SC2Mapster

@JackRCDF: Go

Can you try starting Blender with a command line window (which will propably show an error message when you enable it)?

e.g. Use the windows start button to call the program "cmd" and enter then the full path of the blender binary

Maybe it's visible by default in Windows, not sure.

Can you post the reported error here?

Edit: I just tried what happen what the m3.py file does not exist and I experienced the same problem. The m3.py file didn't get properly generated at the first initialization but only at reload. I fixed it and committed the changes. Thanks for your bug report!

@JackRCDF: Go

That's nice :D. You could try out what different particle properties do exactly (depending on the type of particle system for example) and add descriptions to the properties like it's done in this commit:
https://github.com/flo/m3addon/commit/a28a623d6dcceb3d23ebedb720774ff434a8f409

Those descriptions appear in tooltips when you hover an property widget. You can find out which property a UI element represents by right clicking on it
and selecting "Edit Source". If you have an text editor open in blender it will show you the line in the source code which shows the UI element.

For example if you choose to view the source for "Init. Emiss. Speed" you will get the following line highlighted:

layout.prop(particle_system, 'initEmissSpeed', text="Init. Emiss. Speed")

The second argument of layout.prop is the property name. So the property is called initEmissSpeed. If you search for that word in the file from
the beginning the first result is the following line:

initEmissSpeed = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name="init. emiss. speed",options={"ANIMATABLE"}, default=0.0, description="The initial speed of the particles at emission.")

You can edit/add the property description and save the text document(ctrl+s will save the blend file but not the text file). Afterwards press F8 to reload the UI. This way you don't need to restart blender. After reloading the UI it should show you the new tooltip when you hover the edited property.

I wrote a python script which can convert a xml specification of the m3 file format into a python library for loading and saving m3 files.

I also started working on a blender addon. At the current state it can export:

• Unanimated Materials
• Unanimated Particle Systems
• Empty Animations

Mesh and bone data doesn't get exported (Except for some bones which need to be created for the particles).

The importer of the addon is a bit more advanced. It can import:

• Animated Materials
• Animated Particle Systems
• Mesh without texturing
• Vertex Groups (Vertex Weighting)
• Animated Bones (Except for the bone rest rotation and scale)

I also wrote a script which uses the generated m3 library to convert a m3 file into a xml version.

You can find my scripts here: https://github.com/flo/m3addon

There is also a readme which explains how to use it: https://github.com/flo/m3addon/blob/master/README.md

Help is pretty much wanted, since I won't have that much free time in the future.

Quote from xcorbo: Go

[...] our currentl tools do no support particles so actually having one made for you is no option since we can't make them.

And what is with the following exporter plugin for 3ds max?

http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/m3-export-plugin-3ds-max/

According to it's feature list it is possible to import and export particle emitters.

@SoulFilcher: Go

Thanks for the tip. Sadly I searched already for hours in the previewer without success.

@kailniris: Go

The left image is what I need with one important difference: The photon cannon missile emits constantly blue core particles at a very high rate which last only a fraction of a second. I, however, need a model which emits just 1 particle which lasts then for 10 seconds.

Hello,

for better structure I will split my post in three small sections:

1. What I am looking for exactly
2. Why it is so useful
3. What alternatives I found and why they don't work

1. What I am looking for exactly

In short I am looking for a Starcraft 2 model that emits 1 particle instantly which stays at the same position as the model. In this section I will explain what those particles are and why for example it's not possible to archive the same effect with a sphere.

With particles I mean the 2D images of for example glowing dots a lot of effects in Starcraft 2 are made of. For example fires are just 2D images of a fire texture that moves up to the sky. Technically the particles are made with a technique called billboarding. A Billboard is a square polygon with a texture. This square gets always automatically rotated towards the camera so that you will never see it from the side. If you put for example the image of a fireball on this square it would look like a fireball independent from what side you look at it.

I am looking now for a square billboard/particle so that I can retexture it with the existing square textures. Ideally that particle would also have a glowing texture component.

