Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Discuss the creation of various model formats for Quake engines, and related matters to modeling.
Gaku
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Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by Gaku »

I've managed to setup a workflow of sorts for getting Blender files into Quake 2.

1) Create the model in Blender 2.63
2) Export it as a .obj
3) Import it into Blender 2.49b
4) Export as .mdl
5) Convert .mdl to .md2 using Noesis

Unfortunately my md2s are just a single frame, which results in spam error messages in-game.
I'm curious, what would be my best bet for compiling animation frames, and how could I pack them into the md2?

Also, is there a listing of which animation frames correspond to which states?

Thanks,
taniwha
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by taniwha »

Ugh, why such pain? Try this mdl import/export script for Blender 2.63+. While the documentation is poor to non-existent, it does support two styles of animation export: scripted, and simple frame 1-current. It doesn't do md2, though, so you you still have to go through the mdl->md2 step.

If there are any issues with the script (including just questions), let me know and I'll do what I can (I wrote it).

I know of no such listing, but I can certainly make qfcc generate one. Hmm, actually, that might be a nice distraction from fighting with the optimizer. How does hknight.frame sound for an output filename?
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taniwha
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by taniwha »

Ok, just for fun, I added the above feature to qfcc (currently only in git, check the homepage for details). Just add --frames to the command line (eg, qfcc --frames) and all files that use frame macros (ie, states) will generate a <basename>.frame file with the frame name and number, one frame per line. I kept the format simple so it should be easy to write tools to get the lists into more useful form (actually, I was too lazy to do more than while (frame) printf ("%s %d\n", frame->name, frame->num);).
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hogsy
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by hogsy »

Gaku wrote:I've managed to setup a workflow of sorts for getting Blender files into Quake 2.

1) Create the model in Blender 2.63
2) Export it as a .obj
3) Import it into Blender 2.49b
4) Export as .mdl
5) Convert .mdl to .md2 using Noesis
Why do so many people do it like this!?
Image
leileilol
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Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:23 am

Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by leileilol »

Could be worse. He could be using Milkshape (based on outdated suggestions and tutorials) to import a OBJ from Blender to animate and export a MD3 then convert that MD3 to MD2 using Quark then use qME to convert that MD2 to an MDL!


I should also mention since bmeshes were introduced in 2.63 this broke backwards importing compatibilty for the meshes for previous Blenders. I still 2.61.
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Gaku
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by Gaku »

taniwha wrote:Ugh, why such pain? Try this mdl import/export script for Blender 2.63+. While the documentation is poor to non-existent, it does support two styles of animation export: scripted, and simple frame 1-current. It doesn't do md2, though, so you you still have to go through the mdl->md2 step.

If there are any issues with the script (including just questions), let me know and I'll do what I can (I wrote it).

I know of no such listing, but I can certainly make qfcc generate one. Hmm, actually, that might be a nice distraction from fighting with the optimizer. How does hknight.frame sound for an output filename?
Thanks a lot; this does sound a lot more convenient! I will give it a shot in just a little while.
taniwha wrote:Ok, just for fun, I added the above feature to qfcc (currently only in git, check the homepage for details). Just add --frames to the command line (eg, qfcc --frames) and all files that use frame macros (ie, states) will generate a <basename>.frame file with the frame name and number, one frame per line. I kept the format simple so it should be easy to write tools to get the lists into more useful form (actually, I was too lazy to do more than while (frame) printf ("%s %d\n", frame->name, frame->num);).
Very cool; thanks!
hogsy wrote:Why do so many people do it like this!?
Well, I spent almost a week using every import/export script and model editor I could find (different versions of Blender, Milkshape, 3dsmax, several versions of qME, NST, Noesis, and a few others I deleted because they didn't do anything but crash instantly), and this ended up being the ONLY way I came up with, using the resources I had, to actually get a working model into Quake 2. I should note that most of the scripts that I found also didn't work at all.
Gaku
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by Gaku »

taniwha wrote:Ugh, why such pain? Try this mdl import/export script for Blender 2.63+. While the documentation is poor to non-existent, it does support two styles of animation export: scripted, and simple frame 1-current. It doesn't do md2, though, so you you still have to go through the mdl->md2 step.

If there are any issues with the script (including just questions), let me know and I'll do what I can (I wrote it).
Sorry for the late response; not sure what I'm doing wrong, but your scripts aren't showing up in Blender 2.63 in the search window after I import them. :?
qbism
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by qbism »

directory goes here C:\blender-2.63a-release-windows64\2.63\scripts\addons\io_mesh_qfmdl

milkshape does a good job of exporting md2 directly. This would be ok for simple animations. Make the model in something else ->obj ->milkshape-> md2
leileilol
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by leileilol »

Even for simple animations Milkshape is bad for its bone distorting bugs, and there's no IK.

Let's not encourage $30 obsolete and limited shareware in 2012.


I'd still like a working NOT-BASED-ON-GODDAMN-NEHE-TUTORIALS Blender md2 exporter that actually works with Quake 2. This is the very thing that's holding me back from a data project for years (and how do I make a spr2 also anyway?)
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qbism
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by qbism »

It is doubtful that anyone would endorse md2 or ms3d nowadays. The two are equally obsolete and vertex-swimmy/ bone-swimmy. But in terms of direct export of animated md2, there's not much choice.

Maybe md3? Several quake2 engines support it. kmquake2 does a great job and adds a shader language.
leileilol
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by leileilol »

Alternate model formats aren't really a choice when the goal is compatibility (OA gets blind suggestions to move to IQM all the time due to md3 export deprecation from programmers unwilling to fix them). As far as I know, no one attempted to make MD3s nicely loaded for the software renderer (due to the whole multiple surface thing).
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taniwha
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by taniwha »

leileilol wrote:As far as I know, no one attempted to make MD3s nicely loaded for the software renderer (due to the whole multiple surface thing).
Really? I didn't find that to be a problem with IQM support in QF's sw renderers. I approached it more or less as each surface/skin being a separate model.
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ceriux
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by ceriux »

those tutorials are quite outdated and kind of bad. i suppose i should make better tutorials for those using something other than max. now i export to md3 then convert straight to mdl.
Seven
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by Seven »

It is interesting to read that almost everyone uses different ways to achive what they want.
That heavily depends on the currently used program and its familiarness to the individual.

Nevertheless, it is very interesting to see different/other ways to come from A to C. :)

I am a little suprised that noone mentioned Sajts "qwalk" yet:
http://icculus.org/qshed/qwalk/
It converts easy and quick between mdl, md2 and md3
(except export to md3, which does not work yet)
Maybe it is a less known tool ...


Regarding leileilol´s sprite question:
I saw a convertion from md5 to sprite (a Doom2 mod uses it).
It converted all D3 weapons and other models into Doom2 sprites:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-3-weapon ... d-patch-47

I also saw a blender plugin that could export sprites.
But I am a too big noob at these things to be able to really help you.

Maybe this link does help you with spr2 ?
http://www.atelierquebec.ca/iffsnooper/ ... prite.html
leileilol
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Re: Blender-to-Blender-to-Noesis-to-Q2: how to animate?

Post by leileilol »

THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUAKE2 SPRITE2 FORMAT.
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