Character mods

[EvilEngine]

You may notice the material has a texture samplers 14/13 warning. If you disconnect the transmission section that will drop to 12/13 if your not going to use it.

[Player_72985]

Is Legendary_Lee still working on his model? Or what was the status on that >.> I haven't seen him make any posts or updates regarding the model for awhile o.O such an awesome lookng model too. *runs inna circle until fragged*


~Edit:
Discmage, that Marine Model looks plain badass, would like to see that in game

[Discmage]

Then go get it :) its in the beta releases section...although still working on team colours.

[Player_72985]

Awesome! xD!

[Discmage]

@Busyman: Unfortunately using the material editor is quite new, and particularly horrifying, to me...is there any chance you could grab a quick screeny of the modified area of the nano material for the reflection level map. A screeny would probably be better as then I have to figure out how to DO it myself :)

[Discmage]

Aaaargh! Now I can't even get the marine to show up in game. I can put it back the way it was no doubt, but it will be no closer to getting the team colours to work.

EVERY step has been a fight with this engine and I'm sick of it. I might go check out Crysis and see how their support/tutorials are. I WANTED to use this engine for things as I have a fair bit of brand loyalty but this has really gotten on my nerves...as you all have no doubt noticed :)

I'll leave the marine release as is, if anyone is wanting to finish it off properly go right ahead. But I'm over it AND this engine...for now at least.

[BuSyMan]

I knew I should have added one of those comment rectangles... OK i'm gonna take a screen an post it here.

And yeah.... transmission is pretty useless, I just left it there for the sake of completeness... but I have a question... if the first number exceeds the second one (14/13) does it have any negative effect on the material (as long as it doesn't go beyond 16, which UEd doesn't allow) ?

P.S. Hourences has a nice guide on material expressions which may prove useful http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3matexpressions.htm

Couldn't fit the whole thing, but that's probably not needed anyway:

http://www.zimagez.com/miniature/refmapshot.jpg (http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/refmapshot.php)

[Discmage]

Um...Hi :) Anyone going to be looking at a dedicated character entry for the make something unreal contest? :)

It seems I am forever drawn to this engine no matter what I try :) Guess you will have to put up with me a bit longer at least ;)

Can't get the team colours to work, so I am moving onto something else. I just have to figure out what. and which is most likely to net me the game license to myself :) hehe.

One can dream. :)

[BuSyMan]

LOL :P
Well I managed to get my team skins working by moving the textures, meshes and parent material to a new package, then I recreated the MICs.
I also did some renaming like in Epic's packages...

Edit: Grrr... now my reflections don't work anymore :mad:

[EvilEngine]

Um...Hi :) Anyone going to be looking at a dedicated character entry for the make something unreal contest? :)



Yes I am submitting a handful of them. Hopefully UT3 doesnt change too much codewise between now and then, or I will have to recode everything.

[geodav]

Um...Hi Anyone going to be looking at a dedicated character entry for the make something unreal contest?

i just hope people do something original instead of comic re-makes, which to be honest that's what i think Epic will be looking for ;)

[Bitter-Pill]

Anyone going to be looking at a dedicated character entry for the make something unreal contest? :)

Yes. I'll be entering at least one character in each of the three phases; more than one if that's allowed and makes sense for me to do.

[genZ]

hey guys,its been a while since i checked this forum,but has there been found a way to get alpha hair working ingame? What about custom UV'S? I hope it has been sorted by now...

[geodav]

HI genZ, to change to uv regions you'd have to code a complete mod or use the workround, as for doing hair read this http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingHairUsingAlpha.html

hope it helps

[genZ]

Thanks geodav,you't always helpful :)

[Discmage]

So I played around with my marine for the last two hours trying to make team colours work. I think because my UVW maps for the torso are in the head section (and spanning two 'sections' of the second map it will be near impossible for my current UVW map to work on their system.

So unless you guys have got team colours working that disregard their UVW Mapping restrictions completely I think I will have to wait till they sort that out.

In so doing I will be moving onto my MSU ideas...a cel shaded Sci Fantasy mini mod :) or something to that effect.

[Keatonian]

I would enter something in the MSU contest, but I know I wouldn't win, there's just too many good modders out there that can beat my offerings. God knows I could use the money though. These are not good times for me and my family. :(

I guess I'll probably enter some of the things I make anyway, though I won't expect to win. Worst thing that could happen is nothing, and if fate shines on me I might get a break from the constant bombardment of life. Cross your fingers.

[Discmage]

well if anything these sorts of things are good for improving your abilities. As everyone looks at everyones work you generally get lots of feedback (both good and bad) and sometimes that is worth more than money itself from a long term point of view as you keep striving to get better.

If everybody didn't enter becuase everyone else was 'better'...noone would enter! The best got to the best because they tried, not because they didn't.

But I agree, the money is ALWAYS good :)

In all truth I am entering for the exposure. I have a world I want to get off the ground, something like this is a very good doorway for people to see what I have to offer. Hopefully people like it. As I don't even have a coder handy the chances of going into the full mod entry is slim, unless I can convince people to join me a bit later down the track once I get some stuff together. Who knows, late 2009 is a long time away :) yet, not long enough at the same time.

[BuSyMan]

This thread is starting to get burried :p
To answer to myself on a previous question, i just figured out that the maximum number of polys a character is allowed to have is 50 000, no more, no less and that is for the whole character, not just a part.

