MD5 import issues

[glasz]

There have been some issues trying to import the md5 format models into the game. synopia has been working on it with partial success. Since having the existing L&S models in game is the first needed step to implementing the L&S mode, and would be very stimulating to all working on it, i thought i would create this thread as a call for people who'd like to try to fix that issue, or just give some advices...

 

[Cervator]

Pinging some possibly relevant people: synopia overdhose Maternal filth and of course Immortius

Also filth was working on supporting a different format: http://forum.movingblocks.net/threads/iqm-support.840/

 

[Immortius]

Can you link me to an example blender file + exported md5, and I'll have a look.

 

[Cervator]

synopia put a few of the L&S models into the module: https://github.com/MovingBlocks/Terasology/tree/develop/mods/lightAndShadow/assets

The red queen can be placed in-world, but she shows up with her head a ways from her body. The others I couldn't get to show up at all.

Source files are in TeraMisc, like https://github.com/MovingBlocks/TeraMisc/tree/master/lightandshadow/redteam/redqueen

 

[Immortius]

Ok, looked at the red queen.

• Found a bug in how the base pose is applied. This only affects skeletal mesh with no animation applied, but it at least fixes the positioning of the red queen when spawned.
• Fixed animations whose root bone has an offset, this wasn't being corrected for the difference in unit axes between the md5/blender and terasology.
• The queen having a huge head is a bug in either the md5 exporter or the blender mesh - I tried loading the md5 in an md5 viewer and the big head was present there too.

These fixes have been applied to the multiplayer branch.

 

[glasz]

I've re checked the blender model to see if there's any scaling issue or other with either the mesh or the skeleton but couldnt find anything (apart from the fact that it's not positioned on the origin point)

 

[Cervator]

Thanks Immortius

glasz - have you tried opening it in one or more alternative md5 viewers?

 

[glasz]

i cant really test that myself, having issues exporting md5

well md5 anims, i thinks the md5 models work, i'll see if i can use them with a viewer

 

[glasz]

As for now i cant find a md5 viewer for linux. The Windows one i have i can launch with wine, but it crashes when i try to load the model.

 

[SleekoNiko]

glasz, I don't have time to check these, but look at this page: http://tfc.duke.free.fr/

Specifically, look at "Doom 3's MD5 Viewer (*.md5mesh, *.md5anim)". Note that you'll have to compile it yourself.

Hope that helps in the end!

 

[glasz]

thanks for the tip SleekoNiko, i'll give it a try.

 

[HeadClot]

Just for future reference. There is a MD5 viewer, Importer and exporter for 3DS max. Here. It is on the right hand side of the page under MD5 Importers, Exporters and viewers.

EDIT: Also lots of blender stuff on that site as well!

 

[glutamatkrieger]

Here are links to my oreons - i don´t know if this would help. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Kq9XFiF6gxOWVaZHFOVTBkLXc&usp=sharing What exactly is the issue ?

Edit: The whole Source of my Folder https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Kq9XFiF6gxU1dRMlcxeWstRzA&usp=sharing

 

[glutamatkrieger]

So, i looked into the Redqueen.blend and here are some major things that are really important to do :
First, i would strongly recommend to name ALL you can name and should be named. I did that for you, hovewer, it is still improvent needed. Its is a good thing to talk with programmers what would suit best to name all kind of things, they often
have the better ideas of naming things.

Second, never ever touch the root bone ! Do all you can do to prevent the root bone from beeing animated- the root bone always stays at x=0 y=0 and z=0, and no translation, rotation or scalation. I also would recomend not to have two armature trees outgoing from the root bone itself - you can branch other bones into separate branches, but not the rootbone.
This is the most issue with nearly every engine, and even if it works to offset the rootbone, don´t do it. Programmers need a starting point to calculate from, the root bone is exactly this. If the root bone is animated, this can cause trouble and issues or looooooong production for the programmer to find out how to get around the offsetting.

Third, use helper objects to offset - use the root bone or even better another bone after the root bone with a constraint for location. This way, you can use this to animate walking and if the walking animation is finished it can be erased with no pain - and also resets any offset.

Sorry for my bad english, its kinda rusty over the years i have to learn it anew.

>here is the file, i don´t know if it would work now and i haven´t exported it yet
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8Kq9XFiF6gxYUZYcXJQUG9XWnM&usp=sharing

Many greets,
Maternal

 

[glasz]

So, thanks a lot to Maternal for solving the blender export issue : what we need to do is to triangulate all faces of the mesh. Having done that on the red fool i could export it and view it in the model viewer.

The bad news being, as explained above, plenty of things are wrong with the armature setting, and it will require some extra work before everything is ready to be in game. But still, we're much closer than we were before

 

[Cervator]

I know I said this on IRC already, but this is awesome! It is hard to express how excited I am about being able to move foward here!

 

[glasz]

So i redid the rig and anim of the red pawn, following Maternal suggestions, and i have now a hoping red pawn that show right in my model viewer

I commit my exports here : https://github.com/glasz/TeraMisc/tree/master/lightandshadow/redteam/redpawn for testing.

Naming is a bit messy, we probably need some naming conventions for later.

One more thing : for the export to work the armature should be in object mode, not pose mode. I also deleted the Armature modifier and used Parenting of the mesh to the Armature instead. I dont know if that part is important, but it seems to be the standard setting.

[edit]

After further testing it also seems important to remove all vertex groups that are not linked to a bone in the armature. I could export the rook elephant, without redoing the whole armature and rig, after adding a root bone and following the other steps mentionned here.