Blogtacular Crunchie (or: the state of Community Contribution) - Natural Selection 2

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Blogtacular Crunchie (or: the state of Community Contribution) - Natural Selection 2

Hello fellow skulks and marines, I wanted to go into further detail on what will happen in regards to the current CDT structure and the process of community contribution that...

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McGlaspie

Bumpity bump comments

tallhotblonde

does this mean that UWE can pay Faultline games for their contribution of NS:2 combat back into ns2.exe? :]]]]

Nominous

Exciting times ahead. I've wanted to create and contribute assets, but I've put off learning how to rig, skin, and animate for so long. I wanted to learn ever since I saw Evil_Ice's mind-blowing LMG model, but my research has been pretty confusing. IK, FK, biped, CAT... someone please shoot me or point me in the right direction for NS2 animations.

Something I wanted to mention is the lack of centralized modding info. Are there any plans to create a comprehensive resource (e.g. NS2 wiki page) for beginners concerning custom models, animations, etc.? The NS2 modding forums could use some updated stickies as well. As far as existing tutorials, I've watched two on importing static props into Spark and I assume they still apply today. Did Brian Cummings ever create those video tutorials for importing custom animations? What is the solution/alternative that McGlaspie and BeigeAlert have been working on and is it still in the works?

BeigeAlert

Karnaj wrote: »

Exciting times ahead. I've wanted to create and contribute assets, but I've put off learning how to rig, skin, and animate for so long. I wanted to learn ever since I saw Evil_Ice's mind-blowing LMG model, but my research has been pretty confusing. IK, FK, biped, CAT... someone please shoot me or point me in the right direction for NS2 animations.

Something I wanted to mention is the lack of centralized modding info. Are there any plans to create a comprehensive resource (e.g. NS2 wiki page) for beginners concerning custom models, animations, etc.? The NS2 modding forums could use some updated stickies as well. As far as existing tutorials, I've watched two on importing static props into Spark and I assume they still apply today. Did Brian Cummings ever create those video tutorials for importing custom animations? What is the solution/alternative that McGlaspie and BeigeAlert have been working on and is it still in the works?

Hey Karnaj!

Currently, there are only 2 ways to get custom models into NS2. You can either use 3dsmax 2009 (MUST be this version if you want collision bodies to work), and use the collada exporter provided in this topic: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/138260/colladamax-download-link

That's the first way. The second way is to use my Blender exporter. http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/136535/blender-spark-model-exporter Currently, this only supports static models (but DOES support collision groups), whereas the 3dsmax exporter is what the original dev team used to make their assets, so it of course supports everything.

Now, as for the future, I am working on putting the finishing touches on a new blender pipeline that will work not as an exporter from blender, but as a sort of plugin for the launchpad builder, so you can build your .blend files into .model files, which makes for a MUCH cleaner workflow than the old workflow. This new version will also include support for animations.

If you're not a Blender user, and don't wish to use 3dsmax (let alone such an old version of it), then there is another solution on the horizon. I will soon be working to implement the FBX model compiler developed for Future Perfect into the Natural Selection 2 art pipeline. This means that ANY 3d software with FBX-exporting capabilities (which is most, if not all 3d software), will have the ability to export models (animated or static) into NS2.

Coming along with the Blender compile tool will be a large, comprehensive manual that covers not just how to create NS2 content with Blender, but for any 3d package that supports the Collada (*.dae) or FBX file formats.

In the mean time, you can use the asset source files included with the game as a reference. These are located in your "Natural Selection 2/assets" directory. A lot of the complexity of building models with ns2 comes from the *.model_compile files, which to my knowledge doesn't have any syntax guides available anywhere -- you kind of just have to figure it out on your own. Obviously that's terrible, so I'll be working to address this with the manual.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a private message here on the forums.

Archie

Thank you BeigeAlert for being so upfront about these things

Will be nice to have fbx support and even .blend.

Do you think you could work on an improved guide and sample model in .dae/.blend/.fbx with working animations that allows us to go through the steps with you to create an animation graph?

I suppose view models will be alot harder though because of rigging, so maybe we'll get some rigging profiles support?

I am actually working on assets as we speak.

meatmachine

Y-y-you're so upfront, Beige-senpai ,;, __ ,;,

BeigeAlert

The manual will include everything one needs to know about getting animations into the game. In the meantime, have a look at the animation_graphs for some of the assets in the game. I recommend the props/refinery/reviner_tram_reapirarm.animation_graph. That's actually quite a beast of a graph, most people don't notice that that arm stops moving when the power goes out in the room.

Cr4zyb4st4rd

This worked out well.