PS: All this talk about MSU... I, for one, am not participating... can't come up with anything original, not just yet :o

[Davision]

Does someone know how i can get rid of the FPV arms idle bug??

[geodav]

Does someone know how i can get rid of the FPV arms idle bug??
not sure but i think EvilEngine mentioned it in one of his models.
i didn't know there was one !!!

[Davision]

yeah, but he seems too busy to answer my mails.
One of The arms get stuck in an strange unrelated animation after some time not doing something with the weapon.

btw do you know how to get custom sounds and custom gibs to work? I just dont know how to link to the files with the script.
Would be great if you can expand your tutorial about that stuff. :)

[geodav]

if i see the arm bug i'll have a look (is it only in custom arms?)

custom sounds+gibs are all added via the UTFamilyInfo code,
for sounds have a look at UTPawnSoundGroup.uc (plus the krall/necrise/Liandri)
for voices have a look at UTVoice_Lauren.uc (one of many)
for gibs have a look at UTFamilyInfo_Human.uc for the set up and UTGib_Human.uc + UTGib_HumanArm.uc for the info

as you can see the coding is quite simple, its just a case of typing it all in (spelling) :)

[Davision]

Yeah only in custom FPV arms, i think you need to use the stinger or any other 2 handed weapon to get it. It seems that one of the arms is in the pose like it is posed in default when you look at it in the editor without the animations.

Thx for the hints in the right direction
I tryed to code a gib but it seems its not simple enough for me. :D
This is the error i always get when compiling:
http://www.vitamin3d.com/bilder/errooor.jpg
whats that: unexpected ´(character/letter i dont have on my keyboard)´?

I also coded my own UTGib_Human.uc but i had the same error with that file.

[geodav]

Yeah only in custom FPV arms, i think you need to use the stinger or any other 2 handed weapon to get it. It seems that one of the arms is in the pose like it is posed in default when you look at it in the editor without the animations.
yep thats the prob i had sorry haven't had time to solve it but its on the list to do:(

that my friend is the biggest pain in the A*** that epic has come up with.
your using the code from the downloaded source. use the code from the exportedallscripts and copy/paste the default properties from the dl_source then edit what you need. the problem is that the unreal compiler needs the code in unicode format which the dl_source is not, so unless you script prog can convert it into unicode format do the above.

[Davision]

YES, Custom gibs and cutoms sound works now! Thx a lot for your help! :)

For testing purpose i used the Lauren Voice, that was very strange hearing the mutant mice speaking with female voices. Zombie Mouse saying: "You cant handle a real woman". :D

Stlll need to make the rodents gibs, that will be a lot of fun. :)

[genZ]

did anyone get the hair bones working??

[Alcor43]

Yup :)

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=609407&page=19

[Mandinga]

When rigging First Person View ams, Am I allowed to move the joints around (translate) or do I have to make my mesh fit the rig?

[Sir snipes AloT]

well try putting the armor onto a pallet and the face onto a pallet and load it into UT99 I would like to see it there.
I think the resolution is 24 bits in the old UED.

[Sir snipes AloT]

OK I know this is not the place but!!Would some one tell me why we have no voice keybinds??????????? I would like to tell the bots what to do and or team mates.This sux!!!

[Sir snipes AloT]

if someone knows how to attatch keybinds to voice commands in the ini please email me ihaulchems@yahoo.com .I would love to be able to say holy **** !! by attatching a key to it.

[Davision]

I know now how to fix the fpv arms idle bug. You just to need to change the pose of the first frame in max. The arms need to hang down and then the arms stay in the right animation ingame, dont know why, but whatever it works! :)

Thx for the info Alcor43 that will make some cool bunny physic ears possible! :)

[Discmage]

So, now that I am starting a completely custom character (animations and all) is there anything I should keep in mind so I don't have to start from scratch. Heaven forbid I get another thing like the UVW mess from the marine.

Things I can think of that I would like to look at include:

- In a custom rig, do the bones HAVE to be named the same as the epic rigs. eg. are those names refered to in the hard code of the engine or does it get all references from what/how you import

- What is the Animtree and how does it fit in, if at all, with Animsets? Do I NEED to figure out what an Animtree is in order to make a custom character or can I get away with just importing the animsets needed (standard animations)

- Has anyone looked at FaceFX yet? If so, does anyone know if you can make the face animate in-game? Or is face fx a cinematic specific thing? Ultimatelly I wouldn't mind the character moving his mouth if people talk through the mic...nothing like lip syncing, but just opening and closing would be enough. That would take a bit of work I assume however.

The key point here I suppose is should I have a game rig and a cinematic rig (with the latter including a complex face rig)

- I have put all the UVW maps in the right places this time...although I am not happy with this fact. This still annoys the crap out of me personally.

- I can't think of anything else, but any pointers/reminders would be appreciated.

[Alcor43]

Well, if you do intend to redo all the 200 animation sequences, I think you can name the bones like you want, since most of the crutial naming information is contained within the sockets, which is a different file than the main skeleton rig. But for the IK thing to work, I not sure if you'll be able to do it for a custom skeleton. You'll have to study the epic skeleton max file for that. Also, I know that the spine bending that happens when you mouse-look around usually used the "spine1, spine2, spine3" naming convention in the old UT games, so you should stick to the names Epic assigned to their skeleton for the spine part.

[Alcor43]

When rigging First Person View ams, Am I allowed to move the joints around (translate) or do I have to make my mesh fit the rig?

