Workaround for all current Max & Maya versions to b3d

[mr.Zog]

Workaround for all current Max & Maya versions to b3d /irrlicht

A short intro:
First of all, I’ve spent really a lot of time trying to get the panda Exporter for 3dsmax9 to export my models correctly.

Thanks to a link in the forum (don’t remember where I found it ) I got a mview.exe (for re-saving), which could launch without crashing (somehow the one in the DX-SDK couldn’t start) … but that’s a different story.

After a few days of export tests, with non satisfying results (messed up joints, etc) with the X format, I’ve decided to go the other way: b3d.

Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any current exporters for Maya or Max, so that’s why I now do the following:

Download ActorX:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html

This is the UnrealEngine-Mesh & Animation format.

Export your files from Max/Maya to the ActorX format (PSK = Mesh, PSA = Animation).
(if you let a script file be created you also get the frame count/sequence information you need in irrlicht to display the right frames…)

>> Bring up the current version of Milkshape3D (1.7.10)

>>Go file >> import >> Unreal/UT/PSK/PSA >> select the PSK file
>>Go file >> import >> Unreal/UT/PSK/PSA >> select the PSA file

if you now click on the ANIM button, you can move the frame slider and should see the animation… after you’ve seen it, de-click it again.

Now you need to adjust your object- and material names and apply a texture to the material.
(use simple names like: head, body etc.)

>>Go file >> export >> Blitz Basic 3D
It should prompt you with “File exported successfully”

Now import it in irrlicht and everything should work out right
(have to multiply frame-number * 100 in the frameLoop-function!)

And thanks to the b3d format, you can now also mount a weapon to your model without any crashes

That basically was it. ( was the short version )
If it is needed/wanted, I would be happy to supply a “picture-ized” tutorial… just let me know

[Luke]

nice,

I better bookmark this.

[vermeer]

I see two probs...

milkshape will kill the weights to absolute 1 or absolute 0 (yep, I know how to weight so decently, is just no good.. )

also, dunno if that's ut actorx for Ut1, if it's 2003, ok, but previous versions didnt support weights... 2003 yep, till 3 I think, initialized as rigid (doesnt mean 1.0 weight)

I've posted somewhere esle this plugin link...if works for 7 could work for 8...
http://www.onigirl.com/pipeline/


Anyway, if Luke's Blender b3d plugin works I rather prefer that way...(weights are supported indeed)

[mr.Zog]

@actorX: it allways should fit to the current UnrealEngine, meaning a sort of industry standard.

You're right in the vertex-weight point!
I've read "somewhere on the web" that Milkshape supports multiple bones per vertex, and simply doesn't render them in the viewport, but if you export the model, they are saved out... I've just ran a quick test, but it doesn't seem to work with PSK-meshes. (or the b3d-exporter of milkshape strips em out?)

There is the possibility to edit vertex weights through the new Sims2-vertex-weight plugin (again, changes are not rendered in the viewport)...but that's definately an overhead and I haven't tested it.

hmm... I'll check Blender...are there any plugins from which I could export my models from maya/max?
Maybe an FBX importer for Blender? =)
I'll start searching ^^

Thanks for pointing this out!

[vermeer]

@actorX: it allways should fit to the current UnrealEngine, meaning a sort of industry standard.

Yes, sorry, your link was pointing to modern actorx versions.

You're right in the vertex-weight point!
I've read "somewhere on the web" that Milkshape supports multiple bones per vertex, and simply doesn't render them in the viewport, but if you

Hmmm...
that's not what resulted in my tests some eons ago..I know that actually, CharacterFx , do support well weights, and actually, the format is probably supporting weights...couldnt say for sure...but the tool does not support weights. Is an elder requested feature, I think was in the sticky of what was going to go in 2.0, but me, which did purchase it way long ago, got tired and moved to charcter fx as animation tool(from Anim8or. And then, used Gmax, and then, at jobs, Max, and then XSI a bit, and then, finally..Blender for everything... Just for am getting more familiar, and is free and accessible everywhere, every job...).

