SC2Mapster

@Dhoude: Go

I don't understand the question "qre there meshs for m3 ribbon". Ribbons can have a cylinder/cone like shape if that is your question. You can look at the corrupter model or the zealot hair for an example(both are textured). I haven't added proper visualization of ribbons within Blender yet. Till now there has been little interest in that area.

There is also a ribbon type which isn't supported yet: Ribbons with end points.

To use rigid bodies you need to create first a bone. That bone will then represent the phsical object. You can assign a mesh the usual way to it to visualize the phsical object. In the M3 ridid bodies panel you need to type in the name of that bone. Then you need to add a physical shape to the rigid body via the M3 Physical Shapes panel. Physical shapes can be primitives like boxes or cylinders, or they can reference a mesh which will then be used as physical shape.

In the cutscene editor of SC2 you can visualize the physical shapes of objects. The most usefull purpose of those physics seem to be the ability to create objects on which untis can walk on. Except for that the complete physic simulation is purly for visual effects. They have no effect on gameplay.

There is a new improved and quite different way of storing phsyial objects introduced in patch 2.0. There are how many field which I haven't figured out yet and there are field of a unknown type.

To summarize it up, the addon has quite room for improvement, but I am just one person with spare free time. Should someone want to help out feel free to ask how to get started.

@Dhoude: Go

Hi, thanks for the bug report. It's fixed.

@Pikdum: Go

M3 models don't contain textures. They reference the textuers with a game relative path. You can reference either one of the existing textures or you can reference textures which you have imported in your map.

How you specify for a m3 model which texture should be referenced I show in the second video of this tutorial (3rd minute till end).

How you properly import a model and it's textures into SC2 is shown in another tutorial which is somewhere in this tutorial section.

It's btw. also often possible to exchange the texture of a model without modifing a model itself: http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/20772-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id/?unread

If you want however to modify the material properties (e.g. adding an emissive texture) then you need to modify the model.

@Dhoude: Go

I changed how animations get represented in Blender. Animations and default values should now be remain even if you save and reload the blend file.

@Zergslayer: Go

The space ship contains subdivision modifiers. You can't export the model without applying the modifiers first. If you apply however the modifers then you will obtain a model with a lot of triangles which is bad. Ideally would need to create a low poly version of the model first and then bake textures using the high polygon model. Also you need to add some meta data before exporting. For example each mesh needs to have a M3 Material assigned and the model should have at least one animation. Adding hit boxes is also necessary when the unit should be selectable. How this meta data can be added is shown in the videos of this tutorial.

@Pikdum: Go

It's just one addon which is called "Import-Export: Importer and exporter for Blizzard's Starcraft 2 model files (*.m3)" in the UI. It will only show up if you placed the m3addon files at the correct location. See the tutorial and the m3addon readme file for more information.

@Dhoude: Go

It's a bug. However fixing it properly means changing how the animations get stored in Blender. I will work on it tomorrow evening.

@Dhoude: Go

Previously I only used the "Auto IK" option for positioning bones. I never used IK constraints before in Blender. So I watched a nice tutorial ( ) about the topic and checked if and how IK-based animations can be exported.

One simple solution for now is to use the "Bake Action" operation which you can access as usualy via the spacebar search menu. In the "Bake Action" options you need to check "Clear Constrains" and select "Pose" as "Bake Data". Note that this will remove the constrains and give the bones animations that do the same.

I fixed the mesh import issue with the Dark Templar model. It came from a bone at a very large location. I noticed however that one leg of the dark templar is positioned wrongly, due to a missing -1 factor in the scale of a bone. Since the origin of those problems can be hard to find and since the problem can be fixed manually I don't feel much motivated currently to look deeper in that scale issue.

If you have issues, please check the Console Window, which you can show with "Window » Toggle System Console". You can copy text from a console window by clicking on the icon of the window and enabling edit mode.

@Dhoude: Go

Hi, the newest version of the m3addon works only with Blender 2.66. Upgrading should fix the issue.

Edit tipp: You can copy the 2.63 folder in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\ to 2.66 to keep your settings when switching to the newer Blender version.

@tatatatate: Go

Hi, you made the animations with shape keys. They can't be exported to m3, since there is no equivalent in the m3 file format. Only animations of pose bones and m3 data (e.g. amounth of emitted particles of m3 particle systems) can be exported currently.

It should be possible to archive the same effect with animated pose bones.

@RanchBurner: Go

Nice tutorial.

Some tipps:

1. It's not necessary to open the texture. I guess you just do it to preview it.
2. It's not necessary to choose Assets/Textures/ as prefix for the texture and the path does not need to match the import path of the image editor. The path you specify in the M3 Material Layer panel just needs to equal the path to which you import it to. e.g. If you import your texture as "hello/coin.tga" then you need to specify that path in the layer panel
3. If it is going to be a clickable or selectable object, you may want to add Tight and Fuzzy Hit Tests. How those can be created I explain in my Coin Tutorial: http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/35492-blender-how-to-create-an-animated-coin-model-for-starcraft/
4. If the object should be targetable, you might want to add an attachment points called Target, Target 01, Target 02... with a volume. By doing so missile impacts will not just occur at the center of your model, but at the border of those defined invisible volumes. Adding some default attachment points like Head, Center, Origin, Hardpoint and Overhead might also be a good idea.