Well, in Samus case I rotated the bones so they are more in a strait down position, to make the rigging easier, I didn't move the bones whatsoever and nor should you. I then modelised the hands so they fit the bones.

If you do move the bones around, they will stick back to their original position once animated in game, so don't.

[Discmage]

Yep, I intend on doing all animations...but in truth my end mod will not need all the ones that the game uses...but thats another story. I think for initial purposes I will have to do them all if I want to put it into the competition, and in truth I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I DID do them, then released the .bip files to everyone so they can apply them to new rigs.

I don't know much about the IK stuff however. Maybe that has to do with the Animtree more than the actual rig? I read somewhere it does all the morphs/blends etc. But I really have no idea.

What I will probably do is get my rig as closely named to their rig as possible, and any custom bones I'll try to follow their example. Might work out best in the long run if I try to future proof it as much as possible. Although I am assuming I will, at some point in the next year, need to redo things as they patch up some of the character systems.

[Discmage]

In case anyone finds it useful I compiled a list of all the animations used in the game into one image for easy reference. I'm sure you all could just look in the editor, but this is all in one place.

AimOffset - Although I don't know how or what this is used for exactly (http://www.neorena.com/Editor/AnimSet_AimOffset.jpg)

BaseMale - All main character seem to use this (http://www.neorena.com/Editor/AnimSet_BaseMale.jpg)

[geodav]

i would suggest sticking a close as possible to the bone names as it has been known for code to call a bone and not a socket. i haven't dug into the animtree but as long as you have a full animset it should work.
have 2 rigs/models one for gameplay and one for cinematic.

ps although there are a lot of anims to do you can re-cycle a lot of them, there's a lot of weapon based anims so you can just change the weapon position then export

[Mandinga]

Hey guys,

Been a while since I posted here. I just finished rigging FPS arms for Dynah (thanks to Aclor for his help with the damn bones).

What do I do now? I knwo Geodav helped me with the custom family code, what do I name my mesh when I export it into EUD and what script file do I change? Also what compler do I use for this?

thanks again peeps.

EDIT: Figured it out last night, thanks anyway peeps. My next question involves the head shot gore. When Dynah gets capped you can't see the gore I made for her, the neck verts collapse into one small cone that covers the gore. Any way to fix that via model modification or code?

[Alcor43]

I beleive this function has been canned from UT3. I did some test and even the Epic characters don't use the neck slump when they get headshot.

[Mandinga]

I beleive this function has been canned from UT3. I did some test and even the Epic characters don't use the neck slump when they get headshot.

The iron guard models use them at the very hi quality settings.

[geodav]

have you added the "HeadShotGoreSocket" to your mesh in the socket manager!
if yes check your family code for HeadGib=(BoneName="b_Head",GibClass=Class'UTGame.UTGib_HumanHead')

ps sorry i can't check gibs or gore (stupid german version !!!)

[Mandinga]

have you added the "HeadShotGoreSocket" to your mesh in the socket manager!
if yes check your family code for HeadGib=(BoneName="b_Head",GibClass=Class'UTGame.UTGib_HumanHead')

ps sorry i can't check gibs or gore (stupid german version !!!)

Not sure what file to look at in the family code, that fielf isn't listed. I made a neck stump and pointed my code to it but it simply isn't being used. I noticed hat some epic chracters exibit the same error.

[geodav]

hold on, it might be possible that the neckstump is only used if you have a helmet, all done in the ini file

ps those lines are found in the UTFamilyInfo_Human file

[Davision]

I have the same problem with the headshot gore for my rodents. The problem is that all the verts that are skinned to head and neck get scaled down. So i tried to use a neckstump and also a headshotgoreattachment that is both defined in the family code, both wont work. The funny thing is that the headshotgoreattachment works when you have no headGib! But then the head will stay when you get a headshot, so thats kinda stupid. Must have something to do with the helmets that replace the heads.

geodav seems on the right track, you could make your head a helmet part and then get it working.

[Discmage]

So...been a while... :)

Has anyone looked at completely custom units yet? eg. all new rig/animations etc. ? Anyone happened to see any tutorials on that advanced level of custom character creation?

[geodav]

Nope but in the planning stage, i've been hoping for an Ork to do it with, but really it's pretty much the same as UT2004 eg new rig + 128 anims + physics set + family code and your done. still un tried but should work ;)

[AzureStryfe7]

I'm not sure if this is relevant to anything you guys need, but for the last 3 months or so Ive been working on mgetting my own rig into Unreal. The reason for this is becasue my senior project is using a wider character and the UT rig did not fit at all. Problem is that a couple joint orientations were off so weve been having problems with the arm being twisted and so forth. Thus none of the unreal animations will work. At this point, I've gotten the character running around and playing our custom animations for our game type. I am currently working on building my own animtree this week and need to have it finished by next week. If the community feels it would be helpful, I will do my best to make a tutorial on how to crete a custom character with you own joint names and creating an animtree to support it. As I said, this may not be as relevant to the modding community as it is much more work. But for people such as I who are looking to get into the game industry, I believe it would help a lot since Unreal is being licensed by many companies.

