Editing Person Models

[Hoppah]

If you want to add helmets to persons you can try to read the text below which contains the text of a tutorial I once made (for myself). This whole process of adding a helmet is mostly done MANUALLY. You need to edit certain lines within the .v3o files itself using Notepad. It's not easy nor some parts of the tutorial will make sense to some people. I will answer small questions. If you do not understand the whole tutorial leave it.

Experience with .v3o files is required. If you never made a model I'm not even going to help to you.

Difficulty: Advanced

Programs used:

Zmodeler 2 (v2.0.7.802) Registered Version

Photoshop CS

NotePad

This tutorial will explain how to add new polygons to a person model. This way you can objects like hats, helmets or backpacks to any person model.

In this tutorial explains how you can add a helmet to a person without headwear.

==========================

HOW TO ADD POLYGONS TO PERSON MODELS:

1. Create and uv-map the helmet in Zmodeler2. Export it as .V3O.

2. Import the person model. You will notice the person model has a weird deformed shape, although you should reconize some parts of the person if you look closely (the head for example).

3. Attach the helmet to the person. In case you can't reconize the body parts, you can make body parts very bright by changing the texture file of the person. Parts like the head can be found easily then.

4. Export it to a new, second person model. Animation sets of that model will be lost, but that's normal and not important.

5. Each vertex has a number. The lines in a .V3O file are sorted by vertex number, so that means the helmet vertices are the last D-lines of the .V3O file because they were added last.

Now, open the first person model (with animations) AND the second model with NotePad. You are going to copy certain values from the second model to the first. Remember: Nothing will be changed in the second file. The second file is temperary and can be deleted when you're done.

6. First, copy the following lines from the second model to the first .V3O model, so the new model has the correct amount of surfaces (= amount of textures), vertices and polygons:

NUMSURFACES=

NUMVERTICES=

NUMPOLYGONS=

7. In case the helmet has a new texture you also need to copy the extra texture line.

8. Compare both model files and find out which model lines (starting with a D) have been added. New vertices should be the last lines of the D-lines. If you didn't touch the person model it shoudn't be hard to find the new lines. Copy those new lines too. Add them below the other D-lines in the first .V3O

9. To fix the texture: Copy the whole uv-map part (starting with a P) and overwrite the old P-lines.

10. Each vertex is assigned to an animation set (lines starting with a K). Head and helmet polygons are assigned to a head animation set and vertices without animations are assigned to a Dummy set for example.

Find the correct animation set in the file. In this case it's the head animation set. If you looks closely at the animation set you will notice that something is repeated: "[NUMBER], 1024, [NUMBER], 1024, [NUMBER], 1024 etc..." It's not important what 1024 means, but [NUMBER] is important. Each number represents a vertex.

What do you have to do? Create for each vertex a "[NUMBER], 1024" part and add them to that animation set. If there are 100 new vertices, you have to create and add 100 "[NUMBER], 1024" parts.

12. Right before the first "[NUMBER], 1024" part there is one number which represents the number of vertices (see image 2) in that animation set. Count up the old and new vertices and change that number too.

==========================

TIP:

How to find out how many and which vertices you have to add to that animation set? Example:

Old person model (without helmet): [NUMVERTICES=1400]

New person file (with helmet): [NUMVERTICES=1500]

So there are 100 new vertices and you have to make 100 "[NUMBER], 1024" parts starting from vertice number 1401 to 1500 and that will look like this:

1401, 1024, 1402, 1024, 1403, 1024 .................... 1500, 1024

Add it behind the correct animation set and you're done!

==========================

TIP TO DELETE/HIDE POLYGONS:

Since it's almost impossible to delete polygons/vertices, you can do something else:

You can make the polygons (almost) invisible by making them very small. You can resize them in Zmodeler2.

Export the model to a second .V3O file and compare the first and second files. Find out which model lines have been changed, like in step 8.

Change the values manually and you're done.

==========================

TESTING:

Because this is done manually there is a high possibility that the game will crash when it's loading your changed person model.

In some cases something will be logged in the logfile, so read that file first when you're having crashes!

Otherwise, you to check your changed person file step by step again.

The "[NUMBER], 1024" part is the most difficult, so mistakes can be made easily in that part.

