Santos' Tools

[Brother Santos]

Download Links:

:here: Santos' Tools 0.4 Mirror 1 (http://rapidshare.de/files/12402403/SantosTools_0.4.rar.html) Mirror 2 (http://www.upload2.net/download2/aUQwYP51S424Z6n/SantosTools_0.4.rar.html) Mirror 3 (http://dow.finaldeath.co.uk/files/SantosTools_0.4.rar)
:here: Copy Animation 0.1 Mirror 1 (http://rapidshare.de/files/14913360/CopyAnimation_0.1.rar.html) Mirror 2 (http://www.upload2.net/download2/KSzNloPZmlcDScg/CopyAnimation_0.1.rar.html) Mirror 3 (http://dow.finaldeath.co.uk/files/CopyAnimation_0.1.rar)
:here: Gorb's Link Dropbox (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/391503/DoW/...ools%200.4.zip)

Tutorials:

:here: "Turn signals on a chaos land raider" (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=1287287#post1287287)
:here: Space marine sergeant helmet (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=81895)
:here: Random helmets (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=81917)
:here: Tutorials by ShinGouki (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=78296)


Hi Everyone,

I would like to show a preview of what i'm currently working on and that is (as you probably figured out already from this thread title ;) ) - 'WHM Import Script' :bandit: Here are the pictures of few sample models i've managed to extract:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4512/models20sh.th.jpg (http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=models20sh.jpg)http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3166/models12rq.th.jpg (http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=models12rq.jpg)

As you can see i can get models out of DoW, WA and even mods :D

Script will be released later today eventually tomorrow because i need to solve few more issues. I will post more details about its current features with the release notes.

And something interesting for the end:

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5475/igheavy7fj.th.jpg (http://img406.imageshack.us/my.php?image=igheavy7fj.jpg)

Is this unit anywhere in game actually? I belive not because i couldn't find a texture for it. :(

[goldo_O]

:banana: yeahhh! Most waited tool since Berocs disapeared.
Thanks for that brother Santos :)
Can't wait to try it and look at relic's WA models :)

(indeed the last picture is not used ingame..perhaps some old tests for a bunker)

[NARFUX]

Abso-freakin'-lutely fantastic. :!:

Been waiting for something like this for ages now.

[compiler]

Freaking awesome !
That's a most wanted feature in the DoW universe !!!!

Another BIG needed is the whe extractor, so that we can extract animations : this would save hours and hours of tedious work to us poor modders.

Thanks in advance for your generosity !
Can't wait to lay my paw on this !

BTW : so Relic has done the Heavy weapons and has not included them ?
Wow, we are in for a lot of fun adding them back !

[alf]

This is excellent! I can't wait to use it!

[Brother Santos]

Ok, boyz, here it is:[ Link in First Post ]

Please read the readme file for all installation instructions and give me a note if you find any problems (especially if you find some model not extracting properly).

Now a word about smoothing groups... Smoothing groups are not extracting from whm file :( The problem is simple - they are not stored there. Instead Relic Exporter breaks each vertex into a number of vertices equal to number of its normals. This i suppose is enough data to get nice smoothed models in game but it's not enough to rebuild smoothing groups in max...or at least i don't know how to do this :( Fortunatly imported model is broken into sub-object elements which generally show how the smoothing groups should be applied. I decided to leave vertices unwelded for above reason so they should be welded at the end or working further with the model will be a nightmare ;)

Now something more optimistic :) I'm not going to stop on extracting models i belive all data can be imported from 'whm' files including skeleton and animations. If anyone here is interested in helping me cracking this file format i can upload all the stuff i know into dow wiki (which i'll probably do anyway as soon as i find enough time ;)).


Another BIG needed is the whe extractor, so that we can extract animations : this would save hours and hours of tedious work to us poor modders.Animations are actually stored in 'whm' but i forgot to mention that i also managed to convert 'whe' files to 'ebp' :Pimp: This was pretty easy as those formats are nearly the same. Unfortunatly i must rewrite this converter due to some problems with files that contain xrefed animations :/


BTW : so Relic has done the Heavy weapons and has not included them ?I did some more research on this file and it seems it contains all animations! This seems to be normal infantry unit (it can even cap points) but probably got some kind of 'deploy' ability which creates those sandbags :)

[Powdered Toast]

Another BIG needed is the whe extractor, so that we can extract animations : this would save hours and hours of tedious work to us poor modders.

"Make the cool shit" button is all that's missing. Part of the fun was making the models and implementing the ideas. I guess this caters to the those legitimately curious about game modelling, and ofcourse the rest. :-/

[Finaldeath]

Execelent. I'll see if this is more suitable in the advanced modding forum, and will add it to the FAQ (since Beroc's tools were never released or compeleted, I'm not sure why...)

[compiler]

"Part of the fun was making the models and implementing the ideas"
Sure. And that's probably why there are so few mods with new models out there. Having an idea is great, but not everyone has the skills and time to do dozens of animations to give life to it.
I don't fear it will make a rip off from Relic's work :
- if people want to do the same units as Relic's, then they just have to point to them in the luas.
- if people want to pass Relic's models as theirs, they'll just get ridiculed by other modders.
- If newbies want to use this, they'll still have some hard time getting the smooth groups right (there aren't that many newbies who own and can use 3DSmax anyway)
- if people use 90% of Relic's things, then their mod will be recognised as being poor quality and that's all.

I think the best use for this tool will be to use it as a basis for more advanced work or to save time on tedious work.
It would be cool, for instance, to finish implementing the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons deployment !

So I hope to see soon :
- the whe to ebp extractor (to avoid typing all those conditions and events)
- the animations extractor (to use as a basis for special attacks animations)

[Finaldeath]

Yeah, editing the models would be a good use for this. You want a Valhallen or Mordian Iron Guard based army but can't edit the Basilisk to remove the cadian men? The source model (but probably reusing the animations) might be all you need to make it a perfect mod perhaps.

Plenty of other uses (new weapons right?), and things like models based of normal ones (different types of space marines, chaos marines orks, eldar and ig - such as vetrans, variations, and so on).

Personalised armies would be easier too, I guess, if you had the skill to model all of it :)

[alf]

I'd like to help you in any way I can Brother Santos.

[Powdered Toast]

- the animations extractor (to use as a basis for special attacks animations)

It's not rocket science Compiler, at a specific frame, a hit needs to occur - having the animations in front of you won't make you a better animator. BTW I urge Brother Santos to import unit animation data onto generic bones and NOT onto a biped.

[compiler]

"having the animations in front of you won't make you a better animator."
Sure. I am not an animator at all and have never been in the 3D industry.
Yet this tool can enable me to get decent results for a decent mod. I could even benefit from knowing how to set a hit, at which frame, where to put any hit marker and such things. I have never seen this kind of animations in my life, so it would teach me a lot to see some. It's just like sewing up a wound : it helps if you have seen how it's done a few time and not doing it just by the book.
Of course, real animators or modelers, like you seem to be, will get better results than I ever can hope to, so there will still be a hierarchy.

[Brother Santos]

I've found a small bug in the script, nothing serious, ini file paths were messed up. Download link now points to updated file.

btw. could someone confirm that script is actually working? :rolleyes:

[compiler]

OK, it works. It imports WHM really fine and quickly. I had to use the Ctrl+E trick, but it worked.

The Read me could be a little more detailed, though.
For instance, the model appear untextured and I could not find a clear answer in the read me as to where to put what to import them and see them as textured.

I have 3 installs of DoW : 1 with WA, one with 1.4 and one with 1.3. The WA install has the W40k.exe, and compressed folders as sga, while the others have uncompressed whm, rsh etc, but not the .exe. Which one should I chose as my install folder for purposes of determining DoW Dir ?

What is the use of determining my mod Dir since importing the WHM doesn't write anything in my mod's dir ? Could you elaborate on which folder should I chose from the several mods I have at the moment, and what is the script supposed to do ?

For the textures : does the script imports them also, or should I use another program to translate them from wtp/rsh to tga ? If I must make the conversion beforehand, where should I store the tga ?

Of course, all this can be solved by manually setting the maps in max, but it will be that much easier if you can tell us precisely how to do things.


Anyway, congratulations are in order, and a thousand thanks as well !

[Brother Santos]

Ok this is quite simple. Imported model always get uv coordinates and proper material id. Script is making a new multi material from all textures that appear in 'whm' file and puts it in first material editor slot. Now the purpose of setting the right folders is just getting right texture path in all sub materials of this multi material. Path is currently made like this:
DoW Dir + \ModTools\DataSrc\ + ModName + TexturePath (from whm)

so for example if you are extracting ig commissar, your DoW dir is set to c:\Dawn of War and your mod to Test_Mod you will get:

C:\Dawn of War\ModTools\DataSrc\Test_Mod\Art\EBPs\Races\imperial_guard\texture_share\ig_commissar.tga

Texture need to be unpacked from rsh files manually, flipped vertically and converted to tga. I may include this in my script but i need to know rsh file format first.

Actually such a way of getting texture paths is meant for future when (hopefully ;)) i will be able to create complete ref files and animations from whm files. Also this might be not mentioned in the readme but DoW dir and Mod Name are stored in ini file once you set them so there's no need to repeat this process each time you want to extract model.

[BrSgt_Burns]

The question is - will their be a whm compiler? If you can extract the max model, edit it (e.g. add relics, ribbons etc) then put it back into the whm with all its animations.

[Finaldeath]

If you wanted to get the automatic, patch-related DOW install path, the registry is a good place - if you want or can use it - although just as a "default" you understand.

Its located in key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ THQ \ Dawn of War \ InstallLocation

Interestingly, they put both keys (unencrypted) there too.

[Brother Santos]

The question is - will their be a whm compiler? If you can extract the max model, edit it (e.g. add relics, ribbons etc) then put it back into the whm with all its animations.Actually we got the 'whm compiler' already - warhammer model export from relic mod tools - but if i understand your question correctly you want me for example to extract marine saergant put a helmet on his head and export this all back to whm...mhm...this seems to be quite possible. Of course i'm thinking only about adding meshes, adding a bone won't work because it will be invisible in animations anyway. I must think of this some more...


If you wanted to get the automatic, patch-related DOW install path, the registry is a good place - if you want or can use it - although just as a "default" you understand.Thx Finaldeath i'll try to use it though i'm not sure if max script got any functions for accessing registry ;)

[Tyconius]

This is splendid news. Good job Brother Santos!

