You'd never be banned for this, haha. There are sites who distribute ripped assets and have done so for years and years. Now if you were selling them... well, that would be a different story. (Edit - Also, I would never put them into an Arcade map. But, I never make anything for the arcade, so that part is just a given for me.)
And I have been to Xentax - I've PM'd you on there before! :3
Let's say it's for academic purposes. Which parts are not working correctly? I assume it's some stuff that relies on engine technology like some of their ribbon-like effects and such. Are you considering releasing the plugin?
I've never heard of anyone reverse engineering the animations before besides those model viewers on that site, so I guess that will probably remain the only route for extracting that kind of information.
Reverse engineering is one of the things I would love to get into because it's such an immensely useful and critical skill. Alas, I have no programming knowledge to speak of, so I'll just have to focus on the remastering/fixing the results parts.
Interestingly enough, there's actually a huge reskinning community for the game. But it's mostly texture mods I think.
Say I want to import the cinematic marine and twiddle a donkey. I believe many of those animations if not all are in m3a. Is it possible to pull them out or should I try to learn rigging to animate it (any good references for that?)
With a chin that could split a battleship in twine and a disgruntled look that could strip the flesh off a toddler, you have quite handsome fellow there.
The player color looks very "projected" on. Something I would consider doing is "weathering" the color range so it more appears like it is painted in the wood detail and not just projected on. Using the diffuse as a blend mask for its texture might work.
The Tauren himself appears to be drenched in water with the way his specularity is set up. A Gloss map could be used to mask it out and add some more variety to his highlights, especially with hair and the hooves, that shouldn't be as glossy. High specularity highlighting tends to add a lot of noise in RTS view and doesn't look terribly pleasant close up. The way the trunk looks, for example, is about perfect.
You avoiding clipping the hand and shoulder into the trunk and bending the arm so it's flattened out, so you're already doing way better than Blizzard did in WoW. Keep going!
Nothing relevant to sc2 I'm afraid. Most of my projects for this game haven't really petered out into anything noteworthy, at least not yet. The editor is a huge turnoff and every time I try to get into it I immediately get frustrated and end up turning away. It's kind of funny because that long ago it was all about graphics that were preventing me from making big projects in games like Homeworld 2 and Supreme Commander. I was able to do technical stuff but never make the actual content. Now it's the reverse, haha. I showed some of the more recent stuff in my thread, like some Unreal 3 scenes and some sc2 particles I made from scratch using frames out of FumeFX. Stuff like that is easy for me... making all the content work in the editor and being patient with its slowness, that I just can't do.
Right now I'm between Sc2 and Unreal 4 trying to decide if it's even worth trying to make projects anymore. I'm just getting too old for it, I think. I can't commit to work like I used to be able to. I just don't have it in me to focus.
So, you do your entire UV work in max, eh? I've heard from so many places and people how 3ds max's UV system is not really that good. But I just went through a day of messing around with UV's on a WoW model trying to fix them up and I don't see how it's so bad. What does your workflow look like for UV'ing a big model from scratch?
I've known that for a very long time. I'm also not putting that into a Blizzard game, else I wouldn't want to get rid of the lighting information. I build private projects exclusively. So you don't need to worry about it.
I grabbed Mindtex off of steam. It isn't as powerful as nDo but I've gotten pretty good results with it so far. I haven't tried using AO maps in sc2 before, though. I don't think I could see them when I tried (?)
Nah, not blizzard. Yeah, the UV's on a lot of those (presumably that is what you are referring to) are not so good. The lighting information is pretty heavy on them which is where my big concern comes from, though. Believe me, you haven't seen bad until you've seen some of the "HD" textures people made for that game. I do already have a normal map. I haven't heard of xNormal before, I've used nDo in the past and currently use Mindtex. I'll have to give it a try sometime.
Speaking of UV's, how do you make your UV's? In zbrush?
