Custom character models?

linfosoma · June 2010

Hello, Im currently working full time on a game project as a character modeler, rigger and animator; but let's say I wanted to work on a little side project for NS2, is there support for custom character models in it?

Im thinking of biped characters (humans or humaniods basically) so Im wondering where I can get a list of the character's bone hierarchy, and if it's possible to import custom skeletal meshes (that is, fully rigged characters) and animations (and if so, in which format do they have to be in).

I have no experience working with the Spark engine yet, only with UDK which is what Im currently working with, so Im just trying to find out what's possible so I can make a conceptual test and maybe recruit people for a full conversion mod once I have free time (which is going to be in a long time :p).

Cheers, Alex-

Pipi · June 2010

Custom assets? Yes.

Available? Not yet.

Ark · June 2010

You need to export the models as collada .dae files, then run them through the Builder tool. Theres not much info at the present though.

linfosoma · June 2010

Ok thanks, .dae seems to export fine, I guess I just have to wait until the full game is released to take this further.

fsfod · June 2010

I'm no modeling or animation expert but this is what learned while importing ns1 models into ns2.
The engine has no hard dependency's on bone hierarchy that i know of. the lua code kinda has dependency on some attach points like the marine model having an attach pointed defined for the gun called "RHand_Weapon". instead of game directly modifying bones position to like set the look direction of the head of a model you define pose parameters(game controllable animation blends) that have a min and max value that the lua game code would set to like do things like control the direction of the head

heres how you basically declare animations that have pose parameters in a ".mode_compile" file
this is my .model_compile for the ns1 lerk I imported. not all animations need to have pose parameters declared in them

<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'>geometry "lerk.dae"

animation idle layer{
    "idle.DAE" loop
    blend look_yaw 0 1{
        "communicate_blend1.DAE" relative_to "idle.DAE"
        "communicate_blend2.DAE" relative_to "idle.DAE"
    }
    blend look_pitch 0 1{
        "look_left.DAE" relative_to "idle.DAE"
        "look_right.DAE" relative_to "idle.DAE"
    }
}

animation bite blend look_pitch 0 1{
    "ability1_alien_blend1.DAE"
    "ability1_alien_blend2.DAE"
}

animation spores blend look_pitch 0 1{
    "ability2_alien_blend1.DAE"
    "ability2_alien_blend2.DAE"
}

animation body_flinch "body_flinch.DAE"
animation body_flinch_ground "body_flinch_ground.DAE"
animation dead_fall "dead_fall.DAE"
animation death1_die "death1_die.DAE"
animation fall_death1 "fall_death1.DAE"
animation flap_wings "flap_wings.DAE"
animation flap_loop "flap_wings.DAE" loop
animation die "back_die.DAE"
animation glide "glide.DAE" loop
animation head_flinch "head_flinch.DAE"
animation head_flinch_ground "head_flinch_ground.DAE"
animation land "land.DAE"
animation takeoff "takeoff.DAE"</div>

TSS · June 2010

thanks fsfod. Looks to be pretty self explanatory. only part i don't get is the look_pitch and look_yaw and what that 0 and 1 does.

What about naming conventions? I'm assuming that the RHand_weapon is simply a bone named RHand_weapon on the spot the weapon is supposed to be held on the character. Do any of the bones in NS1 have any specific names?

fsfod · June 2010

look_pitch and look_yaw are the names of the pose parameters there just the labels not magic keywords. I just named them that because thats how there named in the skulk model and so i can reuse existing lua code to control them.
if you open the skulk or marine in the model viewer you can see what pose parameters the model defines
[attachment=35937:poseparam.jpg]

"0 1" defines the min and max value of a pose parameter. The min max values don't need to be 0 and 1 but its just easier control from lua code if they are
The lua code passes a value between these 2 values to engines model animation system to control the pose parameter of an <b>animation</b>, like the marines crouch pose parameter which has a min max of 0 and 1 if the lua code sets it to 1 the marine model will be fully crouched, if its sets to 0 the marine model will be standing, if it sets it to 0.5 marine model will semi crouched.

TSS · June 2010

Ah ok. easy enough ^^ thanks for that lil lesson in ns models :p

Custom character models?

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