That non textured gun emplacement is could perhaps be used by IG mods as an alternative for a turret.

[Danimator]

The unit in post 1 is the: "guard_infantry_heavy_weapon_platoon" which is in the scar files but never made it into the game. No RGD's either so we can't get them working. Shame.

[Finaldeath]

Well, you can do new attributes for them if the models are complete of course :)

If, Brother Santos, or anyone else, has time you can help update the wiki so others can build on anything you do and don't add to later. IBBoard has put some good info on SGA files so people can build thier own stuff to do with them if he finishes his exporter/renamer and don't feel like adding to it :)

http://www.relic.com/rdn/wiki/DOWFileFormats would be the best place, since you can change the pages on WHM (http://www.relic.com/rdn/wiki/DOWFileFormats/WHM) and WHE (http://www.relic.com/rdn/wiki/DOWFileFormats/WHE), which only has some info I grabbed from the forums that I could understand :)

Ok, enough promoting. The guard thing I wondered about actually...are there any other models (other sentinal weapons?) that are in the game, textured, just waiting for the right attribues to be added?

[mecha_manic]

Hooo-freakin-yeah! Thats Awesome!

[Maestrorobertus]

Speechless... Hey, how long we have waited for this? Pretty cool.
(Even if it makes me sad that you also extracted one of my own models.)

Anyhow, I think more important to have are animations. Indeed we could have seen many more mods done with this extracted. For example: The Tau soldier would work with the guardian animation, or you make a commander and take that one etc.. Also the whe is interesting, as we need to know how many special moves work, etc..

So, deeply impressed, the first think I found out was that guardsman have flammers... Yes, no all secrets come to the thru... ;)

For the smoothing: The thing is like that, most directX engines break up the mesh into groups with the smoothing. Smoothin is controled by vertex, but game engine make it a little more simple by splitting the mesh into parts. Well, this is no waste, indeed it's just a internal thing. Max does the same virtual by having smoothing groups. A set of faces get one group, etc..

So, how to solve it by script? Quit simple, you first count the number of elements per mesh (element is a group of faces that are welded togehter). Then you give each element a smoothing group number (up to 32). After that you simple place a vertex_weld modifier on top (so, it's optional, etc..). The vertex get welded (which is needed to skin the model easier), but smoothing looks good.
Indeed the older extracted models looked the same.

by the way...your script works with 3dsmax 8 too...

[p0seidon]

please, host it at dowfiles or something cause rapidshare sucks bad :(

[Maestrorobertus]

very funny to see all the secret stuff:

1.) Leman Russ has a lascannon sponsers upgrade and track covers.
2.) Sentinel has flammer and autocannon.
3.) Vendicatro has also a pistole
4.) Kaskryn and Guards have a flammer
5.) Captain has a plasma pistole upgrade (didn't seen that in game)
6.) Commissare a plasmafist

[Finaldeath]

Doesn't the captain have a meltagun/plasmagun attachment in the main menu? thats been commented on before.

I like the "hidden" stuff, it'd be pretty cool adding those things in - Relic said they ran out of time to impliment (properly) things like sentinal upgrades (obviously modeling it was a lot easier!), and balancing flamers is hard.

I'd like to see things like the commissar and the fist upgrade. :) Put some screenshots up, Maestrorobertus!

[p0seidon]

if there is an model already, it will be easely to add them to do the game(now lets hope the anims are also in there).

[Maestrorobertus]

well to enable the upgrades you need the name of the animation and weapon for the lua script. This will be easy with the ebp files from the converted whe.
To use the model you need a lot more: Animations, Makers, points etc.. I don't really thing this will be easy, but if we can open the models at last in object editor it will have a great impact.

[p0seidon]

Yes it will be an mayor step. I will see alot of mods using this importer ^^

[goldo_O]

We could also make new exclusive synckills. :)

[Maestrorobertus]

Yes something like daemon killed by snotling...! :)

[p0seidon]

More like puny little gretchin chops FC's head of with his little knife...:p

[Brother Santos]

Here it is: [ Link in First Post ] :bandit:

Converting whe files doesn't really require 3ds max but it was easier for me to write this in Max Script. :rolleyes: If anyone wants to write a standalone application i will put some instructions how to convert those files in the wiki. Anyway script seems to be working perfectly. I've converted a bunch of files and haven't run into any problems. Just remember that you need to copy any 'smg' file with the same name as 'ebp' to open this in OE.

@Maestrorobertus:
Thx for the info about smoothing groups. Unfortunatly this is not so easy as you write :(. Relic exporter breaks model into more elements that there are groups - sometimes even to single polys. Extract space marine model and compare the helmets for example. Other thing which i didn't take into account are vertex weights for the skin modifier. I belive they can be extracted but what then: should i weld vertices before or apply them to unwelded mesh? :wtf:

[alf]

Awesome work Brother Santos!
This is a great day for DoW modders.. finally a more free tools that are usefull!

[compiler]

That's really, really great Brother Santos !
I hope you can do the animations extractor next.

And then we'll have to build you a real life size equestrian statue for your contribution to DoW modding !

[NARFUX]

And then we'll have to build you a real life size equestrian statue for your contribution to DoW modding !

I second this motion, and raise you the naming of my first-born!

[p0seidon]

rapidshare sucks bad cause you can only dl one file per hour and if you wanna dl more you gotta pay.

[compiler]

The initial reaction of MaestroRobertus raises a question, though.
"Speechless... Hey, how long we have waited for this? Pretty cool.
(Even if it makes me sad that you also extracted one of my own models.)"

So we are happy to be able to extract others' models, but how will we feel about others' extracting ours ?

Not to mention people who modelled existing models and who will be suspected of ripping them off the game ...
(Goldo_O has modeled a Valkyrie and Landspeeder, and Falk was working on a Land Raider Crusader...)

[Maestrorobertus]

compiler: I think we have no chance here. Just think of people doing a new dreadnought, who should the remodel the whole model? Remember we are moding! So, better have a new model in game in 1 week, then in 5 weeks. Remember also, we are taking many things from relic, starting with model parts, texture ideas, animations, fx, coding and final the game itself. We aren't doing that for a job, but for the fun. Not to mention the time we already spend... Ok, not happy about my models, but guess no one will reanimate them...

Santos: I know the helm problem, I think this is because the model used 2 smoothing groups here. I think a little adjusting isn't really hurting, if you get nearly all done automaticaly... Of course vertex need to be welded, that's most important. Otherway I don't think the skin modifier works correct. Don't know the defenition table, so you can judge better.
Another thing will be the character rig. if it's really possible, can it be transfered on a biped? So many things to consider, hope there is a way. Anyhow is there a chance to get the SGM as well? So, we can open the ebp in object editor?

[goldo_O]

to mention people who modelled existing models and who will be suspected of ripping them off the game ...
(Goldo_O has modeled a Valkyrie and Landspeeder, and Falk was working on a Land Raider Crusader...)

I think most of players already thought the landspeeder in Rhinoz come from Dow as i tried to do it the closest to Relic's one to reuse Texture Uvs. As regards to the Land Raider Falk is working on, i think there won't have any doubt about who did it, knowing his love of details and texture perfection ^^

At last we can have a look at each Relic models, if you accept to have this privilege, you also need to accept to be in the opposite case :D I think it's a good deal, "modding" is quite inseparable to "sharing".

[Brother Santos]

Santos: I know the helm problem, I think this is because the model used 2 smoothing groups here. Yes, but when you import sm helmet you will get not 2 sub elements but...25 ! What will happen if i apply all 32 groups and there still will be some elements left? I will have to start from group 1 again but than there's a chance some faces may get into wrong groups.


Another thing will be the character rig. if it's really possible, can it be transfered on a biped?Yes it's possible. I'm working on this right now. Currently i can get bones out of whm with names, hierarchy and positions but rotations are giving me a bit o headache :steam:


Anyhow is there a chance to get the SGM as well? Compared to WHM SGM files contain more data in the animation chunks and i mean A LOT more. I have no idea what this might be. Probably some extra data for OE. For this reason i decided to take the longer way - import whm to max.

[alf]

Yes it's possible. I'm working on this right now. Currently i can get bones out of whm with names, hierarchy and positions but rotations are giving me a bit o headache Great work Brother Santos! Yet another wonderous tool from you to come.

[geodav]

@compiler your right this means others can get your models but any decent modder wether for DoW or other games would ask for permission first, i know i would and will.

@Brother Santos thankyou for your help in keeping the DoW modding community a live, your work may help bring back some of those mods that where hoping to get modellers but couldn't find people who had time to start from scratch

[Sasquatch]

@Brother Santos: Could you create a dummy sgm file, which includes only the animation names and maybe the standard model? just so we can open the model in Object editor and change certain variables. Eg you could xref animations from similiar models or change conditions. It would be working blind on the modelm but some people can live with this and be productive.

[Brother Santos]

@Sasquatch: You can use any sgm to open the file but as i recently found out OE will treat lacking animations as xrefed and you get a nice pink box instead of a model in game :blah: I was trying to add a 'frontend_ui' action to killa kan and it didn't work at first for above reason. I've deleted xref data with hex editor and yeah now it works - i got a killa kan with melee animations in army painter! Creating sgm is not that easy i'm afraid (i don't know the format) but i guess i could add to the script some function which will do the hexediting for us. :thumb:

[Brother Santos]

Version 0.2 of my WHEConvert Script is out :) (link in first post). It contains 2 new features:

1) 'Convert WHE' function now also creates SGM file. Note: this is a dummy sgm file (missingmodel.sgm actually ;)). It does not contain any animations but can be used to open EBP file in OE.
2) 'Fix WHE' - this function can 'fix' the EBP files saved by Object Editor. To make things short this allows to actually use edited WHE files in game without those irritating pink boxes ;) Here's what i've managed to do for example:

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/2470/sorcerer4yc.th.jpg (http://img480.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sorcerer4yc.jpg)

As you can see this is a Chaos Sorcerer casting Smite. He still of course has the ability to cast his 3 original spells :thumb: So how to do it:

a) Convert WHE file to EBP
b) Edit in OE
c) Fix new WHE with my script

That's all :)

Now here's something even more nifty :cool: Look at the pic:

http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/9999/apothecary7na.th.jpg (http://img453.imageshack.us/my.php?image=apothecary7na.jpg)

This looks nearly the same as previous pic except for one detail - the guy who casts smite is apothecary :devil: I used hex editor to xref psychic power animation from WHM librarian file. It is quite simple really and i belive i will be able to write another script which will handle this :)

[DER_julu]

this is really a great news...!