-Kris

[DarkZeal]

I'm not sure if this is relevant to anything you guys need, but for the last 3 months or so Ive been working on mgetting my own rig into Unreal. The reason for this is becasue my senior project is using a wider character and the UT rig did not fit at all. Problem is that a couple joint orientations were off so weve been having problems with the arm being twisted and so forth. Thus none of the unreal animations will work. At this point, I've gotten the character running around and playing our custom animations for our game type. I am currently working on building my own animtree this week and need to have it finished by next week. If the community feels it would be helpful, I will do my best to make a tutorial on how to crete a custom character with you own joint names and creating an animtree to support it. As I said, this may not be as relevant to the modding community as it is much more work. But for people such as I who are looking to get into the game industry, I believe it would help a lot since Unreal is being licensed by many companies.

-Kris

If you could provide that I'm sure it'll will be very helpful to the community :)

[Discmage]

Yeah for sure. I know doing a complete convert is not for everyone, but there are a few who do and in truth the information can probably be applied to other aspects of importing custom content. Knowledge is power!

If you could give us a tutorial, or even pointers on what to do/(especially NOT to do!) that would be fantastic.

[Xero]

I'm not sure if this is relevant to anything you guys need, but for the last 3 months or so Ive been working on mgetting my own rig into Unreal. The reason for this is becasue my senior project is using a wider character and the UT rig did not fit at all. Problem is that a couple joint orientations were off so weve been having problems with the arm being twisted and so forth. Thus none of the unreal animations will work. At this point, I've gotten the character running around and playing our custom animations for our game type. I am currently working on building my own animtree this week and need to have it finished by next week. If the community feels it would be helpful, I will do my best to make a tutorial on how to crete a custom character with you own joint names and creating an animtree to support it. As I said, this may not be as relevant to the modding community as it is much more work. But for people such as I who are looking to get into the game industry, I believe it would help a lot since Unreal is being licensed by many companies.

-Kris
A tutorial on that would be super awesome and very much appreciated AzureStryfe. I'm not exactly a noob at UT modding but to be honest I've all but given up on trying to create a truly "custom" character for the game. That is a custom skeleton and animations because there's not way Epic's rigg would work for the types of characters I want to make.

While I'm at it is there any new info on use our own UV layouts on our custom models?
Thanks

[Davision]

Custom Factions is finally coming with the next patch! :)

[Havoc89]

Yeah I read the patch list too, im excited.

I havnt been keeping tabs with this topic in a while, but does anyone know if it is possible to make our own first person skeleton? Obviously this is for a TC so there would be no need to recreate UT3 weapon animations.

[geodav]

it should be possible Havoc but i just haven't had the time to try, also depends on what you mean by
first person skeleton do you mean the full rig or just the arms. if it's just the arms then read this tread http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=610093

ps in the patch should be Custom Factions :) modswitch :) plus lots more

[Davision]

In the changelist it says: "Fix for custom factions in the UI."
Can someone confirm that this will also make custom background environments possible?

[Alcor43]

Hallelujah!!

[geodav]

In the changelist it says: "Fix for custom factions in the UI."
it works at last :), defaults to IronGuard background


Can someone confirm that this will also make custom background environments possible?
this will be only possible by making a new UTFrontend.UT3 map like Camurai did which is ok for TC mods but i'm not sure it would be ok just for character mods

[DarkZeal]

Is there a tutorial somewhere that shows how to put physics assets on a character? Eg. Clothes or hair

[Xero]

Is there a tutorial somewhere that shows how to put physics assets on a character? Eg. Clothes or hair
There was one for cloth on the old PhysX site but since Nvidia took over all I've been getting are 404 errors. :(
On a side note I've been messing around with it on my own.
So far I've been able to import player characters with completely different riggs and texture setups.
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/3001/screenshot00031sk5.jpg
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/3455/screenshot00025dp2.jpg

The little ball holding the Link gun is supposed a cloth cape. I worked once and then I changed something and it never worked again after that. I think it's something I'm going wrong with the rigg. I'm using XSI btw. Actor X plugin for it culls the end bones different to Max.

I managed to attach a simple physics asset to them so the game doesn't crash I get ragdoll or die. I'm not 100% sure on the work flow yet sometimes it's hit and miss but I'll be happy to put up a guideline for my method once I'm figure out exactly what I'm going lol.

[Alcor43]

Is there a tutorial somewhere that shows how to put physics assets on a character? Eg. Clothes or hair

I've been asked how I did it for Samus on the Solid Snake thread and replied with a few tips, check it out.

[Xero]

Thanks Alcor. I keep forgetting that I have to use dynamic bones in order to get cloth or hair sims on skeletal player meshes. Though no matter I can't seem to get the physX cloth to work on player characters.

[Mandinga]

Has anyone been able to figure out a work around for the following issues?

Transparency maps on characters.

Head shot gore socket working correctly (using neck stump not closed verts).

banimrotation only flags working for all anims.

Thanks again guys

[Xero]

Hey Mandinga I've been tackling a few of these problems my self.
As far as I know the UT3 character don't use the neck stump mesh. What settings did you use to get them to show up on the Iron Guard.

The Transparency issue is just ridiculous. Based of the way UT3 materials work the only transparency option available to characters is Opacitymask which gives a very crappy result IHMO. You can only have completely transparent or completely opaque areas, no gray areas in between.
So far I have not been able to get opacity maps to work in-game. They work in the editor, when I place the model in maps and even in character selection screen. But not in-game and I can't figure out why.:(

About real-time cloth physics. Does anybody know if this works or is even enabled for in-game characters? I got the physics assets to work as cloth and hair like the UT3 characters but I was just wondering if we still have the option of using real cloth physics.

