Help reskinning monsters

[genmills]

Hrm that's very bizarre. I haven't had trouble importing to 2.57...Try deleting the camera, light source, and the dumb little cube before importing. Or do that same reverse operation with 2.49b...open your .dae in 2.49b and save it as a .blend so you can open it in 2.57.

I'll upload a video tomorrow showing where to click and such if you don't figure it out before then. And if that still gives you trouble you just send your .dds file to me and I'll try it out, and if it works I'll send you back the .dae file with the edited texture.

Why not just do the whole thing in 2.49 then? Of course, that wouldn't work for me anyway, because anytime I import one of the monsters into 2.49 it says import failed, even though I'm use collada 1.4...

[palistov]

I tried importing into 2.49b, but nothing happened. Import failed, I'm assuming, just like yours. I think it has something to do with animations

Try other old versions of Blender. There's a known issue with exporting/importing COLLADA data in the newer Blender versions, specifically when you try and import Amnesia models or use said exports with HPL tools. The wiki says anything past 2.5 won't work, but for my purposes, using 2.57 along with 2.49b lets me properly export models. But so far the ones I've done have no animations. Looks like you may need to hunt down a different modelling program if Blender is a dead end. Sorry mate

[Danny Boy]

Wait sorry guys but what do you want to do? do you just want a new texture or also a new model? because if it is just a texture i already said how its done.
or if it is a model i cainda edited the grunts model a bit whit cinema 4D and actualy was visable in model editor... though in the animations model editor crashed :/ i realy would like some help this too...

[genmills]

Wait sorry guys but what do you want to do? do you just want a new texture or also a new model? because if it is just a texture i already said how its done.
or if it is a model i cainda edited the grunts model a bit whit cinema 4D and actualy was visable in model editor... though in the animations model editor crashed :/ i realy would like some help this too...

I just want to make a new texture for the monster. I'm not sure I understood your explanation, though. Could you say how do go about it step by step so I don't make any more mistakes? Thanks!

[palistov]

The only way I know how to make a new texture is by using Blender and exporting the model with the edited texture. I've tried simply modifying the .dds before but it hasn't worked for me.

[Danny Boy]

ok then... copy the original file of the monster you wish to retexture and paste it were ever you want it to be.
then rename that file and its .dae and .ent file (all whit the same name(whithout deleteing the .dae and .ent) attention! you won't need to rename eny more files beyond the ones i said!
Then open the renamed .ent file whit notepad or notepad ++ and if you look for it you will see this code:

Code: (Select All)

<Entities />
        <Mesh Filename="H:/Lux/redist/entities/enemy/servant_grunt/servant_grunt.dae">

in this code its saying were is the .dae file that it wants to load... you will have to change its rewrite this to load the new dae file. in one of my monsters it will look a bit like this:
EDIT: dont mind about the </Entities> part... just edit the lower text

Code: (Select All)

</Entities>
        <Mesh Filename="custom_stories/Test/entities/enemy/servant_super_grunt/servant_super_grunt.dae">

then just replace the old texture whit new one (whit the same name of the original and in dds format) and congratz you have a reskined enemy!
maybe this way is not the best because you may see some problems but for now its the best way i know to reskin a monster :/ but i hope that helps

[genmills]

ok then... copy the original file of the monster you wish to retexture and paste it were ever you want it to be.
then rename that file and its .dae and .ent file (all whit the same name(whithout deleteing the .dae and .ent) attention! you won't need to rename eny more files beyond the ones i said!
Then open the renamed .ent file whit notepad or notepad ++ and if you look for it you will see this code:

Code: (Select All)

<Entities />
        <Mesh Filename="H:/Lux/redist/entities/enemy/servant_grunt/servant_grunt.dae">

in this code its saying were is the .dae file that it wants to load... you will have to change its rewrite this to load the new dae file. in one of my monsters it will look a bit like this:
EDIT: dont mind about the </Entities> part... just edit the lower text

Code: (Select All)

</Entities>
        <Mesh Filename="custom_stories/Test/entities/enemy/servant_super_grunt/servant_super_grunt.dae">

then just replace the old texture whit new one (whit the same name of the original and in dds format) and congratz you have a reskined enemy!
maybe this way is not the best because you may see some problems but for now its the best way i know to reskin a monster :/ but i hope that helps

Thanks! I'll try that. I have opened the .ent and .dae files with notepad before, but I didn't realize there was code in there besides the all that gibberish. When I get some time today, I'll let you know if it worked. And hopefully, with that problem solved, my custom story will be getting close to ready... I'll make a thread for it sometime...

EDIT: You said I rename the folder, .ent, and .dae, right? Should I also rename my .dds that I changed? Just want to be very clear.

[Danny Boy]

ok then... copy the original file of the monster you wish to retexture and paste it were ever you want it to be.
then rename that file and its .dae and .ent file (all whit the same name(whithout deleteing the .dae and .ent) attention! you won't need to rename eny more files beyond the ones i said!
Then open the renamed .ent file whit notepad or notepad ++ and if you look for it you will see this code:

Code: (Select All)

<Entities />
        <Mesh Filename="H:/Lux/redist/entities/enemy/servant_grunt/servant_grunt.dae">

in this code its saying were is the .dae file that it wants to load... you will have to change its rewrite this to load the new dae file. in one of my monsters it will look a bit like this:
EDIT: dont mind about the </Entities> part... just edit the lower text

Code: (Select All)

</Entities>
        <Mesh Filename="custom_stories/Test/entities/enemy/servant_super_grunt/servant_super_grunt.dae">

then just replace the old texture whit new one (whit the same name of the original and in dds format) and congratz you have a reskined enemy!
maybe this way is not the best because you may see some problems but for now its the best way i know to reskin a monster :/ but i hope that helps

Thanks! I'll try that. I have opened the .ent and .dae files with notepad before, but I didn't realize there was code in there besides the all that gibberish. When I get some time today, I'll let you know if it worked. And hopefully, with that problem solved, my custom story will be getting close to ready... I'll make a thread for it sometime...

EDIT: You said I rename the folder, .ent, and .dae, right? Should I also rename my .dds that I changed? Just want to be very clear.

you don't need the rename the dds has i said before

[MrBigzy]

Er, the dds is supposed to match the name of the dae and ent, even if it is linked properly. Afaik, you can't just put any name for the dds, it's supposed to be the same name as the dae. At least that's what it says here: http://wiki.frictionalgames.com/hpl2/tut...loutsource

[Danny Boy]

Er, the dds is supposed to match the name of the dae and ent, even if it is linked properly. Afaik, you can't just put any name for the dds, it's supposed to be the same name as the dae. At least that's what it says here: http://wiki.frictionalgames.com/hpl2/tut...loutsource

well but the way i said i also works becuase if it didn't my super grunt http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/att...p?aid=1173 wouldn't exist