Future of the Modding Art Tools - Natural Selection 2

SystemSystem Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
edited December 2015 in NS2 General Discussion

imageFuture of the Modding Art Tools - Natural Selection 2

Howdy folks!  I’m Trevor “BeigeAlert” Harris — better known as the guy who hasn’t done one of these blog posts yet. Just wanted to give a quick heads up that there’s some...

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  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Comment to open bump thread.
  • KalopsiaKalopsia Join Date: 2003-05-15 Member: 16331Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Love the new Trim tool! Nice work!
  • deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
    didnt know i needed a trim tool but after seeing this i dont know how we managed without it.
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited December 2015
    Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I've got people I didn't even know were mappers telling me how much they love the Trim Tool! :)
  • VlaadVlaad Join Date: 2012-10-03 Member: 161403Members
    I love the love for modding :)

    @BeigeAlert
    Is there any way that rig HAS to be set up or do just anims get exported regardless of what you did to a rig? Where do I need to dig to get exporters for max to spark? Is there any knowledge base that I can access to full export pipeline including anims?

    About creating a new entity, for questions sake new alien life form. How much coding would it actually involve to get it implemented in game?

    Sorry for questions hope i'm not bugging. Too much.
  • SamusDroidSamusDroid Colorado Join Date: 2013-05-13 Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
    If you have 3ds max 2009 you can use the ColladaMax.dle plugin that comes with NS2
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited December 2015
    Vlaad wrote: »
    I love the love for modding :)

    @BeigeAlert
    Is there any way that rig HAS to be set up or do just anims get exported regardless of what you did to a rig? Where do I need to dig to get exporters for max to spark? Is there any knowledge base that I can access to full export pipeline including anims?

    About creating a new entity, for questions sake new alien life form. How much coding would it actually involve to get it implemented in game?

    Sorry for questions hope i'm not bugging. Too much.

    I'm not 100% sure when it comes to the 3dsmax setup, but I know that in the blender setup, it'll export whatever the bones are doing for every frame, taking into account constraints (IK!!!).

    Here's the plugin for 3dsmax, it seems to have been excluded from the game distribution for some time now. :(https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtthtke2pvrn6cx/ColladaMax.dle?dl=1

    In terms of knowledge base for exporting... just ask questions in the modding forum. I'm working on a manual for that now, but in the meantime you can refer to the asset sources included with the game.
  • ScatterScatter Join Date: 2012-09-02 Member: 157341Members, Squad Five Blue
    I really wish there was scope for improved UI development tools alongside this. I am currently editing and making UIs for my mod and I really find the whole process excessively painful.

    If the intention is to develop entity event frameworks for single player/coop episodic content, as well as easier model importation then surely one of the most important aspects, which is how the game is presented, needs to be easier to develop. Moreover the vanilla game really does need a UI revamp as currently a lot of it could be presented better. For instance the armory and prototypelab buy menus are just bland buttons that show a picture on the side.
  • ArchieArchie Antarctica Join Date: 2006-09-19 Member: 58028Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Maybe we could have the choice again the render flash, or even php menus(lol)

    And to top that off thanks BiegeAlert mate, i really appreciate this and look forward to this the most about the whole grouping up thing, nothing toxic from your end so far!

    a++ work.
  • ArchieArchie Antarctica Join Date: 2006-09-19 Member: 58028Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Is there a way to vote against an idea? The most popular ideas by the vocal minority aren't necessarily the most popular according to all players who own NS2. Of course, there is no guarantee that there will be an accurate representation. But having some of the most controversial ideas being represented as the most "popular" won't be too helpful.

    No because you get militant people voting down things like in reddit, or in the case of NS2 PR people and groupies who have interests like to censor or hate on people because it doesn't agree with there agenda. Group mentality is bad especially when it's a feature that should have never been removed in those cases.
  • VlaadVlaad Join Date: 2012-10-03 Member: 161403Members
    Thanks for the exporter its on my machine. Now, besides gratitude, I will again reiterate my question. Asking around yields (something I asked more than a few times but persistently don't want to say openly what I got as an answer)
    "don't bother because don't spark is s***" to work with.
    If entire art pipeline is covered for beginning to end, what does it take to bring up a new entity code vise?