[Xero]

oops double post.

[Denny]

If someone needs to make new animations for a custom character there's now a rigg available for Maya users. Check my signature for link. :)

[voila]

please colour this great fox with red (ex. throat and belly - it should be white) and it will be super-duper char!)

[voila]

BTW teamcolor mb left on shorts only and main hue mb red or broun (sure, with fair-haired neck and belly).

[Xero]

I'm having a problem getting my custom faction to show in the menu correctly.

I have setup all the .int files, information and custom code required and it works ok but it still doesn't show up like it's supposed to.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2066/ut32008092000290337ng8.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ut32008092000290337ng8.jpg)

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[geodav]

it's a problem with your UTGameUI.int it should read something like this


[CharLocData]
+Geodav_Description=UltraMarine.

[FactionData]
+SpaceMarines_FriendlyName=Space Marines
+SpaceMarines_Description=The Emperor's Finest Warriors



this file needs to be placed in the same folder as your extra UTCustomChar.ini

[Xero]

Ah thanks man. I had it in the localization folder.:D

[Legendary_Lee]

wow, I been away from this thread for so long, cant believe its still going.. Anyways Im back now, working on a new model for UT3 and will definitly check back here if I need any help or give support.

[nioxin]

Hi guys! First post here, but thought I could get some immediate help if I asked. I've been reading the UDN forums for over a year and never joined yet until today.

Well, let's see... I've been following many posts here on the forums and have managed to get a character working in-game as only one mesh with custom rig, custom animations, custom sounds, custom camera, physics... well, essentially I re-did everything from the ground up and it works great.

However, there is one outlying issue I can't seem to fix. When in-game, my character seems to only allow one base material for the entire mesh. This is a huge drawback because the character has 3 sections that use 3 different materials (MICs)... (one MIC for the BODY, one MIC for the HAIR, and another MIC for his Utility Belt).

I've set the SkeletalMesh in the editor to use all 3 MICs, and it shows up at the character select screen with all his materials applied... but when in-game it only shows his HAIR applied to the entire mesh. If I swap out a MIC, let's say his BODY material into the Hair slot, then the entire mesh is just the BODY material, and not using the other slots.

So, I thought this could be changed through the UTFamilyInfo.uc code, and (from reading a past post by EvilEngine on another forum), I changed the BaseMICParent to be an array, like this:



var array <MaterialInstanceConstant> BaseMICParent;


So the entire UTFamily code looks like this...


class UTFamilyInfo_Dane extends UTFamilyInfo_Human
abstract;


// Make an Array for Base MIC to load all of Dane's Textures at once, or else we are stuck
// with just using one material for the entire mesh.
var array <MaterialInstanceConstant> BaseMICParent;



defaultproperties
{

Faction="IronGuard" // Will Implement FeverFaction at a later date.
NonTeamEmissiveColor=(R=10.000000,G=10.000000,B=2. 000000,A=1.000000)
NonTeamTintColor=(R=3.000000,G=2.000000,B=1.000000 ,A=1.000000)

FamilyID="Fever"
ArmMeshPackageName="Stratogon_Hero" // Main Stratogon_Hero Package
ArmMeshName="Stratogon_Hero.DaneHero_Arms" // These Arms are just a single triangle and a bone for invisibility
ArmSkinPackageName="Stratogon_Hero" // Main Stratogo_Hero Package
RedArmSkinName="Stratogon_Hero.Dane_MIC" // TODO: Make Invisible MIC
BlueArmSkinName="Stratogon_Hero.Dane_MIC" // TODO: Make Invisible MIC

NeckStumpName="Bip01_Neck" // Calls the Neck Bone for Translation
LeftFootBone="L_Bip01_Foot" // Used for foot placement
RightFootBone="R_Bip01_Foot" // Used for foot placement
TakeHitPhysicsFixedBones(0)="L_Bip01_Foot"
TakeHitPhysicsFixedBones(1)="R_Bip01_Foot"


PhysAsset=PhysicsAsset'Stratogon_Hero.DaneHero_Phy sics' // Dane's Ragdoll-Physics file

AnimSets(0)=AnimSet'Stratogon_Hero.DaneAnimations' // Load Dane AnimSet first.
AnimSets(1)=AnimSet'CH_AnimHuman.Anims.K_AnimHuman _BaseMale' // Engine crashes without this AnimSet loaded... not sure why?

//Material Instant Constant Array - Arrange in order in which they load. May need to base-parent from UT.
BaseMICParent(0)=MaterialInstanceConstant'Stratogo n_Hero.Dane_MIC' // Load Dane Material
BaseMICParent(1)=MaterialInstanceConstant'Stratogo n_Hero.Hair_MIC' // Load Hair Material
BaseMICParent(2)=MaterialInstanceConstant'Stratogo n_Hero.Belt_MIC' // Load Utility Belt Material

BioDeathMICParent=MaterialInstanceConstant'Stratog on_Hero.Dane_MIC' // CH_All.Materials.MI_CH_ALL_IronG_BioDeath



MasterSkeleton=SkeletalMesh'Stratogon_Hero.DaneHer o_Master' // Master Skeleton is Dane's rig with only a triangle skinned to the root bone.
CharEditorIdleAnimName="Idle_ActionReady" // Plays Dane's Idle Animation during the character select screen.

