The insanely simple blender tutorial for Lugaru modders

[rudel_ic]

Thank you very much for your help.

I have just solved it, it was just a silly basic error.

I'm very sorry for the problems I've caused.

It's all good. No problems at all. I'm happy it works!

[Lotus Wolf]

rudel, i'm getting ready to convert a model with the new converter, i have to export .x then import it back, then re-export right? i also still have to change the quad's to tri's right?

[Lotus Wolf]

ok i went with that, and didn't scale. im doing the recently requested warhammer, as a staff obviously, and it turned out in game to be so huge the player would be inside of it, and could see out of the top, about a mile up... glitch? or is it my fault?

[rudel_ic]

ok i went with that, and didn't scale. im doing the recently requested warhammer, as a staff obviously, and it turned out in game to be so huge the player would be inside of it, and could see out of the top, about a mile up... glitch? or is it my fault?

Don't scale the weapon up to DimX=1000. That's not necessary anymore.
DimX should be around 1-10, depending on how big the weapon is supposed to be.
Don't forget to apply scaling if you do scale your weapon.
If you convert a weapon, choose ImEx Weapon (lower right).
Also, don't invert normals.
And don't mirror the texture.
Basically, everything that sucked about the converter before is gone.

If you want to know how big a weapon should be, just convert Lugaru's sword.solid to .x and import that into Blender, then you can see what the correct size is.

I don't know whether Direct Conversion from the Extras Menu does work perfectly (haven't got the code available right now). I strongly suggest you use the Drag and Drop conversion box that's on the right side and has a different color and the text "DnD ImEx here" or something. I'll revisit the Direct Conversion thingie to make sure it actually does things so that scale factors in (I thought it would, but can't say for sure right now).

I guess I really have to film those tutorials and write the help material

[Lotus Wolf]

hehe... i didn't know DnD ImEx here was Drag n Drop... but that wasn't it, i left the weapon the size it was when it was finnished, no scaling, and that still left its DimX at like 150 something... lol, anyway, everything works great as far as i can see, i'll use it some more over the weekend, tell you how it goes.

[rudel_ic]

I think your weapon is just really big.

Read your PMs. I'm off capturing tutorials now, then I'll release unless you have objections.

[Count Roland]

edited to remove a large bit of immaturity on my part..

[Lotus Wolf]

People, here's the Blender Tutorial for Lugaru models, when you have a question it is most likely somewhere in the forums, maybe old thread, read back, you would have found this.
anyway, there's another tutorial in the "reverse engineering lugaru assets" thread.

[Noz]

After you drag the x. file into the MS_DOS Batch file, what then???

[rudel_ic]

Please disregard this thread here. This is all rather old information.

Do NOT use x2solid. Instead, get Brainfart. Brainfart supports previewing (also with textures) and drag-and-drop-conversion.
Do NOT export to the .x format. Instead, choose COLLADA 1.4
Do NOT scale weapons up, invert normals or mirror textures. Instead, choose the right checkbox on the lower right of Brainfart. Textures don't need to be mirrored anymore.

x2solid is still on that site I linked to for historic purposes and for people interested in not using Brainfart for whatever reason. Not a good idea, but I won't stop anyone.

Where can you get Brainfart?
Here it is, in a ZIP archive:
http://www.alice-dsl.net/wolf.mathwig/tools/brainfart/

How do you use Brainfart?
Here is a video tutorial, showing you how to make, export, convert, copy a weapon (complete with texturing):
http://www.zshare.net/video/54394704221c262f/
(There's a hires version of that video available there for download, check that out)

That video features all you need to know to make your first weapons and immobile models for Lugaru, complete with me saying which keys I press and so forth.

I hope that helps. Sorry for not managing this thread.

Feel free to ask questions about using Brainfart.

Again, using x2solid is highly discouraged. Blender produces broken .x files.

------------------------------

To answer your question despite all that discouragement above, Noz:

After you drag the .x file into the batch file, the .solid file should appear next to the .x file. That's your new model that should work in Lugaru.

If it doesn't appear, make sure you have Java 1.6 installed.
Get Java here:
http://java.com/

Once you're sure you have Java 1.6 installed, try dragging the .x file onto the batch file again.

[Noz]

Thank you o-mighty rudel_ic for your wonderful help and to lotus_wolf for testing

[Noz]

does blender make collada files???

[rudel_ic]

Yes. Please watch the video tutorial I linked to above. Preferably download the video because you can then also read stuff. It's just 33 MB.

To make COLLADA files, got to File -> Export -> COLLADA 1.4.0. Brainfart needs specific settings for that export plugin, please watch the video to see which these are.

If you're having difficulties watching the video, get VLC, it plays it flawlessly:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[rudel_ic]

Okay, here are the correct settings for future reference:

[Noz]

It says, please install full version of python, which i have