Custom Content Challenge: November 2015: Wizard's Tower

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Hmmm can't get the room to paint - I also forgot to flip the normals on the wall geometry (that I can fix easily enough). Since I stink at making SET files, anyone care to take a look and see what's wrong?

 

https://www.dropbox....izTower.7z?dl=0

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_boodah83]

               

I think the problem is, that you don't have any tiles for the floor terrain (all the a01 tiles are assigned to the tower 4x4 group), so if you don't want to add an actual floor terrain (and just have groups), delete the floor terrain from the set file and rename every instance of it to wall. I did try that and it works.

 

Just in case my explanation doesn't make much sense, I'll send you the changed set and itp files.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

Sorry to be such a noob, but I'm having trouble trying to get a model imported into the toolset. I think I have the hak file set up correctly with placeables.2da, mdl, tga, and wok file entries, and I created a custom placeable with the item's correct appearance entry selected. The model shows up fine in Blender when imported via Neverblender. The only problem is it won't show up in the toolset (including the blueprint's preview window). Any suggestions?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

I think the problem is, that you don't have any tiles for the floor terrain (all the a01 tiles are assigned to the tower 4x4 group), so if you don't want to add an actual floor terrain (and just have groups), delete the floor terrain from the set file and rename every instance of it to wall. I did try that and it works.

 

Just in case my explanation doesn't make much sense, I'll send you the changed set and itp files.

 

[Facepalms] Thanks old friend, that solution was so obvious I'd have never figured it out.  '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_boodah83]

               

@Pstemarie: Tbh, took me quiet a while and several different trial-and-error approaches to figure that out. Forest for the trees and all that.

 

@rjshae: Hm, quite hard to tell what the problem is without seeing the actual mdl, plus I don't have any experience with Blender (and the Never Blender export scripts) yet. Only thing I can say offhand is that a placeable should come with a pwk, not a wok file, but maybe you meant that and I doubt it has anything to do with the model not showing up anyway.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_cervantes35]

               

@rjshae: Only thing I can think of right of hand is check your mdl file see if the the nodes have a render line and make sure it is set to 1. If I think of anything else I will post again.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

@rjshae: Hm, quite hard to tell what the problem is without seeing the actual mdl, plus I don't have any experience with Blender (and the Never Blender export scripts) yet. Only thing I can say offhand is that a placeable should come with a pwk, not a wok file, but maybe you meant that and I doubt it has anything to do with the model not showing up anyway.

 

Unfortunately I don't see an option for exporting with a .pwk file. I'll have to investigate that. Thanks. Here's a copy in case somebody is interested in seeing if they can spot the problem. '>

 

@rjshae: Only thing I can think of right of hand is check your mdl file see if the the nodes have a render line and make sure it is set to 1. If I think of anything else I will post again.

 

Yes it has a "render 1" entry. Thanks.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_GunnersaurusRex]

               

Unfortunately I don't see an option for exporting with a .pwk file. I'll have to investigate that. Thanks. Here's a copy in case somebody is interested in seeing if they can spot the problem. '>

 

 

Yes it has a "render 1" entry. Thanks.

 

You have the classification set to 'tile' on the 'Aurora Dummy Properties' for your chair's main empty/dummy node. Try switching it to 'character' in Blender.

 

The PWK will be exported automatically – in Blender you need to create another empty (I usually the same name as the placeable but with the suffix '_PWK'. Set the Aurora Dummy Properties to 'pwk rootdummy' for this one, and make it a parent of your PWK mesh. It should export automatically with your placeable.

 

If you want to ensure people face the right way when they sit in the chair, you'll also need a use dummy connected to your new PWK empty. Create another empty in front of the chair, with the name <suffix>_pwk_use01 (where <suffix> is the three letter suffix for your chair) – don't need to set any dummy properties on that one.