[compiler]

"I used hex editor to xref psychic power animation from WHM librarian file. It is quite simple really and i belive i will be able to write another script which will handle this "

Woaw !!! This is impressive !
Can't wait to try this one.

On a related topic : is there any progress on an animation extractor ?
Or may be your script can simply allow us to Xref animations from other models ?

[Exsus]

its the heavy weapons team! they were removed for a few reason. they were the tire 2 infantry for the imperial guard. you probily can't find a texture because they just used the sand bag tesxture for the sand bags and guardsmen for the guardsmen.

[Brother Santos]

@compiler

is there any progress on an animation extractor ?yeah i got some progress with animation extractor but i'm still stuck on skeleton. those bone rotations drive me mad :gonemad: :crazy: :yech:


Or may be your script can simply allow us to Xref animations from other models ?yes that's what i'm going to do. of course actual animations won't be visible in OE since they will be xrefed from WHM not SGM file but i hope this is a minor nuisance ;) this at least will allow to recreate some units before i figure out how to extract anims and make proper SGM file.

@t217t217

no i got the path for this texture and it's simply not there where it should be :disagree:

[Maestrorobertus]

the rotations? hm... did you checked the pivots they use, the data can be local or in world space meaning, they always need a reference like the base rotation etc.. I understand, a very diffiucult thing as specialy as max inteprets them different, matter which controler you use for them.

[Brother Santos]

Both position & rotation are stored in parent coordinates and that's the whole problem really because data i read from WHM file can be interpreted in different ways depend on how parent pivot was set on export. Fortunatly bones & cs bones have fixed pivot points which allowed me to extract something resembling a skeleton ;) The real problem will be with meshes used as bones - it's impossible to figure out their pivot orientation :(

[Kjon]

wow, this is really great!

I praise you brother!

[Falcon]

Got a question

When will a mod come out with the IG heavy weapon teams i love to play to it

[Kjon]

most likely a few hours after we get the mod tools...

[CMRVSUK]

Has Relic expressed any dissaproval / approval of this?

Just interested to know.

[Delta7]

Well, Brother Santos is keeping all us Modders of Relics back atm...and I dont think they come round here no more...:)

But no doubt a quick, thoughtless, pointless patch will break these wonderfull tools for everyone :) (oh the pessemism)

Sigh...I had a girlfriend who was just like Relic...took up all my time, never knew what she was up to, constantly pissing me off, always late, moody as hell...but great to look at and so much fun to play with...and when she did it properly...wow...so I had my fun and dumped her for someone better :) LOL

Keep up the great work Brother Santos, I might just ask you to marry me! :) LOL

Cheers,

[NARFUX]

http://rapidshare.de/files/6586393/Puppetshop_plus_tutorials.rar.html

www.puppetshop.com

Just thought this could help everybody, it's free and works well for rigging models and other stuff.

[stranger]

so I had my fun and dumped her for someone betterno, he didn't just suggested dumping DoW for Age of Empires 3, now get back here!!

[Brother Santos]

Has Relic expressed any dissaproval / approval of this?No not yet :disagree: and i don't expect they will.


But no doubt a quick, thoughtless, pointless patch will break these wonderfull tools for everyone (oh the pessemism)Heh they would have to change all file formats and/or encrypt them but it's too late now anyway :Pirate:


Keep up the great work Brother Santos, I might just ask you to marry me!Ekhm...btw Delta7 i belive you are the creator of Chaplain Lemartes model? Extract it with my script and see what's inside :rolleyes: ;)

[Delta7]

LOL, Age of Empires...she an ugly lady...I said "someone better"....LOL

Dont worry that will never happen :)

NARFUX, tried to grab the tutorial without success rapidshare hates me...:), looks good though...I am still learning much about the whole model creation process, so any assistance is a graciously welcomed :) any chance you can DL it from anywhere else?

Cheers,

Hmmm...just ran the script...got me a Lemartes all present and correct, did you spot something else, think the model I am playing with is an more updated version than the WIP release...but should be all good...

What wonders did you find?

Cheers,

[potemkis]

Does this script not work with the 1.4 patch? I have the scripts loaded, but nothing is showing up when I go to run the script...


(Max 7)
Okay, tried the Ctrl+E trick and something started to happen... however I got a Runtime Error: Out of scripter memory- use options to increase. I went into Preferences>MaxScript and bumped the heap all the way to 1000 and still can't get anything. I was trying to get the Terminator model.

(Max 6)
Got a "Cannot assign to read-only variable: BoneData" message.

Any suggestions?

[Maestrorobertus]

Indeed i was shooked today when i read then news on dowfiles and switch right after that to this forum I got the message: Forum down... Puh, good to see everything back and alive.

[Brother Santos]

:banana: XREF-ing from WHM files seems to be working :banana:

Just look - scout with xrefed marine sergeant anims:

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/9133/scouts8bc.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scouts8bc.jpg)

I'll give you more details tomorrow. I'm going to bed right now :gnight:

@Delta7
Ok i'll tell you - it contains whole cs skeleton but in form of meshes! :jest: How the hell did you do that? :wtf:

@potemkis
I have no idea about max 7 problem - never encountered something like that before.
In case of max 6 i got one report that it doesn't work but still have to try this myself.

[potemkis]

Thanks Brother Santos, and keep up the good work! I did manage to import a couple of models from one of the OLD OLD Tau Mod installs- early beta I think. (Guess I never deleted that folder). Seemed to work. Got the model, no textures (of course, never extracted them either). Can't remember what I did though...

As far as bone data, would that be the .whe files?

[DarthVaygr]

This is a great tool...already advanced our Thousand Sons Mod artwise quite a bit (well it will soon).

You know, I knew this would happen. If Relic took too long without a word, I knew the community would start taking action. Just like Homeworld 2. Although that was much quicker since I don't remember being promised anything in the first place. There's an .rgd --> .lua converter in it's infancy already, as is this tool. Then there will be more...and more...

[potemkis]

Seems this wonderful tool works on 1.3. I can't get anything from 1.4 to import. Heh, oh darn, gonna have to patch down from 1.4... Oh well, it'll give me a chance to test my own mod stuff out.

[DarthVaygr]

I have WA, but not every model was updated, so I'm pretty much using 1.4. And it works for me. Dunno what could be wrong.

[potemkis]

I keep getting a low virtual memory, scripter memory, or an argument count error: ReadChunkHeader wanted 1, got 0.

Unfortunately, I don't know MaxScript...

[compiler]

I have WA and everything works fine for me.

I am really excited about this possibility to Xref animations !
Indeed, animation is a tedious work. Xrefing animations would let us concentrate on modeling and coding, while making a few custom animations.
This would really be great.

I can't wait till Brother Santos wakes up...

[Tyconius]

Aye indeed, finding animators has always been a difficult job. This will hopefully speed up most mods.

[Maestrorobertus]

one thing that is basic for xref animation is the skeleton setup.
For example you have a dreadnought model and want to use the walk animation of the existing model. You need to have an exact copy of the skeleton to do this later in OE by xrefing the animation. No problem, but for making your costum animation, this skeleton must work the same like a costum made. So, it need to have the KI settings or be a biped.
So, it's vital to have an importer with this features. The same goes for markeres.

[Ragnarokx]

I dont have the time to read the entire thread, but since the first didnt contained the info i seek, i guess its okay to ask here:

I have 3ds max 5.1, will your script be able to work with it, or am i forced to upgrade in order to work with it (if so, which version is necesarry) ?

Im talking about "basic" stuff, like importing self-made models into the engine, and exportingn existing stuff into 3ds max.

[the-tempest]

When I import, nothing happens... I'll open maxscript, select WHM import, open up the Daemonhunters folder (which I'm testing with) go to art, follow it races, pick Daemonhunters... troops, and there are a bunch of WHM files. However, when I select one and open it, nothing happens. The import screen clears, but there is no model. Do I need to do anything else? Like, set the Dawn of War directory below 'import WHM' in the tool? I thought I tried that and the mod directory, but it still didn't work. I am using max 7... do you know what I am doing wrong?

[Brother Santos]

XREF Tool released! - head to first post for download link

Pls bear in mind this is very early version and lacks some functionality. Also i didn't include the readme file but i'll put all instructions here for now.

Installation is similar to my other scripts. I'm pretty sure i've managed to fix not-working-on-max-load bug ;) but i need a confirmation that it really works instantly. Now how to use this:

1) Open Utilities, Select XREF Tool and press 'XREF Tool' button - new dialog window will appear

2) Press the button with the caption "<<< Select Source WHM or WHE File >>>". As it states you should select a file to xref from - it might be WHM or WHE but the script will need BOTH to load a full animation list. This means both of these files must be in the same directory. The second important thing here is the right path for those files. It should include 'art' folder eg. 'C:\Temp\Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\'. This path will be written into EBP file for each xrefed animation.

3) Press "<<< Select EBP File >>>" button - this is the file you will put xrefed animations in.

4) Now you should have whole animation list from the source files in the left listbox. To xref them select anim name and press 'Add' - Note: 'Remove' button doesn't function yet.

5) To save new anims to EBP press 'Save' button - Note: Animations are not saved in the EBP file just after you add them - this only happens when you press 'Save' button.

That's all :) I hope it's understandable ;)

Just few more notes:
- xrefed animations won't be visible in OE since we don't have SGM files yet
- EBP file will be overwritten without making any backup copy so make sure you know what you're doing
- it is possible to xref animations with the same name - it's a bug of course and it will be fixed in near future ;)

@the-tempest

The thing you're doing wrong is not reading readme files :p Eh...open script manually and press Ctrl+E. It should work now.

@Ragnarokx

I have no access to max 5 so i don't know - i guess it won't work but you can try it yourself an tell me. Anyway you won't get far with max 5 - Relic Exporter no longer supports it. My script will work on max 7 and (from what i've heard) on max 8.

@potemkis

Something in your pc configuration might cause this error - i got scripter memory set to only 7,5 mb and never had any problems with this.

[compiler]

1- "I'm pretty sure i've managed to fix not-working-on-max-load bug"
Cool. Will you release a new version for WHM importer and WHE converter to fix this ?

