[TOOL] Santos Tools 2 - UPDATED 14-10 - Sound Editor 0.3.0 released!

[Santos]

Well, the game seems to be loading animations only from HKANIM files, so I have totally no idea what is the purpose of animations folder. In most cases it contains the same set of animations as HKANIM file (there are exceptions though), so it feels pretty redundant. I think when working with editor, it's best to always load animations from HKANIM file (unless something goes wrong like with the spore mine).

Program crashing when loading animations from either source, is of course a bug which will be fixed in next version. Feel free to point out any models that cause such problems.

[spiderbug2]

Well, the game seems to be loading animations only from HKANIM files, so I have totally no idea what is the purpose of animations folder. In most cases it contains the same set of animations as HKANIM file (there are exceptions though), so it feels pretty redundant. I think when working with editor, it's best to always load animations from HKANIM file (unless something goes wrong like with the spore mine).

Program crashing when loading animations from either source, is of course a bug which will be fixed in next version. Feel free to point out any models that cause such problems.

yay thats the problem im having i knew i was following the tut right but i couldn't figerout what the in the world was causing it to crash
marine model hkanim seems to have cause the game to crash in myn if i put the hkanim file in it automaticly makes a crash in the loading screen,and i knew something was up when i put the default animation back in and it still caused crash xD.

[Chaos Godstone]

Is there an ETA on the version with .motiontree editing or has a Relic dev said 'just wait till after Retribution'?
Perhaps they wish to release your tool as official DLC... um, shouldn't mention that abbreviation.

Just a slight tangent, has your work on this tool-set given you insight into the DOW 1 problem or is importing a biped like the DOW 2 tool still not possible?

EDIT: Would it be possible to implement DOW 1 model import into Max using this tool?

Should stop myself now or Croaxleigh might snip with good reason.

[Shuma]

Why would you even to do that? Models in DoW 1 were awful, unless you'd use them as a base and then it would hardly be a problem, no more "ilegal" than using a reference image.

[Santos]

Is there an ETA on the version with .motiontree editing

No ETA at this point. It's basically something like 80% done but I have this bad programming habit of leaving all the hard stuff for the end, so it's really difficult to tell how long it will take to finish. Though I'm also working on some other things including sound editor and just recently I was finally able to crack the BFX format.

or has a Relic dev said 'just wait till after Retribution'?

It makes me wonder as well if Relic is planning to release some more modding tools with Retribution. They've been awfully quiet since that dev chat early last year...

Just a slight tangent, has your work on this tool-set given you insight into the DOW 1 problem or is importing a biped like the DOW 2 tool still not possible?

It's quite possible actually and may happen if I find enough free time to do it.

EDIT: Would it be possible to implement DOW 1 model import into Max using this tool?

No.

[Shuma]

Though I'm also working on some other things including sound editor and just recently I was finally able to crack the BFX format.

I-I think i love you.

Anyway about Retribution, well Relic has not said anything but something i noticed in the IGN preview video is that races are now selected from a drop down list instead of the gigantic un-editable UI buttons on top, so there might be the possibility of adding new races now. Only other modding related news is that custom badges are back.

[Copernicus]

@Santos:
Nice work, is any information on BFX available? Did you also do further research on BSC?

[Shuma]

Just an idea but something that'd be really cool is a reload button for attachments(instead of having to remove them and then add them again), it's not really important but just putting it out there.

[Supernaut]

Hey again,

I'm currently having an issue with the textures not appearing correctly on the models when exported, I don't run into any issues sorting out the multi material to display my own textures (renamed to the ones they will be replacing) and they appear correctly in Max correct UV coordinates and such, however when they export the textures are messed up.

Well to be precise, I am replacing the FC Head and it appears that the backpack texture applies to my custom head as well as my own custom texture as I can see my custom texture on the areas that the backpack tex isn't covering. I don't believe I've been doing anything incorrectly but I can't see why the UVs are getting messed up when I've never put the backpack texture on my model. I don't recall having this issue on the older version when the materials were separate.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

*edit* Just checked again, my texture doesn't appear at all it just puts the backpack texture on the head, I definitely applied my material to it however.

[Shuma]

Did you change the material id on the edit mesh modifier? Look at the bottom it says material id and some number, make it match with the id in the multi-material.

