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

[Kresjah]

Try adding \Data to the end of your archive path in Santos Tools and see if that works. I.e., if you extracted the archives to C:\Archives then you should set the path in Santos Tools to C:\Archives\Data (of course, this all depends on exactly how you extracted your files, but for what seems to be the vast majority of people, that should fix most problems).

[Artfunkel]

That had no effect either. Here's an example of what I've got:

C:\Archives\data\art\race_marine\troops\librarian\librarian.model

The only folders I have are art\race_marine\ and shaders\ (just as an experiment). Should there be others?

Edit: actually, since animations are being loaded this can't be a problem with paths.

[Santos]

Models aren't rendered when I open them. I can see the bones if I switch them on, but there is no mesh.

This is correct. Some MODEL files do not contain any meshes (troops especially). In such cases visual appearance of the model is handled entirely by wargear items and accessories (these can be commonly found in troops_wargear and vehicles_wargear).

[Artfunkel]

Okay, thanks, it's working now. I actually started out by loading the drop pod model, which doesn't lead to the same problems as the troops...but when I was doing that I didn't have the shaders folder extracted, and the model was invisible for that reason.

[Artfunkel]

I'm going to need some more help. I'm trying to modify the drop pod so that it spawns on the ground with its doors closed and stays there. There's a ragdoll animation that is exactly what I want but I can't get the entity to enter that state, and I can't work out how to modify the model so that it's the default either. I don't have Max so I can't use the import/export stuff. Is there a way?

[Santos]

Ragdoll shows the drop pod with doors closed because this animation doesn't really exist, so what you're seeing here is really a model in reference pose. The best the way to do what you want here, would be to reskin door bones to main bone in MAX so that doors wouldn't move when animation is played. Without MAX, the only thing I can think off, is to remove the animations physically (both animation folder and hkanim file), so that model always ends up in reference pose. But that will only work if you create a new drop pod in the code (else game will load animations anyway from original archives).

[Shuma]

That loooks hilariously odd for some reason. I like it.

[Eihger]

Um I started doing it again..... I tried exporting a modified head for my IG character and nothing shows up in the model viewer. This means I got the skinning wrong, Correct?

well the head only needs 3 bones and the skeleton root? Its got that and a skin and everything needed.

EDIT: Figured it out, pay no heed!!!!

[Solar Macharius]

I have a little problem with some head models i am working on.
The fact is that those models lock fine (the correct size) in the modelviewer, but when used in the game, they have became smaller.

pic modelviewer

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/3...rosaviewer.jpg

pic ingame

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3...osafarseer.jpg



My suggestion is that there could be a problem with the skin-modifier and/or the attachment to the bones in general. When I made those heads I imported normal IG heads with all elements like bones and markers, imported the new head, just the mesh and the material, took the skin-modifier from the old model and placed it to the new and attached the vertex to the bones, deleted the old model and exported it.


[some unnecessary side explanation]
But after attaching the vertex to a bone the head moved down to the legs. Moving the head had no effect in MAX but in the modelviewer where after some try it hit the right place.
[/some unnecessary side explanation]

When I import to different IG heads, delete some unnecessary elements and exporting without merging them I have the same problem, normal heads in modelviewer, smaller in the game. [without heads moving to the legs]

Hope someone can help me


EDIT: @Artfunkel
Which rbf had you edited to chance the Frontmodel, i cant find it

[Shuma]

I think it has something to do with the Ig skeletons, some are smaller some are bigger or something like that.

[Artfunkel]

Which rbf had you edited to chance the Frontmodel, i cant find it

It's the campaign force commander ebps.

Edit: eh? Where did my last post go?

[horusheretic]

Ok, one of the texturers me out seem to have a problem with opening things in the model viewer. it doesn't seem to load meshes but bones and such, like a similar problem.

unlike that problem though, we are loading up a mesh that has no anims. the even stranger thing is that the model works perfectly fine on my end.

we've tried several things like checking the file paths, visibility etc.

It's pretty much at a frustrating place right now so any ideas?

[Shuma]

Make sure that he has extracted ALL Shaders. And not all meshes have bones, at least from Relic's default models the bones are almost always contained in .model files in the troops and vehicles folders instead of the troops_wargear or vehicles_wargears.

