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Searching for Help of Old Gurus of Modeling in AoP2 /Stormengine

G

GHOSTMD

Powder Monkey
Storm Modder
Hey guys,

old "Veteran" of the Forums here once again. I quite desperatly search for help with some issues i have
right now using Inez Diaz Tool.

The tool doesn load the models consistently, sometimes they are loaded correct sometimes they are
glitched. Need help to solve those issues with the tool after searching through the old tutorials.
Everything i found is heavy outdated. I presume the issues Tool has is because it was intitially
made for PotC right? So any workaround would be helpful here, since i am totally lost now.
Can t figure out why sometimes the models and even the animations are loaded correct.
And on restart they are bugged, despite nothing was changed.

My intention is, to swap 2 animations for a character i intent to use in my new playthrough
women3_ab to Jessikas animation. As far as i recall and have read Inez Diaz Tool is the way to
go, when i want to accomplish this. Aye?

Any directions to new tutorials would be helpful here folks. Or if you (by any chance) have a new tool
in place to meddle with the animations in Storm Engine / Maelstorm.

Thx in advance for any help you might provide o7
 
TOOL has problems reading some models in any semi-modern version of Windows (7 or higher). Some PoTC models won't read either.

But I don't think it will help with what you want. Maya might be able to rebuild the model enough to use a different animation, but although I have some experience with TOOL, I have none with Maya so I'm not sure, and wouldn't know how to start even if it can change a model's animation.
 
I don't know about animations, but I know how to open most of the non working models.
What I do is have a virtual machine running Windows XP with .NET 1.1 installed.
Then install PotC, or COAS it should work I think.
(When I first started I had pointed the TOOL to TEHO.)
And then install the TOOL.

It should also be noted that I don't use the latest version of VirtualBox, rather version 5.2.x.
This way 3D acceleration will work on XP.

I hope I have helped you, good luck on the sea!
 
For some additional clarification

INEZ DIAZ TOOL does work, models are loaded without any error message
Sometimes the models load correctly even with the animation working
other times the models don t load correct, same animations and textures chosen

Intented goal is, to "transplant" the jessika animation on a model that uses women3_ab
animation right now. (personal preference i like Jess animations more)
both models work fine in game, no bugs or issues.
I search for some advice on this, since the model i want to play was already ported
from a other game.
 
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GHOSTMD said:
Any directions to new tutorials would be helpful here folks. Or if you (by any chance) have a new tool
in place to meddle with the animations in Storm Engine / Maelstorm.
Click to expand...
I wish!

I wonder if @Jack Rackham might have any clue about character animations.
He's one of the most creative minds we've got in these waters...
 
GHOSTMD said:
Intented goal is, to "transplant" the jessika animation on a model that uses women3_ab
animation right now. (personal preference i like Jess animations more)
both models work fine in game, no bugs or issues.
I search for some advice on this, since the model i want to play was already ported
from a other game.
Click to expand...
I don't think that will work, and certainly not by using TOOL.

An animation such as "jessika" consists of two files. There's "jessika.an", which is a binary file that contains the data for moving the character around. If you play the character's animation in TOOL, it goes through the whole file so you can see all the moves that character model can make.

And there's "jessika.ani", which is a plain text file which defines specific actions as clips from "jessika.an", with a start time, end time, and some other information for playing the animation clip.

So "jessika.ani" uses "jessika.an". And "woman3_ab.ani" uses "woman3.an". If you try to use "jessika.an" to play animations for a character model that is supposed to use "woman3.an", you'll probably see a horrible mess of body parts distorting and moving like someone who has had a nasty accident with a transporter in "Star Trek", because it's trying to move the wrong pieces to the wrong places.

You might have a better chance of making a new version of texture file "Jesika.tga.tx", using pieces of texture copied from the texture file of your chosen model, pasted and distorted to fit. It won't be easy because the texture files will be laid out completely differently, but it will at least be theoretically possible.
 
Grey Roger said:
I don't think that will work, and certainly not by using TOOL.

An animation such as "jessika" consists of two files. There's "jessika.an", which is a binary file that contains the data for moving the character around. If you play the character's animation in TOOL, it goes through the whole file so you can see all the moves that character model can make.