[Darkbladecr]

including sound editor and just recently I was finally able to crack the BFX format.

Will this support CoH as well?

[Supernaut]

Cheers Shuma, that is exactly what the problem was. Working as intended now.

[OmegaThree]

Brother Santos, is there a way to import upper body (ub_) animations and overlay them on top of full body (fb_) animations without overwriting the lower body keys?

[Santos]

Sorry guys, got a little bit sick and had to spend some time in bed. Replying in reverse order:

@OmegaThree

If you're using biped, you can save animation into BIP file and load it onto another skeleton, so this might be one way to do it. I belive you can also save & load animations from File menu but can't remember ever using this feature.

@Darkbladecr

Yes.

@Shuma

Good idea. Also note that you can disable attachment temporarily with double click.

@Copernicus

I have some notes on BFX format but not a full documentation yet. Are you interested in writing FX editor?

I did some more research on BSC but unfortunately I'm stuck in the same place as you (Sound Container effects). These part of the file is just total madness, I still can't even figure out what kind of data it represents. This is currently the thing that's holding me back from releasing this tool.

[Copernicus]

I'd certainly be interested in getting to know the BFX format, but I lack the skills for 3D-programming to write a full-blown editor (with visual placement of effects etc.). Since we're stuck at the same point, I'll put some more effort into figuring out the BSC format.

[Dofd]

Dont know if this allready was asked, i couldnt find it :P
When i try importing a model fe. a weapon (\art\race_ig\troops_wargear\weapons_ranged\lasgun_no_bayonet\), a message appears "Input file is outside current module"
What does this mean? And how can if ix this "littl" problem?
Thanks for help

[horusheretic]

in the options, choose the mod your working with.

[stranger]

I've yet again stumbled across an obstacle using the tools. I'm using a fire_prism motiontree file with a custom model, the bone structure is different, the bone names are different. Everything exported fine, the animations show up in model editor, but as soon as I check the model in game, the anims are not there. Should I just stick to the falcon bone names and see what happens, or should I figure out how to hex edit the motiontree without messing up the everything... I'd really appreciate the help.

[Shuma]

I think only Santos would know that, i'd suggest renaming the bone names and see what happens meanwhile.

Edit:

So how exactly do badges work?

[LegatusC]

Okay, I am so lost I think I should just give up cause I must be retarded or something. But I downloaded it, installed it. Now what? I just installed everything to the folders it suggested. It's telling me to read this non-existant script readme which is nowhere to be found. I've gone through everything looking for this damned readme for scripts and it's simply not there. The scripts were installed to \max studio and santos tools 2 was installed to \dawn of war 2. In max studio I click on maxscript then what? Do I click on open, run, or what, both of those have lead me nowhere. I searched through \max studio looking for some scripts I guess were supposed to be installed, finding nothing not even a readme. I went through the santos tools 2 folder which contains only the model editor folder, a readme which instructs me to the script readme i cannot find, and a url. How do you people work with just this? You guys must have past experience to be able to know what to do cause I sure don't.

[Chaos Godstone]

It should be, at least in Windows XP, in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 9\Scripts\SantosTools2 or something like that depending on Max version.

[LegatusC]

Thanks for the quick response, and yeah I checked there. Reinstalled and checked again. No luck. I'm on max 10. The only thing in scripts is 3 folders, startup, flightstudio, and dwg.interop. I've tried installing the scripts to \max studio\scripts but still nothing is there or anything.

[Santos]

@stranger

Bone names shouldn't really matter, but using motion tree file from other unit is not the best idea anyway, for reasons I'm too lazy to explain right now.

@Shuma

Badges are projected on the model in some way but I'm not able to make any sense out of these numbers at this point. I did some testing a while back and the effects were pretty weird (like badge showing 4 times on a model with each instance being of different size). I'd like to do a visual editor for badges at some point, but need to get some more understanding of this stuff first.

@LegatusC

You can try installing the scripts to some custom folder and copy the files manually to your MAX directory.

Also see my answers here and here.

[LegatusC]

Huge issues with the SGA reader 2. Can't extract. I went into \archives and tried to extract 200_data.sga I chose to extract it to \gameassets\data.
Got an error saying

"Error extracting gameassets\archives\200_data.sga
unable to open \gameassets\data"

Checked the locations, they're all correct.

