Particles are a massive beast. Just figuring out the M3 structure is a pain, let alone what each setting does. It's taking me a very long time to figure out what most of the LAYR chunk does and that's just bitmaps, with particles it's probably five times as complex. I do have MDX and M2 documentation as a bit of a reference, but particles and ribbons are hard to work with and I'm no expert on them. I want to add support as much as anyone but without having the necessary particle expertise I'm basically blind guessing at close to 30 or 40 particle settings with no hint as to their ultimate function.
My strategy is usually to change a setting and observe the effect but this is largely guesses when it comes to particle settings as I'm not sure what some of them even do despite having an effect. Since I can't just list a bunch of particle settings that don't have a description (how would you design your own?) I'm not sure whats going to happen here. The particle chunks are massive and while I may be able to figure out alot of the settings by cross referencing with the MDX and M2 documentation there's bound to be a whole lot more settings to which I have no idea what they ultimately are.
Since I've been working on SC2 Cutscenes these last few days, I'd like to suggest the possibility to get Cameras exported to SC2 with their animations. Would be a great help in terms of in-engine Cutscenes. Importing them from SC2 would also be nice =) Pretty please?
Perhaps you COULD just export/import the particles without explaining what they do- at least that way, we could copy particles from one model to another, and perhaps tweak experimentally to find out what the numbers do.
Hey guys. First sorry for my english, i am from germany. Then, dear NiNtoxicated01 thank you sooo much for this plugin.
But i have a problem, maybe i do something wrong. :)
Problem is exporting the animation. I have imported a model from SC2 ( HighYieldConveyorBelt_00.m3 ). The mesh, the textures and the animation are all ok. But now i just want to export this model and try to reimport it. Then the mesh and the textures are ok but there is no animation and there are more animation key frames then before ( first 6667 frames and after export/reimport 10003 frames). :(
Particles are a massive beast. Just figuring out the M3 structure is a pain, let alone what each setting does. It's taking me a very long time to figure out what most of the LAYR chunk does and that's just bitmaps, with particles it's probably five times as complex. I do have MDX and M2 documentation as a bit of a reference, but particles and ribbons are hard to work with and I'm no expert on them. I want to add support as much as anyone but without having the necessary particle expertise I'm basically blind guessing at close to 30 or 40 particle settings with no hint as to their ultimate function.
My strategy is usually to change a setting and observe the effect but this is largely guesses when it comes to particle settings as I'm not sure what some of them even do despite having an effect. Since I can't just list a bunch of particle settings that don't have a description (how would you design your own?) I'm not sure whats going to happen here. The particle chunks are massive and while I may be able to figure out alot of the settings by cross referencing with the MDX and M2 documentation there's bound to be a whole lot more settings to which I have no idea what they ultimately are.
if you need help, I think I know how to reverse somethings on them.
I recommend you to detect first the values for emission and lifespan. You'll normally find these values to be coherent to their form. For instance, lifespan will normaly be a float value that ranges 0.5 to 4.0 while emission could go from 50 to 200. Afterwards, I suggest that you look for a relation between materials and the particle emitter, in mdx the particle emitters2 had their material data saved within its settings.
Btw, don't let 3dsmax particle system misguide you, all of blizzard particle systems except for 1(Mdx's ParticleEmitter1 was based on SuperSpray) are based on plugin made particle systems.
Gadaffy2, can you tell me how do you implement the team color in the textures? !_! I need it to complete my buildings and units T_T
I added the team color as an alpha channel in the diffuse texture.
And then in 3dsmax i set in the diffuse map channel "Use alpha as team color"
i added a screenshot here to show how the diffuse texture was set up in 3ds max.
The black area's are the ones that will be colored to the team color.
You can also gradient it to make it blend smoother.
Sorry im stupid ><! Im doing something wrong xDDD i don't know how you did an alpha map like that, so, i create one alpha chanel and then painted all black except the 2 white things that i don't want to show as a team color.
In 3ds max I used that texture with my new alpha map as a diffuse map and marked the Render Alpha as Team Colour, but it doesn't work !_!
