Purifier

Congrats Bead-v. It's been a long time coming for Max. Glad to see it's finally out now.

Sorry to hear about the cancer, CrisG, but man I'm glad to hear you beat it. Good for you man! Welcome back to the community and glad to see you here on DS. And I was wondering what happened to you. I remember seeing your name on other popular game websites as well, like this one... http://web.archive.org/web/20071029105408/http://farcry.crymod.com/portal.php http://web.archive.org/web/20071001000000*/http://farcry.crymod.com/portal.php I saw your name and posts on that website many times besides LF, unless that was someone else using the same name, but it seems you got around a lot back then.

Welcome to Deadly Stream, ApanLoon.

I see. Well nothing wrong with improving one's old mods. Improvement is always good Funny you should mention that, "armatures", I've been working on that one too, so the user could test the rigging and character animation pose with using the bones; like in Gmax\3ds Max. So it's actually been in the "To-Do" works.

Long time no see, Kha. Glad to see you're still modding KotOR these days. I actually learned some things from you back in the early days over at LucasForums (merging bodies), when I was just a noob\ lurker modding KotOR. Good to see your still around and still at it. Okay, I will look into this issue, while I'm currently in the process of upgrading KotORBlender's python code. So thanks for bringing it to my attention. I normally don't use Taina's Replacer concerning modding heads, I usually do hex editing after using MDLops. But I'll check the method of using Taina's Replacer out and get back to you ASAP, Kha. And see if it's something that can be fixed in KotORBlender.

Congrats on the new job and have a safe and successful trip up to Alaska, SH. Wishing you much success with your future goals in Alaska.

That's one of the things I'm working on improving in KotORBlender right now, but really there is no specific method of exporting a area walkmesh, Hunters Run. Did you get a traceback call when you exported it out of Blender? If you did, I'd love to see that if you could copy it and post that here. Also, which Blender version are you using BTW?

View File KotORBlender KotORBlender 1.01 for Blender Submitter Purifier Submitted 07/04/2016 Category Modding Tools  

Oh I understand where you're coming from, Ndix UR, by suggesting to others to look at better options in language programming, comparing some of the difficulties with one language versus another, which some are better then others. But, yeah, my only reason for even bothering with learning a little bit about Perl was because some of it reminded me of similar coding structures in LUA and Python, but then again, they all have such similar coding structure to begin with. But I just thought I'd delve into it a little bit, just to see and get a general understanding of it for my own personal use. And with what you just explained in detail as to why that happens with the capitalized letters of the word Character, after running the ASCII file through MDLops, it actually does make a lot of sense to me. Because it actually did occur to me at one point, that the Perl coding was probably returning the classification as undefined (or really, I thought it was returning it as 'unknown') since it probably didn't recognize the word Character placed in all capital letters. So that does make sense, if there is no code for Perl to define the difference between lowercase and uppercase letters in what the file's classification is and carry out the necessary change, it's no wonder it labels it as 'undefined' - probably by default. BTW, speaking of programming languages and in relation to the above classification problem - the little python novice in me got to thinking about the little issue with the higher case letters of the word Character in the header of the ASCII files, since you mentioned that to me in your previous post. So I thought I'd take a look into the old NeverBlender 1.11 import\export scripts with Python's Idle Editor and see why it was writing the word Character in capital letters in the header in the first place, which I think can be fixed in the Python scripts as well. Because I've gotten some good results through some hacking of my own in the Neverblender files, but unfortunately, so far, this is only with the old Neverblender 1.11 version, because I've not even touched or begun to look into the Neverblender 1.23 version, which is what most people can only use with latest Blender versions. And I have no idea where to even begin with those later file versions of Python. I mean, I don't even see any python import or export files in the Neverblender 1.23a version (?), which perplexes me at this point. They really must of upgraded a lot of stuff in Python since the later 2.0 versions. But hopefully I'll be able to eventually figure out how the latest python version works since the 2.0 versions. I just need to do some studying on those later python versions. God I'm behind the times! Anyway, if you happen to be curious or anyone else for that matter, here's what I discovered; I first noticed this coded block under "Helpers" starting on line 76 in the nvb_importmdl.py file, where it appears to me to be purposely coded to recognize any classification string (including the word character) and return those lower case letters into higher case letters. Which is really like the opposite of your coding fix in the MDLOpsM.pm, if you think about it. def get_mdl_classification(): ''' Matches the classification the model with the available ones and returns it Writes a warning to the logfile if there is a unknown classification an sets it to unknown ''' if (glob_classification.lower() in {'unknown', 'tile', 'character', 'door', 'effect', 'gui', 'item'}): return glob_classification.upper() else: print('WARNING: Invalid Classification') return 'UNKNOWN' Lol. So I've been screwing around with this block of code in trying to get it to return the classification string of 'Character' in lower case letters upon export, but the way I'm doing it, given my novice experience in python, is really more like hacking than proper python coding. But to my surprise, I've been getting some good results with some of the models so far with the old Neverblender exporter finally writing the classification as Character in the ASCII file's header as it should be in lower case letters. But I found out later on, by testing a few other body models, they get a default classification of 'UKNOWN' in the header of the ASCII upon export. So right now I'm trying figure out why those particular models get the 'UNKOWN' classification, while some of the other body models are getting the proper 'Character' classification in lower letters like they should be. There are also a couple of lines in the "nvb_exportmdl.py" file, which seems to confirm the classification as 'CHARACTER' in capital letters, which really just seems to reaffirm the coded block under "Helpers" in the "nvb_importmdl.py file". For example under in the "Variables" on line 45 glob_mdl_classification = 'CHARACTER' and on line 297 elif (glob_mdl_classification == 'CHARACTER'): On this I just changed the string 'CHARACTER' to 'Character' in those lines I found, which may or may not have any effect on the Neverblender export process. I don't completely know yet, but I did find out, that if you just edit those strings, only in the python export file, it does nothing to change the classification in the ASCII header to lower letters. But then again, I suspect those particular lines do depend on what is changed in the coded block under "Helpers" in the "nvb_importmdl.py file". So I'm betting they need to be changed to lower case letters anyway. So anyway, it's just a case of more testing and experimenting with these old python files, to get them to write Character as it should be in ASCII file header, with every one of the ASCII files upon export. Which like I mentioned before, I've been able to get it to do it with some of the models upon export from Blender. So some success, but not quite total success yet. EDIT TO ADD: By the way, it looks like Symmetric uploaded a new version of Neverblender (1.25) a couple of days ago. http://neverwintervault.net/project/nwn1/other/tool/neverblender-blender-269-27x