[stranger]

Well, using it and the falcon engine markers seems to make engine fx work pretty nicely, so one thing led to another... Then, what would you suggest doing should I create, say, a landspeeder unit and want it properly animated and fxed in the game (well, short of figuring out the motiontree format myself and doing a custom one from scratch)?

Sorry if this's been answered somewhere, but I combed your posts over here and came with nothing, so you'll have to forgive me for bugging you.

EDIT: Also, the hull animations did work when the hull bone was called like the falcon chassis one and stopped when it was not. It might have something to do with the motiontree containing the path to the original model, but then every time I try to change that, it black boxes on me...

[Santos]

Then, what would you suggest doing should I create, say, a landspeeder unit and want it properly animated and fxed in the game (well, short of figuring out the motiontree format myself and doing a custom one from scratch)?

I would suggest to wait for the next version of my tools. In the meantime you can always make some more models (bikes? ).

EDIT: Also, the hull animations did work when the hull bone was called like the falcon chassis one and stopped when it was not. It might have something to do with the motiontree containing the path to the original model, but then every time I try to change that, it black boxes on me...

Motiontree contains references to many things from model file (bones, markers, meshes etc) but not to the file itself, so it can be used with another model, at least in theory. In practice this can be rather hard as each motion tree will have some specific elements that only make sense when file is used with original model.

[Shuma]

Bikes... Now there's an idea... CoH had bikes so why not DoW 2 right?

[stranger]

Animating belivable bike melee was a bitch in dow1

@Santos
Great news, it sounds like it's not that far away too. I finally have the motivation to finish that defiler model thanks to you

[ph34ry]

Hi. Really newbie question here, but is there a step by step guide to using the Model Editor? I start it up, hit open, and all I see is a "Movies" directory on the left panel, and "." ".." and "Movies" on the right. Inside "Movies" is "portraits" and "xp1", which are both empty. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? I don't care to do animations or textures or anything fancy, I am just trying to export a model to 3ds!

[horusheretic]

You need to extract the models and its textures from the sga archives first. Use copes mod tool for that. so easy

[ph34ry]

Is the information I need in one .sga file, or spread across many? Many of the SGA files seem similar, but contain slightly different directories. I am unsure which to access to get the

- shaders
- config
- art\defaults
- art\badges

required for accessing the model I wish to export to 3dsmax.

[Chaos Godstone]

Multiple, and the best way I have found is to open the .module file and work from the bottom of the 'data' section up the list of .sga's to the folder statement

 
[data:common]
folder.01 = GameAssets\Data
archive.01 = GameAssets\Archives\230_data.sga
archive.02 = GameAssets\Archives\220_data.sga
archive.03 = GameAssets\Archives\210_data.sga
archive.04 = GameAssets\Archives\200_data.sga
archive.05 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArt_DELTA.sga
archive.06 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArt.sga
archive.07 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArtEnvironment_DELTA.sga
archive.08 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArtEnvironment.sga
archive.09 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArtEnvironmentTextures_DELTA.sga
archive.10 = GameAssets\Archives\GameArtEnvironmentTextures.sga
archive.11 = GameAssets\Archives\GameMaps_DELTA.sga
archive.12 = GameAssets\Archives\GameMaps.sga
archive.13 = GameAssets\Archives\GameDefault_DELTA.sga
archive.14 = GameAssets\Archives\GameDefault.sga

[ph34ry]

Alright, with all of those exported I have located the wraithlord.model file that I am looking for.

As I understand it I need some sort of script to import that to 3dsmax? .model is not a standard 3dsmax importable file format.

EDIT: And I can find the export script within max, but no import script.
EDIT: Or rather, when I go to MAXScript, select SantosTools2 from Startup, nothing happens.

[Shuma]

Hey boss i'm sure you're still lurking around so i'll just leave this here, found a little bug, or at least what i believe to be a bug, when trying to edit the lascannon animations and after going through the whole process of converting the animations to max files i get this anomaly:

Spoiler

Both are screenshots from the fb_fire_stand_01 animation from the lascannon folder, anyway, the left kneepad is as you can see inside leg, easy to fix but either way the problem is not present in the model editor(haven't checked in game to see if it's there or not), however this bug is not present on all the lascannon animations, for example the kneepad appears and animates correctly on the fb_aim_stand_combat_idle_01 anim, the other bug is the lascannon wires, that one is one all the animations, but again this doesn't show in the model editor or in the game, and by now i have edited all the sword and gun, powerfist, range_burst and the other devastator animations and i haven't seen this particular thing in any of those, only thing i noticed here is the use of the IK chain, at least there's a little helper there called "lc_ikchain01" now i don't really know much about animations so i don't know exactly how that works, but at least i haven't noticed it in the other animations, so maybe that's what's different, i don't really know.

