Custom character thread

[Tanasoo]

I wanted to start a thread for asking/answering questions about importing custom character meshes. Just to kind of group all the info about them so no one has to search so much for it. If you have any info or tutorials about this, please post them here. Also, if you have any questions, this is a good place to ask them, so we don't clog the forum.

To start things off, I have a question more painted to the people at Epic, and that is the unit scale for the characters vs the world. I believe from my experiments with attaching, that the characters use a different unit scale for the bones, etc. than the world(map) does. If this is the case can you tell us the ratio of character/world units? Or how tall the Marcus mesh is in character units?

Thanks

[ts_falcon]

you can check the sizes of things by importing them into the world and using the measure tool. Marcus is 160 units tall. Also they released a 3ds max mesh for him on UDN. and you want to set your units up in max (if thats what you are using) to generic units. 1 max unit = 1 unreal unit that way.

[matticus]

Do you have a link for that mesh? I can't find it anywhere.

[MrSilent]

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GearsMods.html
Its at the very very very bottom of the page :)

[Tanasoo]

woah, they added a bunch more stuff! Thanks for the link, too it'll help a ton!

[matticus]

Thank you! :D

[Tanasoo]

Well, I checked it out last night, and apart from having a rather strange rig, its perfect for what I needed!

Another thing to note is that the mesh is about 160 max standard units tall, so it would appear that the character meshes are to scale with the world units. But what are the units you use when attaching actors? 1/x?

I can't wait to start putting in some new characters! I need to work out some concepts for GoW-style characters! Does anyone have info on the steps fir importing the mesh into the editor, or more importantly, how you set it up to play as it?

[MrNovak]

Well, theres a little problem. Among all us there are Maya users and with a max file we can NOT do much! What a shame... :o

[MrSilent]

hey man, I could try and convert the file format from max if you'd like.
I don't know how I would go about it so the bones and mesh are intact but I could give it a shot and export it to something Maya recognises

[MrNovak]

hey man, I could try and convert the file format from max if you'd like.
I don't know how I would go about it so the bones and mesh are intact but I could give it a shot and export it to something Maya recognises

INteresting.
Well, If you could... I'd really appreciate it.

But, would you just make it an OBJ file? If so, the bones will be recognized in Maya as a part of the mesh not a different thing.

What would be your workflow to make the Maya file?

[MrSilent]

wouldn't have a clue how to do it properly to be honest, The mesh by itself is easy but I wouldnt know how to get the bones across.

[Tanasoo]

well, you could make all of the bones spheres that were positioned, oriented, and linked correctly, and export that. Then you could rebuild the bones from there, but you still wouldn't have any skin or animation data.

OR you could export to a format like SMD that supports skin, bones, and animation, and import it into maya if there is even an importer.

[MrSilent]

I don't think it has that format.
Ive tried .3DS .FXB and .OBJ and they have all failed when exporting the bones

[Tanasoo]

SMD is a third party format for the source engine, try searching for a plugin. Is there an import format for the unreal model format? (the one we export to to get it into the editor, I can't remember the extension ATM)

[MrSilent]

http://rapidshare.com/files/72035181/Marcus.rar.html
Give it a shot and see if it works, its in .SMD

[MrNovak]

http://rapidshare.com/files/72035181/Marcus.rar.html
Give it a shot and see if it works, its in .SMD

Hey, thanks.

Unfortunatelly I couldn't make it run under Maya 8.5. I tried on my brothers computer with Maya2008, and still no luck.
I google everything, but couldn't find a workaround.

[MrNovak]

I was thinking about FBX files. THey suport both, but than there is the problem of SKINNING. I dont think you'd get the precise or even aproximate skinning of the max file. any thoughts on this one???

[MrSilent]

Im off to bed now man, but when I get up tomorrow ill post up as many formats from max as I can. Maybe 1 of them might do for the time being.
All I know is when I exported them I tried to reimport the same file and it came up with bone errors.
Anyways, take it easy ;)

[Tanasoo]

Is anyone here good with MELScript? We could get an exporter/importer package going.

Also, here is a tutorial on how to play as custom characters:http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=587492 (http://http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=587492)

Edit: Yeah, I meant that, it works now XD

[mycatfield]

That link didn't seem to work, but I think you meant this:
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=587492

Tremendous amount of information there by Brooksy. Opens up a lot more hope for Gears modding in general, too.