 12 foot is measured to the top of the head during combat animations, which is not what is shown. Shown is actually the taunt cycle height, which is much taller. The MM didn't specify from what it was measuring Girallon height when it specified 8 feet, so I just went with shoulder on those too.

 

Shown beside this one is a combat-ready ancient gorilla without the white-diffuse fix. The color difference is massive, though they are using the same texture.

 

I don't think I will take the Illthur the direction Disney did. I like the creature, but it did not stay true to the comics, and became very not-ape-like.

 

As you can see, the girallon is using two skins separated at the bottom of the top pecs. In the back is a fur flare, which does not actually work the way I had intended, casting more shadow than needed on the rest of the back. I may make it smaller, but the goal was to cover the seam, which failed and enhanced the seam instead.

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shemsu-Heru]

               

 

African style dynamic human male head....

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Killmonger]

               

'>........ '>

 

 

 

@SH and MD

 

Just Terrific !!!!

 

Keep it coming.

 

 

MD

 

I have pm'd you a link...

If you have time, I would like to know...for my edification and community benefit.

 

Thanks.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

'>........ '>

 

 

 

@SH and MD

 

Just Terrific !!!!

 

Keep it coming.

 

 

MD

 

I have pm'd you a link...

If you have time, I would like to know...for my edification and community benefit.

 

Thanks.

 

Happy to help. I believe I have plenty of time to finish the apes, and then it will only take me a day to create a thicker Khumat from SH's lizardman, or bits from other models.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Working with Killmonger tonight on the various cattle-like creatures. These are so awesome. You guys are going to love them!

 

Here is a shot of the wonderful skin work KM put into the black rhino. I've just split the model using my maxscript toolkit (and so can you any time you need it) so it functions properly in the toolset and in-game.

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shemsu-Heru]

               

 

Another dynamic, male, human head; This time in Zulu style....

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadowing2029]

               

I have seen somewhere that in one tribe women put and disk to their lips.