Milkshape Orc

#1 Can't you convert it?

#2 Youi cannot convert Max to Milkshape (Assuming .max, not .3ds) using Milkshape. If you convert .3ds to .ms3d, you lose all bones and animations.

#3 What pose would you like the shape in? it's Root, or a hands to side?


...and a skeletal rig that attaches to the default animations is included with the DTSPlus! exporter, http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5894

#4 Note that I attempted to export from max to ms3d using a plugin found online (don't have the URL handy) but was unsucessful.. it ignored all the bones and skin weighting, and did not bring over any of the animations.

#5 I don't have the orc but I do have the blue torque guy thats changed a little but it's in milkshape and it has all the bones to work with the standard dsq animations. I have a shield and a few weapons with it too.


You can get it here

#6 That's excellent. Thanks everyone. More than enough to work with now.

Thanks for the exporter, Rex... I had never heard of this updated new one.

Max, thanks, I'll will check those files out in Milkshape.

Everyone else, thanks. : )

#7 Max,

You (and, of course, JoeMaru) are a life saver.

Thanks,

Joe

#8 Max,

Is there something special I have to to get the animations to work in ms3d? Maybe I am not loading the file correctly?

Also, the bones look really funny. Well, they don't look like bones at all. They look like spheres around the player - a whole lot of spheres. I can't click on them to animate them or anything - otherwise I would be able to animate the player myself.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks,

Joe

#9 You'll have to change the Size of the Joints in Preferences...for a 1:1 scale figure in Milkshape, try making your Joint Size 0.0120, and see what happens. I have the Orc player as a mesh also, I passed Max that copy of the blueGuy, and am quite adept at a Milkshape export. To negate the global scaling factor, your player mesh should be only around 2.4 Milkshape units[about as small as they get], and it should make the export to DTS just fine. As an example; the Ms3d axis gizmo is 10 units in each vector...so it is very small.


You'll never[bad thing to say...never] see the default animations in Milkshape, unless you have access to a Superb importer to Milkshape from DTS or the Source files that created them. What that skeleton will do, is; if properly setup, it will produce a DTS shape[player] that will load the default Max produced DSQ sequences at runtime and leave you smiling. If not, you'll have to animate your sequences in Milkshape and leave them embedded within the shape prior to export; that will be a long process, but not too bad. I don't think practicing Keyframing/Posing is necessarily a 'bad' thing...;)

BTW-I did not write the exporter I directed to; that piece of work was authored by Chris Robertson and it is this individual who deserves most/all of the credit for my Milkshape exporting...

#10 Wow, Rex, the new Joint Size worked like a charm! Still working on the animation stuff - currently crashing the demo with the Blue Guy.

Maybe you should write a quick tutorial on Milkshape, dts, animations, etc. I bet it would help a lot of people!

Thanks,

Joe

#11 @Joseph, try looking at the shape in the -showTool first...is is crashing then or just when used as the player with it's associated scripts...? I have noticed with this Ms3d shape loaded with the defaults will crash sometimes...but not always. I'm never sure if I've gotten too excited and forgot to comment/uncomment out the validation process, and I'll either load a shape with NO animations[a sure crash on earlier builds of TGE], or double load animations ontop of each other...

#12 Hey, Rex,

Again, thanks for your help. The models (blue guy and blue monster) both load in the show tool, but, no animations. I tried to load sequences from the other models, but it didn't do anything, really. The show tool didn't crash, though. So, it looks like I need to check the scripts associated with loading the player and I need to check out this whole associating animation sequences with models.

Joe

#13 Rex, perhaps you could tell me, if you know, what is the purpose of Ski0 and Ski1?

Also, what is the Ulink joint supposed to do?

This is in regards to the skeleton sample that comes with DTSPlus...

Also, I tried to make a simple sphere and box to export with the sample skeleton, as a test... but, although it exports and runs in torque, the mesh is really tiny and not all there... like, i only see the box... is there some scale setting i'm not seeing? Is that sample skeleton the same size as the orc?

Thanks again!

#14 It works fine, big thanks to all :-)


After all i can make my first own player with Milkshape for the GRWC-Mod ;-)

#15 @Joseph, it sounds as though you are not correctly loading the shape with the default sequences. If the shape you compiled[as a player],has been renamed by you, you'll have to edit the player.cs file in the player folder to reflect your edit. The documents describe this process, and if you are calling a player that contains no animations, that's likely where your engine crash occured. Another thought; if you have not grouped your subMeshes of the player into one single group, the exporter treats the shape as being rigidly assigned and it will not load the defaults. The player shape needs to be a deforming skin, to work with the animations.

@Will, the exporter is set to a default 0.1 setting, if your shapes are close to the default player height of 2.4 MS3d units, and the scale setting should be set to 1, Node answers are probably going to have to be answered in the Private SDK, which I'm not a member of, but with the release of 1.3 and the simpler approach for us artists, I will hold a license before too long...;)

#16 Anyone have any updates on this thread...I can't get the rig for the blue guy on "you can get it here"

Any help would be much appreciated...

J

#17 If you just need a skeleton model that will work with the player .dsq files, I finally found one in the ms2dts exporter dowload on the milkshape site (a skeleton and a "Mr. Box"). It's not the blue guy, but it works just dandy.

chumbalum.swissquake.ch/files/ms2dtsExporterPlus.zip

You shouldn't need to install the plugin, just grab the media.