Editing area models with animations and making invisible model parts appear

[Kexikus 997]

So, now that I can actually edit models I still have a few problems.

 

The first one being: Is there any way to edit area models that have animations? According to the New Area Knowledge Thread KAurora can't handle animations so I guess it's not? Except for hex editing etc, but I would like to do more extensive changes than that.

 

And if it's indeed not possible what would be the best way around this? Creating custom placeables to add them to the area?

 

The second question is more specific. In this post sELFiNDUCEDcOMA shows how he made the nebula around Peragus appear for the Peragus Exterior Model. When opening the model in 3ds Max you can see that the nebula is there but for some reason it does not show ingame. So my question would be: Why? I know that this is a very specific question and the answer will probably not even be useful since I cannot edit the model anyway (it has area animations) but if anyone knows, I'd still like to know as well just in case it gets important at some point.

 

That's it. Thanks for any replies

[Sithspecter 909]

I ran into a similar issue with the nebula that I was not able to resolve. I have no idea why the nebula texture won't appear, but for some reason it doesn't. The only thing that I can think of at the moment is to try it with a renamed nebular texture applied to the model and put in the override.

 

Area models can have animations. Area models do not have to be exported through KAurora, which does not support animations. You need KAurora for lightmaps, walkmeshes, and emitters, but any model (exported through MDLOps or KAurora) can be added to the layout and considered part of the area model. So, you can have an animated part that's been exported through MDLOps. You'll have to set up a script to activate the animation I believe, and Fair Strides can give you more information on that.

[Kexikus 997]

Okay, so if the model doesn't need lightmaps, walkmeshes and emitters I can just use MDLOps and since I wouldn't add any new animations (yet?) I won't need to use a script to start them since that script already exists in vanilla for the vanilla animations.

 

I'll need to play around with that and also with a renamed nebula texture, thanks for the information.

[Sithspecter 909]

Okay, so if the model doesn't need lightmaps, walkmeshes and emitters I can just use MDLOps and since I wouldn't add any new animations (yet?) I won't need to use a script to start them since that script already exists in vanilla for the vanilla animations.

 

Theoretically, yes, that could work. What area are you editing, and what animations does it have? MDLOps might not catch all of them.

[Kexikus 997]

The Peragus Exterior skybox with moving asteroids. I'll just try it and see how it goes.

[Quanon 263]

Could it be, that the mesh, I would guess a simple plane, is facing in the wrong direction. Instead of "projecting" the texture forwards it does so in the other direction. Making it not appear.

It's something I never fully figured out how to tell MDLops or Kaurora that certain flat, mostly plane meshes, are 2-sided.

 

Showing the texture in both directions instead of just 1 facing...

Just an idea that popped up.

[Sithspecter 909]

Could it be, that the mesh, I would guess a simple plane, is facing in the wrong direction. Instead of "projecting" the texture forwards it does so in the other direction. Making it not appear.

It's something I never fully figured out how to tell MDLops or Kaurora that certain flat, mostly plane meshes, are 2-sided.

 

Showing the texture in both directions instead of just 1 facing...

Just an idea that popped up.

 

I tried that with my issue because I thought that was the case, but it didn't fix it. I never figured out why the nebula texture wouldn't appear.

 

It's unlikely that is the problem here because he is just editing the vanilla areas.

[Malkior 477]

I tried that with my issue because I thought that was the case, but it didn't fix it. I never figured out why the nebula texture wouldn't appear.

 

It's unlikely that is the problem here because he is just editing the vanilla areas.

I remember fixing that texture, but I'd have to get back to you on it. I think it had something to do with changing the area models, though. (Also, bear in mind that there are different models for the nebulas from the inside and outside.)

[Kexikus 997]

Using MDLOps to keep the animations worked perfectly, so I can actually go ahead and edit this model.

 

Flipping the plane mesh didn't fix it though, just as SithSpecter suggested.

 

Edit: @Malkior: If you could figure out what it was that had to be done, that'd be awesome. Although I want to edit the model anyway so I can just add a new plane mesh with the texture^^

[Malkior 477]

Well, this might sound about as unusual as it gets, but it seems I just Hex-Edited a new nebula texture "PER_neb" and replaced the invisible one with it. Credit to SIC for walking me through it.

 

If I was totally off-base, I have the original files here you can poke through to determine if I stumbled onto some other method.

Altered_Spacewalk.rar

[Kexikus 997]

Thanks, I will have a look at it.

 

Edit: Simply hex-editing the name of the texture to something else does the trick. Weird, but it works so I'm fine with that.

[DarthParametric 3,806]

I'm curious as to why you'd be changing the Hammerhead's texture to an apparently non-existent one to fix the nebula issue. It seems like only 104perb would need editing.

 

101perzc:

V_Hammrhd01

to

V_Harmrhd01

 

104perb:

EBO_neb

to

PER_neb

 

104perg:

V_Hammrhd01

to

V_Harmrhd01

[Malkior 477]

Ah. That was left over from other changes I made. I thought these were just from my Nebula edit, but apparently, my hammerhead replacement (make it so I can darken the hammerhead texture in the Sion Arrival scene without affecting the other hammerheads in the game) was still on it. Sorry about the confusion it caused..