Once I checked the ms3d specs, but was sad to not being able to find anywhere mentioning weights other than an asignment of 1.0 or 0.0...
I may be wrong, but almost certain not even the format supports those..
But I don't really know.
Gmax, XSI or Blender, do support 'em, so I moved...
(even so, I've animated humans with 1.0 weights, using accomodation and other tricks...In HL1 mods, some other mod, and in some jobs. Certainly, while is perfectly doable, is really less powerful. Even more: a tool with weights, will allow you to animate without 'em, if you are so inclined to that, but the other way round is not really possible...Workarounds make all possible, but is slower and less powerful/flexible. This all I say 'cause were among the reasons to vote for x in Irrlicht, and many other engines and tools, as I know what magic can bring a good use of weights. )

export the model, they are saved out... I've just ran a quick test, but it doesn't seem to work with PSK-meshes. (or the b3d-exporter of milkshape strips em out?)

My own experience is...passing by Millkshape means loosing weights (now, I could be playing with words here ) with all formats. Maybe there are nice exporters allowing adding some trick or something, but I'd think that is gonna hurt, in the best case...

There is the possibility to edit vertex weights through the new Sims2-vertex-weight plugin (again, changes are not rendered in the viewport)...but that's definately an overhead and I haven't tested it.

All those tricks you mention, can be tried and some, done...I would recommend tho, today's faster and less painful ways...
There are plenty of formats with weights, is not like some years ago, that was x and little more -reason why I don't vote so much for x today, probably MD5 and B3d are greatests bets for compatibility etc-

A conversion that goes one format-->other format/tool---> other format tool, can bring loads of problems and unaccuracies...But yep, sincerelly, I do that often...But allways i try to avoid.

hmm... I'll check Blender...are there any plugins from which I could export my models from maya/max?
Maybe an FBX importer for Blender? =)
I'll start searching ^^

Wait, ask me first...I have tried many routes, if i can save some pain..

Blender...Max...let me tell you some tips :

-There's a Max exporter of md5 made by der_ton (a member of Blender Artists.org (old Elysiun)) that, after some things to be aware of, works like charm. So, Sio is making an md5 loader for irrlicht. There: a direct conection, recommended. You could export all charactrer and character animation stuff with quite power here.

-There's a B3d plugin for Max, called Pipeline, said to be great for sceneries (am unsure if is good for characters, but is said to export em) .With this you are able to export lights materials, and a large etc. I'm inclined to think exporting charcaters can be a bit more tough here, but surely possible.

-Blender has got, thanks to the great Luke here, a B3d plugin exporter. He's also the author of Irrlicht b3d loader, and has been tested to work loading lightmapped levels as well as animated characters in B3d format.

-Blender has a fantastic md5 plugin with zero probs (indeed, the mroe straight, easy weights plugin I ve used in any tool) , also doen by der_ton. You could then as well export animated characters so once sio md5 plugin comes, probably after Luke's new animation system for Irrlicht is done. Or something in that line, am not up-to-date on those.

-Der_ton did all the ways round. Also made an md5 Blender importer...I think u can now export an md5 out of max...and import animated(havent tried) into blender. then export in whatever.(b3d, md5, x, md2, md3...i exported successfully characters in all those. )

-You can export with an older Blender using the great Jox *.x exporter -but perhaps will need mview.exe after that, perhaps not- or these days Ben's original x exporter, that works with 2.4x Blender latest versions...I have done successfully also with these.
You can export to x also using Panda exporter for Max, or Quest plugin, or a Japanesse one which name I dont remember now...
There's been a thread about x exporter for Maya, but havent read. Natively, irrlicht supports x since long ago, but often, you need certain tricks, or/and re-saving in mview.exe which comes in Dx 8.1, 8.x SDK, or found( with some effort) isolatedly in google.

-Imo, best chance for you is just go straight on and export from Max in b3d with pipeline, or der_ton's( doom3world.org forums , 3d editing forums) md5 -if these loaders are all working in irrlicht, I'm a bit not much aware on which is the status- But are better formats than x.

-There's also that uber powerful format, collada, already epxorters very featured , for Max and Maya, and seems Irrlicht is supporting them,dunno till what extent, this formats usually is able to port any 3d art tool freaking detail as is... Also, cal3d, is really good for gaems too. And there's some patch or loader to allow loading it. These two, support weights , too.

