Model Converters

[rudel_ic]

are we even allowed to try and figure that part out?

Huh? It's a case of reverse engineering in which everyone wins, as I see it. If Wolfire Software objects to anyone figuring out animation magic in Lugaru, by all means, drop a hint. Until that happens, I simply assume that everything goes.
The team just recently mentioned the awesomeness of Silb's RE efforts regarding dialogue and campaigns on the blog, so I don't think there's any reason to think they object to this public dissection of Lugaru. David even posted some info when I took my first stabs at figuring out the solid format.

btw rudel you're still my forum hero you should hang out on irc sometime.

Well, thanks for the kind words, I guess. I'm actually a broken man, so it's interesting to see you talking of me as a hero. Maybe I will visit the IRC sometime, I do it occasionally anyway.

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?

Well, to be honest, I don't know, but it's quite possible. All one would have to do is modify vertex coordinates. I'd have to write a prototype to verify.
That prototype would let all indices alone. And it wouldn't convert to X or whatever, one would just alter vertex coordinates.
It's a neat idea, I think it could work.

[Count Roland]

oh yeah, I remember david helping out with that a little. I suppose it's a little odd to talk about anyone as a hero, well no questions asked about the whole broken thing stuff happens.

[invertin]

I'm actually a broken man, so it's interesting to see you talking of me as a hero.

When is a hero not a broken man?

[rudel_ic]

As a followup to Stromboli's idea, it is in fact rather easy to modify Lugaru characters. The vertex count and polygon count have to stay the same though.

What I did was I took Body.solid, converted it with Brainfart to Body.solid.x (weapon scale), imported that into Blender and deformed that mesh a bit. I then exported my brilliant art to x again, converted that file to solid (weapon scale), opened both the original and the deformed Body.solid with xvi32 (a HEX editor) and pasted the deformed vertices over to the original Body.solid, thus leaving indices intact.

Here's what my weird rabbit dude looks like:


It's just one LoD though, so distant characters won't look like that, they have to be rather near to the camera.

I've attached the deformed Body.solid so you can play with that.

If you want to try this for yourself, go ahead and ask for details, although I don't recommend trying it because it's prone to issues.

deformed-turner.zip

lol

(17.77 KiB) Downloaded 147 times

[Blorx]

taht was...interesting
it was hilarious to see parts of Turner's body inflate and deflate
haha

[rudel_ic]

It's a shapeshifter! AAH

[Lotus Wolf]

rudel, thats awesome!

[rudel_ic]

As for Brainfart, I recently implemented COLLADA support and it seems to work perfectly. I'll have to tidy up a bit, record the long-promised video tutorials and then will give you guys the link to the tool after having uploaded the newest version.

COLLADA support, as mentioned elsewhere, means that Brainfart will accept models from other modeling tools as well and will be less susceptible to the quirks we experienced with the X format.

Brainfart will then still be able to write X files, but it will stop to read X files. It will read and write SOLID files. It will only read DAE files (DAE is the COLLADA file format).

It won't write DAE files because I didn't want to fill DAE files correctly, that's a tad harder than just reading data.

The COLLADA version I'm supporting is 1.4.1.

[rudel_ic]

I am happy to announce the first public release of Brainfart!

Get Brainfart 0.3 here:
http://www.alice-dsl.net/wolf.mathwig/tools/brainfart/

As I said, this is a public release, so you will get support if you ask for it. You can find details concerning this in the ZIP package you can find at the above URL.

Brainfart is licensed under the LGPL. It uses LWJGL, OpenIL, COLLADA and Java libraries. It should work on MacOSX, Linux and Windows > ME, please bug me if it doesn't.
If you want the source code, please contact me.


This version hasn't been tested against COLLADA files not coming from Blender. I'd be interested in such tests. Especially C4D, 3DSMAX, MAYA and SKETCHUP tests would be cool.
Remember that only triangles are allowed, only the mesh to convert is allowed in the COLLADA file and there has to be some sort of UV mapping for every vertex of every triangle the model has.
The COLLADA version is the currently stable one (1.4.1).

A YouTube video showing how to model and texture a weapon in Blender and then converting models with Brainfart to then get that working in Lugaru can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f23s7mNs1Pk

This is _very_ introductory material though, barely showing how it works. Also, the captured Lugaru footage isn't good, the framerate is rather low, I'm unsure why that is, but it shows what this is about, so it's not a real problem, I'd say.

Please remember to tell me about bugs and general issues, and it's totally okay to ask me about how to do things and stuff.

If someone wants to mirror Brainfart, please contact me so we can set that up. Keep in mind however that this is only an option if you can ensure that later versions can be uploaded. If you have a site at a free hosting service of some kind, don't bother.

Good luck!

Edit: The video quality is extremely low for no real reason; I've uploaded a highres video, but the HQ / HD options seem to not be available, which is unfortunate. If you want the video hosted on a site with guaranteed high resolution, please ask.

[Count Roland]

hahah awesome, **** my busyness!

[rudel_ic]

I've uploaded the hires video, get it here: http://www.zshare.net/video/54394704221c262f/ (ca. 35MB)

[Lotus Wolf]

well rudel, very awesome so far! this has solved my problem, probably the .x files, and i am working on some new stuff. i noticed that Brainfart produces a .x file for every .dae file converted, whats that about? also: models actually have to be scaled down, i converted the starting cube in blender, and it was bigger than turner! not really a problem, just something odd. anyway, i love it so far, you'll see more feedback soon!

[Lotus Wolf]

well, just for the hell of it, i made a low res pistol, though it doesn't shoot, it shows that my problem is fixed, and that the COLLADA conversion works perfectly. i had to scale it down to .145 DimX to get it the right size, and i put it as the sword.
check it out:

[Jendraz]

Great tutorial Rudel. If I wasn't busy trying to master graphics software for my career I would be able to give modeling a shot.

[rudel_ic]

Brainfart produces .x files when converting .dae files just because it can. But it also produces .x files when converting .solid files, and that's needed for solid2x.
To be honest, I used the .dae-to-.x-path for debugging purposes and let it in. I'll fix that once there's a new version.

The models are pretty big in Lugaru, yes. One day, I'll have to take something in Lugaru and use it as a unit, like the original cube at 0.66666 scale or whatever. I haven't got a consistent unit system currently, that's why it's all over the place with sizes.

I'm happy that Brainfart fixes your problems, Lotus Wolf. Although I haven't the faintest idea what went wrong in the first place. So it's a by-product of a good art pipeline, I guess.

The pistol is win, mate!

Jendraz, thanks, note though that you don't need Blender in particular to produce COLLADA models. Just remember: Triangles only, only 1 mesh in the file, no physics, UV mat necessary, no subdivisioning. Then it should work with anything that makes 3D models and exports COLLADA.