Model Artist support requested. Created 7 years ago2017-11-01 19:34:44 UTC by 23-down

Hey folks after my last successful release of the very 1st ever to be released Black Mesa Helicopter set:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/hl-opposing-force-firestorm/addons/black-mesa-helicopter-set-reskinned

Which had been made possible thanks to vast influence and aid by @Tetsu0 I managed to get those choppers out to you. So here I am hoping that the same lightning might strike once again.

This time I'm working on female Scientists.

https://imgur.com/S0cVP8P

As you may or may not see in this screenshot the textures aren't properly aligned yet and the 2nd head in the body group wont remain properly attached with the main torso while playing animations. I must be missing something.

Anyone willing to help and aid feel free to download it here: I hope that we can get this model pack out to the remaining hl1 modding community. Combine that with a custom code or Spirit and implementation should be fairly easy. All that then remains is a native American voice actress.

Credits to the model female proportions go to the "Science and Industry" mod team. I used their model as basis and converted it into a regular scientist arriving with all proper default SP animations and texture sets.

Current problems:
-Textures messed up
-2nd Head of the head group wont remain attached to it's animation nodes.

Dl links below: In case one of the sites wont work for you I uploaded the open source files onto several pages.

dl link1: https://ufile.io/15hst
alternate dl link2: https://files.fm/u/fs7wfppp#_
alternate dl link3: https://en.file-upload.net/download-12793766/fem_sci.rar.html

The line in the face is caused by compiler UV shifting, a common studiomdl.exe issue, but there is an improved version here which fixes the shift:
https://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php/45003-StudioMDL-with-Texture-Shifting-fix?p=528588#post528588
Also when compiling use argument -b 512 to pad out your bitmaps.

The latest version of Crowbar (0.49) has full GS support now and I recommend it since it can do decompiles and can compile as a GUI wrapper with extended directory options (also can put the arguments in)
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/CrowbarTool

Remove the line $externaltextures from your QC as its an old optimization command that breaks the file into two.

The reason why the second head isnt working is because its not skinned properly to the skeleton. You will have to rerig this in a 3D editor. My assumption is that you grabbed this model from some playermodel which has a different skeleton.

Uh great tips the303...

You're right in every capacity. I'm somewhat rusty by now as I haven't touched blender in a while but these tips of yours should get me back on track.

I will let you know of my progress thanks.

Also a few months back Blender Source tools included GS support (switch export mode) so you wont have to use the converter program (unless you get some wierd vertex error, then swich back to Source export and use converter).

Just make sure your vertex weights are 1 or 0. Use Quantize and Limit Total on all groups to "1" in paint mode to be sure. I put in a bug fix request to the devs a while back so next version should have an export thresholder to catch these issues.

Uh I didn't know that.. That's very informative - nice intelligence indeed. Thanks for that. Time to update Blender..

Update:

Ok I managed to fix the texture issues on 1 submodel. I haven't come around of fixing the 2nd one just yet but that's no problem.

I'm facing difficulty to get the eyes - eyelids and mouth animated. Now here comes the strange thing. I rigged the bone structure to the head and in Pose mode I can even move the mouth / eyelids but once compiled nothing works in Modelviewer.

Any idea what might have gone wrong??
In other news I begun adding modified heads (with different hair color) of Barniel and Kate to the female science team as well.

Dl below: https://ufile.io/jsxch

I'm really at a loss and appreciate any possible help here.

Something is going wrong with the export since the 2nd head is all skinned wrong at the SMD level so, only way to find out is to look at your Blender file

Ah damn my apologies I uploaded a wrong test build. Here is the correct one:

Blender file included.

dl link: https://ufile.io/d23rq

You need to manually bind the mesh vertices to bones Via vertex groups. It's a pain. Select which vertices you want to assign to a bone, and assign them to a vertex group that has the same name as the bone.

But as far as I know I did exactly that.. For example with the mouth meshes linked to a vertex group which has the same name as the bone "mouth" so it's linked is it not ?

Am I missing something else Tesu0? It's been a while since the chopper haven't I worked much with Blender. But as far as I remember that should be all that's required no ?

I found the problem:
You had your head rigged but you had a vertex weight group "Bip01 Head1" with the whole head weighted to it. It is my assumption that during export it saw this bone first and committed it while discarding all the other weights. Im not much of a blender user but I find the way weight painting is setup and how easy it is to weight multiple vertexes to multiple groups which break everything a massive pain compared to other 3D programs.

Unweight the "Bip01 Head1" vertex group and also do a bit of cleanup on your existing weights like how you have a part of the cheek weighted to the mouth and the neck is not weighted. Then weight the remaning stuff to "Bip01 Head" but be sure not to accidently weight things that are already weighted like your eyes mouth ect (i think there is some kind of lock or normalize thing to prevent that?) Also if you have an issue where the eyes are floating off that means your physical mesh positioning is not in alignment with the eyes bones. If I were you id use the existing gina head mesh as an overlap guide to match the positioning.