But I can't recommend which I have not used, and I havent used collada (while I have exporters for XSI and Blender) , neither cal3d. Reason why I can go vote much for em.Cal3d has several game-related features, built-in in the library, which makes them interesting for artists time saving, specially in characters animations.


Me, my favourite way -due to the cost of Max , as Max is one of my fav tools- is Blender and whatever the export needed,(md5 worked great for me) has a load already.

Animating in Blender and using Blender is not like 1-2-3, it needs dedication. Indeed, I only handle more or less deeply its animation systems, I use the minimum only in general UI, modelling and render. I tend to model with Wings and import as wings file or obj into blender.

Thanks for pointing this out!

you're welcome

[vermeer]

btw, is this your project's site ? :

http://www.epos-game.net/


*really* nice design.

At least in my book.

The screenshots look amazing.

There's pro touch in those screenshots... that way of building a level is not done by newbies

The team, really large.

One thing that tends to kill in my interest a Rol game, is -besides the world's saturation on a theme that's been my fav as a reader even before there was no inet, neither rol games (at least not as a fashion)- that often stories are just clones of clones and clones of the even same intro paragraph/world over and over...I don't care if is a world of magic, but if at least those bits are well written, and hide some sort of taste, well, then don't mind if usual elements and all are there...I kind of allways get shocked when find a nice misterious name and to find in the site terrible art or no art at all, in a flat floor covered wholy by a 256x256 texture....cloning it till it hurts...Only forgive totally when is coder art

didnt find any of those show stopping things...

Congrats!

btw, you're not using irrlicht ? In the game engine section, you say is a totally new engine...maybe you are building over irrlicht, no?(shaders 3.0?)

Lots of artists in the team...way to go

maybe there's some proportions prob in the very subtle revealed armoured figure seen on the sepia paper as a waternark shade... if you look carefully, the chest, the torso, is thin for those arms, even if it were a child, not to mention a man, or a powerful knight, which it resembles...

Other than that, I really liked the site, kudos.

And I dont use to say this.

I'm a total ignorant in music -I like music a lot, I mean, I never know when a composition is god and why- , but liked the ones for the game in the download section.

I see now...you come from an ut mod(2002?)...Usually mods are more full of artists than indie engine comunities...dunno why...often those end up somehow in game companies, at least the best ones... been in both "worlds"... and in the "companies" too...(where you loose all the fun for ever )

Good luck, I'll keep an eye on updates of this project...

PS : Ask more questions bout anims and exportin', I may give more advice if I remember to come back here.

[Coty]

Fragmotion http://www.fragmosoft.com/ supports weighted vertices. It also exports out to x, ms3d, and b3d, that are discussed here. I often use it to convert models to a wide varity of games. I believe Fragmotion also adds weighted vertices to the ms3d format, but I'm sure Irrlicht would need to read this extra information. But it should be rather simple to fix for programs like Irrlicht that already read the origional ms3d format.

[mr.Zog]

This fragMotion seems to do the job quite well :)
Maybe I’ve missed something, but I’ve tried PandaX, KW-Export and another one with different types of settings (and re-saving with Mview)… and always had some problems, either accessing joints or playing the anims in irrlicht. (using 1.2 because i get some kind of vector-error with the svn version)

I have to admit though, that my model-test-folder is quite a mess, due to all the different types of versions ;)
So maybe a “delete all and start again but structured” process could help to point out further problems (I’ll do this at weekend )

@Collada: I think animated models are not supported yet (irrlicht & blender).

@EPOS:
Thanks for the nice comments :)
Yes, I am the project leader (giggsy).
I just took mr.zog as nick here cause it’s a English interpretation of my “real life” nick which is herr zog, which means mr.zog :D (and herr zog comes from my surname herzog which actually means duke *narf* )

Anyway, I’ll tell you a “secret”: the last news update on the EPOS homepage is from Febraury last year.
We are currently discussing how we should go on further, because we all don’t have that much time anymore as we did as we where younger.
For example my situation: I study media technology and –design: it’s hard to sit in front of the computer at night (not talking about the evening ^^ ) if you already sat in front of it for the whole day...busy with “homework” and other university-projects.

