Model Converters

[Lotus Wolf]

Since a lot of people need these, i'm posting the links to the different converter's

X2Solid i find this one the easiest to use for X to Solid conversions.

Brainfart this one does 2 way conversions, so you can convert .solid back to .x, although, it makes the .x conversions more complicated IMO.

[tekn04]

ehrm

the brainfart developer hasn't hidden the link very well

:\


But anyway
YES SOLID TO X

I'm gonna try and subsurf the character models in lugaru and see how that turns out

[Lotus Wolf]

character changes dont work yet, i'm still experimenting with it, but if you can get then to work, please share.

[rudel_ic]

Hi!

X2Solid is recommended right now. There are still problems with Brainfart.

You can of course play with Brainfart if you've already found out how to get it from my site and I have no problem with people downloading it in principle, but as long as the link is hidden, that means that you can't expect any kind of support from me.

The download will still remain there for the adventurous folks. Please report bugs.

I'll revisit Brainfart somewhen, but if in the meantime, there's a Java coder out there with some experience with 3D model formats wanting to fix stuff, that guy should hit me with an e-mail and I'll send the source code.

The e-mail address is buried somewhere in the Brainfart About... section, if I recall correctly.

[Lotus Wolf]

RUDEL!!

Hey man, you've been gone for a while, we've missed you!

I hope you don't mind me posting the link to brainfart, people wanted to know how to do solid-x conversions too.

anyways, i'm going to start learning Java, so i might want to mess around with it a bit, but not yet...

[rudel_ic]

Changing animated solids such as characters is currently impossible because the indices for skeletal reference are simply dropped as soon as you convert a solid to x. You could get new characters working with a bit of ingenuity though after converting an x to solid. However, making it by hand is very tedious..

Lotus Wolf, although I'd have appreciated you asking, I don't really mind as long as people don't bombard me with e-mails about how to get stuff working. So it's cool.

Solid to x should work perfectly, that much I can say about Brainfart. The other way around is still buggy though. At least it's buggy concerning reliable reading of X models coming from Blender. We talked about this.

The problem with Brainfart isn't Java code per se, but rather the order of vertices and how they form faces. So you don't have to be a seasoned Java coder to make it do things correctly. What's necessary is having an environment to code, my source code and a lot of time for trying to get things working.
Preferably, you understand the X format, have more than one modeling environment and know with whom to speak about the Blender X converter (because I surely don't).

I'm thinking about dropping the X format considering the mess it is in, COLLADA is a smart alternative. I'll post as soon as I get that done. My private situation doesn't give me a lot of time for it however, so don't hold your breath.

[Lotus Wolf]

i would have asked if i could give it out, but you seemed to be gone, sorry i didn't know. i also only gave out the public release you sent to me, so i took that literally, public release.

anyway, i'll try my hand at a very simple character to start, just to see if i can get it to work, a stickfigure would be funny... but i'm unclear on if i would have to animate it myself or not... maybe i'm just not understanding correctly.

[rudel_ic]

i would have asked if i could give it out, but you seemed to be gone, sorry i didn't know. i also only gave out the public release you sent to me, so i took that literally, public release.

anyway, i'll try my hand at a very simple character to start, just to see if i can get it to work, a stickfigure would be funny... but i'm unclear on if i would have to animate it myself or not... maybe i'm just not understanding correctly.

Don't bother, it's not as simple as that and ultimately not worth it. You'd have to copy indices over from a working character, and your character would have to have the same number of vertices / faces (unsure). You'd have to find the right offset to paste the indices to. Etc etc
It'd be easier to modify vertex coordinates of a character, really.

[Lotus Wolf]

It'd be easier to modify vertex coordinates of a character, really.

tried that, didn't work because of the indices thing, right? but it didn't crash lugaru or make polygon soup, the character just didn't change. i pulled the rabbits tail out, no extra verticals, no nothing just grabbed the back on his tail and stretched it, but he was still the same in-game. anyway, its irrelevant, maybe someday we'll be able to do more, but not today.

Edit: i also haven't a clue about what indices are...

[Stromboli]

While character models are relatively easy to make, how would one import skeletons + animations over?

[Lotus Wolf]

i think he means that the animations and skeletons cannot be converted to a readable format right now, so its impossible to make characters at the moment.

[rudel_ic]

That's right, skeletons and animation data in Lugaru ~> mystery right now.

I think that in Lugaru characters, the skeleton points are tied to characters in the character solid files (referenced via indices). Problem is you can't just make stuff up there. Without proper knowledge about how skeletons are made, how they're applied to characters and how animations modify them, we're lost there.

My guess is that as soon as skeletons are figured out, making characters work is not a big deal.

[Count Roland]

are we even allowed to try and figure that part out? btw rudel you're still my forum hero you should hang out on irc sometime.

[Stromboli]

I just thought of something.

You said that we can't change the number of indices and all that stuff, right? Similar to how a texture will go all weird if you change things if you edit it after UV mapping?

Could we modify the existing turner model, i.e. scaling out arms and such for fluffy clothing and armor?

[Lotus Wolf]

no, we've tried it. Here's why:

Changing animated solids such as characters is currently impossible because the indices for skeletal reference are simply dropped as soon as you convert a solid to x.