2. Why it is so useful

I already mentioned that you could put a fireball image on the particle to create a model that looks like a fireball ingame. Other uses are:

1. You would be able to draw an image of pickupable item and use it as an pickupable item billboard/particle ingame (Minecraft does this)
2. You can make for example hands of units glow in one particular color by adding a round glowing particle to it (To remake for example the bloodlust effect from Warcraft 3)
3. You could create multiple kind of missiles for tower defence games by just creating or reusing existing images(e.g. a tower that shoots green glowing dots).
4. You could use the data editor to combine multiple particles into a more complex spell
5. You could use the trigger editor, to create unique special effects, like for example particles which form certain shapes and interact with their environment

3. What alternatives I found and why they don't work

1. The photon cannon missile looks at the first glance exactly what I am looking for. However problematic is:
   1. there are additional particles that indicate the movement
   2. the core particle of the missile isn't constant but actually gets constantly created, grows and dies creating an effect as if the missile gets larger and smaller very fast.
      1. Reducing animation speed does not increase the lifetime of particles, but only the spawn rate
      2. Pausing the animation has no effect
2. The displayed green bolt of "Stim" is also a single particle but it flashes and doesn't last long.
3. The nuke target model contains not just a single particle but also a red and white sphere which can't be retextured to be invisible.
4. If I create a text tag using triggers which contains only an image then this image will always brought to the forground.
5. The "billboard actor" seems gets only used for the nuke target and seems to have as only purpose to bring the nuke target point before every other model

So I hope that someone with 3ds Max can export me a model which contains just 1 particle which stays at the position where the model is for say at least 10 seconds and vanishes afterwards. The particle should have a diffuse and glowing texture for retexturing.

Nice tutorial. It's simple but you also mention something very important:

Quote from Eiviyn: Go

Note that you cannot use variables [to preload banks]. You need a seperate trigger action for each player that you want to preload the bank for.

I overlooked this part first and needed hours to find out why my solution isn't working. Maybe you could highlight that part in your tutorial somehow? Or even better: Add an example with multiple players and banks and add to that your explanation why it's necessary to have each action.

@AgoutiByte: Go

I made you an simple example: In the map missiles get shot from a random height at an ultralisk. Important data structures are the "Invisible Caster" unit and the "Invisible Caster Actor" actor.

@DrSuperEvil: Go

I had a site but maybe set it up wrongly. I went for the invisible caster unit now. That way I need a way less data objects and I can move the caster around in X, Y and Z direction.

@Eiviyn: Go

I used already triggers for choosing where the missiles have to fly. So I now simply create a caster in that trigger. By changing the casters position and height I can determine where the missiles start.

@DrSuperEvil: Go

Nice idea. By clicking the attachment the unit gets selected as usual and no one would notice that the visible model is just an attachment.

In my particular case (not the example above) it still continuous to fire from the objects center. I guess it's because I try to fire the missile when the unit dies since the missile fires correctly from another unit.

Does anyone know how to make a unit fire a missile from a offset when it doesn't have an attachment point?

The funny thing is that the very same unit stops shooting with the specified offset once you change the "Art - Model" field of the unit's actor to a model without attachment points.

To see what I mean try the following:

1. Create a new map
2. Go to the "Hydralisk Attack" actor and set "Target - Launch - Site Ops - Operations" to SOpHigherBy5
3. Place two hydralisk and test the map: The hydralisk's missiles will spawn as expected above the hydralisks when you order them to attack each other.
4. Now go the "Hydralisk" Actor and change the field "Art- Model" to "Fungal Growth"
5. Test again and notice that the missile will spawn at the origin or center of the unit but not the 5 units above!

If no one has an idea I will go for an invisible caster unit (There is invisible model with attachment points) but hopefully there is a better way of doing it.

Hello,

I would like to write an exporter for Blender but the current Battle.net Terms of Use prevent me from doing so.

If you want an exporter for Blender you might want me helping getting the "Terms of Use" problem known to blizzard: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626044941

Best regards, println