We had a really successful time though, as we still where a UT(1) mod named Ultima-Unreal (the name was a real balancing act, glad we didn’t get sued :D ).
Our programmer implemented features such as depth of field or blooming, database-placed objects, etc… and next to that he started writing his own engine, so one day we switched over to it… (we didn’t calculate the needed effort right so that’s why we ended up here where we currently are)
But after all, the experience gained is invaluable.

Enough of that, the reason why I am here is that we (a team of 6 students(3 artists, 3 programmers..but actually we are all hybrid artgrammers or progists :D ) ) are going to create a game in the next semester, which might be continued in the further semesters. ( but more infos tba ;) )
And, as one of the programmers, I want to convince the others in using irrlicht and try to setup a working pipeline (max & maya to irrlicht for both, static and animated models).

Well, that sort of is my background.
I’ve also created models for the TGE (both static and animated), so I’m used to spend a looooot of time till you get your models working ingame like you want them to ;)



I’ll sure keep the Blender-info saved in my subconsciousness (ready to access it anytime ;) ), thanks again to both of you!

[Luke]

Hey mr.Zog,

You seen unwrap3d,
http://www.unwrap3d.com/index.aspx
It imports and exports just about everything ( http://www.unwrap3d.com/formats.aspx )

without my exporter, I can even get animated mesh from blender to b3d using unwarp and the ogre exporter, (if anyone wants to know how, I’ll list the steps)

I should really complete the exporter, but I been focusing on the new animation system.

Offtopic:

But the way, any artists out there got any cool meshes, that don’t might me using, The best I’ve got (that I’m free to distribute in demos) is the old dwarf mesh.
The community really needs some more meshes, that Sydney mesh is getting old, and gives a poor impression of irrlicht.

[vermeer]

Hey mr.Zog,

You seen unwrap3d,
http://www.unwrap3d.com/index.aspx
It imports and exports just about everything ( http://www.unwrap3d.com/formats.aspx )

Not only I have it, also I was probably the first in noticing about it in an elder b3d comunity... and actually realized since very early that the Ultimate Unwrap is a great route... There are some issues bout smoothing, and sometimes main root point, but can be dealt. Keeps the anim info quite well, tho.

Indeedy, I was a helper, tester, feature brainstormer for the tool at the times the man yet probably had time for that... In the times of Lithunwrap, the ancestor of this tool. I ended buying the comercial one, as is a terrificly good uv mapper.

without my exporter, I can even get animated mesh from blender to b3d using unwarp and the ogre exporter, (if anyone wants to know how, I’ll list the steps)

I've done too (seems we have been in same needs ) I used to at least, exporting as X fro U3d, and actually, if I remember well, Irrlicht old version used to catch it without needing of resave at mview, if done carefully. You of course could export as b3d the x imported model with u3d.

The u3d max exporter works really well, so is a nice work pipeline to go Max, saving as u3d format(free plugin at u3d site), open the u3d in Ultimate Unwrap (oh, btw, unwrap3d.com) , then do some needed settings (can go without doing em but...) , then export as b3d, done.

But...I didnt mention as I lately don't recommend something that involves a purchase,(and probably as I've been years promoting it..and once thought I was repeating myself too much...) but yes, is like 50$ or soemthing, and is one of those jewells you never regret to buy.Supports vertex weights, but in its viewport, it shows weird deformations for a gfx glitch :the data internally is perfect, don't panic.

I should really complete the exporter, but I been focusing on the new animation system.

Indeed, that was one of the main reasons of not going further in explaining other ways... I think Blender is the way to go for an indy, as Max is too expensive...and it's advanced now...your plugin does seem to have a very nice route.(and there's a number, not huge, but..of blender users in b3d comunities...much bigger here, logically. )

Look, I am experienced in animating with : Max , Gmax, Blender, CharacterFx, a bit of Anim8or and XSI. And well, I can tell you Blender, tho have some -for me- yet painful lacks, I can tell it allows way advanced stuff, all which you need for a game. Is hard to learn, but at the end, what i need is a free tool with enough power. You can use advanced constraints, leave feet glued on floor, limit ik angles...all these is not possible in Character Fx (which is loved in b3d comunities for its quite good b3d exporter, I was one of its strongest promoters, preferred for that task to milkshape... )

For me, the Milkshape and Fragmotion are great converters and helper editor tools, but I see Blender much more adecuate for animation. Or for this matter, also Gmax. And of course, Max if you have the money, or can use it...I usually have acces at jobs. XSI, while purchased, at the end has been to me a bit heavy to use for what I need, so I am keeping in the road with Blender...go guess...