And there's "jessika.ani", which is a plain text file which defines specific actions as clips from "jessika.an", with a start time, end time, and some other information for playing the animation clip.

So "jessika.ani" uses "jessika.an". And "woman3_ab.ani" uses "woman3.an". If you try to use "jessika.an" to play animations for a character model that is supposed to use "woman3.an", you'll probably see a horrible mess of body parts distorting and moving like someone who has had a nasty accident with a transporter in "Star Trek", because it's trying to move the wrong pieces to the wrong places.

You might have a better chance of making a new version of texture file "Jesika.tga.tx", using pieces of texture copied from the texture file of your chosen model, pasted and distorted to fit. It won't be easy because the texture files will be laid out completely differently, but it will at least be theoretically possible.
Click to expand...


Yeah basically the problem i face. I presume once a model is imported into STORM it doesn t count as "stock model"?
Since TOOL help says the following.
Load model, raisarms, unbind then export as VRML (for stockmodels raisarm actions can be skipped)
then import the model and bind it to the other skeleton / an file

but perhaps i oversee something here?
not sure at this point if i ever ll be able to pull of a full blown animation change in MAYA or Blender
 
GHOSTMD said:
Yeah basically the problem i face. I presume once a model is imported into STORM it doesn t count as "stock model"?
Since TOOL help says the following.
Load model, raisarms, unbind then export as VRML (for stockmodels raisarm actions can be skipped)
then import the model and bind it to the other skeleton / an file

but perhaps i oversee something here?
not sure at this point if i ever ll be able to pull of a full blown animation change in MAYA or Blender
Click to expand...
If I can afford to get my computer fixed & then download all the needed modeling programs , tool etc. I'll help you sort it. It's me damski62 with new profile.
 
GHOSTMD said:
Yeah basically the problem i face. I presume once a model is imported into STORM it doesn t count as "stock model"?
Since TOOL help says the following.
Load model, raisarms, unbind then export as VRML (for stockmodels raisarm actions can be skipped)
then import the model and bind it to the other skeleton / an file
Click to expand...
I don't dare say for certain...
But I believe original PotC character models have their arms by default in a different position than AoP/SD:CT ones.
Could it have something to do with that?
 
I made an animation file so people could export man models from tool in the correct position ready to bind onto the coas skeleton in Maya. We never got the female skeleton though.
 
damski62 said:
If I can afford to get my computer fixed & then download all the needed modeling programs , tool etc. I'll help you sort it. It's me damski62 with new profile.
Click to expand...

Hey o7,

good to see you, at this point i ll take any help i can get, to solve the problem i face.
Lucky me i do not need to make a new animation, as stated above, my goal is to swap the
skeleton so the model uses the Jassika animation instead of the women3 one.

As far as i understand TOOL help, you load the gm file, switch the postition to T Pose then hit unbind and
export it (not sure if *gm or *vrml since both options are avaiable)

Then you import the model again, drop and center it, bind it again to the "new" skeleton
Sounds way too easy, if you ask me. I presume i can t avoid the retour over loading it to Maya
and export it from that ,both skeletons are loaded normal too women3_ab and Jessika.an
(although it seems the women3 one is more detailed?)
 
GHOSTMD said:
Hey o7,

good to see you, at this point i ll take any help i can get, to solve the problem i face.
Lucky me i do not need to make a new animation, as stated above, my goal is to swap the
skeleton so the model uses the Jassika animation instead of the women3 one.

As far as i understand TOOL help, you load the gm file, switch the postition to T Pose then hit unbind and
export it (not sure if *gm or *vrml since both options are avaiable)

Then you import the model again, drop and center it, bind it again to the "new" skeleton
Sounds way too easy, if you ask me. I presume i can t avoid the retour over loading it to Maya
and export it from that ,both skeletons are loaded normal too women3_ab and Jessika.an
(although it seems the women3 one is more detailed?)
Click to expand...
None of the skeletons will take a full working model in tool...the hands never work. POTC, AOP & COAS skeletons are all different. Like I said though, as soon as I can get operational again I'll assist full time & sort all characters with you. I'll be using Maya though to do it so try learning it. I only use tool for exporting & viewing stuff
 
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