 

Let me know if this works - if not will have another look.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_KlatchainCoffee]

               

A random idea (probably not the last for this contest): a portal with a 'slideshow' of different 'worlds' rotating through it - possibly achieved by a flat animation within a door-like frame. The slideshow may even be based on screenies of builds done in various nwn tilesets. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Asymmetric]

               

Unfortunately I don't see an option for exporting with a .pwk file. I'll have to investigate that. Thanks. Here's a copy in case somebody is interested in seeing if they can spot the problem. '>

 

 

Yes it has a "render 1" entry. Thanks.

 

I had a look. The mdl rootdummy has its' supermodel set to "Trone". You need to set it to "null". It seems NWN doesn't like having a supermodel in placeables and it won't render at all. Supermodels only works for creatures I assume.

 

As for the walkmesh, see Gunnersausus comment, i.e. use a second empty with type pwk rootdummy for placeable walkmeshes. Then change the classification of your mdl rootdummy to "Character".

 

FYI: I'm working on neverblender at the moment. Making it a little faster and easier to use. Among other things being less strict about when to export walkmeshes '> and offering some predefined node types (for example use and impact nodes)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_rjshae]

               

Thanks guys, I'll give it a try tonight or tomorrow.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

The first Rubbish PHoD Wizard Tower Thing...

Note the salient facts - 1. It sticks up into the air. This is considered mandatory for towers, I believe... 2. Um... Actually, that's about it really. I don't know if Wizard Towers are supposed to have weather vanes but, I just felt compelled to nail one on...

Here it is in the distance; the tower that is, not the weather vane... well, both actually.

And here it is a bit closer to, he said, providing the kind of pathetically vapid and irritatingly unnecessary narration found in children's books with waterproof, chewable pages...

See how Kara walks down the path. See how she finds a wizard in residence... well, not in the residence, 'cause the putrid berk's standing outside it...

Having located the alleged, supposed, so-called wizard, with his stupidly lurid robes, we might well ask the farcically-hatted nit exactly why there's a fence on his roof...

It's because there's a big area of decking on top of the front wing of the vaguely cruciform lower part of the tower. And in his great munificence, the Shabby Hyena Weirdo has left this area entirely free of everything... well, except the fence, of course. So you can put onto it whatever telescopes, orreries, sundials, arcane wombats, etc, etc that you wish. OR you can ignore it completely.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               

That tower looks fantastic.  Something that would take me days and days of frustration to get right, you probably knocked together in an hour with a couple of bricks.

 

Oh...and I couldn't help but notice that Kara's...er...horns seem to be getting larger.  Not that there is anything wrong with that of course. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               

Nah, they've always been like that; it's just the way she's standing... Spikes in every direction for the defence that says "you can look but you can't touch" more eloquently than words... Failing that, a hoof through the face usually gets the message across...

 

Anyway, Rubbish PHoD Wizard Tower nonsense article item thing, number two...

Disgustingly, with reekingly slovenly lack of originality, number two is just a winterized version of number one.

Because not all wizards can afford to live in the tropics...

In point of fact, Fifi instructed me (with a brick) to make a winter version 'cause she wanted it for some nameless purpose involving glaciers. Most of we, the redoubtable old CC makers who've been doing this rubbish for more years than we like to admit, near fossilized as we are, seem to keep forgetting to throw snow over such lumpy whassnames as we build.

This hopelessly minimalist gesture on my behalf toward an acceptance that not EVERYTHING happens in temperate zones, is to be filed away and used in my defence at any future time that anyone claims nobody ever makes winterized content.

Anyway, the model's identical, it's just had snow and ice tipped all over it from the big box marked "Snow and Ice". (I keep all my textures in boxes. Saves confusion).

 

Anyway, that's my concession to bland, generic, ordinary wizard towers done... From here on in, all further wizard towers will be subject to Official Shabby Hyena Weirdness...

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               

I guess I just never noticed she had spikes on her back before.  I don't recall seeing her in profile.  For a second--that is a really, really short second--I thought they looked like--mumbles--feathers.  Just don't tell her that.