Wow.. Thank you. I probably would've never found out about that myself..
Attempting to fix it now..

Update:

Hey just wanted to show you an update of my female scientists... They're almost release ready.. I'm particular proud of bringing a new female face for quite some time to the hl1 community. While I didn't create the face myself nor the textures I enhanced upon the original. As it was previously only a re-skinned MP face for CS-Source. That means:

I added teeth and working facial animations such as eyes, eyebrows and of course an animated mouth.

From left to right : Colette, Barniel, my new one Katja, Gina.
Against my better judgement I kept em in typical Black Mesa employee male clothes to remain true to the Black Mesa dress code. But modifications can be made easily enough if there's any desire for it. I will release the Blender files along with the models once ready and hopefully a full set of voice files containing anything appropriate for Blue Shift, Op4, Hl1. So that any mappers can kick off with them straight away in Spirit and hopefully soon enough Solo's Hl: Enhanced.Now we just need some voice actresses. Unfortunately I don't know any native American girls/women... Americans I call upon you to enlist your wife's.

Uncle Down needs you.

hopefully soon enough Solo's Hl: Enhanced.

This is already possible using GMR (Game Model Replacement).

In "hlenhanced/models", create a folder with the same name as the map (if your map is "the_core", then the folder has to be named "the_core"). Inside that folder, create a text file with the name of your choice (I'm gonna assume "female_sci_gmr.txt"), open that file with your favorite text editor.

To replace the HL scientists by your female variants, you would add in the file:

"models/scientist.mdl" "models/female_scientist.mdl"

The quotes are VERY important so don't forget about them, you may save and close the text file when you're finished.

Open your map in Hammer/Sledge/J.A.C.K. configured for HL:E, go to "Map's properties", in the "Global Model Replacement" field, just type the name of the GMR file you created earlier ("female_sci_gmr.txt").

Compile the map and HL:E should change the HL's scientists models to your variant.

The filename and path doesn't have to be "mapname/name.txt", that's only for Sven Co-op's model replacement stuff. Conversely this means the name in worldspawn should include all directory names, starting in the mod directory (e.g. models/mapname/female_sci_gmr.txt).

Note that it's being updated to use XML, that change should be available for use in the next couple of weeks. I'll need to make sure to document this stuff on the wiki so it's clear how it works.

It'll look something like this (i don't have the code handy atm):

<xml version="1.0" standalone="no"/>
<replacement_map>
<keyvalue key="models/scientist.mdl" value="models/female_scientist.mdl"/>
</replacement_map>

Not that different, but it'll eliminate any issues with long names, since the original parsing code uses fixed size buffers.

Per-entity replacements aren't supported yet but that'll be added eventually, the essentials are already there.

Kinda cool and good to know.. But what about custom sound groups for custom models in that case? Same method just linking to a new sound folder?

Anyway I wait till you're entirely done with it before moving over to your engine. I suppose it may take you 1 or 2 more years till completion calculating morale and family off time & job along in the equation. Would that be a somewhat realistic estimate?

No worries Solo and I do understand your frustration. I once spoke with some of the Sven dev team about them having access to the engine. Apparently contracts were formed between the dev team and them. Maybe they feel that 1 single person is a greater risk at spreading leaks around idk. You also didn't depart with them on good terms did you? Honestly But honestly I don't think so. They probably just don't care no more, simple as that.

Either way in regards of a custom sound engine why don't you make it simple and just use the method Spirit used with Fmod I believe and some pre-coded custom monster slots and name variables for custom sound folder copying sound entity groups for name xzy? Spirit had that feature it was kinda easy to use.

Anyway I proudly present my female scientists:

http://www.moddb.com/games/half-life/addons/female-scientists

Go get em peeps.. Now we just need a native American voice actress to assure accuracy and a finalization of that project.

Ya remember the good old saying "Put old ghosts to rest." The past is the past and can not be changed. For me personally sven coop was ruined after any release that followed 3.0 anyway.. Just didn't feel like hl1 anymore but more like some mini Serious Sam. Although the new implementations were ground breaking I didn't like em much grunts firing at you while running and all that stuff.

As for the sound engine no need to prioritize anything.
If I had it my way you would've to prioritize all default entities + op4 stuff. Luckily things don't go my way am I right?

Btw. did you ever get the Rosenberg sounds I sent you? Hope they're useful to you for a universal Rosenberg entity at some point in the future.

Well that was the plan to begin with, i am going to make some breaking changes so any maps you're making will stop working once that's done.
The tool i spoke of before to update existing maps should be enough to fix this, assuming i can get the various file format specs to implement it.

I got the files, but i haven't downloaded them yet. I'm currently taking care of some college work first, then i'll have time to work on mod stuff.