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[DPontious]

Looking for info on a a subject matter, looking for info on how to swop out the default charator. Also if i have another one made with bones could it be swoped in her place?

[ToY-Krun]

If I understand right, you want to add a custom character model to the game?


If thats right, you don't want to try to "replace" the default character, that would take more effort
than its worth and its not necessary.

a number of questions first...
Have you exported your custom character model from 3DSMax or Maya in the HGM format?

Have you set up your Repository Browser on your computer?

If so, we can help you get your character model uploaded (if you haven't already) and
help you add your character as a valid choice of character specs to use rather than the default.


this info will help determine where to begin trying to help you out!


Thanks

[DPontious]

Ok. Awesome, i have not exported as of yet.  That was one step i still not sure of.  I do have  Repository Browser set up.

[ToY-Krun]

Okay, lets take it a step at a time then,

Do you have 3DSMax or Maya setup to use the HeroTools?

If so, do you understand how to set the model up to export it?

You'll have to make sure your textures are in .dds format and in the repository.
then create your materials for the model and make sure the textures used point to the
ones in the repository.

Are you at this point?

[DPontious]

I do not ,that i know of have 3ds max setup to ise the hero tools. And not sure how to send up model. Only thing done is made model at this time.  Thanks for taken the time bu the way

[ToY-Krun]

Its no problem.


follow the directions on this page and make sure the script is added to 3DSMax and you can access the
HeroExporter and HeroCharacterTools


http://wiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Setting_up_3ds_Max

[DPontious]

Ok, yeah that has been set up. 

[ToY-Krun]

okay, did you replace the original "standard" materials with Hero materials and set the diffuse and/or normals to point to the .dds textures in your repository?

[ToY-Krun]

Somewhat of a walkthrough from the point of uploading your .dds textures (scaled to power of 2 sizes only of 1024 or less unless you have a 2048 you absolutely need for some reason)



using PS or Gimp or whatever you use, export your textures as .dds using dxt1 compression, and generate mipmaps
(unless you handles the mips otherwise yourself)

create/use existing folder in your repository and move your .dds textures to that folder.
Open the repository browser and if its a new folder, drag the folder to the proper location in the repository,
Else, drag them to the exact same directory as your local drive and upload them to the server.

3DSMax:
now replace the "standard" materials with "Hero" materials and point them to the correct textures in the folder of your repository.  Make sense?


You can only (and only need) a single mesh to initially create the character model.
Select one body mesh as the initial mesh and hide all others (don't hide your skeleton or rig)

Now check your skin and under advanced parameters affected bones is probably set to 20, change this to 4 or you'll get errors.

If you didnt use skin but used physique, don't worry about it then.

now make sure that the only animation active currently is your idle animation, nothing else.
if its not, you need to isolate it using the Hero Animation tools panel.

Let me know if you're this far along.

thanks

[DPontious]

K got it

[ToY-Krun]

okay, now open the Hero Character Tool.

First, enter (without spaces) the name of this character, as it will appear in the characterSpecs
 (example: HumanMale)

Then click to set the HE directory
then click to set the character directory (note it MUST be the /character/dynamic_2 folder or within it)
The tools will auto create a folder within that selected folder using the name of your character you entered above.

so if your character name was HumanMale, selecting /character/dynamic_2 as your character directory would result in
/character/dynamic_2/HumanMale/*character folders and files inside*

now, make sure your mesh is selected, and the character type is set to dynamic (if you're doing a static char let me know as its different)

click the get selected mesh

click create SRB
if this causes an error, let me know what it says and pause at this point.

if no errors, click create character.

if you get any errors that says "has stopped responding blah blah " click okay/or continue or whatever and it will continue.  sometimes this may happen once.  if it happens twice, theres a problem. let me know.

wait for it to complete before doing anything else (you'll have a command window open during all this , it will close
when done.)

copy the text line if ya like that registers the spec (/henpc blah blah blah) and save it.  YOu can get it from the text file thats generated with the character if you lose it.

at this point, IF NO ERRORS, in the Local repository, find the folder that was just created as described above.

Drag that folder to the server repo in the same exact folder as you have on your local repo.

At this point the character is exported, and is uploaded to the server.

Let me know if you have any problems with this. 

Almost done.

[DPontious]

Ok so far so good

[ToY-Krun]

okay now at this point, you need the line of text i mentioned (you can find it in the .txt file in the characrers folder on the repo).

copy paste that into the chat channel in the blade and your char spec should be registered.

Did you use a full body mesh as the intial mesh?

if so, once its registered, hit F5  choose character registry and then find your characterspec.
select it, click create Npc and voila, you should find your char model at your location.


Let me know if you have any probs with this..

At this point it requires some scripting to allow you to "Play" as that new char.

If you have other body parts that need to be added, I can walk you through adding those  to your char now that it is setup.

Let me know.

[keeperofstars]

not to interject, but Toy-Krun can you whip up the last bit and all of these thread parts into a tutorial when you get a chance? Thanks could really help others.
Ok back to your normally scheduled assistance.

[ToY-Krun]

Yeah, I thought about that.  When I get a chance I'll put it all together. 

@DPontius:
if you've reached the point described above,  you'll need to create an npc as described using your
character spec, to make sure it loads up right with no issues.
if you have other body parts for the char, you can now add those, which requires altering the parts file
for that character, as well as exporting those parts using the HeroExporter tool to export the parts individually.

If you have the entire character model ready and uploaded, AND can create an npc from that character spec with no
errors (i.e. it shows up right in the game), it will only stand idle until you give it a walk/run animation.
(as an npc it "may" move around, but will remain in the idle pose)

That finishes the task of importing the model itself, the remaining work is done by editing the .aas files and the animation.dat file, after you have exported your additional animations.  Thats a whole different subject, yell if you need further help.