[WIP] .render_model exporter (First custom model ingame!)

[jahrain]

Very nice work! The first is obviously your spartan biped from Prime, and i think the second is the woman you modelled in this thread (http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com...ad.php?t=46841) but i don't think the pictures work anymore so i can't be sure.

DING DING DING! We have a winrar! Congrats! Here take this cake, you will need it.

Just had a quick look at the render_model tag and it seems they used a varient of the JMS format in Halo 2 so maybe an altered version of bluestreak would give you the information to compile, rather than the gbxmodel - render_model route.

Actually, I was planning on using .jms at first. An altered version of bluestreak would only need to export 4 node weights instead of 2. My only problem is just computing what the binormals and tangents are and also figuring out how to convert node and marker relative positioning and converting from 3d euler angles to 4d quaternion vectors. Its just bound for trouble and problems, so making a .gbxmodel -> .render_model just makes things simpler as it already compiled all that information.

[Roostervier]

... Sounds about like it =p. That looks hard to understand, at least for someone as slow as me D:

[Snaver]

Great start jahrain.

[teh lag]

That's awesome, you are awesome too.

[FireScythe]

Hooray Cake! I've had a look at Euler > Quarternion calulations and its not too hard, i've made a quick code that does it. Binormals and tangents look to be quite complex though (or at least the terminology is ).

[jahrain]

Hooray Cake! I've had a look at Euler > Quarternion calulations and its not too hard, i've made a quick code that does it. Binormals and tangents look to be quite complex though (or at least the terminology is ).

I made some old vb code that does it as well long ago, but from quaternion to euler, not euler to quaternion. The problem is the angles are relative to each other. So say you have one node pointing one particular angle, and another node attached to it pointing in another angle that is relative to the first node node's angle. What you would have to do is figure out what the angle is in the world from the relative angles and convert that to a quaternion. Just figuring out relative 3d angles and transformations is mind boggling.

[FireScythe]

Ah i see, bit more complex than expected .

[jahrain]

Well, I could do it, but why bother when theres a simpler solution that would work better?

Also, another issues is triangle stripping.

I realized that the index data consists of triangle strips, not just triangles as I have assumed which is why the polygons look so garbled. In the gbxmodels, the triangles seem to be in triangle strip format as well since it can be seen with the intentional degenerate triangles in the tags. Usually with triangle strips, a degenerate triangle, usually contains 2 of the same vertex coords indicies. You will see many of those in the gbxmodel tags's triangle block, which is why I assume it also uses triangle strips.

Converting a model into a series of triangle strips is definitely something that seems challenging as it involves some graph theory.

[thehoodedsmack]

Yay! Another reason to get this game! Jahrain FTW!

[bitterbanana]

Yikes, graph theory? I thought vertices were already grouped in 3's. If they aren't, I'd just group them by proximity, not graph theory!! Anyway, this isn't my field, good luck to you Jahrain with finishing this. Seems liike a fun project.