And yep, Max rocks for character animation... (and if u can access CAT plugin... ) But these days...I dunno...I feel too comfortable animating in Blender...probably if I'd model in it too would be another story, but I model in Wings3d, and usually uv map in Unwrap3d.(tho the task can be done less powerfully in Wings or Blender..imho even Max uvmapping isless advanced.This is just an opinion!)

Offtopic:

But the way, any artists out there got any cool meshes, that don’t might

Maybe...meshes of what?
human models? Rigged I have never free ones, not for me not wanting em free, but as are of other parties and I cannot simply give away...Or are part of a project(sorry,non irrlicht :,( ) in which I am really involved and is kept secret.

me using, The best I’ve got (that I’m free to distribute in demos) is the old dwarf mesh.

the old crappy dwarf mesh in the x samples, is my terrible creation of half an hour of a joke played with some friends. Was only thing rigged by then , when niko asked...You know, I rarely rig and animate at home without a n specific serious solid project: as I take it seriously -dwarf exception- and doing so, rig and animating is quite a task.But have like to human models, of my very first moments in 3D , back Pharaons time, which I can pass you. The textures are simple and very poor. But a good texturer can paint over easily, and are average uvmaps. One is "FPS" type, the other is a basic these days man, canbe whatever as did with the idea of leaving quite generic.
Are meshes ppl have already used in projects, but I can tell u am not proud of 'em compared to my today level.

Is for your game? demo? prototype? samples for a tool? what for?
humans only, or statics too?

The community really needs some more meshes, that Sydney mesh is getting old, and gives a poor impression of irrlicht.

Not that these am mentioning are going to save its name in that area XD
I have somequite better, but I respect the fact that tho done free, were dedicated for MODs, and they perhaps keep using em, and are too much specific to be of use for any one anyway.

Am sorry, am quite dedicated to the project I mentioned, otherwise I'd even rig/anim one for you. But impossible at this times.Maybe in the future...

@Mr.Zog.

This fragMotion seems to do the job quite well

For conversions, sure. For animating...I'm not fan of the interface, but that's only me. Anyway, even if for just conversions and some edit-fix, worths surely the purhcase.

Maybe I’ve missed something, but I’ve tried PandaX, KW-Export

I was succesful with Panda -and in the elder times did wrote here a dunno how many pages thread about settings for it(needed my trick of converting the biped to fbx, reimporting fbx to have it bones and weights so to be able to export with those days' Panda exporter...)- but to be sincere, I wasnt the guy seing how it loaded in Irrlicht, only was ensured was working...I think I did not need mview, but is a breeze to use,tho.

and another one with different types of settings (and re-saving with Mview)… and always had some problems, either accessing joints or playing the anims in irrlicht. (using 1.2 because i get some kind of vector-error with the svn version)

I have allways defending X format. Seems am the one to have less or no probs with x...maybe as was a helper in doing plugins for blender exporters, and also 'cause helped too in certain other engines loaders, with x format. I know the typical issues...But these days I think is better go for b3d, or md5.

I have to admit though, that my model-test-folder is quite a mess, due to all the different types of versions

If ur really in a hurry, and want have something banged, dig the forums with my name as author, and panda for terms...it's several pages thread, and in like 6 or 5 page, cant remember, is years, I defined the key settings...The FBX trick is important if you use biped, but there's some other mountain of things to be aware of. Dunno, I use to find these sort of issues in 3d, I've been working at this for long, and usually, at home and jobs, needed always the weirdest pipelines (yep, TGE older versions were more painful in this.. ) and loads of conversions...so, is usually a matter of trial and error, and some stuff you can imagine for having seen similar situations.In the case of Panda, this is very true.
X format is way too complex, one way or another, many exporters have load of issues with it in every package...all...now that i can think of..I allways have had probs...but ingeneral, formats with bones, weights, anim, are way more ocmplex than an obj...
But imo, b3d and md5 are more compact in that, to me translates in less headaches.Just let's give Luke time for building the animation system, I guess he's quite overloaded now