==========================

Tutorial made by Hoppah

January 2008

==========================

Copyright 2008-2009 by Hoppah

==========================

Examples:

1. Stretchers with wheels (added wheels to anchor bone):

2. LA MOD: US Army soldier (original scout model + new helmet):

3. LA MOD: USFS firefighters (added helmets + oxigen canister):

4. LA MOD: CHP deputy (added hat):

5. NL MOD: Dutch Riot Police (added baton to one of the hands bones):

Hoppah

[Bernt]

Heey Hoppah,

A friend of my ask if you have this tutorial in Germany language

[Hoppah]

Nope and not in Dutch either.

[Ami89E1234]

holy crap thank you Hoppah

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Thanks for this Tutorial :-)

But what means this:

12. Right before the first "[NUMBER], 1024" part there is one number which represents the number of vertices (see image 2) in that animation set. Count up the old and new vertices and change that number too.

Firefighter masked:

K, head, 7, 0, 0, -880, -1145, -692, 1578, 1651, 714, 16384, 0, 0, 0, 0, 16384, 0, 0, 0, 0, 16384, 0, 0, 0, 0, 16384, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 148, 79, 1024,

Means you this number?

So my old files has [NUMVERTICES=570] the new has [NUMVERTICES=760] . Now must i

subtract this to numbers ( 760-570= 338 ) and write down in the K, head, 7, 0, 0, -880, ..... 338 or how ?

Here is my Firefightermask_upgrade Person with a new PA bottle.

Yours sincerely

BF Frankfurt am Main

Nomex

firefightermask_upgraded.rar

[Hoppah]

Yes, that numer 148 represents the amount of vertices in that animation set.

If the old model has 570 vertices and the new 760 you get 760-570=190 new vertices.

That means you have to assign all of these vertices to an animation set.

So if the animationset already has 148 and you add 190 new vertices you get 148+190=338 then add these [NUMBER], 1024 parts which should begin with

, 571, 1024, 572, 1024, 573, 1024, etc....

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Also i must added 190 times of [Number],1024 .. ok

I have make this but when i will load the person in the editor the em4 editor crashs.

i have look bevor in the lines with [ numer] 1024 but i don´t can find a mistake in the persons file.

[Hoppah]

Check the logfile.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Ok Thanks :-)

Sry,but i have another Question:

In German:

Bei dem Feuerwehrmann mit Atemschutz gibt es bei der K-Head animation garkeine richtige Reihenfolge:

202, 1024, 204, 1024, 188, 1024, 222, 1024, 189, 1024, 213, 1024, 226, 1024, 187, 1024, 220, 1024, 211, 1024

Du hattest ja geschrieben,wenn jetzt die Endzahl 244 ist sollte man diese fortführen.. dann 255, 1024, 256.....

Nur wie mache ich das jetzt bei dem Mann mit Atemschutz,weil dort ist keine Reihenfolge.

Vielleicht liegt da mein Fehler,weil bei ihm habe ich am Ende mit der Zahl 300 angefangen bis 490.

Ich würde mich über eine Antwort sehr freuen.

ps. Vielen Dank schon mal für deine Hilfe Hoppah

mfg

BF Frankfurt Main

[Xplorer4x4]

It's because the people models are built with skeletons and bones and things like that, Zmod does not really support this, so it can't really read the file format correctly, what you have to do is guess, I am pretty sure Hoppah made a tutorial about this, but it is an advanced task, since you're not really going to see the result until it gets into the game, in zmod it will never look right. I don't know what the dev's really used to make the models, but zmod just can't read them as they were meant to be shown... In my opinion it's excessive work to try to add things to the people from my understanding of how to do it you need to be dedicated.

Well I was browsing and I found ultimate unwrap3d has a plus ing for v3o files and it supports bones, but for some reason I cant get the plug in to work. Just thought I would throw this out there as others may have more luck then I did.

[Hoppah]

Ok Thanks :-)

Sry,but i have another Question:

In German:

Bei dem Feuerwehrmann mit Atemschutz gibt es bei der K-Head animation garkeine richtige Reihenfolge:

202, 1024, 204, 1024, 188, 1024, 222, 1024, 189, 1024, 213, 1024, 226, 1024, 187, 1024, 220, 1024, 211, 1024

Du hattest ja geschrieben,wenn jetzt die Endzahl 244 ist sollte man diese fortführen.. dann 255, 1024, 256.....

