[Beast] Adding WoW Models

[Adler]

WARNING: This guide has too many steps to include any images. I'll explain everything as in depth as possible.

Requirements:
Beast Client
Aeonsoft Cola
World of Warcraft Model Viewer (must match WoW version)
World of Warcraft Client (any version)
3D Studio Max 2010 (or higher)

Downloads:

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1. Getting Started:

First, I'll assume you have all of the requirements and a fully functioning Beast client as well as knowledge of the resource files. First, open the World of Warcraft model viewer. Locate your WoW client and load it when asked. Once you see the list of models on the left, navigate to World. This has everything you need. Navigate to any folder within World and click on the names of models to load them and view them. Once you've found the model you like, go to File -> Export Model -> Wavefront OBJ....

Save in a folder then go view it in Windows Explorer. You should have several files. Save everything that was exported.

2. Modifying in 3D Studio Max:

Import your model into 3D Studio Max. Click M which will bring up the material editor. Locate the texture on your hard drive in Windows Explorer and drag it to one of the orbs in the material editor window. Drag the orb with the material on it to your mesh.

If the object does not need transparency or collision, please skip steps 2.1 and 2.2.

2.1. Transparency

In the material editor, highlight the transparent texture and go to the Maps category below. Diffuse Color should be checked with an amount of 100 and the texture in a box under Map. Click and drag the texture under Map to the Opacity map box. Click on the box and it should bring you to a different window. Scroll to the Bitmap Parameters category and under the sub category Mono Channel Output, select Alpha.

2.2. Collision

Select the mesh you want collision on and hit Ctrl+V. Select Copy. Under Name, type #coll.

If there are multiple meshes in your model, after you clone the meshes go to the Utilities tab. Click the collapse button and under the collapse category, hit Collapse. There should now be a single collision mesh. Don't do this for the regular mesh.

3. Exporting

Go to File -> Export and save as .ase. Make sure the name as a prefix of Obj_ and does not exceed 32 characters in total. For example, save as Obj_WoWModelTest.ase Open Cola and browse to Tool -> ASE Convert.... Drag your models to the window and click Start Convert. You should have your model converted to an .o3d now.

4. Adding to Beast

Open mdlObj.inc in your Beast client and type:

"[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]NAMEHERE[/COLOR]" [COLOR="Red"]IDHERE [/COLOR]MODELTYPE_MESH "" 0 0 0 1.000000 0 0 0 1

NAMEHERE: The name of the .o3d after the Obj_ prefix. If the model is Obj_WoWModelTest.o3d, type "WoWModelTest"
IDHERE: ID number. Type anything that isn't used yet, such as 12000.

Place this in mdlObj.inc. Place the .o3d in Model and the .dds/.tga in Model/Texture. You should now have a fully functioning WoW model. This works for other games as well, you just have to replace the first step.

How I Did It:

When adding 5k+ WoW models to my Beast client, I used a keyboard macro set at a very high speed. It opened the model, automatically set transparency even though the model didn't have any (this doesn't affect non-transparent meshes), automatically set collision, saved, opened the next file, repeat. Some of the models took me and my partner Saif several months to get by. The macro took me 3 hours AFK to convert 2.5k models. Any private server can do this unless they're lazy.

Here's an example of my mdlObj.inc:

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Here's a .rar including some example WoW Models.

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If you need any help, feel free to ask. I won't be posting images though.

 

[Stilez]

About time someone said something , nice guide ! If anyone else needs help with this guide i'd also be willing to help ..

 

[wewsir]

i rly like tutorial. is rly nice and easy understand^^

When adding 5k+ WoW models to my Beast client

can u rilease plz ? i nid for me server

 

[Adler]

can u rilease plz ? i nid for me server

Maybe. I don't need/use them anymore anyways.

 

[Jcdacez]

Epic Release Adler, Yet again Keep up the good work

 

[ShadowDragon]

lmao, is it me, or has this thread gone a bit off topic? xD

@ontopic: Great release Adler. Even though I'm not a modeler or map maker... lol

 

[Improved]

Expect future FlyFF servers to look exactly like WoW.

Thanks for the indepth guide. The modifying is the most important part as 3D programs are hard to get used to on the first go. 3D Ripper DX is a neat tool as well for ripping.

 

[Stilez]

^ 3d ripper is mainly used for cflyff models . :0 and the way you add them is quite differnt

 

[sausen]

Here's a little present for you guys before I completely leave here.

2.2. Collision

Select the mesh you want collision on and hit Ctrl+V. Select Copy. Under Name, type #coll.