If it's a custom model(and i assume it is) then i have no clue.

[horusheretic]

ok, ill forward that on.

after trying this out a bit..

@santos could you possibly make a pop up or some such saying that you don't have the required files if it cant find them and the solution to it?

[Eihger]

So I'm trying to get a heavy bolter on an IG squad, it worked when I changed it to ranged_burst

And it worked in the model viewer

So I try changing up the model so it'll fit the guardsman, and again the modified model works perfectly in the model viewer, but as soon as I play it in game BAM nothing, big black box of death.

EDIT: I need the original modle for the Purger of Victory bay ASAP

[Promythyus]

you can get the original model from the GameAssets/<art_somethingorrather>.sga archive, if you broke that you should use validate files in steam..

[Eihger]

wont that over-right any mods I have in GameAssets?

As wellI still have the issiue with the model, I think I moved the reference off kilter in Max, but in the model viewer it animates alright and everything.

[Shuma]

The Model editor is not reliable. And why would it overwrite anything besides the model file?

[Eihger]

You know how you edit the filepath it saves to?

well it WAS saying to 89th\data\art\race_ig\weapons_ranged\heavy_bolter_vek

then it just decided to change when I imported the original as a reference, so I delete the reference, hit import and test it in game.

YEAH.. and I don't know why the bolter stopped working all of a sudden either. the only thing I changed in the Wargear file was the render path, and that is correct.

ok I just imported a different bolter, got the REF POS corect and it works now.

[Eihger]

I am trying to export my new commissar head and I get this

		
		-- Update FOLDMTRL size
		WriteChunkSize file mtrlChunkHeaderPos mtrlChunkDataPos
		
		-- Material exported
		print ("Exported '" + mat.name + "' material")
	)
)

-- Structure to hold bone with its hierarchy level
struct exportBoneStruct (bone, level)
	
-- Recursive function that counts bones in skeleton and finds their hierarchy level
function CountBones bone &bonelist level =
(
	local bs = exportBoneStruct bone level
	append bonelist bs
	local count = bonelist.count - 1
	for child in bone.children do
		if child.boneEnable == true then
			CountBones child &bonelist count
)

function ExportBones file =
(

The hell does it mean?

saying something about "variables in Unwrapper checker: Standard"

[nathaniak]

Just seen this, not really sure over how to get it to work.

Could you help?

I downloaded the trial version from the website. Like in the readme, I put scripts into the main folder. I changed the options file to point to the folder in which my extracted files are.

Have I done something wrong or missed something?
If I run the program and go to run script, they are there but do not seem to do anything.

[Mallec]

I'm having a similar issue that artfunkel was having and cant seem to resolve it. Currently I am unable to see the meshes on any of the models i import into the model editor.

I extracted all of the files in the art and shaders folders in 200_data.sga using sga reader 2.

Then when opening any .model file there is no mesh, only the bones and the external wire frame seem to render.

Anyone have any ideas?

Edit 1: I also tried to import files into 3dsmax 2011 following the instructions in the readme to the letter and it is also giving me an error that it is unable to import the model files.

[ZombieDragon201]

I'm having this exact problem too. Down to every word.

[traemyn]

Just sharing what I know..

Some of the models, especially the ones in the Troops folders, don't have meshes on them. So basically you have to add the armor, the weapons, the head piece by piece from the other folders. The easiest way to do this is to use the Model Editor in Santos's tools. First you open a model, then you go Attachments in the tool and add more models (like armor, head, melee weapons, etc). Then you can save as a .modelset and import this into MAX and it will have all the pieces you chose.

This is covered a bit in the readme file with the tools.

[Mallec]

@traemyn I tried that as well. For many troops, the avatar, and a hand full of vehicles. No mesh shows up for any of them. I'm not sure, but I think that there maybe an issue with 3dsmax 2011. Perhaps something with the scripting has changed since the previous additions?

[Eihger]

Check 3d max, does the mesh have a skin?
is the mesh an EDITABLE MESH?

check your rbf dose the unit reference the correct wargear/ animator?

[ZombieDragon201]

So, if I'm trying to edit a bloodletter, I'll have to go in and add the head and weapon for the mesh to appear?