2- "The second important thing here is the right path for those files. It should include 'art' folder"
Does this mean paths are relative ?
I mean : if I Xref from 'C:\Temp\Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\ ,will it work in game if the model is in "D:\Program files\Dawn of War\my_mod\Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\ ?

3- "This path will be written into EBP file for each xrefed animation."
Does this mean it will be imbedded in the ebp ? In other words, if I make a new model for my mod and I Xref animations from model X, do I have to include model X in my mod for the Xrefing to work in game ?

4- Can you Xref from a model that's in a different path from the model you're Xrefing things to ?

5- Can the model from which I'm Xrefing be in a folder normally compressed as sga ?
eg I use Data/art/ebps/races/space_marines/force_commander as a basis. I uncompress it from sga, install it in the aforementioned path, then do my Xref thing, then I pack ONLY my new model and distribute it. Will people be able to read this new model without uncompressing their force_commander ?


OK, sorry to be a nuisance, I hope you take it as a contribution to the FAQ...

Thanks you so very much anyway for your efforts.

[Brother Santos]

1) Yes i will as soon as someone confirms that indeed this new script is free of this bug.

2) Yes paths are relative. So putting source files into C:\Temp\Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\ or D:\Program files\Dawn of War\my_mod\Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\ will give you always the same result - Art\EBPs\Races\Space_Marines\Troops\
Here's a tip: Extract all files from 'W40kData-Whm-High.sga' with Mod Packager to any directory and use files from there as source - they will have correct paths.

3) Yes path is written into ebp. If you xref let's say from Eldar Guardian you don't have to include its WHM & WHE files as long as you got RequiredMod.1 = W40k in your mod module file.

4) Sure.

5) Yes. SGA archives maintain directory structure and from engine's point of view it's the same as reading a file from real directory.

[compiler]

OK, I can confirm it works flawlessly right from opening Max, without going through the Ctrl+E routine.
A huge bravo for this awesome addition to the modders' arsenal !

[ShinGouki]

Brother Santos these tools are incredible, huge gratitude goes to you from me for helping to speed up my mods.

I run the Harlequins mod which is a long way in terms of code etc.. it's only been held back by the small amount of time my modeller has to work on the project. My basic knowledge of max and my need to work on every other part of the mod was really starting to frustrate me. With this tool I can at least get new placeholder models and animations in really quickly without the need to bug my modellers.

One man mod teams just became viable again thanks to you :). The combination of the three tools has also helped me get 6 units done for my Craftworld Eldar mod in just 3 days incredible. Thank you so much for this. You just handed me the missing piece of the puzzle.

[the-tempest]

@Santos: *highfive* thanks, it imports great now.

[potemkis]

I'll poke around with the scripter memory and see if I can bump it up a bit...

could be I just have too much crap on my hard drive(s)

[ShinGouki]

I hope this doesn't sound patronising i don't mean it to be, but Potemkis are you sure it's not importing ok, the models import pretty small and unless you zoom in pretty close it's not always obvious they imported.

If you allready knew this sorry in advance :). My friend thought the same thing with a previous importer until i zoomed up close and there it was a tiny little model :-D.

[kais58]

hi i dont have 3dsmax7 but ive got gmax and i put your files in the right place and when i press import whm i get this error message
-- Type error: Call needs function or class, got: undefined
please help

[NARFUX]

hi i dont have 3dsmax7 but ive got gmax and i put your files in the right place and when i press import whm i get this error message
-- Type error: Call needs function or class, got: undefined
please help

I think Gmax does not support complicated MaxScript programs, could somebody check on this as I haven't used Gmax before.

[thudmeizer]

Ohh Poo.. Go grab 3dStudio Max v8.0 ! Its only $3500 CDN! :bandit:

[kais58]

like of course ive got that much money spare

[potemkis]

@ ShinGouki -

Yes, I made sure of that myself. Heh, I saw a little blob in the middle of the viewport, so I hit the zoom extents button and they fill the viewport. The only thing I found that I'm having problems with is the actual models from the DoW/WA installs. I can import models from mods okay though.

[DarthVaygr]

I have encountered an error.

"argument count error: ReadChunkHeader wanted 1, got 0"

Could anyone please help me? This did not happen when I did not have my textures set up. I actually successfully viewed the Chaos Predator. But then I put my .tga textures in the correct folder (in datasrc/...), and try to open the file again, and I get this error. It highlights the problem, but I do not know how to fix it. Any help is appreciated. The TS mod team will be very happy if you can help me fix this small error :)

[potemkis]

@ DarthVaygr-

I ran into that same thing- I tried the Ctrl+E trick, and it worked. I got an error about BoneData with Max 6...

The only errors I get now are scripter memory, and unknown system exception when I try to do anything but import mod models... I have no idea what that is...

[DarthVaygr]

I am most gracious for your help. It works! As you can tell, I'm not into this kinda stuff, so I can't really help you :(.




EDIT!!!!: I just realized...2,000th post. Celebrate with my favorite emoticon :jig:.

[potemkis]

OOOOH!! A new set of errors! I went and just did a fresh reinstall of DoW and WA, mainly because I'd like to get past the second Order mission (and the rest of the game) without friggin scar errors (no mods and such you know). So, now I'm getting one of these 3 errors:

face.x= ReadShort file +1
face.y= ReadShort file +1
face.z= ReadShort file +1

Any ideas?

Tell you what: if you can get the Land Speeder, Chaos Space Marine, Whirlwind, and perhaps even the Khorne Berzerker models out for me, I'd appreciate it. Then I can get an even better start on my Codex Chaos Forces mod (I'm trying to make certain units restricted by what chaos faction you take...)

World Eaters: Berzerkers, Bloodletters, Bloodthirster
Death Guard: Plague Marines, Plague Bearers, Nurgle (etc)
Emperor's Children: Noise Marines, Slaanesh, Daemonettes
Thousand Sons: Thousand Sons, Tzeentch, Horrors

Example: If you follow WH40K TT, you'd know that Khorne hates Slaanesh, and Nurgle hates Tzeentch. Therefore, if you play as the World Eaters, you can't have Noise Marines and such.

I may even throw in Chaos Marks...

mat.dodge@gmail.com

[Teleros]

Grr - Brother Santos, you couldn't get some mirrors up could you? Damned company firewall is blocking the site :loco: ...

[potemkis]

Ahh, Loknar... using company property? Shame on you! Heh (Kidding)

[p0seidon]

Wh00t!! I can't imagine the speed I will be creating sword brethren and valhallan's when I get max 8 working.

[Brother Santos]

WHMImport 0.11 released!

This is only a bugfix release. Script should now work without need to evaluate after max load. As usual please confim if this is true ;)
The second thing added is automatic zoom after model import - ShinGouki had a point here so i decided to add this feature.

@kais58

Sry kais58 gmax is not supported. This is because there are some differences beetwen max & gmax maxscript and converting script from one to another is not an easy thing. Anyway this would be pointless since Relic Tools don't support gmax either.

@potemkis

Sry to hear you still got problems :sadpanda: Maybe this new version will work better for you. Just in case it won't i'm sending you the models ;)

[compiler]

Confirmed : it works flawlessly right from the start and autozooms in perfectly.
That's truly awesome !

Is there a possibility that you add the name of the objects/bones imported, so that they match those from the original model ?
Have you made some progress in an animation importer and/or SGM maker ?

OK, sorry to sound demanding. The job you' ve already done is really most excellent. Many thanks again.

[Brother Santos]

Is there a possibility that you add the name of the objects/bones imported, so that they match those from the original model ?Oh sry :umm: It's fixed now. Please download script again.


Have you made some progress in an animation importer and/or SGM maker ?A little. I've just figured out how vertex weights are stored - so no reskinning model will be needed :3dcool: The bad news is i still didn't manage to get the skeleton :(

[p0seidon]

good job you openend the gates...

[Maestrorobertus]

well... for me only the animations are interesting... so I guess I have to wait.
Just image we could have them as biped files... oh god, how many ours I could have saved.

[Palii]

Brother Santos!
I have no doubt that You are a direct genetic descendant of the Emperor! We have been waiting for this tools since november. I'm going to tear that commissar apart!

I think the next most important step would be animations, since that is the most time consuming part. Making an anim from scratch is lot of time, but re-editing an existing one is more "amusing".

Anim Import:
- Do you think it would be possible to create an animation import script?
- Import a whm, then select an anim to copy it onto an existing biped skeleton.

Thank you for your time!

[potemkis]

Link's in the first post, correct? D-Loading now!

[Brother Santos]

To import animations i need to have skeleton first so things can't be rushed here. Plz be patient. :hippy: :thumb:

[terra_01]

Santos, these scripts are great! The ability to import meshes is fantastic! Good luck with the animation script. That would be incredible.

[compiler]

I understand that making an animation importer must be rally difficult.
If you need any help a non coder can give, just PM me.

Best luck for your work.

[Mit Gas]

Santos, is there a way to extract the models that saves their texture coordinates in order to reskin them? thanks!

[potemkis]

Oh man! I'm gonna have SO MUCH FUN making mod models now!

I've found that by using the biped from the Space Marine Ref in the RDN tools, and keeping your rig somewhat close to what Relic has, you can save out individual .bip files from each of the animations in the "Animations" folder on the modtools. You may have to touch up a few, but the majority of them transfer over flawlessly (for the most part). As long as your model is close to the space marine (as far as size goes) and properly rigged, there shouldn't be much of a hassle.

I'm using the Assault Terminator with some extra bitz and a brand new texture to create Typhus- the Herald of Nurgle. Granted, I'll have to model some stuff on him, but since the Termie model itself is close to the Space Marine's, it should be easy to at least get some of the animations to transfer over. The only thing I'm having trouble animating is Sync_Kill_4 for the big critters and also rigging/animating Dreadnaughts... :dance:

[Brother Santos]

@Mit Gas

Models ARE extracting with texture coordinates :!: If you're getting problems with this take a look at readme file - everything is explained there.

[Mit Gas]

thank you, Santos! We all owe you one. :)

[Finaldeath]

Hmmm, I wonder if this is best moved to the advanced forum, its not really too general any more. Perhaps I should have done a while back :) I'll leave it unless Brother Santos doesn't mind it being in a more suitable place.