So maybe a “delete all and start again but structured” process could help to point out further problems (I’ll do this at weekend )

more isolated tips...beware, in most tools, but specially x... :

- isolated vertices out of mesh, or inside it...
- unwelded vertices
- untriangulated meshes
- more than one texture and materials per character, gives probs in certain ways...
- no keyframes (for max-panda, do at least to keyframes in diferent time moements!)
- compile the modifiers stack,(ideal edit mesh+skin modifier only) good thing to od with most plugins.
- max ticks or just SRT keyframes...there was an important matter-combination.Just I dont remember which...
- closed meshes or not.. (i use to prefer closed with most formats/engines)
- textures in same folder, relative paths.
- no meshmooth related strange modifiers...
- the whatever you made to the model may have broken it internally for export, beware
- dont mirror bones!!(unless you know HOW without messing internally for export!..I had the pain of throw away a full anim set)
- dont scale bones (unless biped and if you know what you do for the later consecuences)
- overlapping faces (more for engine rendering issues)
- texture format.
-in some cases, number of vertices, I dunno a word of coding, but 65,000 was alimit in x under some circumstances.
-sometimes, with some 3d tools, spaces in materials or bone names.
-unrelated, but some static formats dont allow more than 8 characters in material name.
- unweighted vertices.
- materials starting with numbers (had that issue once can happen in Max unnoticed)
- dots in names of things (ie: Blender's Bone.001 , or material.001 ) remove em. Somebody did like a parser for it...Jox blender plugin did take care of this irrlicht matters, but stopped updating.He did a great work. ben keeps doing his exporter, and in my tests, goes cool with latest blenders.

- In XSI there were othe x issues -in the site u can find the plugin, I/O. I think I needed to set it to plot curves -sort of bake- Like u have to bake keyframes in Blender when using constraints...some other issues..but also works...

- There's threads here in x for maya...

- better keep it one only mesh...

-better use an standard material, not multisubobject material of max...

- beware th eright handed, left handed setting...

- binary or ascii..I think was only ascii for irrlicht...

cant remember, am totally using my memory, I dont use the format anymore.

@Collada: I think animated models are not supported yet (irrlicht & blender).

In blender dev goes fast, he was adding armatures, dunno if anim already and weights. In XSI, is supposedly is terrificly good. In irrlicht, no idea.

@EPOS:
Thanks for the nice comments
Yes, I am the project leader (giggsy).
I just took mr.zog as nick here cause it’s a English interpretation of my “real life” nick which is herr zog, which means mr.zog (and herr zog comes from my surname herzog which actually means duke *narf* )

hehe

Anyway, I’ll tell you a “secret”: the last news update on the EPOS homepage is from Febraury last year.

woah. And me angry for I am several months in a project...

We are currently discussing how we should go on further, because we all don’t have that much time anymore as we did as we where younger.

usual. and just wait for when u get out of studies...time will dissappear...unless u get a confortable, easy, and boring job, which has allowed the best projects ever in certain ppl..

For example my situation: I study media technology and –design: it’s hard to sit in front of the computer at night (not talking about the evening ^^ ) if you already sat in front of it for the whole day...busy with “homework” and other university-projects.

very logical. May you just leave it for weekends. And be very practical with it, cut when needed , the long roads in the game, is the way games are done, in my experience at certain jobs. A practical artist/coder is way more valuable than an un-practical genius...The first ends up with a game done, the second, not so often, and first ends up way happier every day, and after some games...ta-daa..can be called genious safely.

We had a really successful time though, as we still where a UT(1) mod named Ultima-Unreal

yeah, there I saw the date

(the name was a real balancing act, glad we didn’t get sued ).

you must have a cousin there..

Our programmer implemented features such as depth of field or

screens of art and tech are quite impressive.

blooming, database-placed objects, etc… and next to that he started writing his own engine, so one day we switched over to it… (we didn’t calculate the needed effort right so that’s why we ended up here where we currently are)
But after all, the experience gained is invaluable.