Name="Default__UTFamilyInfo_Dane"
ObjectArchetype=UTFamilyInfo_Human'UTGame.Default_ _UTFamilyInfo_Human'
}


But, alas... It still doesn't show up. And when I compile, it complains that:



Parsing UTFamilyInfo_Dane
C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3\Development\Src\FeverChar\Classes\UTFamilyInfo_D ane.uc(7) : Warning, Variable declaration: 'BaseMICParent' conflicts
with previously defined field in 'UTFamilyInfo'


If anyone has any clue as to what could be done to fix this issue, I would be in your debt forever. I know a character can have multiple material instance constants applied, because if you look at the IronGuard_Male mesh, he has two material slots applied, and they show up in-game.

Either way, you guys definately helped me out by thes forums, even though I haven't been a member yet. Much appreciated!

[EvilEngine]

Thats what I did for one of my Xeno at first, but UT3 is limited to only 1 base material per character otherwise it breaks Teamskins. If Teamskins doesnt matter to you, it will still work in game with the array even though theres warnings on compile and you will get your multi MIC. But I found that only 2 seems to work, because the array only sees 0 and 1 for head and body. But I did it this way:

class UTFamilyInfo_Xeno extends UTFamilyInfo
abstract;
var array<MaterialInstanceConstant> BaseMICParent;



//okie here we need to add new UTGib_HumanAccessories which will have shoulder pads and other such sweet things

defaultproperties
{
BaseMICParent(0)=MaterialInstanceConstant'UT3_Mode l_Xeno.Materials.UT3_Model_Xeno_base'
BaseMICParent(1)=MaterialInstanceConstant'UT3_Mode l_Xeno.Materials.UT3_Model_Xeno_baseB'
}

[nioxin]

Thanks for the reply EvilEngine... I appreciate the input. After mulling around with the MICs, I ended up having my Base MIC have a parent of the BODY texture (which also has all the parameter values). After careful checking and fixing some of the texture LOD groups, I come up with this in the log:


ScriptLog: CustomChar - Load Assets: Fever
Log: Begin Async loading packages for Family 'Fever':
Log: - Stratogon_Hero
Log: Flushing async loaders.
Log: ULinkerLoad::CreateLinkerAsync: Found existing linker for 'Stratogon_Hero'
Log: Family Asset Package Loaded: Stratogon_Hero
Log: CONSTRUCTIONING: LoadFamilyAsset (Fever) Took: -0.08 secs
ScriptLog: CUSTOMCHAR Start: UTPlayerReplicationInfo_7 nioxin2021 V01
Log: No Textures Found For: HEAD Texture: 4
Log: No Textures Found For: BODY Texture: 4
Log: StartCustomCharMerge: 0.190642 ms initializing, 69.404799 ms texture streaming
Warning: UTexture2DComposite: no regions to process
Warning: UTexture2DComposite: no regions to process
Log: Source mesh can only have 1 or 2 sections. (Stratogon_Hero.DaneHero)
Log: CUSTOMCHAR: Merge Mesh: 2.87ms Composite Tex: 65.58ms
ScriptLog: CUSTOMCHAR Complete: UTPlayerReplicationInfo_7 (Tex stream: 0.0000 Secs)
ScriptLog: CustomChar - Load Arms: Fever
Log: Begin Async loading packages for Family 'Fever':
Log: - Stratogon_Hero
Log: Flushing async loaders.
Log: Family Asset Package Loaded: Stratogon_Hero
Log: CONSTRUCTIONING: LoadFamilyAsset (Fever) Took: 0.69 secs
ScriptLog: Finished creating custom characters in 1.2589 seconds


Now what interests/worries me is the
Log: No Textures Found For: HEAD Texture: 4
Log: No Textures Found For: BODY Texture: 4

and

Warning: UTexture2DComposite: no regions to process
Warning: UTexture2DComposite: no regions to process

I'm not sure if the engine is saying that it can't process the other two MICs and/or find them. Oh well, I'll keep poking around.

Although earlier, I did find something interesting for applying more material slots (but only for material overlays), in the UTPawn.uc - I'll play around with that later.

Anyways, thanx again.

[Discmage]

I'm coming back to my marine...maybe...and I was wondering if over the past eon that I haven't been about...if there is a definitive explanation as to how team colours work on a texture.

Does it HAVE to be broken up into their respective areas on the texture regions? Or could I just set it up so texture 1 (head etc) doesn't have team colours and texture 2 (body parts) does. I think I just reorganised my UVW maps cos I forgot this limitation, I'd prefer to not have to do for the 4th time.

Looks like I have to relearn everything again anyway...I forgot how frustrating this engine can be with its limitations...and I've only looked at the first thing!! Oh well!

[geodav]

Yo Disc,

if you don't want to use the texture regions you'll still have to use the parts (Shakeno's Quick work round) eg rig/skin extra polys(hidden in mesh) so that the engine renders these regions.
the same goes for the team skins, you just need ones that end with V01 =(base) VRed =(red) VBlue =(blue)

ps if you need help just shout ;)

[Discmage]

I'll give it a good shot today...if I can't get them running with a test rig I'll give you a holler. Cheers for that! :)

[Discmage]

So after a few hours of trying to do the most basic things...and failing...a reinstall to make sure it wasn't just the install (that worked at least) and a SMALL tweak to the UTCustomchar.ini file (using meshes that already exist) the thing crashes...constantly.

