KOTOR 1 learning model editing

[Jonlion 0]

Hello

I'm looking for people who have experience with model editing. I'm trying to figure this one out now.

I download the latest blender. Then KOTORblender add-on. Installing both.

I can important KOTOR's models. For now my issue is with exporting. As after importing & exporting models (no changes, just a test) and putting them into the game I have issues.

In game I can equip edited outfit and after one second it just crashes. So I probably messed up some settings. To me it's weird as it seems to work and be fine, but when my character starts running there is this crash (standing or a bit of walking is fine).

I couldn't find any tutorials for KOTORblender. So I'm looking for people with experience.

Other programs could be good also. As long as it's possible to convert low poly models into higher poly ones / edit them a bit. I wanted to make some edges appear smoother (general shapes looking less low poly), and also maybe edit width & dimensions a bit.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Jonlion
Tags added

[Thor110 486]

It's possible you just need to hit Ctrl+A and or select everything before exporting as well as ensuring that you properly check or uncheck model for TSL depending on your circumstances.

[Jonlion 0]

Thank you. I believe it was selected, but I'm going to try one more time. Also I'm going to try 3Dmax approach if this doesn't work.

Do you know any good guides/tutorials/methods concerning turning models into a more smooth high poly version? What approach and program would be recommended and somewhat easy to use?

Best wishes

[Thor110 486]

22 hours ago, Jonlion said:

Thank you. I believe it was selected, but I'm going to try one more time. Also I'm going to try 3Dmax approach if this doesn't work.

Do you know any good guides/tutorials/methods concerning turning models into a more smooth high poly version? What approach and program would be recommended and somewhat easy to use?

Best wishes

Though I can't say for sure, I had a quick flick through this video and it looks pretty decent. : 

Hopefully that helps.

[Stormie97 253]

On 12/13/2022 at 6:01 PM, Jonlion said:

Thank you. I believe it was selected, but I'm going to try one more time. Also I'm going to try 3Dmax approach if this doesn't work.

Do you know any good guides/tutorials/methods concerning turning models into a more smooth high poly version? What approach and program would be recommended and somewhat easy to use?

Best wishes

If you're talking about models exported from KoTOR, you can't. To turn low-poly models to high-poly, you generally use subdivision levels. In Blender, it's a modifier called 'Subdivision surface', in Max they call it 'Turbosmooth'. Anyway, this simply splits each quad (i.e., a face with 4 vertices) in smaller bits. An algorithm calculates the average distances between existing vertices when placing the new ones, making the model look smoother. You can easily divide a quad because each side will be split in 2, so from one quad you end with 4 quads. And so on. However, triangles can't be split evenly so subdividing those can generate inadequate results. See below:

The cube on the left consists of only quads, while the one on the right is made of triangles. The cubes below are the result obtained from subdividing the cubes above.

Now, I'm going over this stuff because models in KoTOR are made up of triangles. Partly because the 3d assets are really old, but also because video game engines prefer triangles in general. Here's what the Rodian model looks like when freshly imported in Blender. Triangles galore! I've added a subdivided version of the same model on his right.

Now, depending on what you want to achieve this might be perfectly fine for you. However if you want to rework the models or use them as a base for sculpting, you won't get far with this. Instead, you want to turn those triangles into quads. For a good chunk of them, you can do so with a neat shortcut in Blender: Go into 'Edit mode', press A to select all, then hit Alt+J.

Now that's much better already. Some stuff is falling apart because I didn't merge the model's vertices as several of them are split. You'll notice that a lot of triangles remain on the hand and the head. For these, your options are limited to manually fix them into quads. If you're new to 3d, this is going to be challenging, because you need to understand how topology works to get a good result in the end.

Again, it depends on what you want to achieve. If you're looking to get a base to do some sculpting on, I would simply create primitive objects (cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.), resize and place them to match the model. Here's what it would look like:

 

Then apply the subdivision, import in your preferred sculpting software, remesh/dynamesh and get going.

As for tools, there's a wide variety you can choose from. Blender has the advantage of being free and having a lot of online resources, especially on Youtube, available. However it lacks some useful features that you might one day care about and many find its UI very confusing. Most other software suites, if not all, are destined to a professional audience and are therefore quite intimidating to beginners. Generally, there is no one single program that can do everything perfectly. They're just tools and they more or less excel at the given tasks they were designed for. If you're only getting started in 3D, I'd recommend using Blender until you understand all the basics of 3d, then get the trial versions of similar general 3D software (Maya, Modo, 3DSMax, etc.) and see what you prefer.