Here's the heads up for the collision part for a model that contains multiple objects or meshes and I find easier for my side. Note: Some models that contains texture or matirial and cloning it or ctrl + v the collision wouldn't actually work or COLA will give you gtfo error.

I normally do it on cinema4d and you can probably do this too in 3ds Max.
I'm only using 3ds Max for almost a month so I don't really know much about 3d modeling and just learned few things for myself and experience so if you want to do this on 3ds max , maya or etc. then learn it, here's how i did this on c4d

1st step ->
Open the model or obj file.
Select all the materials and delete them
The easiest way to delete them is by
clicking the first material from the very top
and while pressing the shift key and click the last material
then press the delete or del button in your keyboard

2nd step ->
Select all the objects or meshes of the model by clicking the edit button above or simply pressing ctrl + A, Then just right click anywhere then click Connect+Delete. What this part does is actually is merging all the objects or meshes together into one ,this would be the perfect collision for your model.

As you can see above , the objects and meshes are merged into one and the bounding boxes are gone leaving just one. Now all you need to do is save this file (and do not replace the original file) then go to 3ds Max , open the original file , import -> merge then select the file we edited in c4d. then youre done.

Here's a sample of collision

And for the simple Animation oh wait I can't really call it animation but Vertex movement.

In WoW models some of them has their own unique features like particle effects , effects such as water , fire , waterfalls etc.. and they also have their own Vertex movement. If you want to add this then take a look at how I do it on 3ds Max.

I'm going to make it short
1st step ->
Load the model.
Click on the model.
Press N.(The viewport should turn red)

The color red line that I drew above is the Timeline of the animation(oh wait vertex movement) the blue one is the Set key button. What I always do is click it on 0 seconds of the timeline as default.

You can either move , rotate ,scale the model whatever you want. but as sample i am going to to use rotation and movement.


As you can see above , I rotated the object and moved it a bit then dragged the thing that i marked above whatever it is called then set the key into 50 miliseconds of the timeline.

last step is simply just set the changes you did to 0 or to default so the object will actually loop from beginning of the animation to the end.

the X , Y , Z above are the object's size , position or rotation axis. once you finish moving ,rotating , scaling your object set the axis into 0 to the end of the timeline and set the key. Then convert it into ASE and let Cola do the rest.

Here's the finish animation.

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This animation is also a start to do Poly points movement or animation and also for the texture material movement or animation.

So for the people who wants to learn basic rips and 3d reversing, and stuffs about flyff map then read Adler's post. its a good start.


What i wrote above does not only work on Wow but all 3d obj models will do just fine.

Note:There are more problems you will occur once you rip models from different kinds of games since they are not just made by one company.
but they are not really hard to figure out once you get to know what you are doing.

I posted this , since there are alot of people asking about collision and there is no single tutorial about map models.

I am no 3d artist , modeler or a mapper. So you should able to learn it too.



Good luck for the rest and have fun.
And with more love , Here's Dragon nest's model viewer and also Rose online's model converter.

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Regards,
Sausen.

 

[Adler]

You don't need Cinema 4D to do that. It always fucks up models anyways. Just go to the Utilities tab on the sidebar and click the Collapse button. The Collapse category should appear. Make sure the collision models are selected and hit collapse. Simple as that. The reason I didn't add animations or collapsing meshes is because animations are somewhat choppy ingame and don't always work. With multiple meshes, I prefer exporting them one at a time. Having a huge mesh such as the castle you exported can cause frustum culling.

As for your note on the Cola error with multiple meshes/textures, Cola can only handle so many meshes. Just export the meshes from the large model one at a time, and piece them together ingame to avoid frustum culling.

I posted this , since there are alot of people asking about collision and there is no single tutorial about map models.

Then what is this topic about? >.>

 

[sausen]

You don't need Cinema 4D to do that. It always fucks up models anyways. Just go to the Utilities tab on the sidebar and click the Collapse button. The Collapse category should appear. Make sure the collision models are selected and hit collapse. Simple as that. The reason I didn't add animations or collapsing meshes is because animations are somewhat choppy ingame and don't always work. With multiple meshes, I prefer exporting them one at a time. Having a huge mesh such as the castle you exported can cause frustum culling.

As for your note on the Cola error with multiple meshes/textures, Cola can only handle so many meshes. Just export the meshes from the large model one at a time, and piece them together ingame to avoid frustum culling.

It does support multiple meshes and texture but having more than one object with a #coll name would give you **** on COLA.

I just clarified collision part since what you written above is absolutely not complete and it is only good for a model that contains one object and sometimes COLA does not convert object that has material as i said above.