Thanks for mentioning that last part, Ndix UR. I opened up the exported ASCII p_juhanibb.mdl in Notepad++ and changed "classification CHARACTER" to "classification Character" on the fifth or sixth line. Sure enough, that did the trick. The model had it's body shadow this time in the game and no more weird camera effects during combat interactions. I also did the same with my custom remade player models, pfbas through pfbal and tested them in the game, sure enough again, the body shadow show up for those as well. But there is a funny thing about those particular models, they never did display any weird camera effects during combat interactions before all this; just the missing body shadow. It may have something to do with how those particular models are written before running them through MDLops and how MDLops and NeverBlender processes them afterwards. Strange how just a simple correction of a word's letters to lower case makes that much difference between two different .mdl model types and one type of model doesn't even have the weird camera effects problem during combat interactions, yet that simple correction will fix the same one problem with both differently written .mdl model types and also fix the camera problem with the one differently written .mdl model type. Very interesting. And yeah, I had already went ahead and downloaded both the ActivePerl-5.22.1.2201-MSWin32 and ActiveTcl8.6.4.1.299124-win32 last night, before I saw your re-edited post again. But I have not installed them yet, but will eventually, not only for the reasons concerning MDLops, but just to see what programming in Perl is like anyway. I've been trying my hand at programming as a novice for years with C++ and Python, so I figured Why not Perl too?. BTW, you wouldn't happen to know any good tutorials on starting out with Perl for a novice like me, would you? There are probably a bunch of tutorials on YouTube, but I just thought I might ask anyway. I appreciate your replies to my posts on this issue, Ndix UR. You were very helpful. Thanks again for helping me find a way to get around the problem.

Okay, that was exactly what I was doing - clicking or using the mdlops.exe. So that's probably why it wasn't working for me. And I never thought about the Blender and Neverblender version I'm currently using, but yeah, I'm using an earlier version of Blender (2.69) and Neverblender (1.11). So that might also be part of the problem as well, but I've had good results of getting most of my custom edited MDL models into either Kotor games, except for the no body shadow and weird camera effects during combat of course, so I'm not sure if that is part of the problem until I try running the command "perl mdlops.pl" first. So I take it I need to download Perl first and set all that up, in order to use the "mdlops.pl" file with a command? Or can I just simply run that file with a .bat file or something? I did try directly clicking on the file in my windows explorer, under the mdlops folder directory I put all those files in, but all it did was open up the file and show me all the code that was written in plain English. Also, you mentioned that the mdlops.exe is a standalone file? I first thought that as well and tried that, but in my case, if you don't have those .pl and .pm files inside a folder along with the mdlops.exe file, it will just crash when you click on it without having those files along with it in the same folder. So I thought the mdlops.exe was dependent on those other files being there along with it, in order for the whole thing to work?

Apparently this new added MDLOps.pm line of code you changed doesn't seem to work for some models exported with Neverblender. I changed the line of code, word for word on line 1795, in MDLOps.pm with Notepad++ and ran the p_juhanibb.mdl through MDLops 07A2, then imported and exported it with NeverBlender, then back through MDLops 07A2 again. Put the new model in the K1 override folder and started up the game. Unfortunately I still get the same problem of no body shadow and the camera flipping out during combat mode, like you did. I may have messed up somewhere, but I tested this several times, but I'm also wondering if this line of code change was for MDLops 07A2 or a older version?