[mudflap]

Santos you are a genius. These scripts work great. Keep up the good work. I can't wait until the xref one works flawlessly. I tried the xref script and it freezes my 3dsmax7 when I select a whm or whe, even when I do the ctrl E trick. It doesn't even get to the part where it lists the anims in your boxes. It just freezes up. When the xref works correctly does it go fast? Maybe I am just impatient.

Also you posted a bit back where you used a hexeditor to xref different anims. When you did that did you have to keep the string length the same number of characters? My understanding that when editing text with a hexeditor you needed to keep the same number of characters. Thats when you want to get in a whm and change the pathname for a texture for instance. How did you get around this.

Here is the easy part from my title. An Easy way to get 90 anims and 120 actions in your model.

Potemkis: I started the same way you did by saving bip anims out of the space_marine.max file then importing into the new unit.max file. As long as it has the same biped this works. But you would still need to do about 90 anims that way. Here is an easier way. I assume you probably know more than me so I have generalized a bit on the folder names.

1) in 3dsmax7 rig your new model (refered to from now on as newunit.max) to the biped and make sure you can export it to a sgm.
2) open the relic provided space_marine.ebp in the Object Editor and check out the anim list. At the end are the names of the vis anims. Write these Vis_Bolter, vis_knife, etc.. down because you will need to create these with your .max file. From this sgm file also export actions, motions, and events. Save these export files to your same datageneric folder that has your sgms. You will import them later.
3) in your datageneric folder rename space_marine.sgm to space_marine_bak.sgm. This is important because the backup file contains all the anims you'll need to xref.
3) In your datasrc folder rename the space marine "animations" folder (same level as the "reference" folder) for backup and create a new empty "animations" folder
4) go to your rigged newunit.max file and save it a bunch of times in the "animations" folder with the proper Vis_Anim names that you got from the EBP in the OE. The vis_anim file tells the OE what the model is supposed to look like for a given weapon type so delete out weapons/banners that are not in the title. Also it doesn't actually have to be animated. When you export your newunit.max it will make animations of all your files in the "animations" folder.
5) Once you have saved all your newunit.max file to the proper vis_anim name in the "animations" folder then. Rename your newunit.max file to REF.max and save it in the reference folder. Export your newunit.max in the "reference" folder to sgm.
6) Now go to the Object Editor and open your new sgm. If your REF.max file was in the space_marine/reference folder it will be called space_marine.sgm.
7) Now the fun part. Check out the anims list in the OE. All your VIS anims should be there.
8) Now import and xref everything in the following order:

a) xref anims from the datageneric space_marine_bak.sgm you renamed.
b) import the events file you saved.
c) import the motions file you saved.
d) import the actions file you saved.

9) Once this is all done you should be able to view all animations in the OE, fully animated all FX. Blast off!! :ds:
10) save your new super pumped up ebp. Now in the future this ebp can be used over and over every time you export a new model with proper VIS anims......simple!.....after a while. Sound FX may be a bit wanky but it comes out OK ingame. ALso I seem to recall needing to extract a bunch of FX files and save them in my mymod/datageneric folder somewhere.
10) Now use the burn_sgms.bat file to burn your sgm and ebp to whm and whe. You will find them in dawn of war/my_mod/data_whm/.....high..med..and low. I usually take the whm and whe files from the high file and paste them to folder where I want the unit to show up.

These are the steps I used to make my Mark VI Armour minimod. Its available at dowfiles. Download it and you can see the folder structure you need at the end of all this.

This trick is why I am so excited about Santos' tools. I have already used it to check out the anim, motion, and action list in the space marine sergeant. Now if I could just xref the anims from the sergeant I could make a Mark VI sergeant. Guess I just need to wait like the rest of the community. :nyah:

Cheers,

Greg

[Brother Santos]

@Finaldeath

Yes please move it to advanced modding forum :up:

@mudflap

Is the script freezing on any whm or whe file? It seems like it enters a loop which cannot end but how this may happen i don't know :wtf:

You don't need to keep string length the same if you recalculate chunk size. It works like this: all data is divided into chunks. Each chunk contains header with its name and size. The size can be used to find another chunk. Now if you change path length size of chunk containing it changes. Also size of the whole file will change and need to be recalculated. This is rather painfull to do in hex editor - that's why i made xref script :3dcool:

[potemkis]

@ mudflap

I never realized there was so much involved in that (exporting to DoW). I'm basicly still in the modelling/rigging phase. Now that I know, I'm looking foward to the challenge even more! Thanks for that info.

[potemkis]

Santos-

Do I have to have the textures extracted (with the SGA Reader) in order to get models to import? I got some weird texture error.

[Brother Santos]

No. If texture is not extracted or is not in the right place you simply won't see it in max. What's that 'weird texture error' ?

[Mit Gas]

I get an error when trying to view the textures...

http://www.joust3d.com/MitGas/horror_error.jpg

My Dawn of War directory is C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War\ and my mod directory is C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War\My_Mod\.

Could someone please help me out? :...(

[compiler]

Did you check it was correctly flipped vertically after you saved it as tga ?


(BTW : 3ds max "unregistered - trial period" ??? Can't believe it)

[Mit Gas]

not my max, I've got the full version. I just used that pic because it was already there at our forums. :)

[DarthVaygr]

Doesn't Spooky's tool auto-flip? Anyway, flipping doesn't work.

[Brother Santos]

Spooky's tool extracts textures upside down - they must be flipped vertically and converted to tga.

[The Legacy]

Great tool! You made my dream come true! :)

[potemkis]

No. If texture is not extracted or is not in the right place you simply won't see it in max. What's that 'weird texture error' ?

The line: texture_path += char --convert to string is highlighted.

With a pop-up window saying: --unknown System Exception

[The Legacy]

I found a great use for this tool: Making 'kitbashes' using the existing models. It saves modeling from scratch, and you can add more of the Imperial invertory to the game.

Here is the Razorback, using the Whirlwind chassis, and turret mounting, and the Land Raider's twin linked heavy bolter, as well as a twin-linked lascannon by merging the tips from the Land Raider's sponsons, and mounting them onto the tip of the heavy bolters.

http://edf.tauniverse.com/Raz.jpg

I have additional examples in this post, and if you can, help me as I don't know anything other than I've read in the WIKI, and I'm having problems exporting from Max.

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=76791

[potemkis]

@ The Legacy-

From what I know, been told, read, and from the setup of the RDN folders, the actual model needs to be saved as Ref.max. All your animations need to be in the same folder (ex: Races\Space_Marines\Troops\Predator\Animations). Each animation also needs to be labeled (turret_left, turret_right, etc). There's also something to do with the pipeline.ini file. (I haven't gotten that far yet). Everything has to point in the right direction.

As far as kitbashing goes, guilty! I'm doing it on a few models right now, I'm only fresh-modelling what I need to (such as the Word Bearer's Dark Apostle's Accursed Crozius). That's only due to time-contraints and personal time. I actually miss modelling from start to finish (that's what I'm doing for my own personal mod... name is TBD). Oh well, I guess there's always the joy of making new textures and new animations.

[The Legacy]

Hmm...maybe it's because I'm lacking animations. I thought they would have been included in the WHM file. Oops.

[potemkis]

Santos is working on that part. It's still fun to make your own animations though. Especially if you're making your own new(ish) models.

[potemkis]

Just a little something I'm working on:


http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/2456/techmarine5se.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=techmarine5se.jpg)


I still have to make the Adeptus Mechanicus Emblem for the chest
and shoulderpad, I may even add in some parts for a Servo-Harness as well. Dunno yet...

[Danimator]

Potemkis, can you please tell me whether the script works with max 6 or not, I read that you were trying with both max 6 and max 7 versions.

I have a copy of max 6 which I have never even installed but if Brother Santos' great scripts do indeed work with max 6, it's time to dust the fella down, get him installed and then start one long, steep learning curve :banana:

[The Legacy]

I personally know it works with Max 8, but for 6, I don't know. It's worth a shot at least.

[Brother Santos]

@Danimator

Yes it seems to be working. Try it.

[Danimator]

Great news. Thanks. I'll install and try it out later this week. :nod:

[potemkis]

@ Danimator

I seem to be having trouble importing from the actual game files in both 6 and 7 (I use both). I can import from mods just fine though (don't worry, mod teams- I won't use your work. It was just a test). I've been having some assistance in getting the actual models from the game. I think my computer (or versions of Max) are just really picky.

[Brother Santos]

WHM Import 0.2 released! [ Link In First Post (http://forums.relicnews.com/showpost.php?p=1188123&postcount=1) ]

This version of the script allows to import all Dawn of War models including buildings and environment. Apart from that i've fixed small material id bug which caused some problems (as reported by Mit Gas).

[Delta7]

Hey Brother Santos,

Having issues with the WheExporter script...I broke it...lol...:)

Ok getting an error from Max after starting the Whe convert routine, I have tried different variations and have stuck closely to both your readme and the notes provided by ShinGouki...can you spot the issue at all? I have listed the content of the listener window and a screenie of the Max error box below:

Location of Whe Files: D:\Program Files\THQ\DOW_Extract_models\art\ebps\races\space_marines\troops\

Output to: D:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War\ModTools\DataGeneric\Blood_Angels_Mod\Art\EBPs\Races\blood_angels\troops

----------------------------

Welcome to MAXScript.

"Converting..."
-- Error occurred in convert.pressed()
-- Frame:
-- sgmfilepath: undefined
-- maxpath: "D:\Program Files\3dsmax7\Scripts\Startup"
-- ebpfilemode: "wbS"
-- maxini: "D:\Program Files\3dsmax7\3dsmax.ini"
-- whe_fileneme_array: #("assault_marine", "whe")
-- ebpfile: "assault_marine"
-- LastDir: "D:\Program Files\THQ\DOW_Extract_models\art\ebps\races\space_marines\troops\space_marine.whe"
-- whefilemode: "rbS"
-- whefilename: "D:\Program Files\THQ\DOW_Extract_models\art\ebps\races\space_marines\troops\assault_marine.whe"
-- foldrebpheader: undefined
-- whe_filepath_array: #("D:", "Program Files", "THQ", "DOW_Extract_models", "art", "ebps", "races", "space_marines", "troops", "assault_marine.whe")
-- sgmfilename: undefined
-- ebpfilename: "D:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War\ModTools\DataGeneric\Blood_Angels_Mod\Art\EBPs\Races\blood_angels\troops\assault_marine.ebp"
>> MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception: -- Type error: if-test requires BooleanClass, got: chunkheader typeid:"DATAFBIF" version:1 size:61 namelength:13 name:"FileBurnInfo" <<

Max Error msg:
http://www.btinternet.com/~bobby.basnett/Images/whe_extract_MaxError.JPG

Tried with various models, no joy...can you see the error of my ways at all?