[Eihger]

ATTENTION

IF YOU ARE USING GIMP TO CREATE NORMAL MAPS OR IMAGES RE-SAVE THE IMAGE IN ANOTHER PROGRAM OR THE MAPS WILL CAUSE FATAL ERRORS

[Clonesa]

Is Santos still around? A lot of people have been spamming this thread with individual issues instead of discussion of the tool leaving me worried that he'll never know when there a serious question posed.

In any case I'm beginning to think there is a bug with the exporter in which it does not correctly export markers. I have yet to get a custom weapon model working and have the game correctly find the fx markers.

[Supernaut]

I would love to use these tools but I am completely unable to, I am running 3ds Max 2010 x64 Educational version. I have followed your readme to the letter, but the scripts won't load at startup and won't even run from inside 3DS, I am at a complete loss as to why they won't work.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Clonesa]

Does anybody know of a good way to contact Santos?

[p0seidon]

So I finally decided to give modeling for DoW2 a go (got something fun planned :3, more details later.)

But I got this interesting error whilst trying to load a .mode file WITH import biped/bones selected, if I don't select this the model imports properly.
It's very annoying to say the least, basically halted my progress for today.

Anyone know of a solution? Running 3dsmax 2011 64bit here.

[THJT-9]

can you tell us what the error says?
I also have a problem but mines with exports just saying they failed preventing me from uploading new models :P 2010 64bit is my edition btw.

Edit: Image of yours just decided to show up (it wasnt before) and I have to say ive never seen anything like that sorry, however, I did read somewhere about other people with the 2011 edition having problems, so it could be the importer/exporter doesn't like the new version.

[p0seidon]

Been fiddling with the maxscript for the importer a bit, there's nothing WRONG with the script itself, max 11, or most likely 64bit: is the problem by the looks of it.

May see if I can find my way too old disc of 3dsmax 8 upstairs.. but not counting on it.

edit: works wonderfull with max 8.. but this also reminds me why I dumped 8 to begin with, it's so aweful to work with .

[Hellcobra84]

Does anybody know of a good way to contact Santos?

You can send a mail to santos

Anyone know of a solution? Running 3dsmax 2011 64bit here

Horusheretic and clonesa are the best in this camp

[THJT-9]

You can send a mail to santos

Do you mean a PM or has someone got his email, as if you mean pm I haven't seem him on for quite a long time so...

[Hellcobra84]

Do you mean a PM or has someone got his email, as if you mean pm I haven't seem him on for quite a long time so...

Clik santos name at left area up to the image , at 4 point exist (send a email to santos )

[horusheretic]

Anyone know of a solution? Running 3dsmax 2011 64bit here

Horusheretic and clonesa are the best in this camp

ive barely touched anything above 2008, and i am running a 32 bit version so i cant help there, nor am i familiar with maxscript.

[systemTHOR]

Hello
First of all, a great thanks for thos wonderfull tools.
I m new in the dow2 world modeling and i really dont understand where to extract SGA files. I think this is the art SGA to extract but can somone tell me where please ?
In a second time, how have i to setup the "dow2modelEditor's settings.ini" ?
At last, how to setup too the script folder in 3dsMax ?
Thanks for your help.

[uncle_anaesthesia]

just a minor update for model viewing using the model viewer, if you cant see the mesh or its black on screen use the sga reader and extract all shader files in all sga archives as well as all art files, might be overkill but i can see all stuff clearly now,
i originally only had the 200 sga extracted and it wouldnt work

[SicknessDoW]

Is it possible to put animations after eachother? Or will a new animations always replace the old?

Would be grateful for some answers

Thank you.

[Salamandres99]

Santos, I have a problem to export .model files on 3dsmax. when I click to export, I have this message:
-Unknow proprety: "variables" in wire_1741862:Standard
and I can't export...
What can I do?

[Gty451]

I'm having the same problem as Artfunkel and some other in this thread. It've been a long time since you posted your problems, have you solved them now?

When I import a model into the ModelViewer it's nothing but helper-boxes or something, I can also click to view the bounding-boxes. This also happens for the Drop Pod, which someone with this similar problem seemed to be able to load normally. To clarify: I've read the post that the models in the troops-folder doesn't contain meshes but this problem seem to appear for every model I've found.

The only part of the installation I found a little vague was which SGA-files to unpack. It seems to be aquite a few all containing the art-folder though I think only the one named gamedefault contains model-files. So I assume this is the SGA-file we're using? Can anyone confirm this?