That actually looks a helluva lot better than the vanilla Jedi robes we get in K1, Xander2077. Looking at the edited models 90SK did a while back and the one in your Blender scene, it seems more likely to fit the time period of what the Jedi and Sith would wear in K1 and even K2 in my opinion. Although the original vanilla versions in K1 don't look as modern, much like the ones in K2 do, they still look somewhat modern. K1 and K2 is suppose to be a time period way before the Clone Wars and A New Hope came along, about 4,000 years, so I never understood why they adapted similar Clone Wars designed jedi robes in K1 and especially in K2 from the Clone Wars period. You would think they would have made the Jedi and Sith robes a little more primitive in design, as per your and 90SK's examples, with some version variations having some armor. They did do that with some of the Sith outfits in K1 at least, much like what Darth Bandon wears.

We'll thanks for both your inputs on the subject, guys. I'm going to try my hand with the 2.69 Blender and the import\export scripts. See if I can produce anything worthwhile. Lol. Then again, probably not, knowing my luck with 3D editors. But thanks again!

Yeah I found both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of the Blender 2.69 and downloaded that first. Learning the in's and out's of 2.69 right now, as I type this reply. Hmmm...probably should have downloaded Blender 2.7 instead. LiliArch, have you tried both versions? - and if you have - In your opinion, is there much difference between the Blender 2.69 and 2.7 version? Thanks for giving me notice about 2.7 running fine on XP, BTW.

Ah okay, I see what you're saying now. Well I have XP and that's about all I can use as a operating system for right now - been trying to save up and get a better computer with Win 7 or build one that I can put Win 7 on. But meanwhile, I'm going to browse over to the NeverWinterVault website and look at those NeverBlender python scripts, probably download both versions you mentioned and then try messing with the Kotor models with the latest NeverBlender import\export python script version in Blender 2.8. I suspect the reason why the 2.6 NeverBlender import\export script would not work in the old blender 2.49 is because the programming writing format for python had changed since Python 2.6, because Python 2.6 is what the old 2.49 Blender runs on; and I think that change may have occurred when they introduced Python 3.0. several years ago. Which I think was about the same time Blender 2.5 or 2.6 started coming out. So the Blender community adapted to Python 3.0. for the latest versions of Blender. Anyway, I'll take a look at the NeverBlender 2.6 in Python's Idle editor and see how the author wrote the import\export python scripts and see if he\she wrote it with python 3.0. Thanks for taking the time to respond and explain all that, Xander2077. I appreciate that. If I can at least get some Kotor models in Blender 2.8 and edit them to where they will work in the Kotor games, that will be very helpful to me somewhat, because I'm a Blender fan and was a Blender user long before I ever fiddled with Gmax and 3Ds Max. Blender has always been my favorite 3D editor.

Ok, I think see. I take it somebody in the blender community made or updated NeverBlender import\export files for Blender 2.8? Which comes with the blender 2.8 package? And you can import the Kotor mdl model characters into Blender 2.8, edit them however you wish (but not all of them), then export them out, putting them back into the game? But with the few models that won't work when you try to edit them in Blender 2.8 and put them back in the game, with the usual way of importing and exporting through Blender 2.8, you still import those models into Blender 2.8, but instead export them out of Blender 2.8 as a old blend file, so you can import them into the old blender 2.49 and then edit them in that old version of Blender, while also removing the ungodly amount of assigned materials to that model. Then you export it back out of blender 2.49 as a old blend file again and back into Blender 2.8 to export the model as a mdl file with the latest version of the NeverBlender for 2.8. Is that right?

@ndix UR and xander2077 What version of blender are you guys using? I only use the old 2.49B, mainly for other games I have, but I could never get the Neverblender export made back in 2003 to work with the 2.49B version. And when was the NeverBlender import created? I thought the 2003 Neverblender export was all that was made long ago and that was it. I've been using 3Ds Max 7 for a while now as a 3d editor, but I would much prefer Blender to edit the character models and put them back in the game, if that's possible?

Congrats, SH!

Been there done that and take it from and old guy like me, what your mostly feeling right now will eventually pass until it just becomes a memory and somewhere in your later years, you won't know why you were feeling so distress about it as you are now. Yes I know it's hard to see that right now, but it's true. Here's another thing, find somebody else again. But don't rush into the relationship when you do find somebody else, take it slow and don't use them as a rebound or crutch. Don't complain or talk to your new girlfriend about your ex, most woman (men too) don't like that and will think you haven't gotten over her, which is the thing you want to do. Right? And then you'll start forgetting about the other woman soon enough, not totally - mind you, but enough to get you through the emotions you are feeling right now and not think about her anymore. Just my 2 cents from an old guy who's been there and gotten over long term relationships that went bust.

Oh man I'm glad you mention that. I was about to do something similar in my TSL game to what HeinzBraun is doing for his K1 game. You probably saved me a bunch of confusion, distress, self loathing, crying, hair pulling, head banging anger, self "this can't be happening" denial and god knows what else I would of went through before finally figuring that out. Thanks for mentioning that, DP.

I LIKE IT! No issues on my rig, not anymore. It drives nicely, Blue. But seriously, it's a very handy program you've created and it works for what I needed it to do. Thanks again. You saved the day for me.