Cheers,

[Brother Santos]

Oh i think WHE Convert still suffers from "not-working-on-max-load" bug. Try evaluating before use. I will soon release fixed version.

[Delta7]

Hey Brother Santos,

Thnx for getting back so quick, so it may not be me after all :)

I will wait quietly over here for a future release, again well played for all your work so far! :)

Cheers,

[potemkis]

I wish I knew MaxScript...

[Mordach]

When trying to set the path to my DoW and mod directory, I keep getting the error message:


MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception
--Argument count error: getIniSetting wanted 3, got 4

[Brother Santos]

I wish I knew MaxScript...What stops you from learning? I didn't knew it either when i started all of this :devil: The language itself is very easy, way easier than c++ at least.

@Mordach

Sry it's a bug but it's fixed now :up: Download the file again.

[Mordach]

It runs nicely now, good job Brother Santos! This is an excellent tool indeed...

[potemkis]

@ Santos

I'm workin on it! Heh

[potemkis]

btw, Santos-

May I ask: what language is it closer to- c++ or Visual Basic? I sort of remember a little VB from college, but us Multimedia guys never had to learn C++

[Brother Santos]

It's close to C++ i think (with some minor notations changes) but as you can read in MaxScript help this language is meant for non-programmers. I remember i decided to learn it on friday and on saturday i was extracting models from DoW :devil: - it's that easy ;)

[ShinGouki]

Santos thats insane? Are you serious?

Ok I've programmed in roughly 5 languages now I think ... did you have some previous experience programming? Thats very very impressive if you really managed it that quickly. Maybe i should start teaching myself Max Script to. There are allready some tools I would like to write for it, though not DoW related :). Did you just use the tutorials in Max itself to learn it or did you use some from elsewhere...

[Brother Santos]

I'm completly serious ShinGouki. I got some previous programming experience (c++, perl even :3dcool: ) but never really written anything useful :rolleyes: ;) I used only MaxScript help for learning.

[potemkis]

Heh, there's hope for me yet!

[Powdered Toast]

Heh, there's hope for me yet!

If you have the least bit programmer knowledge - Maxscript is a breeze. And the documentation is getting better (Max3-4 had the most cryptic docs ever). It took me roughly a week to learn the language and get some minor scripts running without a problem. My background being two complimentary C classes in college (roughly 10 years ago): more proof of its simplicity.

Get the trial and open up Santos scripts. They're commented and easy to follow.

[KotCR]

I know it's a few posts back, but I couldn't help noticing that on the screenshot you upped of the Scouts with the Sergeant's anims (page 5 of this thread) that they had Bolt Pistols and their knives, rather than the standard Boltguns and their knives.

Now, I've had a look and the Scout model file doesn't include a Bolt Pistol...so my question is this:

In order to produce that Scout did you:
A - Extract the Scout with your tools, stick on the Bolt Pistol from the combined mesh (in art\ebps\races\space_marines\base_mesh\), rig the model and save it, then build up an entire new unit that uses the Sergeant's animation files,
-OR-
B - Is there perhaps a way in one of the tools to somehow reference the Bolt Pistol from somewhere else to get it on the Scout without having to do any modelling at all, just by importing the Sergeant's animations?

Oh, and just another quick question...i've tried importing the Sergeant's animations to the Scout myself; But in game he'll still only hold the Bolter with the one hand and the other hand will be empty rather than holding the knive (although otherwise the animations work fine)... Is there a way to achieve him always having the knive out like in your screenie, or did that also require a bit of 3D modelling? (Or just fiddling with Object Editor, which I'm still trying to learn? In which case I'm slowly picking it up and I'll probably figure out how eventually if you can do it with just the Object Editor)

Thanks in advance.
- KotCR

[potemkis]

Thanks, Powdered Toast. I have almost a year of VB under my belt, but I'm told that as far as programming goes, that's nothing. I'd like to take a few courses of C++, when I get time, just to further my knowledge a bit.

[Québec Dug]

Brother Santhos you should be elevated to EMPEROR. OGM How much fun i'm going to have . Building altar in your name.

[potemkis]

Did this thread die out suddenly?

[Delta7]

Hey All,

I hope not, I have been able to get both the WHM extractor & WHE to EBPs Tools running without issue...BUT the X-ref tool still refuses to run, keeps crashing Max when selecting a whm/whe source file...and yes I have tried many variations of source file locations...it just dont run...(thanks to Shingouki for suggested solutions)!

Np, atm as i am currently creating new anims for Commander Dante, but it will definately be handy to get the Veterans Marines up & running later!

Cheers,

[SSDC]

Sorry, I know it's really stupid, but where do I find/how do I extract .WHM files from the original game?

[geodav]

i think that relic has realised whats going on and have clamped him

[p0seidon]

maybe and if they have done that relic dropped really low on my cool company list.
And I will create some anti-relic sigs, wich I will proudly show if they make another patch wich nearlly destroys mods.

[geodav]

well has anybody heard from beroc! and now santos! hemmmm

[Finaldeath]

No flaming or dragging this off topic, especially you Black templar.

[geodav]

well i'm glad i got these scripts before he went, or have you any ideas why there's no news from either of them 'finaldeath'

[compiler]

May be they lost interest. Brother Santos seemed to experience very hard difficulties importing whm into a rig. He may just have given up.
What he already achieved is a godsend anyway.

[geodav]

Only time will tell, at least the scripts work with all patches so they can't mess that up without completely changing the file system but then again that might kill all the mods aswell who knows !

[potemkis]

Heh, if they change file systems again it'd kill the fan-base.

[ShinGouki]

Whats with all the conspiracy theories on these boards lol?

Maybe Santos and Beroc were assassinated by a Relic Callidus huh.

Santos hasn't even been quiet for that long yet. If he lost interest than he lost interest thats his choice and though it's a shame he's allready got the most useful things out that most people were crying for for roughly a year since Beroc lost interest.

Beroc never even released his tool to the bulk of the community as he didn't want people just abusing Relics own work. I'm fairly sure he just tired of Dawn of War and stopped doing anything for it. He was doing other things such as scenery packs etc.. for the map editor.

Even if for whatever Reason Relic had wanted to shut down Santos it's not like he couldn't just come back on under a different name and say *Relic shut me down oh noes the evil megacorp reveal their true colours*

Relic let us mod their work for free, supply us with much nicer tools than most and provide us with this good forum to bring everyone together. They also even have their own team members occasionally drop in and help people out. Yes the patch delay / mod tools things sucked but there have been ways around it for a while now. People need to stop expecting so much from the guys up top anything they do for us is as voluntary as the mods we make ourselves.

Sorry if this seems a little harsh to some people but it's just been getting a bit silly round here, people leaving in *disgust* at relic etc... If you realy want to get your mod done put your head down and do it don't blame others when it doesn't work out.

[thudmeizer]

The "Santos Factor" is out for the last 2-3 weeks so now everyone knows. Beroc's work a year ago was quiet and was never published. WA Modtools are now imminent and should help all the mods move forward quickly!

I have not heard of any "conspiracy theories" - look also at RDGedit.. thats major and it now allows for full deciphering of the once locked RDG format. I do not think Relic hired "BlackOps" will be assassinating Ccuc anytime soon. :D

[geodav]

well i'll shut up for the moment and wish you guys well, as i said before only time will tell

[Gabriel Angelos]

jsut wondering, do this program only applies with 2d max? or also with others?

[potemkis]

@ Pitalla- 3ds Max 7 and 8 only.

As far as Beroc goes, I heard from him that he just discontinued it. I hope that Santos keeps it up. We know that he's been working on a few things to improve the scripts he's working on. It could be that he's just concentrating on that.

[Heavens Eagle]

I was under the impression that it supported Max 6 and 7. I know for shure that it doesn't support 5 as the Relic tools no longer support 5 either.

[potemkis]

I have 6 and 7, I can't even get it to work on 7, had a few problems with 6 too.

[Toorop]

hello all

thanks for all this work ! it's great job !

i practice 3D for 3 years now, and one of my hobby is to import models from my favorites games in 3Ds max to work on them
i've played warhammer for many years (board game) and discovered dow, and then found this forum :D

but i have a problem with the WHM Importer:

i've installed the script, but when i try to import a WHM file i have this error: " -- Cannot assign to read-only variable: BoneData "

i know Potemkis has the same error, but i didn't find any solutions :(

i use 3ds Max 7

[potemkis]

@ Toorop- Unfortunately, neither did I....

So... if anyone could help me out with a few models, I would appreciate it. I'm working on adding a totally new I.G Force based off of one of the fluff articles (name is TBD), and in order to try and settle the balance issues before they come about, I'm going to add in a few new units to the existing armies as well.

[Danimator]

It's a pity some-one can't do like Compiler and Excedrin did with the luas (thanks guys) and post the extracted files for others to download.

I know this sounds lazy but there are many people trying to get the models out but having big problems.

Also people with older versions of max may be able to do something with the ready extracted models although I'm not sure about this. Maybe some-one could comment on this part?

[potemkis]

The mod tools (the current ones 1.11) work on 6 and 7, since I do most of my work in Max 6, it works out just fine. I don't think it would be a problem for some people with max 6 and/or 7 to do the exporting for them. You can always open files from older versions of max in the newer versions, you just can't go the other way.

[SSDC]

Sorry guys, I don't think I got an answer - where can I find/extract .whm files? I'd like to try and make the thunderhawk gunship into a useful unit, just for fun. I'd also texture that IG heavy weapons thing if there's no textures already.

Cheers.

[LongFang]

Hi, santos thanks for all your hard work, im a coparative noob (hate that word) to 3d, ive done basic modles in max but not for a while, ive got my head round importing modles- not that difficult i know. Im strugling with importing the textures and am at a loss as far as editing the modles them selves. Has anyone writen a tutorial on the "santos method?" or can any one point me in the right direction? I mainly work in 2d to im finding all this just a wee bit intimidating.

[compiler]

Check here :
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=78296
Excellent tutorials by ShinGouki.