The only other thing I'm not following to the letter is that I've got Net framework 4.0 and I thikn the instructions say to get 3.5. Is this a problem? I tried this pretty late last night but I think I even couldn't install the 3.5, possibly because I've got the 4.0.

Thanks for the help!

SOLVED:

Ok, I picked the biggest SGA-file 200_data. Then I sniffed up the log-file, after reading the instructions that 3DS wanted the shader-folder in the root got me suspicious, and saw it looked for shaders in /art. After putting the shader-folder there I got a black-model and saw in the log it was looking for some textures that weren't even in 200_data. I found those in gamedefaults and put them where ModelViewer expected them and got myself a nice predator!

Hopefully that helps the ones behind me, then I have to ask those ahead of me are you suppose to copy all the SGA-files into one folder and just overwrite everything with the same names? I first imagined everything was just fragmented but there are files in the same spots with the same names and different sizes. Do you always go with the biggest hoping every improvement resulted in a larger file?

[hivetyrant36]

Hey, I'm trying to get this to work. I'm a greenhorn on extracting models and I downloaded the tools and now I don't know what to do with them... What do I need to put where, and how to I use the things inside the folders? I read the readme and I didn't see anything to help. I searched for 2 hours before giving up.

----------

What I mean is how do I extract or unload stuff from DOW2? I got it from steam and I know where the files are, but what am I looking for and what do I do?

[uncle_anaesthesia]

you need to extract the model files from the sga files using an sga extractor which is available in other threads, just open find the sgas and voila. best to extract all art files and the shader files.
for modding use copes tool box and theres a pdf file that should tell you all you need, so you can save any stuff you change into you own wee mod
the santos model viewr is stand alone an you can keep it anywhere u want, so once the .model files are extrcted open using this.

[hivetyrant36]

Okay, It is still really confusing. What am I supposed to open the SGA with? I have a few .models extracted to my folder, but when I open them in Max they are just colored polygons and when I use the model editor, nothing shows up... I don't understand!!!
I don't want this for a mod. I actually want this to make movies with. Non profit of course.

[uncle_anaesthesia]

ok im going from memory my trial version ran out a while back, so have you got Santos supplied scripts in the correct max folder, if yes cool if not copy the scripts into scripts.
start up max and in ...utilities on the right hand side should be a box labeled max scripts and in there should be import export etc. click on import and should import a .model file.

for the separate stand alone model editor if you want to see the animation, import for example the troops file first (say chaos marine) which should should show up blank. then using attachment icon add various pieces, then after that open the animation icon and click on say run and the model should run.

for sga's open with the sga reader supplied by copernicus but if you have the .model files extracted then you dont need to use it!?

[hivetyrant36]

Ok. Thanks. I did have everything et up right. So, I am doing the things you said, in Max and in the model editor, and all I can ever get is all these short colored lines in the basic shape of the unit. I am using SGA reader 2 to export the .model files. Is there a specific SGA that I need to be taking .model files out of?

----------

Here is what I get at the end of a long list of imported items...

"No meshes found"
"Importing model states"
"Importing data templates"
"Imported simbox"
"No coverbox found"
"Import complete."

----------

Ok, I understand a little better. It seems the reason I'm only getting bones is because I'm only exporting bones... Is there something special I have to do for meshes?

----------

I am using 3ds max version 12, maybe that's why? I also saw something about the folder "shaders" needs to be exported but is there a way to export the folder using that program?

----------

This part of the ReadMe..
For textures to appear in MAX viewport you need to set 'Archives' path correctly so script can find them. It is also required to have DOW2 shaders under '[Archives]/shaders' path. They are parsed by material editor in order to find out input parameters for selected shader. Importing normals will make model appear smooth. No smoothing groups will be set however (normals are 'baked' into the model).
Sorry for posting so much, I'm just excited to see this get done...

----------

Ok, I have it now where I can see a black silhouette. For example, the wrecked carnifex... if I export and open .model with max I can see a greay carnifex. However it is not a boned model. Everything else still shows up as nothing.

----------

Also how would I "unlock" the model for animation?