@SoulFilcher: Go

The Stank protrait has the same issue? If yes then its propably only reproducable on your PC.

You could use the m3ToXml.py script to convert a working and not working portrait to xml. The xml text files are much easier to comare. Additionally you can then use then start copying over xml from the wroking version of the model to the non working version and convert it back to an m3 file with the xmlToM3.py script. By doing so you can figure out the difference which is causing the problems.

To use the m3ToXml.py and xmlToM3.py script you need first to install python 3. You can download it from http://www.python.org/

Then open a command line (Start -> Run -> "cmd")and go into the directory with the m3addon (enter "cd path\to\directory").

Enter "m3ToXml.py path\to\m3File" to convert the m3 file to xml and "xmlToM3.py path\to\m3XmlFile" to convert it back to an m3. As editor for editing the xml files I can highly recommend Notepad + + which you can download at http://notepad-plus-plus.org/.

@RanchBurner: Go

You don't need to export your animations as additional m3a files. You can simply add animations to the m3 file you export.

About taking over animations: There is no easy way I know off.

A cool animaton trick I dodn't mention in the tutorial: In pose mode the tool shelf (hotkey t) offers a "Auto IK" option. With that option enabled all bones will behave like Inverse Kinematic Bones: If you move a child bone the parent bones will follow.

Edit: Another tipp: When you select the armature and go the "Object Data" tab then you can enable a X-Ray option. With that option on you can see the bones even when they are in the mesh.

@Delphinium1987: Go Nice

@Eimtr: Go

At the bottom of your screenshot it says "Mesh must have no modifiers exept single one for the armature".

Apparently the MS3D-Importer added modifiers to the mesh. Modifiers are non destructure transformations of the mesh whih can be toggled on and off. It's also possible to "apply" modifiers which results in the original mesh becoming permanently changed.

To solve your problem you need to select your mesh and then the Modifier Tab in the Properties Panel. Apply there all modifiers except for the "Armature" modifier which makes your mesh be deformed by the bones. See attachment. Can you make a screenshot of your modifier list as well? I would like to know what modifiers the MS3D-Importer added.

In order to export your model, you need to give all meshes a m3 material. How to do that is shown in this video tutorial. Basically you just have to set the diffuse image path to the path of the image in the map. (e.g. if you import it as hello.tga then you need to specify "hello.tga" as image path)

In addition to setting a material you might also want to add hit tests to your model. Tight hit tests allow the user to select the model via drag selection and fuzzy hit tests reduce the amounth of calculation Starcraft 2 has to do in order to determine if the model has been clicked. I just added part 5 of this tutorial in which I explain exactly that.

If your model can be attacked, you might also want to add attachment points/volumes in order to describe where the object can be hit.

Edit: Oh and Blender 2.66 release notes mention a new MS3D (MilkShape 3D) addon.

@toboesc: Go

I fixed the names of the material layers. Now the alpha layer is properly labeled as such.

@toboesc: Go

Thanks for your positive feedback, it's nice to hear that there are actually people using it.

It seems like the export of composite materials was broken. It's fixed now. As you have propably figured out, composite materials are a way of making objects become transparent. You can even animate the transparency. For static transparency you might want to use the alpha material layer of the standard materials.

Some material layers are wrongly labeled, I haven't taken the time yet to figure them all out.

@DrSuperEvil: Go I haven't figoured out yet which property sets the RTT channel for a model. There is however only one unknown camera field. If it's a camera property it must be it. Zolden should know how to test this out via the m3 <-> xml scripts which are included in the m3addon.

By the way it might become an option to use the m3addon to convert HotS models to WoL models. It can already import some HotS models and reexports them as WoL. The import of HotS models is not that well tested and does not work with all HotS models yet. I hope that I can improve that over time, however some HotS model contain features that are not available in WoL, like ray particles.

@Taintedwisp: Go

In the following section they forbid that you to transfer (e.g. upload) "New Materials" to other parties (like sc2mapster).

Quote:

3.C. You are entitled to use the Program for your own use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Program, or any New Materials, to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Program or any New Materials to others without the prior written consent of Blizzard;

With "New Materials" they seem to mean everything which you can create with the sc editor and art tools:

Quote:

The Program contains software which is utilized as a plug-in for Autodesk's 3ds max® software product to create certain art files that can produce standalone graphic illustrations, as well as operate in conjunction with the StarCraft ® III 'Campaign Editor' (the "Editor") to allow you to create custom levels or other materials ("New Materials") for your personal use in connection with Blizzard’s StarCraft® II interactive games ( “StarCraft II”).

In the section ownership, they explain further what they understand under "New Materials" and they claim that they own everything you make:

Quote:

2. Ownership. All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Program, including but not limited to the art assets that are incorporated into the Program, as well as any and all copies thereof and any New Materials (including but not limited to any titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialog, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, and "applets" incorporated into the Program) are owned by Blizzard or its licensors. The Program is protected by the copyright laws of the United States, international copyright treaties and conventions and other laws. All rights are reserved. The Program contains certain licensed materials, and Blizzard's licensors may protect their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.

So they basically count any kind of artwork you make as "New Material"... and claim complete ownership about it.