    For example: (simplified) Cryengine2/3 requires biped setup in specific way (naming, hierarchy etc) for it to be animated, bones + mesh is exported with collision proxy and custom animations have to be named. Physics setup has to be in specific way as well. Hiboxes, weapons movement and other setup ties in in xml and/or sandbox.

    Please, if anyone has connection with devs either PM or anyone has time to do a ts session to explain a bit I would be very grateful.

    Some free time is coming up for me so I would very much like to have some information regarding this.

    Again thanks upfront for the answer!
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Vlaad wrote: »
    Thanks for the exporter its on my machine. Now, besides gratitude, I will again reiterate my question. Asking around yields (something I asked more than a few times but persistently don't want to say openly what I got as an answer)
    "don't bother because don't spark is s***" to work with.
    If entire art pipeline is covered for beginning to end, what does it take to bring up a new entity code vise?

    For example: (simplified) Cryengine2/3 requires biped setup in specific way (naming, hierarchy etc) for it to be animated, bones + mesh is exported with collision proxy and custom animations have to be named. Physics setup has to be in specific way as well. Hiboxes, weapons movement and other setup ties in in xml and/or sandbox.

    Please, if anyone has connection with devs either PM or anyone has time to do a ts session to explain a bit I would be very grateful.

    Some free time is coming up for me so I would very much like to have some information regarding this.

    Again thanks upfront for the answer!

    Honestly I'm not sure what it takes to get an animated model to be used as an entity. Not really my area of expertise. I didn't want to ignore you before, I just was hoping somebody else would jump in with a more satisfactory answer than this. :(

    As far as collisions and animations are concerned, ALL of that is handled in the "*.model_compile" file that the build tool uses to compile the model itself. So once you have the model compiled, there's nothing extra you have to do to add animations and collisions. Tying them to player input however is another matter.

    Wanna see a really scary looking model_compile file? Take a look at the lerk's. :)
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    edited December 2015
    Managed to get @Howser 's crazy creature into Spark. Things are shaping up nicely. :)
    t24NUBx.png
  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    BeigeAlert wrote: »
    Managed to get @Howser 's crazy creature into Spark. Things are shaping up nicely. :)
    t24NUBx.png

    The 6th alien lifeform appears!
  • Anti_BosonAnti_Boson Join Date: 2013-07-03 Member: 185878Members
    edited December 2015
    I've got a lot of experience getting animated models of any type (props, weapons 1st & 3rd person, buildings, etc) into spark with working animations and animation graphs. For wiring the models up, I can answer simple questions or forward them to someone who knows. Just PM me.
  • BeigeAlertBeigeAlert Texas Join Date: 2013-08-08 Member: 186657Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Pistachionauts
    Anti_Boson wrote: »
    I've got a lot of experience getting animated models of any type (props, weapons 1st & 3rd person, buildings, etc) into spark with working animations and animation graphs. For wiring the models up, I can answer simple questions or forward them to someone who knows. Just PM me.

    @Vlaad ^
  • ArchieArchie Antarctica Join Date: 2006-09-19 Member: 58028Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter
    edited December 2015
    http://iforce.co.nz/i/apttsaaq.wk0.png

    Only problem i had recompiling was getting gorge_physics.dae and maybe one other thing not included, but as it stands that is included withen the actual reference max file gorge.max? is it not?

    retardly broken HA in game

    hmg?

    or a lerk?

    I think once i get animation graphs working i will be fine, animation graphs are my biggest issue :( i can import the animations, models, textures, add on new parts to the models, attach points etc, not very good with the model_compile, but i would love to be able to do some more?

    any help would be appreciated.
  • VlaadVlaad Join Date: 2012-10-03 Member: 161403Members
    Here here!

    Thanks guys!
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