Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-11T17:30:50+02:00

Hi guys, sorry the delay; thanksgiving!
I've been using a mix of blender and paint.net to get the file formats. Blender for the UVing to png, and then paint.net for dds and whatever little corrections. I've accidentally been using dxt5 saves.

but if you are using photoshop with a nivdia plugin theres an option to invert the y value - maybe try something like this

This is a good idea, I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before! I just tried (with paint.net, same effect as the blender method) and I got a slightly more correct shading result, but still a bit whack.

i dunno what crtl n does so yeah

Ctrl n just recalculates which side of each triangle is the "outside" for a model in blender. Because models are basically made of 2 dimensional shapes (unlike the real world) most modelling programs need to have some sort of way to distinguish between the inside and outside of a model. It comes from vector/geometry math. The outside surface will be the way a "normal" vector points.

Judging from how inverting the bump map sort of worked, I'm guessing I did something wrong along the way. I need to re-texture the thing anyways because of how tank tread animations work in this game.

Statistics: Posted by Dudekahedron — 11 Oct 2016, 17:30

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-08T06:16:12+02:00

I also don't have much knowledge of supcom textures but what exotic linked seems to be pretty solid

Statistics: Posted by TheKoopa — 08 Oct 2016, 06:16

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-07T17:20:52+02:00

dunno about textures but have you checked if you are using the right shader? could be that. just a guess though.
you are saving them as dds in dxt5 right?

dunno how you are saving the texture files but if you are using photoshop with a nivdia plugin theres an option to invert the y value - maybe try something like this; i dunno what crtl n does so yeah

http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13648/is-it-possible-to-invert-normal-maps-in-cycles
apparently this is a thing as well. but i dont do modelling so i have no idea how relevant it is

about bones - press atl+v and alt+b to toggle rendering of bones positions and bone names - that should give you an indicator of where the game thinks they are - the proj/beams should come out exactly from those points.

Statistics: Posted by Exotic_Retard — 07 Oct 2016, 17:20

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-07T16:20:00+02:00

TheKoopa wrote:
Max out light? XD

Any other ideas :p? I still haven't figured out whats going wrong :/

Edit: I've tried three different blender releases, 2.73, 2.76, and the new one (2.78?). I've also tried edge splitting the entire model, making the team related texture totally transparent (which only made the shading more wrong), and making the normals totally transparent (didn't do anything).

Statistics: Posted by Dudekahedron — 07 Oct 2016, 16:20

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-06T04:40:27+02:00

Max out light? XD

Statistics: Posted by TheKoopa — 06 Oct 2016, 04:40

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-10-06T22:20:24+02:00

Hi guys,
I've recently come across an issue with exporting units. In blender, if my normals are facing outwards (ctrl + n), then the unit will appear 'inside out' in game (as if the normals were flipped). But if I flip the normals in blender then export, the textures appear fine, but the unit shading is whack (maybe inverted). Any ideas?

Edit: Added images. Also, a new question inspired by the second image. Is it the bottom of the bone or the top of the bone that launches the projectile?
Thanks

Edit2: Figured out why the projectiles appeared to be offset from the mesh, the exporter requires both the mesh center and bone center to be in the same place and or at the bottom of the parent bone. It's also the reason why the tank appeared sunken into the dirt in the above images. Still looking for an answer to the weird shading though!

Statistics: Posted by Dudekahedron — 05 Oct 2016, 20:33

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-04-26T00:08:10+02:00

Right, so I'm trying to export a new shield mesh for a custom flat wall shield. I've got everything involved with it copied and renamed in my mod folder. I built my new mesh and linked it to the bone, but when I go to export, I get an error saying "Vertice without Bone Influence in {Mesh Name}". Since the entire object is linked, I don't know what to do at this point.

Statistics: Posted by Lex Ryder — 26 Apr 2016, 00:08

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2016-02-04T04:16:41+02:00

Sorry for necro.

I believe I've installed all these files in the correct places according to available documentaion:

python 2.6.3 64bit

blender 2.73

C:\Program Files\Blender\2.73\scripts\addons\supcom-importer.py
C:\Program Files\Blender\2.73\scripts\addons\supcom-exporter.py

They will not appear in the "addons" list from the ctrl+alt+u menu. Anyone else run into this?

