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Modeling troubles

GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
in Custom Content & Community Exp Pack
I decided to work on porting some models from SpellForce to NWN:EE.

The models look just fine in Blender:


But when I export them to Aurora .mdl with the Neverblender extension, they look all inside-out like this:



I've never used Blender before, so I'm probably missing something obvious, but surely the wise and amazing community knows what I'm doing wrong.

Comments

  • TheBarbarianTheBarbarian Member Posts: 58
    Looks like inverted normals. Have you tried recalculating/flipping them? Go to Edit Mode, select all faces, hit T to open the toolbox on the left, go to Shading / UVs, and under Normals, hit Recalculate. Export again, report result.

    (!! Spellforce! :heart:)
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Good call. Recalculating seems to have solved the problem! :)



    However, I've ran into another.

    Most SpellForce building models use two materials per mesh, which seems to be a problem for Aurora. So, I tried duplicating the mesh, then removing one of the materials and its vertices, effectively splitting the model. Is this the right way to go about it or is there a better solution? One of the textures also got all weird in the process, and I have no idea why :confused:



  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Also, SpellForce does not use normal & spec maps, so I made them for NWN:EE and they work beautifully :love:
  • TheBarbarianTheBarbarian Member Posts: 58
    Now that kinda looks like the UV mapping for that part of the mesh got reset. I haven't seen this scenario before, though.

    In case nobody else shows up with the answer ready at hand - could you upload the files (pre- as well as post-split, preferably) so I can slobber all over it until it yields it's secretses, it's secretses my precioussss?
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    I'll send you the files later today in a PM, unless someone else has workable ideas.
    I'm hoping there is an easier solution we're unaware of, and that splitting the model is unnecessary altogether. I heard something about .mtr files being able to include multiple textures in NWN:EE, but I didn't manage to get that to work as intended so far.

    Meanwhile, here's another one-texture model I successfully converted & mapped:
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Still no solution to multi-material meshes, so I keep converting those that don't have that problem.

    Here, a dwarven mine:

    And, uh, another dwarven mine:

    And also a dwarven smithy:

  • TheBarbarianTheBarbarian Member Posts: 58
    As noted in the PM response, made public for general FYI:

    A way to keep the UVs intact when converting multi-material objects is to duplicate the original once per material, then delete the faces belonging to the other materials, then unlink the unneeded materials and UV maps. Repeat for all duplicates of the original, leaving a different material intact for each of them.

    Disclaimer: Did not test very thoroughly. Some steps may be unnecessary.
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    edited September 2018
    Dwarven quarry:

    Dwarven wall segments:


    And, with special thanks to @TheBarbarian, the dwarven sanctuary, which had to have 5 (!) pieces:

    There is the little problem with the statue's cape being transparent on the inner side, and hence invisible on the screenshot...
  • zordren3742zordren3742 Member Posts: 207
    sounds like the cape needs to have double sided faces. duplicate all the faces on the cape then flip the normals on one set to the front and the other set to the back.
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    edited September 2018
    It worked! Thanks again, you guys are really helpful! :)

    The normals on the beard might need to be adjusted to make it appear smoother, but I'll handle that later.
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    I'm almost done with dwarven buildings:
  • T0R0T0R0 Member Posts: 86
    edited September 2018
    I know dwarves are smaller than humans but they usually build stuff larger than they need. IMHO you might want to try and scale this stuff up a bit and test with a dwarf pc,, check door heights relative to dwarf pc for example.... good job so far
  • acidchalkacidchalk Member Posts: 70
    It looks great, how are the shadows behaving with those multiple piece things? I have to close pieces up or the shadows go nutts in my stuff.
  • T0R0T0R0 Member Posts: 86
    Just make simple shadow meshes with a rough shape of object. Set to non render, cast shadow. Disable shadow on the visible mesh.
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    It was a huge pain but I just managed to successfully rig the lovely Elven Rangers to use NWN animations:

    I need to rest now.
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    edited September 2018
    I'm not satisfied with how the robes/capes work but here's an Elven Wintermage and an Elven Healer:
    Post edited by God on
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    This heavy-armoured avatar is a 1:1 copy of my best SpellForce character:

    I also just learned how to use ACP animations for building creatures:
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Look, it's master Rohen!

    He floats, which most definitely means he weighs the same as a duck... or a witch?
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    I probably still need to work on the rigs but it's just so cool to see these two fight in Aurora Engine :joy:

  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    I played around with textures a bit, in an attempt to recreate my profile portrait in 3d.

    The result is... quite horrifying :D
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Had to have the sword from Tomb Raider: Legend as my personal weapon:


    The armour obviously didn't match, so I clumsily made this retextured version:

  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Lara's face will serve well enough as that of my female counterpart:

    But now I need a much better face model for myself to match this level of detail...
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    I got a new face.
  • acidchalkacidchalk Member Posts: 70
    These are some good pieces! convert it allllllll
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    My army of soldiers:

  • T0R0T0R0 Member Posts: 86
    Seems to me your skills are progressing nicely !! Great job !
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    Here's some combat footage from a module I'm working on, so you guys can see a few of the models in action.
    The module is inspired by and based on the classic Good vs Evil III, but set in my own universe with a customized ruleset.
    The video features my mighty Hyarethi warriors versus werewolves, with some elves thrown in at the end:
    https://youtu.be/oLcgek8gL7A
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