Either way i'm pretty sure it's not a problem on my end since i've redone the whole import animations to max process 3 times now to make absolutely sure that i wasn't doing something wrong with this particular set of animations.

I'll play around with the animations and see if those cables are magically fixed when being exported to the .hkx format, but i doubt i'll have that much luck On the other hand it's probably easy to fix by hand, hopefully.

Edit:

Well color me impressed, the cables are automatically fixed once the animations are exported from max.

[Clonesa]

Is Santos still around these forums? Really excited to be able to do something with bfx and motiontree.

Anyways, does anyone else have constant crashing using the new Model Editor? I can't seem to open any .model files. The log doesn't seem to offer any useful feedback and it seems to crash at different points for each .model.

[Shuma]

Is Santos still around? Well, last time i said he wasn't he materialized to tell me wrong. So he's probably still working on the tool, at least i would hope so.
As for the Model editor, yeah i have that problem from time to time, seems to happen at random though, try reinstalling it and using the DoW2Multiplayer module.

[Clonesa]

Thx, using the other module helped. Really bizarre that Relic split it up like that.

Potentionally even stranger problem. I used to get this with the DoW1 tools, but it was just DoW1 so I just dealt with it. I'm not getting it with SantosTools2 ever since the smoothing groups import fix I believe. Meshes now pop in and out of visibility in any viewport with Smooth option. Very annoying. I have to use the Facets option to see my imported meshes reliably.

[edit]
Silly me, this is inside 3ds max 2009.

[Croaxleigh]

Last Activity: 27th Feb 11 3:09 PM

He hasn't been back in about a month and a half. Given the years that passed between Santos' Tools for DoW and the sudden appearance of Santos' Tools 2 for DoW2, the absence 6 weeks isn't exactly major. Knowing Santos, he'll probably pop back in again at some point and be like, "Oh, sorry, I was busy for a while, hope you don't mind but I updated the tools with the audio editor I mentioned before and went ahead and did a custom animation converter and open-source 3D modeling engine because I had a few days with nothing to do."

[Shuma]

We should be mailing beers to this guy.

[Promythyus]

Epic work takes Epic time

[BigDawgKS]

I would be pretty happy to get some tools to properly edit motiontree files. There's only so much you can do without editing the animation states and actions, especially if you're trying to add new units and abilities.

[Chaos Godstone]

He also said he might look into updating the DoW1 tools, If he found the time ... *hopes*

In all though I might be tempted down the line of the conspiracy theorist, he's been told to hold off the tool for a while and Relic will stamp their official mod tools stamp of approval on it at the right time, hell, they could even be helping his genius along! He could turn up and say 'here's an update' and supply a link to the official mod tools.

*strokes chin-squig thoughtfully* ... hmm?

[Croaxleigh]

Not going to happen.

[Khorney]

or he got a lovely cease and decist from our benefactors =)

[Shuma]

Well that certainly would be more likely than "Relic is helping"

[Gorb]

They didn't stop his work in DoW I, and even incorporated one of his scripts into the official DC or SS mod tools release.

I fail to see how scaremongering here is going to be of any benefit.

Thus, if you have nothing to say, and no problems to report or brainstorm: please don't post. You are keeping what would be a dead thread alive for no particular reason.

[Andrei355]

Hello everyone, I have a slight problem when importing models with bones, the model does not want to be imported without the bones okay


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[NoisyMonk]

Andrei, could you try to be more specific? What is it you are trying to do?

Also, has anyone figured out how to use the Model Editor to move Badges properly? Like, what do the values in the Transform actually represent? What correlation is there between those numbers and the position that the badge appears at on the model? Driving me nuts.

[Shuma]

I think not, see: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthre...post1045206675

[horusheretic]

well theres a basic movement which is simple enough :L the numbers seem to be pixel position so if you know the texture size, you can guess a bit better.