I normally do it on c4d , I find it faster and sufficient and it never gives me problem. And btw , if you haven't tried reversing Dragon nest's model. 3ds max is not enough and the only thing that is pain in the ass in Wow's model is the model viewer lol.

here's the crap you will get with just simply doing what you wrote above.

Reasons/Errors -
-Missing maps or **** like that.(Even though this is really not the error that its suppose to be) This is the part when you clone an object but instead of creating a clone you actually
replaced the default object with a #coll name. therefore
COLA would give you error message.

-Adding #coll in multiple object one by one. COLA only converts model that has one #coll parameter.

-Some models are flipped for some reason, models needs to be faceted , flipped or 2-Sided in order the collision to work in mirror method not fucked up like it collides oppositely and instead trapping your character.

When exporting an obj file as collision in c4d , it never gave me a problem as c4d converts obj file without the Lightning effect that screws up the collision or actually makes a huge dark hole in your collision for the model.


The animation part is for the people interested. It never gave me a problem on animating part but there is one slight problem about this. The animation does not work with collision object and the collision itself is not animating with the object.
But redoing this part can be done in source, there's one more thing useful about this animation part if you want to have good graphics\realistic and alive game.

I tried it with a huge boat that has more than 5 objects or meshes and it seems like it is doing what its suppose to do.

But that's just in my experience.
I know you ripped more models from other games too not just WoW
and tell me if you never had these problems before.

Then what is this topic about? >.>

I just did the collision part since i thought it could help. and if you are worrying about how spoonfed it is. then you should probably think that this part of flyff editing is pain in the ass. oh and take note. it is good for the people who wants to learn and for the people who waits for grace lol.

and if you release the wow models that you converted then good luck on that.

~Regards.

 

[Adler]

It does support multiple meshes and texture but having more than one object with a #coll name would give you **** on COLA.

Then collapse the mesh. Cola also will crash repeatedly and fail to convert a mesh if it has too many textures/meshes.

I just clarified collision part since what you written above is absolutely not complete and it is only good for a model that contains one object and sometimes COLA does not convert object that has material as i said above.

The only thing my tutorial is missing is collapsing the collision meshes into a single one, which I covered in my reply to you.

I normally do it on c4d , I find it faster and sufficient and it never gives me problem. And btw , if you haven't tried reversing Dragon nest's model. 3ds max is not enough and the only thing that is pain in the ass in Wow's model is the model viewer lol.

C4D isn't required whatsoever for any form of model conversion if you have the proper plugins and tools to get the mesh or meshes into 3D Studio Max. Galalabs and Aeonsoft use 3D Studio Max, so that's what should always be used for editing and converting models. The only instance any other program or extension should be used is if the game you're exporting models from doesn't export as a model extension that 3D Studio Max supports. C4D was only necessary when pipelli's o3d converter was the only thing around.

here's the crap you will get with just simply doing what you wrote above.

Reasons/Errors -
-Missing maps or **** like that.(Even though this is really not the error that its suppose to be) This is the part when you clone an object but instead of creating a clone you actually
replaced the default object with a #coll name. therefore
COLA would give you error message.

That never happens unless you **** up personally in the cloning process.

-Adding #coll in multiple object one by one. COLA only converts model that has one #coll parameter.

Collapse the mesh.

-Some models are flipped for some reason, models needs to be faceted , flipped or 2-Sided in order the collision to work in mirror method not fucked up like it collides oppositely and instead trapping your character.

Flip the normals either automatically or face by face. Importing a mesh incorrectly can also cause this.

When exporting an obj file as collision in c4d , it never gave me a problem as c4d converts obj file without the Lightning effect that screws up the collision or actually makes a huge dark hole in your collision for the model.

That shouldn't happen unless due to human error.

The animation part is for the people interested. It never gave me a problem on animating part but there is one slight problem about this. The animation does not work with collision object and the collision itself is not animating with the object.
But redoing this part can be done in source, there's one more thing useful about this animation part if you want to have good graphics\realistic and alive game.

Animating an object could have been put together in a separate tutorial. I don't see why you had to take over mine.

I know you ripped more models from other games too not just WoW
and tell me if you never had these problems before.

Almost every problem I had was due to human error. Absolutely nothing goes wrong in the conversion process if I follow Flyff's engine's rules. There ARE indeed limits, such as limits to the length of the file name, structure, mesh/texture count, etc.

I'll add the collapse mesh category onto the topic since I seemed to have missed that, but animation can be created for another tutorial since it has its bugs and animation has to be done manually, as well as the fact that .ase exporting doesn't support skinning nor does it support WoW's animation structure.