[LongFang]

Thanks compiler

[potemkis]

Okay... I just followed the tutorials on the link that Compiler posted and now I have 3 brand-spanking new errors.... :sick:


I get this one when I try to set the DoW directory:
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/2717/errorscript5ui.th.png (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=errorscript5ui.png)

This one when I try to set the mod directory:
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6584/errorscript24ox.th.png (http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=errorscript24ox.png)

And this when I try to import (any) model:
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/4011/errorscript37hg.th.png (http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=errorscript37hg.png)

I have tried this with all 3 versions of the script (.1, .11, and .2)
I'm using 3ds max 7, with the most up to date scripts.

[SSDC]

Thanks a lot for linking me to that tutorial, sorry I didn't see it before.

[LongFang]

Have you checked for any coruptions in your max install? I also am using Max7 and so far have not had any difficulties.

[potemkis]

I'm going to try to reinstall/ repair and see if that changes anything. If not, I may be hitting up people for models... :-\

[potemkis]

Nope.... no good..... bummer


p.s- Sorry for the double-post

[Mr_Pasta]

Brother Santos I don't mean to be a pain in the back side but your links don't seem to work. could you check that they do work because I really need this tool? Thx.

EDIT: cool the link works now

[potemkis]

Okay, for anyone who would like to give me a hand extracting some models, I finally have a game-plan for my mod...

Here's what I need:

Eldar: Falcon Grav Tank. Got conversion plans for this bad boy.
I.G: Ogryn(s), Guardsman (sgt and regular), Commissar, Kasrkin (sgt and regular)

Now that the new tools are out, I can actually buckle down and get some stuff rigged up and animated, and then in to game!




And yet, I still don't have a working title for my mod yet...

...Seems as if people are reading my mind, I think of something and from out of nowhere, that name pops up somewhere...









The DoW community is full of psychics...

[Inq]

Great tools you got here. One problem though. the .whm importer works fine but i can't get the .whe script to work. Whenever i try this script i get an error to the lines of "test requires boolean, blah blah blah". Is there a way to fix this?

[compiler]

Open the script in max, click anywhere inside, Ctrl+E.
This will awaken the script and it will work afterwards.
You can also chant the proper liturgies while doing this. It cannot do any harm...

[Inq]

thanks Compiler i got the converter to work. now when i try to open the file in OE i get an error stating "model is not known in any projects" how do i fix this?

[Paladin]

Anyone gotten this to work in Max 8, or do I need to dig around in my cd stacks and find an older version?

I tried to run the whm import but it just runs for 2-3 minutes and eats up like 2.2 gigs of my pagefile before finally bombing out with an "unspecified system error"

Argh, nvm that question... I just installed it on the laptop and it worked fine... It's just my old desktop being finnicky again. I should have known.

A new question though... We're supposed to extract the textures for the models and put them into the right directory... But no one's mentioned exactly how that's done. Where do I find the textures and how do I extract them?

Ok, nvm again... I found spooky rsh... but now how do I open a dds file? I have photoshop CS2 but it won't open them.

nvm again. nVidia plugins.

[potemkis]

Any way that someone could send me the models that I posted, I have a mod I want to work on, but for some reason can't get them to extract without errors. It would be greatly appreciated. If you can get through to my email-

mat.dodgeATgmailDOTcom

Or some hosting site...

[Brother Santos]

Hi :moose: I'm not dead yet. My goddamn motherboard broke down :mad: If i knew repairing would take that long i'd buy a new one lol. That was the bad news :down:

The good news is i've managed to push things forward a bit with WHM Import script and i can extract skeleton right now :banana: I need to sort out few more things (like markers) but new version of the script should be available in few days :up: It will allow to create complete REF file. Just a pic from my tests:

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/5678/relic000009bn.th.jpg (http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=relic000009bn.jpg)

This "force commander" was done only by using extracted stuff and xrefing

[thudmeizer]

Holy Santos is BACKKKKKKKKKK ! ! ! ! !

Praise and Blessed be the Code Givers.. for they shall inherit the keys to better gameplay for all! :D

[potemkis]

Yay! Maybe I can get this one to work for me

[Palii]

It seems the Santos Clause is coming a few weeks early! :santa:

We started rumoring that something bad happened. Im glad your troubles were temporary.
The bone data import is fabulous news! This will open all new possibilities!

[Kjon]

/\

really bad joke... :P

[ShinGouki]

Santos just an idea but to stop people asking questions that drag this off topic how about linking the tutorial thread I made regarding your tools in the first post.

Also welcome back and good news about the skeleton :).

When you say you can export the skeleton does it retain the skin data? If not is it not just a biped anyway? Guess it's still useful for the more obscurely boned models such as the Squiggoth if so.

If you've been xrefing like you say with the force commander does that mean you've even managed to export the bip animations from each model that would be far more useful if so and would be greatly appreciated. If not how did you xref? Just using your old xref tool? Hopefully not as that has some serious limitations if your model isn't boned exactly the same as the original model.

[potemkis]

@ Shin-
You could also include the Defiler (I'm REALLY curious about that rig), the Bloodthirster, and Dreadnaughts. Those things have me pulling my hair out trying to re-rig them.

[Brother Santos]

Santos just an idea but to stop people asking questions that drag this off topic how about linking the tutorial thread I made regarding your tools in the first post.
Good idea. Just give me a link because i can't find it :wtf:


When you say you can export the skeleton does it retain the skin data? If not is it not just a biped anyway? Guess it's still useful for the more obscurely boned models such as the Squiggoth if so.Skin data is imported from WHM file - do you think i would re-rig whole FC just to make a fancy pic? :lol: Skeleton is not biped yet - it's done with regular max bones - but since from WHM file point of view there's no diference beetween the two, models can be exported right away after import and everything will work fine (except for smoothing groups).


If you've been xrefing like you say with the force commander does that mean you've even managed to export the bip animations from each model that would be far more useful if so and would be greatly appreciated. If not how did you xref? Just using your old xref tool? Hopefully not as that has some serious limitations if your model isn't boned exactly the same as the original model.No i can't import animations yet. :sadpanda: Xrefing has its own limitations but nevertheless it allows to make a whole bunch of new units. For example you could make Mordian Iron Guard with ease. Just fit your new model to the existing guardsman skeleton, rig it, xref all anims from guardsman and voila :) Changing appearance of existing units (new heads for example) or adding new weapons will be possible too. Importing animations is my final goal but it may take a while ;)

[ShinGouki]

Ok if they are skinned like you say that is great news. Very impressed :). This should really help a lot of people with their mods.

Still not overly useful for my main mod but VERY useful for the other mod I'm working on in the background. And also nice just to see how Relic rigged certain units.

Here is the link to the tutorials I wrote.

Tutorials for WHM, WHE and XREF tools. (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=78296)

[Brother Santos]

Here is the link to the tutorials I wrote.Added to first post. I've also added second download mirror for all scripts.

[compiler]

Goodness Gracious, Santos, this is the best news of the month !
(last month's best news being your awesome set of tools).
I can't wait to see this done. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know !

You deserve this community's eternal gratitude.

[the-tempest]

So do you mean skinned like the skin modifier, so you don't need to do all that crazy vertex weighing and stuff? Because that would be awesome beyond belief! I've already used your tools extensively, and this would make it even better!

[Brother Santos]

Yes yes that's exactly what i mean :3dcool: Here's a pic of xrefed FC extracted with my script - now with markers :!: :banana: He just needs smoothing groups and you won't be able to tell the difference from the original one.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/66/relic000016wk.th.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=relic000016wk.jpg)

[p0seidon]

And he is different in what way?

[compiler]

woop ! woop ! woop !
:banana: :yippee: :thumb: :jig:
When do you expect to release this new version ?

[Brother Santos]

And he is different in what way?Heh and i just said: "you won't be able to tell the difference from the original one" :lol: This one is no different in any way but it CAN BE because i got REF.MAX & EBP file for him. You can change his head, add helmet, change weapons, add some random parts, even replace whole model and - the most important thing - use FC animations through xrefing.


When do you expect to release this new version ?This week i think (which probably means sunday :p). I got one major thing to do - linking non-bone meshes - and few small bugs to deal with. Oh and i must update xref tool at last ;)

[ShinGouki]

The whole point is that you don't want it to be different to the Force Commander thats why it's such a big achievement. It means we have full access to the original in game content. As usual kudos to you Santos for sticking with this.

You even managed to get the markers? This gets better every time you tell us something.

It's my birthday on Friday don't suppose you can get it done by then lol? If not i guess it will just have to make a really great early Christmas Present :).

Also let me know if you need any assitance with anything else I'm a decent enough programmer and have access to far better coders than myself.

[p0seidon]

Dude you got the fully rigged model for him?

Now I can just throw away the model for the marshal I just made and only use the storm flamer and some purity seals and the jumppack.


And santos YOU FUCKING ROCK!!!:devil: :devil:

[thudmeizer]

ou can change his head, add helmet, change weapons, add some random parts, even replace whole model and - the most important thing - use FC animations through xrefing.:omg: <collapses into useless heap to be trampled undertoe>

I get a very deep (yet tremendously happy) feeling this could very much springboard the entire DoW community.. MASSIVELY!

[geodav]

i beg forgiveness for ever doubting, long live Brother Santos may the Emperor bless you with his everlasting light

keep going you help every mod with your work praise above all else

[p0seidon]

:bow: :bow: :bow:

[Paladin]

When the new scripts are released, would it be possible to use them to create a terminator model with both standard terminator and assault terminator weapons and animations, so that you could create a squad of termies that were upgradeable to assaults?

[ShinGouki]

It will require a little bit of work in Object Editor but other than that yes it will make that possible.

[Paladin]

Awesome. Then I can implement my cap on termies by just removing assault termies from the game and allowing regular termies to upgrade to assaults.. Then the player can have whatever combo of termies and assaults he wants inside the termie cap :)

[Brother Santos]

I promised new tools will be released on sunday and...here (http://forums.relicnews.com/showpost.php?p=1188123&postcount=1) they are :moose:

Things have changed a bit. All tools are now in one package (you need them all to do anything usefull anyway ;)) Make sure to read the readme file for all installation instructions. Rest of the documentation is now in separate file which you can find in 'help' folder. Script can now import models, bones, vertex weights & markers. Also i've figured out how mesh xrefing works so you can now import models which were not accessible before (like hellfire dread or assault marine) altough after importing they don't use xrefing anymore - i think it's not needed really, even Relic guys don't use this that much in Winter Assault. So once you import such a model you can export it as all the others.