Nur wie mache ich das jetzt bei dem Mann mit Atemschutz,weil dort ist keine Reihenfolge.

The order in that animation set doesn't matter. What matters is that each new vertex is assigned to an animation set.

So

255, 1024, 256, 1024, 260, 1024, 259. 1024, 258, 1024, 257, 1024.....

Should in my opinion also work.

Let me know if it works. I am curious if anyone else made it work already.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Wieso denn so:

255, 1024, 256, 1024, 260, 1024, 259. 1024, 258, 1024, 257, 1024.....

?? Was macht denn die 260 mitten drin, da stimmt dich die reihenfolge gar nicht ? Ich dachte man macht das so,das man vom kleinsten zum größten geht.

Fals es dir wirklich keine Umstände macht kannst du dir ja mal meine Datei (Hängt als Winrar an) anschauen.

Ich habe genau das gemacht was in deinem Tutorial stand:

Helm mit der Person Attachen.

Dann die neuen "Ds" in die alte Datei kopieren. Dann den Texturpfad einfügen. Danach die alten Daten durch die neuen: [NUMSURFACES=2]

[NUMVERTICES=615] , [NUMPOLYGONS=714] ersetzen.

Danach die neuen "Ps" einfügen.. joar und unten dann die Animationen aktuallisieren bei K, Head .

Ich interessiere mich echt für das Personen Editing, es können nur sehr wenige.. joar Du und Stormi meines wissen nach ^^

Es würde mich echt freuen,wenn du mir meinen Fehler sagen könntest, weil dann hätte ich auch eine Person mit einem neuen Helm und hätte es Dank dir verstanden :-)

Vorallem du bist so hilfsbereit und schreibst sogar ein Tutorial und gibst dazu noch Hilfe.. im gegensatz zu Wuppertal die rücken ja gar nichts raus.

mfg

BF Frankfurt am Main

feuerwehrmann.rar

[Hoppah]

?? Was macht denn die 260 mitten drin, da stimmt dich die reihenfolge gar nicht ? Ich dachte man macht das so,das man vom kleinsten zum größten geht.

Isn't it very obvious that if the old model has 100 vertices and you add 20 new vertices, that the new vertices are 101 to 120? You just add them behind the correct animationset. You didn't read my post. As you've already noticed yourself, the order does not matter for the animationset. I used an example.

"1, 1024, 2, 1024, 3, 1024, 4, 1024" should work just as fine as "3, 1024, 4, 1024, 1, 1024, 2, 1024"

because you still have vertice number 1 to 4 assigned to the animationset.

Es würde mich echt freuen,wenn du mir meinen Fehler sagen könntest, weil dann hätte ich auch eine Person mit einem neuen Helm und hätte es Dank dir verstanden :-)

I can't check it in the editor right now, because I am still waiting for my new videocard for my computer. My old one broke down and I am using my computer without any good videocard now. Even Zmodeler 2 won't start.

I can check your fireman model in Notepad though, but I need both the new fireman and the old fireman (unlocked .v3o files) to compare them.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Ah Ok Danke.. jetzt habe ich es verstanden^^ Sry ich hab wohl den einen Teil überflogen.

Gut also die Reihenfolge ist egal^^

Hier beide Dateien: Firefighter new and Firefighter old

Vielen Dank schon mal :-)

mfg

Nomex

Persons_Firefighter.rar

[Hoppah]

Ok, old model has 505 vertices

You added a helmet, which has 110 vertices

That makes 615 vertices.

Correct?

You had to continue the old head animationset like this,

, 506, 1024, 507, 1024, 508, 1024, ............... , 614, 1024, 615, 1024

Because you assign the new vertices (number 506 to 615) to one of the animationsets.

When I search your model file for "311, 1024", I find it in the head and a hand animationset. That means you had vertex 311 assigned twice to different animationsets what doesn't work.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Ohh ich dachte ich kann irgendwo anfangen^^

Ok vielen Dank.

ich werde es mal eben umschreiben und dann testen ob es funktioniert.

Also ich habe nach der alten Animation mit 506 angefangen .. sowie du es geschrieben hattest.

Ich hab die Person mal in den Editor geladen,allerdings stürtzt er wieder ab...