 

[Mootie]

I normally do it on c4d , I find it faster and sufficient and it never gives me problem. And btw , if you haven't tried reversing Dragon nest's model. 3ds max is not enough and the only thing that is pain in the ass in Wow's model is the model viewer lol.

It's not enough because you aren't using 3ds studio properly(or you don't have the proper variables from reversing). Every Korean development company I've known has used 3ds studio, you must be missing data if you can't convert the models back to .max format. Just because using C4D is easier for you, doesn't mean it can't be done in 3DS with the same amount of precision.

The guide is on 3ds studio, stop spamming the thread with irrelevant information regarding other conversion methods.

 

[sausen]

It's not enough because you aren't using 3ds studio properly(or you don't have the proper variables from reversing). Every Korean development company I've known has used 3ds studio, you must be missing data if you can't convert the models back to .max format. Just because using C4D is easier for you, doesn't mean it can't be done in 3DS with the same amount of precision.

The guide is on 3ds studio, stop spamming the thread with irrelevant information regarding other conversion methods.

You probably misunderstood what I said. I wasn't porting out the capabilities of 3ds max to c4d , There are alot of reversion methods that can be done. It is true that 3ds has alot of stuffs in it that c4d does not have.


Adler's post is about WoW models conversion. What I posted is just another way for other WoW and MMO that I know that gives me issues when using 3ds max.

I probably did errors when reversing , but this is how I figured it out.

If you really intend to help the developers then what i posted is just another method and what I found easier. It probably didn't meet the standards of your methods but it should help some people.

Then collapse the mesh. Cola also will crash repeatedly and fail to convert a mesh if it has too many textures/meshes.

This has never happened to me before but on other way around it crashes when the object is large and has too many joints.

The only thing my tutorial is missing is collapsing the collision meshes into a single one, which I covered in my reply to you.

That's the method for merging the object's meshes into one.
Thanks for that. I haven't figured it out since I do this part on c4d.

C4D isn't required whatsoever for any form of model conversion if you have the proper plugins and tools to get the mesh or meshes into 3D Studio Max. Galalabs and Aeonsoft use 3D Studio Max, so that's what should always be used for editing and converting models. The only instance any other program or extension should be used is if the game you're exporting models from doesn't export as a model extension that 3D Studio Max supports. C4D was only necessary when pipelli's o3d converter was the only thing around.

As I said above , In my experience. 2 or 3 MMORPG's that I ripped was solved by using c4d since c4d loads up models in defaults and no light base models that creates dark spots in 3ds max. ofcourse this can be done by faceted and 2 sided method in material but the problem is you will lose the smoothness of the object.

That never happens unless you **** up personally in the cloning process.




Collapse the mesh.

Most likely.

Flip the normals either automatically or face by face. Importing a mesh incorrectly can also cause this.

How can you do that without losing the smoothness of the object or model?

That shouldn't happen unless due to human error.



Animating an object could have been put together in a separate tutorial. I don't see why you had to take over mine.

Because your post is significant to it. It is a good start and since some WoW models has animation. Sorry if I did. I was just trying to help out people.

Almost every problem I had was due to human error. Absolutely nothing goes wrong in the conversion process if I follow Flyff's engine's rules. There ARE indeed limits, such as limits to the length of the file name, structure, mesh/texture count, etc.

Agree to that , Though following it sometimes makes some good models not work.

I'll add the collapse mesh category onto the topic since I seemed to have missed that, but animation can be created for another tutorial since it has its bugs and animation has to be done manually, as well as the fact that .ase exporting doesn't support skinning nor does it support WoW's animation structure.

True.

~Regards ,

 

[Adler]

How can you do that without losing the smoothness of the object or model?

The object should remain smooth upon .obj import. Older versions of 3D Studio Max don't import smoothness correctly, if at all. I believe the setting for keeping a model smooth is in the .obj import window. When a mesh appears to be dark/black in 3D Studio Max, just flip the normals of the faces. The object should still remain smooth.

 

[Azr0]

Very well done, and thank you for the guide, was put together nicely and was very helpful.

 

[Neonbilli]

Hey, is it possible, that you can upload the WoW models in an o3d format for us? +the mdlobj.
I know how it works but its such a long work and when you have them and you dont need them you can upload them maybe for us?

 

[Adler]

Hey, is it possible, that you can upload the WoW models in an o3d format for us? +the mdlobj.
I know how it works but its such a long work and when you have them and you dont need them you can upload them maybe for us?

Nope.