Unfortunatly there are some bugs.One bone on commissars cape are upside down and vertex weight are slightly messed up. One marker in heretic model should be placed near the neck but instead it's near the left foot :wtf: The problem is bone to which this marker should be linked doesn't exist in WHM file! Relic guy used Remove=Yes property probably but i don't know yet how to make this working right. Pls report to me any other bug you'll find. Also a good thing to do is to take a look with a 'human eye' on imported models and check if everething is placed right.

Nevertheless most models work fine, can be exported with Relic Tools and you can use updated version of XREF Tool to access animations. Here is the first tutorial for the new tools:

"Turn signals on a chaos land raider" (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?p=1287287#post1287287)

Have fun! :nyah:

[p0seidon]

wh00t!!!!!

[CLR]

Relic guy used Remove=Yes property probably but i don't know yet how to make this working right.

The flag basically removes the bone from the hierarchy. In rigs like the biped where you can't remove the clavicle without deleting the entire rig this feature was required. A remove flag on the clavicle would equate to the upper arm linked to the spine2 bone.

[compiler]

:yippee:

Many than ks for your dedication to making our lives easier !
You really rule !
:beer:

[Palii]

:bow2:
You just made the new era of dow-modding happen!

[Brother Santos]

The flag basically removes the bone from the hierarchy. In rigs like the biped where you can't remove the clavicle without deleting the entire rig this feature was required. A remove flag on the clavicle would equate to the upper arm linked to the spine2 bone.I got a marker 'marker_neck_front'. I can read from WHM file that it is linked to 'bip01 neck'. 'Bip 01 neck' doesn't exist in WHM though so i need to find a parent. There are no spine 1 & 2 bones either so i can only link it to 'bip01 spine' but that's only because i know it is a CS bone. How would i do this if these were all regular bones or mesh bones. In case of markers i got ONLY the name of the parent bone not it's place in the hierarchy. So if it is removed i'm left with nothing :wtf:

[thudmeizer]

The next revolution in DoW/WA modding has arrived! This will MASSIVELY simplify model anims so teams can now concentrate on synch-kills rather than animating all the basic stuff. KUDOS x 100 Mr Santos ! ! !

[Brother Santos]

The next revolution in DoW/WA modding has arrived! This will MASSIVELY simplify model anims so teams can now concentrate on synch-kills rather than animating all the basic stuff. KUDOS x 100 Mr Santos ! ! !Well nearly because character skeletons are done with normal bones right now and it's quite difficult to animate with forward kinematics only. But i already started working on character studio support. If sky won't fall on my head it should be available later this week. ;)

[compiler]

Wooooot !!!!
This will really be most useful !!


Just a question about your method : I think I understood how to add some part to a mesh, but can you remove a part from a mesh ?
Can you remove a turret from a tank, for instance, with your method ?

[Brother Santos]

Just a question about your method : I think I understood how to add some part to a mesh, but can you remove a part from a mesh ?
Can you remove a turret from a tank, for instance, with your method ?Sure. Remove it from ref file and you won't see it again. :lol:

[p0seidon]

That was an weird question.

[Maestrorobertus]

hm... just downloaded the 0.2 version... (using 3dsmax 7 and latest modtools)

Problem: Everytime i try to convert a whe file I got a error message telling me that he couldn't create the function... pointing to the first line of the script. There is a ebp created but, empty, 0 kb.

[potemkis]

Yay! I'm getting them to work now! At first they weren't- I was getting the bones, but not the mesh, then I actually looked at the Readme and set everything up right. Now they are.

[p0seidon]

Hmm,, when I export the helios Land Raider for the legacy it get's to show up in the object editor I get an whm and whe only when I start an skirmish the game crashes at 50% of the load bar.

Help please?

[Brother Santos]

Problem: Everytime i try to convert a whe file I got a error message telling me that he couldn't create the function... pointing to the first line of the script. There is a ebp created but, empty, 0 kb.:blink: That's something new...Does this only happen with WHE Convert script? Did you try to evaluate it maybe? Also could you give the exact error message (i mean which function can't be created)?


Yay! I'm getting them to work now! At first they weren't- I was getting the bones, but not the mesh, then I actually looked at the Readme and set everything up right. Now they are.Yay!


Hmm,, when I export the helios Land Raider for the legacy it get's to show up in the object editor I get an whm and whe only when I start an skirmish the game crashes at 50% of the load bar. Help please?Are you sure this is not a problem with the code? I were getting various bugs during testing but never crashing. Pls PM me your warnings.log, Ref.max and EBP file.

[p0seidon]

Crap I just looked in the object editor and it says it can't find no anims so that is my problem, I also had this with the helmeted sergeant.

[potemkis]

Hmm, methinks that if I had set the folders up like that to begin with, it may have worked before. Much of the time though, it may have been a memory issue...

[p0seidon]

What was your motivation to make these tools, brother santos?

[Brother Santos]

Well i was going to make my own small space marine mod :) And as everybody else here i was really disappointed that in order to make even smallest change to the unit one must completly remake it :screwy: One day i was looking at some files in chunky viewer ;) and i was struck by the fact that WHE & EBP files look very similar...and that's how it all started :D

[p0seidon]

Cool,,

[Tobsson]

When I try to convert the whe files it just says:

MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception

-- Type error:if-test requires BooleanClass, got: chunkheader typeid:"DATAFBIF" version:1 size:61 namelength:13 name:"FileBurnInfo"



What should I do? I use 3dsMax 7 with latest tools from Santos.

[the-tempest]

Try evaluating the script. It details on doing that in the readme, hopefully that'll solve your problem. I'm not exactly sure on how to do it, can't quite remember, but its something like opening the script and selecting evaluate all from the dropdown bar.

[potemkis]

Make sure the script is selected (you don't have to highlight it) and hit CTRL+E to evaluate.

Okay, so say I wanted to have a single Termie to act as a placeholder for something else (once I finish making it), swap out a weapon, and Xref the animations from the DoW Chaos Lord and put it into WA. Would I pretty much use the helmeted sgt tutorial or is that something completely different?

[Finaldeath]

I have uploaded all of the tutorials to the wiki: http://www.relic.com/rdn/wiki/DOWModeling/Tutorials

[Brother Santos]

Thx Finaldeath :)

[potemkis]

I followed your Chaos Landraider tut. I have my Typhus model set up, ready to go. I Xrefd the animations from the Chaos Lord in DoW (after merging in his scythe). Yet when I try to use the Relic Exporters, I get some message about the file's pipeline. As far as I know, everything is set up in the correct folders:

M:\THQ\DawnOfWar\ModTools\DataGeneric\Art\EBPs\races\chaos\troops\typhus\

Am I missing something?


Here's a pic:

[img=http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/8908/typhus4di.th.png] (http://img480.imageshack.us/my.php?image=typhus4di.png)

[potemkis]

M:\THQ\DawnOfWar\ModTools\DataSrc\Art\EBPs\rac es\chaos\troops\typhus\reference

This is the output pipeline that I have. Everything exported there without any problems. Now in the Object Editor, it says "Model is not in any known projects". Does anyone have an answer to this?

[Brother Santos]

M:\THQ\DawnOfWar\ModTools\DataSrc\Mod Name\Art\EBPs\rac es\chaos\troops\typhus\reference
Xrefing from chaos lord to termie might not be the best idea. Different armor -> different skeleton. You can try this but i think it will look weird :screwy:

[potemkis]

Yeah, I finally figured that part out, BUT when I finally got it to open in the OE, the anims for the termie were there, so were the lord's. The problem is: when I selected an anim from the lord, the model disappears. SO I guess that won't work out as planned. Maybe if you get the biped information like you were talking about earlier, I can somehow make a .bip file and tweak the anims a little?

[Kjon]

When i select the animations Chaos Land Raider i made the model disappears, but it still works in-game...

[p0seidon]

Yeah, I finally figured that part out, BUT when I finally got it to open in the OE, the anims for the termie were there, so were the lord's. The problem is: when I selected an anim from the lord, the model disappears. SO I guess that won't work out as planned. Maybe if you get the biped information like you were talking about earlier, I can somehow make a .bip file and tweak the anims a little?


It's supposed to be that way.

[Brother Santos]

I stated many times that animations are not visible in OE right now :rolleyes: ...but i'm working on this. :3dcool:

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/7243/dreadwalk0lx.gif

:elephant: :banana: :devil:

[potemkis]

Oh, yeah. Heh. I'm just going to use the Assault Termie's animations and beef him up a little. Should make a semi-convincing Typhus.

[compiler]

"...but i'm working on this. :3dcool: "

Oh, Santos, is there any limit to your power ?

And, as a side question, is there any estimated date of release ? (drools all over keyboard)

[Brother Santos]

Oh, Santos, is there any limit to your power ?Unfortunatly yes :( Extracted animations will look the same as original ones but are stored a bit differently inside 3dsmax. If a given bone is animated it will usually have a key in each frame. So if you got 200 frame animation you will have 200 keys to handle for one bone only :/ That's how animations are stored in WHM files and that's the only way i can import them. Of course if you need to change something in animation you can "clean it up" by hand or at least use it as a reference for new animation. In some cases this won't be even necessery - for example when you want to add some pieces of cloth to existing model you don't have to touch existing animations at all just animate added stuff.


And, as a side question, is there any estimated date of release ? (drools all over keyboard)This stuff needs testing and doing proper testing takes time but i'm considering releasing "what i've got" a bit earlier. Not everything might work perfectly but at least you will be able to see animations in OE which is a major improvement imho ;) We'll see, maybe it will be released on christmas day... :santa:

[thudmeizer]

Praise be to DA BRO ! ! Sorry..

Oh and.. Merry Frick'n Christmas Damn it! :santa:

[potemkis]

With actual "Bone Animation" it may be possible to store an animation from 3ds max as motion capture data. I've seen motion capture animation with a keyframe per frame before. It was a pain in the arse, but I was able to tweak it as I needed to. It would be nice to see if you could find a way to store the animations and such as either motion capture or biped files. It would make it a little easier to animate new models.

[Tobsson]

Is it possible to get the animations out of the ebp file and into the .max file that can create. That would be cool to do because you can get the models into to movies and pictures.