I have photoshop, but I don't know how to use it. I don't think I have any other paint programs on hand. You'd think working with photoshop for 15 years would have taught me something but then you realize I am slightly retarded.
As for textures, something like this would be a start. Its baked lighting is not so severe as some of the newer WoW models (that I don't actually have them at the moment) but it is still there.
TaylorMouse, would you know a good way for obliterating lighting information from a diffuse?
Basically walk into a diffuse texture and turn it into flat color for an Albedo (for Unreal 4). A suggestion I saw is to create a dupe layer, desaturate and make it soft lighting but that made a real mess. Bitmap2Material also hasn't had any real notable success either.
Most stuff I'm porting doesn't need this but some stuff like Skyrim or WoW have enough baked lighting that is not good for PBR.
I have a tablet but have never drawn anything past stick figures 15 years ago. But if you think I need to draw some kind of counter lighting info, tell me how to do it, and I can try.
Also if you know a way to re-sharpen a texture that has been upscaled that would be cool, too. Obviously, the sharpen filter that everyone used for Skyrim "HD" textures looks dreadful and I'd like to avoid that.
The splitbody animation is for stuff like directional blending. It's what allows heads and stuff to turn to face targets, except you can do it with the upper body like in counterstrike. It would be useful for things like TPS and FPS where you wanted the model to more accurately follow aiming. I can see leaving them as-is being useful. At least, I think you can do that in sc2. You can do it with individual actors at least, iirc.
It also has uses in crossblending animations. Like firing and walking.
I think for the distortion you could aim for a more wispy look. Like you have a burst of distortion and that's it, but you could have a burst that then fades out into a wispy, stringy nature, to simulate the energy being released.
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You'd never be banned for this, haha. There are sites who distribute ripped assets and have done so for years and years. Now if you were selling them... well, that would be a different story. (Edit - Also, I would never put them into an Arcade map. But, I never make anything for the arcade, so that part is just a given for me.)
And I have been to Xentax - I've PM'd you on there before! :3
@TaylorMouse: Go
Let's say it's for academic purposes. Which parts are not working correctly? I assume it's some stuff that relies on engine technology like some of their ribbon-like effects and such. Are you considering releasing the plugin?
I've never heard of anyone reverse engineering the animations before besides those model viewers on that site, so I guess that will probably remain the only route for extracting that kind of information.
Reverse engineering is one of the things I would love to get into because it's such an immensely useful and critical skill. Alas, I have no programming knowledge to speak of, so I'll just have to focus on the remastering/fixing the results parts.
Interestingly enough, there's actually a huge reskinning community for the game. But it's mostly texture mods I think.
@TaylorMouse: Go
Wait, are you saying you can get animated League of Legends models? Please, tell me much more.
Nice to see you still updating this TaylorCutie.
I have a question.
Can this import m3a?
Say I want to import the cinematic marine and twiddle a donkey. I believe many of those animations if not all are in m3a. Is it possible to pull them out or should I try to learn rigging to animate it (any good references for that?)
@TaylorMouse: Go
Does the crab pinch when you block with it?
@TaylorMouse: Go
With a chin that could split a battleship in twine and a disgruntled look that could strip the flesh off a toddler, you have quite handsome fellow there.
A few suggestions if I may...
The player color looks very "projected" on. Something I would consider doing is "weathering" the color range so it more appears like it is painted in the wood detail and not just projected on. Using the diffuse as a blend mask for its texture might work.
The Tauren himself appears to be drenched in water with the way his specularity is set up. A Gloss map could be used to mask it out and add some more variety to his highlights, especially with hair and the hooves, that shouldn't be as glossy. High specularity highlighting tends to add a lot of noise in RTS view and doesn't look terribly pleasant close up. The way the trunk looks, for example, is about perfect.
You avoiding clipping the hand and shoulder into the trunk and bending the arm so it's flattened out, so you're already doing way better than Blizzard did in WoW. Keep going!