Also irgendwo muss noch ein Fehler sein hmmmm

Ich habe eben nochmal durchgeguckt,aber keine "Kommafehler" oder Sonstiges entdeckt.

Vielleicht hast du bessere Augen und findest den Fehler^^

Vielen Dank nochmals,das du dir Zeir für mich nimmst :-)

mfg

Nomex

feuerwehrmann_new.rar

[Bernt]

Hi BF Frankfurt am Main works it?

Then can i use the Helm and the PA for my mod^^

[Stan]

Well I was browsing and I found ultimate unwrap3d has a plus ing for v3o files and it supports bones, but for some reason I cant get the plug in to work. Just thought I would throw this out there as others may have more luck then I did.

Tried that a month or two ago, failed too We are two now hehe

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Hi Hoppah,

ich wollte nochmal nachfragen,ob du schon etwas rausgefunden hast?

mfg

Nomex

[Hoppah]

Yes

And let me ask again: Have you checked the logfile after testing your model in the editor?

It might mention something about missing or double values.

So, I've manually checked your new file again and copied the whole part you added behind the head animationset to Excel. Then I removed all 1024 values and counted the remaining numbers, 102. So you forgot at least 8 numbers. Because you couldn't check that by yourself I also took the time to found that out for you:

Missing vertices:

545

546

547

548

549

550

551

552

553

554

Double vertices:

558

568

I'm sorry, but if you can't check these things yourself you are not really capable of doing things like this. This requires so much patience, although it took me only 5 minutes to check that. If you're smart enough you can use Excel and Word to make these "[NUMBER], 1024" parts for you, what you obviously did not do or even tried. Successrate is like 10 times as high when you let other programs do the work. The game instantly crashes when there is something wrong in the file. Did you ever check the logfile? I'm happy you get the point of how this works, but you really need to work on your patience and discipline.

Good luck with your fireman.

Hoppah

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Ok ich werde mich etwas zügeln mit der Geduld^^

Diesmal heißt es abwarten.

Dennoch bin ich aufgeregt,wenn es denn klappen sollte. Weil sowas ist schon was cooles,wenn die Personen dann neue Helme etc.. haben.

Ich habe nun die Feuerwehrmann Datei geändert und in den Editor geladen,leider wieder ein absturzt.

Hier mal die Daten aus der Log-File:

?Cannot add default animation set to P: incompatible bone structure?

!Model not found:

|Loading Model mod:Models\Objects\Misc\empty.v3o

|[VNUM=1.43]

|Model contains 32 vertices, 12 polygons, 0 bones, 0 muscleanimframes

?Cannot add default animation set to P: incompatible bone structure?

|Loading Model mod:Models\Persons\Fire Department\feuerwehrmann.v3o

|[VNUM=1.43]

?too many blendpoints per vertex in model file

!WARNING: global listener object is still registered! Unregister listener before destroying object!

mfg

Nomex

[Hoppah]

You probably still forgot to assign a vertex to the head animationset.

Please upload the changed .v3o file again.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Komisch ,jetzt hab ich mir echt mal Zeit genommen und bin unten die K-Head Animationen genau durchgegangen, habe sogar laut mitgezählt.. es sind alle Zahlen da von 506-615 ..

feuerwehrmann.rar

[Hoppah]

I couldn't find a problem in the animationsets indeed, but I found something else.

Do you know the difference between a vertex and a polygon?

The last D-line of the original fireman is

D, -20, 595, 132, 68, 233, 79, 168, 124, 0, 0, 0, 467

In the new file, you added 148 D-lines below that line. Each D-line represents information about a vertex.

That means you added 148 vertices and not 110. All together these 148 vertices together are probably 110 polygons.

So you know what to do now. I suggest you restart and do it correct now.

This is why I didn't want to release the text of this tutorial before... Too many things that can go wrong.

[BF Frankfurt am Main]

Ah ok. Hmm das war etwas verwirrent mit den Vertices,weil in der V3o Datei steht ja 615. Aber wenn man das Modell im Zmodeler öffnet steht dort 653 Vertices.

Also ich hab nun 38 Animationsabschnitte bei dem K-Head hinzugefügt und vorne die Zahl,bevor [Nummer] 1024 anfängt geändert,da ich ja 148 Vertices hinzugefügt habe.

feuerwehrmann12.rar