I add some screens
EDITED: O MY GOD IM SO STUPID THAT I WOULD HIT MYSELF, i forgotten add the new texture... ¬¬...IT WORKS NOW xDDDD Thanks man !_!
Okey i dont know what the hell is happening...i choose red to my team and purple to that little city...I can see the colors in the editor..but when i launch the map my team is Green and the city is white...AND when i change the colors to otrer thing they remain the same...Oo im lost..
EDITED:Well...officialy i'm going to throw me through the window...you guys...know about the little minimap's button that changes the team colors?...well now I know about it...how embarrasing... ¬¬
Okay, I've got a pretty important question before I start doing something crazy...
Does the game support collision meshes? So, for a basic start, let's say I model a castle with walkable walls and stairs and such. Can I get sc2 to support that or is it a pipedream to even bother?
You can modify the height map of the terrain by creating Terrain Objects with your model, effectively allowing units to walk on stairs/bridges/etc. You'd still need to create pathing blockers for the walls and such, and multi-level terrain is not supported AFAIK (although you might be able to fake it with triggers).
You could use multiple models and stack em to achieve the effect you want, I believe.
Not quite sure what you mean.
Let's say the exterior of icc, that's the most basic form of structure I'd have; overlapping bridges all over the place, big ramps here and there, and then large internal structures and exterior walkways on towers and such that circle up them. I am under the impression that meshes can only have a collision spheres so far, unless you do what Sholdak suggests, but that would only account for parts of the structure directly above the ground.
Another thing I'd like to have is a walkable structure moving around the map. A ship or station, if you will, as part of an event. A bit much to explain... but something you wouldn't be able to do with collision meshes for sure.
Let's say the exterior of icc, that's the most basic form of structure I'd have; overlapping bridges all over the place, big ramps here and there, and then large internal structures and exterior walkways on towers and such that circle up them. I am under the impression that meshes can only have a collision spheres so far, unless you do what Sholdak suggests, but that would only account for parts of the structure directly above the ground.
Another thing I'd like to have is a walkable structure moving around the map. A ship or station, if you will, as part of an event. A bit much to explain... but something you wouldn't be able to do with collision meshes for sure.
I mean you have the base of the castle as either actual terrain or as a model, with collision turned on for the walls. Then you place the castle level 2 on top of the base, as a second unit or doodad or whatever. Rinse and repeat for as many levels and staircases as you have.
I want particles just to make amazing effects, like lightning. :)
@tigerija: Go
Particles are a massive beast. Just figuring out the M3 structure is a pain, let alone what each setting does. It's taking me a very long time to figure out what most of the LAYR chunk does and that's just bitmaps, with particles it's probably five times as complex. I do have MDX and M2 documentation as a bit of a reference, but particles and ribbons are hard to work with and I'm no expert on them. I want to add support as much as anyone but without having the necessary particle expertise I'm basically blind guessing at close to 30 or 40 particle settings with no hint as to their ultimate function.
My strategy is usually to change a setting and observe the effect but this is largely guesses when it comes to particle settings as I'm not sure what some of them even do despite having an effect. Since I can't just list a bunch of particle settings that don't have a description (how would you design your own?) I'm not sure whats going to happen here. The particle chunks are massive and while I may be able to figure out alot of the settings by cross referencing with the MDX and M2 documentation there's bound to be a whole lot more settings to which I have no idea what they ultimately are.
Since I've been working on SC2 Cutscenes these last few days, I'd like to suggest the possibility to get Cameras exported to SC2 with their animations. Would be a great help in terms of in-engine Cutscenes. Importing them from SC2 would also be nice =) Pretty please?
Perhaps you COULD just export/import the particles without explaining what they do- at least that way, we could copy particles from one model to another, and perhaps tweak experimentally to find out what the numbers do.
Maybe try to look into neodex particle tool. Its probbly similar. Tho, I dont know if that can help you.
I dont know when startool if came, if. Maybe a year... or 6 months.