I remember, very clearly, why I got so frustrated with this process last time. Pity there are no other engines as suited to custom characters and the community than this one. I WOULD use Crysis...but the space marine really suits this game...unfortunately.

Maybe I should just wait for the next 'round' of engines. I'll keep plugging at it for a bit, but much more of this and I'm just staying away from this engine for good.

Sorry, just had to vent...will see how it goes.

[geodav]

ok make sure you have the latest patch (1.3 soon to be 2.0) also i know your going to hate this but i think that the head region doesn't get used for the team materials (ok stop shouting about Epic ;) )

but you can use the helmet region


I think I just reorganised my UVW maps if your willing to do this it would help lots

keep at it mate, we're all rooting for you :)

[Mandinga]

Hmm maybe doing a post here might help, my character is exibiting this issue. Despite efforts to fix the problem by myself, Alcor and Geodav.

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg70/Mandinga/Advent4.jpg

This is the only thing holding release back.

Any thoughts?

[Discmage]

yeah, I figured the head part...wasn't sure about the helmet part.

I guess my question is whether I can use shakeno's cheat AND have team colours working. so if the body part is in the legs...but the legs are in all the areas that use team coloursbut maybe not in the legs part...will it work? Or to make team colours work 100% does each part have to be in each section. If so, the chances of me doing the marine are very, VERY slim...most of the texture space is needed in the torso...and the torsos section isn't big enough to make it look nice with the detail needed. simple as that.

Does anyone know if any of this stuff is going to be changed in the next patch? Maybe I will just wait for that (in the meantime format my computer and see if I can at least make the GAME run...let alone modifications.

I know I whinge a lot about the engine...but its mighty frustrating....on the flipside I wouldn't be so angry with it if the game design didn't fit what I want to do, and the modding community, so WELL...so its not all daggers from my perspective! :)

[Mandinga]

Well all find a way around it Discmage, one way or another. Most of the time it'll be the harder one :P

[geodav]

Disc if you can re do the uvs so that the team colour area's are in the body texture and helmet region then i'll sort the rest out for you (hopefully)

it's been proven that i don't know all the answers :(

[Mandinga]

Disc if you can re do the uvs so that the team colour area's are in the body texture and helmet region then i'll sort the rest out for you (hopefully)

it's been proven that i don't know all the answers :(

but you know a hell of a lot. Thanks for your help on advent :). Lets see if I can get in touch with EE, he may know something we don't.

[Discmage]

I think I have that done already...although I do want to try and get it sorted myself I think. That way if I make any other characters I can do them myself as well. I'm sure you have enough on your plate as it is.

The issue for me now is just getting a stable game...half the time it doesn't even start. Reformat does it everytime though...so its all good...hopefully.

[Discmage]

Reading 80 pages of thread is painful so sorry, but I'm having to post here unfortunately.

Got the model in the selection screen but he doesn't work in game. Does anyone remember why this happens?

Another question...is everyone still using the default base MIC's from ronin and ironguard etc. or is the a custoim one that has team skins working that is better? I remember Evil Engine having some good ones, but this time I want to make sure it is compatible with team skins...as that is basically the whole point of me redoing the marine.

Thanks in advance!

[Discmage]

OK, got him in...team colours don't work yet...but he's hopping around in all his blue only glory. Seems the issue was using Shakeno's workaround but using epics base....eg. just having an empty ObjectID in the ini file. Doesn't work it seems.

There may have been an issue with the materials too.

Now to look over all of evilengines stuff in regards to team colours. And then hopefully I can get back onto remaking him ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!! :(

[geodav]

just to add a bit of interest on the character front, i noticed that Epic has added the option bhasfrenselmap (or something like that) to the basic material setup so that you can add an normal map extra to increase the detail (i think) could some test this to see if it looks better in game. Cheers

[The_Slaughter]

A fresnelmap simulates a certain opacity of the skin when standing in front of a strong lightsource.
It´s barely recognizable unless you play a map like DM_Deimos.

[geodav]

Thanks Slaughter, sounds like a waste of time, oh well i was hoping :(

[TubeJuice]

Hey guys. I'm new to character modeling, so please forgive me if this is a slightly n00bish problem. I have a custom character, rigged correctly and animating correctly in-game. However, the material indexes (that is, which materials go on the meshes and where) are all fouled up. I have the head texture being applied to the torso and the boots, and the like, but only in the actual game - not in the editor or the character customization screen. I thought that this might be a good place to ask since there are a lot of experienced character modelers here.

[Discmage]

That sounds like a UV Placement / body part issue. Geodav would be the one to confirm and give a better description...but if you use Shakeno's workaround and put all your textures onto one 'body part' (eg. the head) you might find it works. Although I don't think teamskins will work in this case...I am having trouble with that part myself.

You can find Shakeno's and Geodav's tutorial on the first post if I recall.

Good luck!

[geodav]

@TubeJuice, can you tell us how your character is set up eg:- single-mesh or 2-piece-mesh or multi-part-mesh, this is all relevant to how you set the materials

ps as Disc says watch your uv layout ;)

[TubeJuice]

I have a multi-part mesh going here. As far as I know, the UV layout is fine, though at the time I mentioned this problem, it was not. Since then, I rebuilt the package containing the mesh and the materials from scratch, after redesigning the textures to conform with the UV layouts used by Epic. I still have the same problem. The only thing I can think of, and I have no evidence to support this, is that the body textures MUST be exactly 2048*2048 pixels. Mine are 1024*1024 to save disk space. Could that be the problem?

