[development] maps

[HaterAids]

3D ripping DX and other programs will never produce usable results. I'm focusing on extraction progress first (unlike Russians), as i want to be able to fix any existing graphic bug easily. My way is taking directly from .bsp itself, long term it will get to the point of 100% usable to artist results with no edits needed.

Progress from last week: first successful attempt.








Still to do:
1.[STRIKE]Breaking up map into groups[/STRIKE] (by material group completed)
2.[STRIKE]UV Mapping[/STRIKE] (first wave complete)
3.Multi-Object map support (some maps have them others don't)
4.Multi-UV Layer support (needed for proper 1 to 1 rendering outside game)

 

[likertuban]

what tool are you using? your own tool?

 

[Killerwoody]

Attachments aren't working bro!

 

[likertuban]

Attachments aren't working bro!

click on the attachment link, that thing happened sometimes.
but the attachment is at least exist and working

 

[HaterAids]

The tools written by me.
At one point I parsed out the collusion data too but results were less than pretty because I had done to do some additional drawing in order to visualize it. Proper fix for the collision data would be using a common format that supports point to point lines with adjustable width of the lines. Only other way for few headaches would be writing a model viewer using Vulkan or OpenGl. End result would be pretty much exactly the MapTool made by Odin.

 

[Killerwoody]

That's very cool man!

 

[HaterAids]

Added in usage of mat groups today. More or Less I can tell exactly what texture is used on a spot on. Once UV mapping works could use the maps for lots of stuff.

 

[UniverseGaming]

im working on a way to import meshs into the game as well

 

[HaterAids]

Good Luck with trying to import.

One of the favorite features I did on my msh tool was aligning the armor pieces when taking out of msh and adjusting it back when to msh. It saves so much time and makes sure all the parts always line up. If you end up being able to import you should think about doing it too.

 

[UniverseGaming]

yah true i have gotten as far as importing to 3ds max and blender but not exporting seems the mesh is missng something

 

[HaterAids]

Be careful when trying support from multiple programs. I ended up have a switch at the beginning of the parse to handle Max separate from Blender. Even though both produce the same extension the data is far from being the same.

 

[HaterAids]

Decided I wanted to see what the .bn files really looked like so I parsed them myself. Results are much easier for artists to use instead of a bunch of sticks. Didn't bother taking a picture but I got them to line up with the parsed .msh files

 

[UniverseGaming]

nice man good work on that closer to getting export working then

 

[HaterAids]

Honestly if I could convert a scholarly paper into code I could make skeletal monsters with no manual edits at all, even take all the planet war crap and downgrade it so older rf versions could use them.

 

[HaterAids]

Realized I need to write my own .r3t un/repacker, existing ones are not good enough for recreating scenes, only editing in game.

 

[UniverseGaming]

lol really?

 

[HaterAids]

Ya, existing tools fail to write out the cloned textures. Those ones have different mat values. For example one tex has opacity of 1.0, cloned has opacity of 0.5 giving it more of a see though effect.

Could just make a bunch of copies of already extracted but that is not forward thinking. I rather keep a tool around and spend less than a minute each time I'm asked to mod stuff.

PS just got UV MAPPING WORKING. I can parse out any single object maps 100% perfectly now. Just need to add support for mult-object ones. Most likely could start writing the to .bsp side soon.

 

[HaterAids]

Does anyone have suggestions for a map to try putting into rf, looking for something more interesting than a cube.

 

[NineOneDev]

I'd suggest some Unreal Tournament 2004 map but there doesn't seem to be any easy way of converting them to use in a regular 3d editor.

Actually, holy crap, your work is inspiring. It's surprising to see that anyone at all is still working on the whole 3d thing, keep up the good work. After looking at your results I thought I should give it a shot as well. Unfortunately even though I'm quite experienced at programming in general my knowledge of 3d models is close to zero. Gotta use the Google power.

 

[HaterAids]

K also was looking around in the gunz section and got a few ideas too.

Learning 3D there's 2 different ways to go about. Building a 3D rendering engine would be one way, the other would be data focused.

For going rendering engine pathway I would use Vulkan as the base. The main advantage would be having something user friendly you can use for editing map collusion faster than going the data pathway. Or you could try writing plugins for a modeling program, just be aware plugins may need to adjusted when a newer version comes + when working with freelancers having to use plugins becomes a time waster.

Data focused would be an external program that acts as a translater between game and a widely supported model format. This way you can add support to whatever a freelance artist uses. I highly recommend having fbx as one of the options to work with. I went this route, between receiving the file and having it game ready (outside of particle effects) a weapon takes me 10 seconds. Maps once I iron out the details could be as fast (outside of collusion data).

Haven't even shown some of the other stuff I have done. Currently have the pleasure of working with an crazy good freelancer that actually used to play rf. Let's just say he's good enough together we are pushing the limits of what can be done to rf graphic wise.