Gadaffy2, can you tell me how do you implement the team color in the textures? !_! I need it to complete my buildings and units T_T
Hey guys. First sorry for my english, i am from germany. Then, dear NiNtoxicated01 thank you sooo much for this plugin.
But i have a problem, maybe i do something wrong. :)
Problem is exporting the animation. I have imported a model from SC2 ( HighYieldConveyorBelt_00.m3 ). The mesh, the textures and the animation are all ok. But now i just want to export this model and try to reimport it. Then the mesh and the textures are ok but there is no animation and there are more animation key frames then before ( first 6667 frames and after export/reimport 10003 frames). :(
if you need help, I think I know how to reverse somethings on them.
I recommend you to detect first the values for emission and lifespan. You'll normally find these values to be coherent to their form. For instance, lifespan will normaly be a float value that ranges 0.5 to 4.0 while emission could go from 50 to 200. Afterwards, I suggest that you look for a relation between materials and the particle emitter, in mdx the particle emitters2 had their material data saved within its settings.
Btw, don't let 3dsmax particle system misguide you, all of blizzard particle systems except for 1(Mdx's ParticleEmitter1 was based on SuperSpray) are based on plugin made particle systems.
I added the team color as an alpha channel in the diffuse texture. And then in 3dsmax i set in the diffuse map channel "Use alpha as team color"
i added a screenshot here to show how the diffuse texture was set up in 3ds max. The black area's are the ones that will be colored to the team color. You can also gradient it to make it blend smoother.
Sorry im stupid ><! Im doing something wrong xDDD i don't know how you did an alpha map like that, so, i create one alpha chanel and then painted all black except the 2 white things that i don't want to show as a team color. In 3ds max I used that texture with my new alpha map as a diffuse map and marked the Render Alpha as Team Colour, but it doesn't work !_!
I add some screens
EDITED: O MY GOD IM SO STUPID THAT I WOULD HIT MYSELF, i forgotten add the new texture... ¬¬...IT WORKS NOW xDDDD Thanks man !_!
Ok, now i REALLY have a problem xDDD I attach 2 screenshots to see what happen !_! in the editor I see the colors, but ingame....well..look xDD
Okey i dont know what the hell is happening...i choose red to my team and purple to that little city...I can see the colors in the editor..but when i launch the map my team is Green and the city is white...AND when i change the colors to otrer thing they remain the same...Oo im lost..
EDITED:Well...officialy i'm going to throw me through the window...you guys...know about the little minimap's button that changes the team colors?...well now I know about it...how embarrasing... ¬¬
Seems the Materials for the Cinematic Models won't export properly. Units are fine though. Please fix it up =)
Okay, I've got a pretty important question before I start doing something crazy...
Does the game support collision meshes? So, for a basic start, let's say I model a castle with walkable walls and stairs and such. Can I get sc2 to support that or is it a pipedream to even bother?
@IskatuMesk: Go
You can modify the height map of the terrain by creating Terrain Objects with your model, effectively allowing units to walk on stairs/bridges/etc. You'd still need to create pathing blockers for the walls and such, and multi-level terrain is not supported AFAIK (although you might be able to fake it with triggers).
@Sholdak: Go
That's very unfortunate since what I was going to make was a massive multi-level complex with an interior and everything. Very unfortunate...
@IskatuMesk: Go
You could use multiple models and stack em to achieve the effect you want, I believe.
Not quite sure what you mean.
Let's say the exterior of icc, that's the most basic form of structure I'd have; overlapping bridges all over the place, big ramps here and there, and then large internal structures and exterior walkways on towers and such that circle up them. I am under the impression that meshes can only have a collision spheres so far, unless you do what Sholdak suggests, but that would only account for parts of the structure directly above the ground.
Another thing I'd like to have is a walkable structure moving around the map. A ship or station, if you will, as part of an event. A bit much to explain... but something you wouldn't be able to do with collision meshes for sure.
I mean you have the base of the castle as either actual terrain or as a model, with collision turned on for the walls. Then you place the castle level 2 on top of the base, as a second unit or doodad or whatever. Rinse and repeat for as many levels and staircases as you have.
I see. And you are able to walk on other units?