[TubeJuice]

OK. I've got it fixed now. It turns out I had to remove some sections of the meshes I was working on, which used a special material. I had derived my meshes from the Necris male meshes, which I extracted out of the game package using Gildor's UModel. (great program) The Necris meshes have tubes that run all over them, which are skinned with the "head" material. Somehow that caused all of my other materials to be replaced with the material used for the head. Strange. Thanks guys.

[SDX]

Hello here. I am working on a character right now. I won't mention how many days or daynights I've spent already but this tech demo guy actually works.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/SDX9000/UT3/testguybettermaterials_cr.jpg?t=1244637146

I'm actually a noob to 3ds max, and I'm definitely not an artist, but now it seems I wil not give up until this project is done reasonably good :) I'm using geodav's tutorials (videos are great) plus extra input from http://www.metalhog.com/HTML/UT3Tutorials/UT3CustomCharacter.html
http://www.vitamin3d.com/EgyptWarlord/egyptmain.html aand the rest of youtube and internet (especially on my quest into understanding 3dsmax)

I am keeping a log of stuff I encountered, especially problems and great links, so who knows, maybe it can be a funny read for pros or a helpful bits of info for other fellow noobs. There are some unanswered questions in the log as well. So here it goes, have fun :)



Game Connect 07 - Next-Gen character creation 1/6 (tsumea.com)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7jVOqO4DJw&feature=related

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3158/cogblue18nv7.jpg

hair
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingHairUsingAlpha.html
http://www.maxforums.org/thread.aspx?tid=531132
can this be practically used?

shade map
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingShadeMaps.html

specular map
http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/Start_a_Specular_map_with_a_Normal_map

normal-bump map
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Creation_in_The_GIMP
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ImportingSkeletalMeshTutorial.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CreatingNormalMaps.html

LOD tutorial
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ImportingSkeletalLODs.html

Initializing Physique in 3dsmax:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/SkeletalSetup.html

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/rsrc/Three/GearsMods/Gears_Marcus.max

Garment maker + cloth

MultiRes

Add keyframe and allign Epic biped to model, resize model where necessary

Epic Male - huge hight of ankle joint, like on platform shoes, ridiculously huge hands, toes are not animated
Epic Female - runs on high heal shoes, narrower shoulders, toes are not animated, accepts default male skeleton animations
Epic Corrupt - needs 3dsmax2009, only 3 finger bones which can easily be related to 5 fingers, proportions?

corret basic sequence to work? very high rez model?
*edit, UV, complete, Smothing groups, brake, make gore fill, rig, skin = model
*complete, make low poly, UV, rig, skin = lod1, cinematic

http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorXMaxTutorial.html :
"Bake Smoothing Groups ... Therefore, smoothing groups are discouraged on skeletal models; it is recommended that you leave this option unchecked"
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3CustomCharacters.html "
Bake Smoothing Groups is checked on a screenshot, but not mentioned

"Unmatched node ID" ActorX error because of:
Some vertices not skinned to anything for some reason. To find lost vertices, not skinned to anything - select all Biped bones and move them in any ditrection a lot.

"Unmatched node ID" ActorX error because of:
Messed up Skeleton for no reason - ActorX relates to Biped instead of b_bone skeleton (check log file)

Duplicated materials on export - same material listed as 3 unique materials in ActorX log (fix - reapply correct index to submaterial ID for all object's polys)

Clone command - do not ever use "Instance" unless you know what you are doing, use "Copy" instead

When adding bones to "Skin" modifier, if all bones are not added simultaneously, permanent vertex weight bugs can appear (vertices connected to strange bones)

Make ****load of version files :) (extreme example: my file version25 was made merging base Epic skeleton + v11 + v22 with extensive editing of poses, materials and modifiers)

can not apply material instance in animset viewer:
All meshes textured with second submaterial (ID2 in Max = skin index1 in ActorX) need "add new item" under Materials in animset editor and then you can add your MIC not under [0] but under [1].

If you want to understand and fix problems with meshes, Uncheck "no log files" in ActorX and study the log file (problems I found with log files: incorrect bones in bone list, multiple unique materials, skin Index value)

for any changes under "edit poly" after skinning in 3dsmax9 there is method described in help files involging turning off and back on "Always deform" under skin modif. parameters. I used this only to fix material problems

Epics highest polycount character models in UT3 are ~20000polys. male skeleton .max file shows different LODs, as well any meshes and LODs are viewable in UE.

After importing textures it is worth opening them and cheching again LOD settings plus "CompressionNoAlpha" is usefull to tick if there is no Alpha layer in texture

Run "ut3 make" to compile your mod. The output script goes into My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\Script. Note the "unpublished". By default the game does not load files in this tree. This is so that you can choose to "cook" the mod (mostly for faster loading - only really useful for mods with a lot of custom content) or you can simply copy it into the Published branch. Since cooking/copying all the time is tedious, while testing you can pass the game the "-useunpublished" command line parameter to tell it to use the files in the Unpublished branch.
"C:\Program Files\Unreal Tournament 3\Binaries\UT3.exe" make
UT3.exe" -useunpublished
UT3.exe" editor

two sided materials?

Specular intensity?

Alpha transparency?

Emissive material color is controlled within MIC VectorParameterValues. Emission texture is grayscale and only shows intensity




you should already know who am I modelling ;)