Update: I tried blender 2.76 as well, still no luck. Am I missing a step here?

Statistics: Posted by sturmadler — 04 Feb 2016, 04:16

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2015-11-02T07:24:18+02:00

Hello, I have been importing alot of the models just out of curiosity and have even had several up at a time,
but I now have a problem with the export script. Recently I have made a new unit from pre-existing mesh
and have renamed the bones, joined everything together and have checked everything in the hierarchy.

The problem is the export doesnt allow an scm or sca to be exported.
There is no bar under the dir to name the scm or sca and the usual export button is replaced with the
text "Export Directory", which behaves like the cancel button. LOL obviously frustrated

Yes Imp and Ex are enabled in the User Pref. Also Blender V2.76

Statistics: Posted by ElectricNode — 02 Nov 2015, 07:24

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2015-08-07T01:36:18+02:00

Ah. I was missing the "enable addon in preferences" step.

It is working now

Statistics: Posted by Hexacosichoron — 07 Aug 2015, 01:36

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2015-08-06T19:12:17+02:00

Hi,
It still works for me on 2.75, that's strange.
Did you put the scripts in the "2.75/scripts/addons/" folder?
Did you activated it in Blender preferences?
Do they appear in the addons list in Blender preferences?

Concerning the error for the export, which error is it?

Oygron

Statistics: Posted by Oygron — 06 Aug 2015, 19:12

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2015-08-05T02:11:27+02:00

Hi, Oygron. Placing the .py scripts in the addons folder does not seem to work for either 2.73 nor 2.75. However, if I copy the importer script into the script editor and run it, that works to give me import options for .scm and .sca, but the export script gives me an error when I try to run it.

Statistics: Posted by Hexacosichoron — 05 Aug 2015, 02:11

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2014-07-31T15:58:13+02:00

Thanks for the help. As I am new to animation and modeling, I don't understand all of what you said, but it still helps and is still appreciated.

I look forward to seeing your wiki post!

Statistics: Posted by DarkMatterVale — 31 Jul 2014, 15:58

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2014-07-30T21:41:45+02:00

I'll go with some quick tips about units on Supcom here.

- To import animations (.sca), you have to have already loaded a model on Blender, either the corresponding mesh (.scm), or a custom mesh of your own, with the bones corresponding in names with the animation bones (each bone named in the animation must have a corresponding one with the same name in the mesh).

- When creating a new unit, the central bone (parent of all other bones of the armature) of the unit MUST have the same name as the unit

- All vertices must be in "Vertex Group", and each vertex group must have the name of a bone. If some vertices are not moving, just give assign them to the group with the central bone as bonename.

- An animation must be associated with an action (see the NLA editor).

- When exporting, the script will assume the unit name (and so the .scm filename) from the central bone, and the filename for the animation from the action name in Blender (can be seen in the NLA editor). So you'll have only to select the output folder, filenames will be deduced (I hope to change that later, making only a name default value that the user can change).

My objective is to complete the mod unit creation article on the Supcom Wikia (again, still not been on here long enough to post URLs). It will be more detailed that here, but that won't be for a few weeks.

You can also get lots of tips by looking on the Gaspowered forum (link in the post from Scoot) in the "Mod Development and Discussion" -> "Modeling, Texturing, & Animation" section (there is even a thread on Blender, using the old version of Blender, but all is still valid).

If you don't know Blender yet, I'm afraid that it is "a bit" too complex to explain it here, you'll have to go through tuts and learn modeling and animation before being able to modify units.

Statistics: Posted by Oygron — 30 Jul 2014, 21:41

Re: Units import/export to Blender

2014-07-30T19:58:36+02:00

Thanks!

I mean that there is no basic tutorial for editing unit animation and mesh files. I would appreciate a little introduction to that kind of thing. I am not asking for anything fancy, I am just asking for a simple explanation.

Could you please explain the basics of editing files? Thanks for the help!

Statistics: Posted by DarkMatterVale — 30 Jul 2014, 19:58