[uncle_anaesthesia]

Is there a specific SGA that I need to be taking .model files out of? yes, the 200 _data.sga file for all things chaos. the other art files have various other stuff in them marine eldar etc ( I extracted everything overkill maybe but stuff works for me)
also you need the shader files extracted, they are in the shaders folder in the 200 _data.sga file
once you've extracted stuff and look around it you see the general structure of the files


material editor an example, open the chaos marine troop file and it should be blank screen except for looking at the bones
file - open/race chaos/troops_wargear/armour/chaos_marine_common/.model file.......this should show show the common armour on screen in base black ( you can edit colour using the paint bucket icon)
click on animations icon and then melee and any play the animations that scroll down

for max 12? you import a model and the bones should be included in the import, to export open the material editor and click the dow2_unit shader button to for use of a better word activate the shaders.the export.
animations in max i cant remember but im sure sntos explains in one of his readmes, but you cant change animations as far as im aware.

if you impport and remove the skin modifier then export again then you lose the bones and its just a statue

hope this helps a bit

[Santos]

Santos Tools 2 v0.561 released!

Took you by surprise, didn't I? Well, anyway as you all noticed I've been missing...again (I was captured by aliens, I swear! ) but I'm still alive (apparently). As for the tools I haven't done much work during the summer but I picked this stuff up recently just to see what else can be done and I already have some pretty amazing progress! So first let's see what's new in this release.

This release contains updates to scripts only. There is now just a single script called simply Santos Tools 2 which gives you access to both importer and exporter. Archive path is gone, you are now required to pick module file from Dawn of War 2 directory. If file is valid, script will store path to mod data and enable import and export rollouts. Files can only be imported from selected module directory. This should (hopefully) get rid of some confusion people had before.

Automatic mesh splitting/merging

This is a major improvement to exporting process. Basically you don't have to split your meshes manually to use different materials anymore - export script will now do this for you!. So now you can keep your meshes in 50 different pieces or in one big model and exporter will create exactly one mesh per used material id (per lod, per mesh group if they exist). The only requirement is to keep all used materials in one multi material, which in turn should occupy slot 1 of MAX Material Editor:



Mesh grouping

There are now two ways to organize meshes in the scene. The old way is to use fully qualified names, the new one is to use MAX groups. Instead of having meshes with the names like healthy:lod0:mesh_name you can now have nice trees like this:



Both methods can be used at the same time and even combined if needed.

Additional exporter changes

Below are some minor changes to the exporter:

• Having skeleton_root as a root bone is no longer required. Export script will create one if needed.
• It is now possible to use 'mesh bones' (as I call it) which are simply meshes with 'Bone On' flag set. Exporter will create additional bone and 'skin' the mesh to it.
• Standard materials can now be used for export, however since you can't set all required parameters on them, such materials will export empty and will need to be filled in with Model Exporter (with next version to be precise, as shaders can't be changed in the current one ).

Now you may wonder where this leads to? By making these changes I made exporter compatibile with models imported from Dawn of War 1. Now I don not encourage anyone to use DoW models as they are copyrighted, however there are some pretty awesome custom made models around (Grot Tanks yeah!) which could be introduced to Dawn of War 2 (with their creator's permission naturally). So the good news is you won't have to do much converting to export such models (apart from setting smoothing groups and creating additional textures).

Scene saving and batch animation import

Import script can now save imported model into MAX scene file. If Save Scene option is on, script will prompt to choose output directory and then will create two folders Reference and Animations. Reference pose will be saved into Reference\Ref.max. Animations can be imported along with the model, however they need to be converted first into my custom format with Model Editor. Put them into anims directory next to source model and script will save all of them into MAX scenes.

Bug fixes

Meshes with pivot point not at origin will now export correctly.

Right, so this is it. Now to other things. Next version will contain two major features. Feature number one is animation export! Yes I've done it, yes it works. Screenshot or it didn't happen? Here you go:



Major feature number two is motion tree editing! The next version of Model Editor will allow to edit MOTIONTREE files in their entirety. This is how editor currently looks:



I can't tell at this point when exactly this will be released, as I still have very long TODO list. I will probably release a beta at some point (when most obvious bugs are fixed that means ) so keep an eye on this thread. And just to show you what can be done with it already:



As a final note if someone send me an email or a PM in the last six months or soand the matter is still relevant, you may want to do it again.