How to use Blender to make SWBF series models (FAQ)

[DarthD.U.C.K.]

about the hardpoints: as long as the objects correct transformations are not lost during the process you can use anything as hardpoint (a polymesh for example)
about the transparency: you are right, enabeling transparency in blender or xsi does nothing ingame, you have to hexedit the model to enable transparency (buts thats really easy)

[Wonderboy]

So, what? Hardpoints are odf lines? I must sound really stupid, but I always thought you added hardpoints in the modeling application.

[DarthD.U.C.K.]

hardpoints arent odflines, hardpoints are objects to which certain effects or ordnances are attached
pandemic used mosly "nulls" for hardpoints because the are invisible ingame and dont have any polys but you can use a polymesh (like a cube, cylinder triangle or whatever) as a hardpoint as long as the transformation isnt compromised through exporting or freezing transforms etc.
what i wanted to express that, even though you may not be able to convert "nulls" from blender to xsi you could make small polymeshes and use them as hardpoints ingame as long as their transformation (translation and rotation) are correct but that may not be the case because the conversion may frezze (=reset) the transforms of them

[Wonderboy]

Ah, okay.

[Jaspo]

In Blender I've tried naming various things as the hardpoints left and right footpedal as is used for the attach and smoke effect points on a speederbike, but it didn't seem to work, so probably just about everything gets lost in translation to vrml...and that includes animation, so you can't make player models and such with Blender, so far as I can tell (as I've mentioned before in fact).

As for transparency, that requires the use of your tga file's alpha channel in conjunction with some well placed hex edits, which are easy to do (changing one or two numbers) compared to, say, envmapping, in which you have to copy a sizeable chunk of hex code from the dark trooper msh file and place it in the correct place in your own file.

And as for not being able to change an object in edit mode, you must first select it in object mode, then switch to edit mode, and then you will be able to edit it.

Similarly, for a texture to be applied to an object (in edit mode), the faces of the model which you want to receive the texture must be selected in the 3D view window, and then the new texture must be either selected from the list of existing textures or loaded, if I am recalling the process correctly.

[DEADALWAYS]

i fallow al the seps correctly put i don't get texture in msh viewer. do u know how to fix?

[Wonderboy]

Well, what are your steps? Did you make sure the .tga is in fact a .tga, that the UV map is in the same place as your .blend file, and that you selected TexFace? Those are what I assume are the most common problems.

[ShadowClone]

hey i don't get collision and the objects don't show in game. u know what is wrong?

[Jaspo]

what do they look like in the Zero Editor?

[ShadowClone]

they look like this

Hidden/Spoiler:

Edit- DEAD_ALWAYS was banned so he asked me to put this up for him

[Jaspo]

I discovered something new (I think)...I believe if you export an .obj from Zeroeditor and then import it into Blender and make changes and uv map it and such, you need to convert it to a mesh (a menu option in object mode) or the textures won't get added to the vrml export. I'm thinking this might be true of other imported formats as well...the only other importing I've done is as vrml97, that being stock BF2 assets converted to vrml97 using the msh viewer. That's a bit different, but more of a pain; it creates a new material for each material in every object you import, which then all must have the texface button checked, if you import a number of models it can easily get to be over a hundred materials, and I don't know of a way to "batch click" the texface button for all of them.

[Philou231]

Does someone tried making mirror or does the vrml convertion will kill evry efforts?
I've tried but it doesn't work.

[mswf]

What do you mean by mirror? If you mean a reflective surface, you could try to make a separate object that has all the parts that you want to be reflective and then hex-edit that mesh after exporting, to make it reflective.
I can't seem to find a list of hex-values for this sort of stuff though, I was sure such a list existed somewhere on this forum.

[Philou231]

yes a reflective surface, so it is possible by hex editing the mesh.When I tried first I was doing the reflective surface in blender directly. Thanks I'll try it and I'll search for that file in the forums. It is to create a house of mirror .

[mswf]

I looked it up;
I'm afraid you can't do "real" reflective surfaces. The only slightly more easy approach is through this technique:
http://www.gametoast.com/forums/viewtop ... 444#p65444
But, that won't get you a mirror. I don't know if you can map a cubemap/lightprobe to an object in the zeroengine, which would be the other viable way for a game-engine.

[hiddendoor]

What version of blender were you using? Mine looks alot different than the one your using in your video tutorial.

[AceMastermind]

He's using version 2.48a in the video, but newer versions should work too. I think the user interface changed at version 2.5 though.

Index of Blender releases

[THEWULFMAN]

I recommend the use of 2.49b. Last stable release before the UI change. Additionally (as far as I know) most of the changes since then were for the benefit of making animations like this one.

If you're just here to make models for SWBF2, stick with 2.49b.

[mswf]

I recommend the use of 2.49b. Last stable release before the UI change. Additionally (as far as I know) most of the changes since then were for the benefit of making animations like this one.
If you're just here to make models for SWBF2, stick with 2.49b.

That doesn't do the new releases justice. For example, the newest release, 2.62, now has:
- new UV tools, you can live unwrap models (immediately see the effect of new marked seams), as well as "sculpt" the UV's (grab, move or relax UV's with a brush)
- Better Booleans, you can now actually use them and move parts around freely without your machine continuously locking up, also it doesn't tear up your mesh quite as badly as it used to.
- a remesh modifier Usefull for sculpting, you can get better detail across your model

But you'll really want to look out for 2.63, because Blender will then support N-gons (sides with 5 or more edges), which really helps when modelling. For example, you can cut a hole in the mesh with the knife tool and worry about the topology when you've finished your model.

All these new tools may make it worth your while to create your model in 2.62 and then export it to SWBF through 2.49b.

[THEWULFMAN]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info mswf. I hadn't paid much attention to the post 1.6 releases.