Santos' Tools

[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.

[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

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....


I get this one when I try to set the DoW directory:


This one when I try to set the mod directory:


And this when I try to import (any) model:


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

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



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!

[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

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? 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.

[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!