Nothing relevant to sc2 I'm afraid. Most of my projects for this game haven't really petered out into anything noteworthy, at least not yet. The editor is a huge turnoff and every time I try to get into it I immediately get frustrated and end up turning away. It's kind of funny because that long ago it was all about graphics that were preventing me from making big projects in games like Homeworld 2 and Supreme Commander. I was able to do technical stuff but never make the actual content. Now it's the reverse, haha. I showed some of the more recent stuff in my thread, like some Unreal 3 scenes and some sc2 particles I made from scratch using frames out of FumeFX. Stuff like that is easy for me... making all the content work in the editor and being patient with its slowness, that I just can't do.
Right now I'm between Sc2 and Unreal 4 trying to decide if it's even worth trying to make projects anymore. I'm just getting too old for it, I think. I can't commit to work like I used to be able to. I just don't have it in me to focus.
So, you do your entire UV work in max, eh? I've heard from so many places and people how 3ds max's UV system is not really that good. But I just went through a day of messing around with UV's on a WoW model trying to fix them up and I don't see how it's so bad. What does your workflow look like for UV'ing a big model from scratch?
I've known that for a very long time. I'm also not putting that into a Blizzard game, else I wouldn't want to get rid of the lighting information. I build private projects exclusively. So you don't need to worry about it.
I grabbed Mindtex off of steam. It isn't as powerful as nDo but I've gotten pretty good results with it so far. I haven't tried using AO maps in sc2 before, though. I don't think I could see them when I tried (?)
@TaylorMouse: Go
Nah, not blizzard. Yeah, the UV's on a lot of those (presumably that is what you are referring to) are not so good. The lighting information is pretty heavy on them which is where my big concern comes from, though. Believe me, you haven't seen bad until you've seen some of the "HD" textures people made for that game. I do already have a normal map. I haven't heard of xNormal before, I've used nDo in the past and currently use Mindtex. I'll have to give it a try sometime.
Speaking of UV's, how do you make your UV's? In zbrush?
@TaylorMouse: Go
I have photoshop, but I don't know how to use it. I don't think I have any other paint programs on hand. You'd think working with photoshop for 15 years would have taught me something but then you realize I am slightly retarded.
As for textures, something like this would be a start. Its baked lighting is not so severe as some of the newer WoW models (that I don't actually have them at the moment) but it is still there.
Healing/stamp tool? I'm totally clueless with photoshop so I haven't actually heard of that before.
The anisotropic thing seems to have no effect.
TaylorMouse, would you know a good way for obliterating lighting information from a diffuse?
Basically walk into a diffuse texture and turn it into flat color for an Albedo (for Unreal 4). A suggestion I saw is to create a dupe layer, desaturate and make it soft lighting but that made a real mess. Bitmap2Material also hasn't had any real notable success either.
Most stuff I'm porting doesn't need this but some stuff like Skyrim or WoW have enough baked lighting that is not good for PBR.
I have a tablet but have never drawn anything past stick figures 15 years ago. But if you think I need to draw some kind of counter lighting info, tell me how to do it, and I can try.
Also if you know a way to re-sharpen a texture that has been upscaled that would be cool, too. Obviously, the sharpen filter that everyone used for Skyrim "HD" textures looks dreadful and I'd like to avoid that.
@TaylorMouse: Go
The splitbody animation is for stuff like directional blending. It's what allows heads and stuff to turn to face targets, except you can do it with the upper body like in counterstrike. It would be useful for things like TPS and FPS where you wanted the model to more accurately follow aiming. I can see leaving them as-is being useful. At least, I think you can do that in sc2. You can do it with individual actors at least, iirc.
It also has uses in crossblending animations. Like firing and walking.
I think for the distortion you could aim for a more wispy look. Like you have a burst of distortion and that's it, but you could have a burst that then fades out into a wispy, stringy nature, to simulate the energy being released.