Enough of that, the reason why I am here is that we (a team of 6 students(3 artists, 3 programmers..but actually we are all hybrid artgrammers or progists ) ) are going to create a game in the next semester, which might be continued in the further semesters. ( but more infos tba )
And, as one of the programmers, I want to convince the others in using irrlicht and try to setup a working pipeline (max & maya to irrlicht for both, static and animated models).

perhaps some helper tools for conversions will help the workflow a lot, I mean something fast to do, even if dos comand line with a bat.

Well, that sort of is my background.
I’ve also created models for the TGE (both static and animated), so I’m used to spend a looooot of time till you get your models working ingame like you want them to

yep, I've been in indy projects, mods, and companies. Last one in-house tools in certain cases were the hardest workflow ever.
Some others in anothe rcompany, the best connection engine-3dpackage I ve seen and used. 1 to 1. No free or cheap engine having that that I know. Is C++ system, sdk for the tool, bellow it all...

I’ll sure keep the Blender-info saved in my subconsciousness (ready to access it anytime ), thanks again to both of you!

3 artists, surely Max and Maya, and quite good in their stuff, yep, not clever to switch.Just ensure a pipeline from Max and Maya to Irrlicht. Been done already with many formats.(and with Blender, too)

[Luke]

the old crappy dwarf mesh in the x samples…

I was thinking more of Psionics drawf, but there are so little free meshes out there, they have all been over used.

Is for your game? demo? prototype? samples for a tool? what for?

Well it’s not really for me, I’m more thinking for the irrlicht community,

I can easily get good meshes for about $20-$40, but I cannot share them or anything.

Really, I’m looking for any animated mesh, and with a bump/normal map would good. I don't care if it's not generic.

Am sorry, am quite dedicated to the project I mentioned, otherwise I'd even rig/anim one for you. But impossible at this times.Maybe in the future...

That’s fine.

please don't make anything just for me, just if you have anything lying around.


Sorry for hijacking the tread.

[mr.Zog]

@vermeer:
I'll follow your guid lines and post my results, thanks
(f.e.x I think I allways saved the X files out as binary... )

please don't make anything just for me, just if you have anything lying around.

Why not?
I think it wouldn't do any harm
And besides that, the chance of having people which have models lying around is not that high (at least I don't - most of them are "project-binded")

If you tell me what you want, I'll create it "for irrlicht only"(or for whom you want )
It could take a bit of time though.
And if you have any idea how a typical "irrlicht character" should look like, let me know

Maybe we could somehow create a little Theme-asset, sort of like in the TGE/TGEA Demos as inspiration (but doesn't have to be medieval/fantasy):
* a playable character
* a weapon to mount (or maybe even armor?)
* terrain
* a little building
* (very optional) a vehicle

[drac_gd]

I would be willing to donate a little to a fund to get a artist to make a good human model and a building or 2 that would be part of irrlicht distribution/demos.. Ill bet there are others who would be willing too.. Maybe niko or hybrid could set up a pay pal or something just for the cause of adding art assets to irrlicht.

[Luke]

And if you have any idea how a typical "irrlicht character" should look like, let me know

Lol, I’m just thinking of something that shows irrlicht is not some old engine.

I would be willing to donate a little to a fund to get a artist to make a good human model and a building or 2 that would be part of irrlicht distribution/demos.. Ill bet there are others who would be willing too.. Maybe niko or hybrid could set up a pay pal or something just for the cause of adding art assets to irrlicht.

Yeah, that would be great.

I think niko said something about having low ploy meshes to keep the download size low, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

I mean there’s a 564KB drarf.x that could easily be 70KB, a 1.23MB IrrlichtTheme.ogg, a 480KB sphere (wtf).

[vermeer]

My prob is now am focusing all my art efforts in my friend's project...May I ask him... dunno... sometimes I have thought of setting a quick site, and... *slowly* making a textured generic or FPS animated guy... and posting freely usable, only with a volunteer donate button....as i couldnt justify myself in this moment of my life not using remaining time to bring some money.

my job has got intense,(and a lot keeps being making graphics) somehow that tires you even if there remains free time...

Ive done a lot of human models, been my job for certain while..(not now)

dunno, I'll think about it...too late night to think now..