Annual Animal Mesh Request...

[Randomdays]

I have something that might help, But I don't know enough to work with it myself.

Looking at the FF entry in Wikipedia, they have a list of other games using the same engine and one of them was Zoo Tycoon 2, which I have with all expansions.

Breaking open one of the data files, I pulled the entry for the Nile Crocodile out. It has 4 main skins in dds format - normal, dirty, sick, sick AND dirty, plus smaller skins for the teeth and spines.

The main flies appear to be a set of 3; Adult_M.nif, Adult_M.bfm and Adult_M.xml.
The xml file looks like this (if it helps);
- <Graph name="CrocodileNile_Adult_M">
- <node name="Stand">
- <table>
  <Stand_Idle />
  </table>
  <edge anim="Stand_2Walk" node="Walk" />
  </node>
- <node name="Walk">
- <table>
  <Walk_Ahead />
  <Walk_TurnL30 />
  <Walk_TurnR30 />
  </table>
  <edge anim="Walk_2Stand" node="Stand" />
  </node>
  </Graph>

Instead of a keyframe.kf file, there are a seperate pair of files for each animation, IE eat_idle_bf and eat_idle.txtkeys

There are also about 25 or so sound files in wav format for it.

Total size is 170 files at about 10 megs. It looks like each animal is set up in the same way.

If anybody can work with this, it could really open up animals, as besides the main game with about 40 or so animals, there are 4 expansion packs - marine life, extinct creatures including dinosaurs, endangered species and african wild life.

If anybody is interested, let me know and I can zip up the folder and send it your way.

I'm also going to look at a couple of other games mentioned as having the same engine to see how they're set up and maybe imported somehow - the Wildlife Zoo series and the Empire Earth series.

[Panther_Gunn]

If that works as seamlessly as it sounds like it might, I think that could be the biggest find for the game since FFX.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah....let's get someone with the necessary skills to check this out!

[Randomdays]

small info update - opened up the main nif with nifscope fine. It shows the skinned croc body with skeleton inside.

Also checked out the Wildlife Zoo and Empire Earth 2 games, but these are using cab files and it looks like I'll have to install them to open them up.

Here is a link to some figures for Empire Earth 3. I was looking for some desert figures and this got me started looking around in the first place. I like these and they look like they would fit with FF.

http://thejes.us/Siteremake/middleeastern.htm

update 2 - treid to open it with FF1 character viewer and won't work - I don't have FFVTTR loaded right now, so don't know what it would do there or how nifconverter would treat it.

The rar'd up file is about 3.5 megs so I can send it easily to anyone interested.

Going out to dinner soon, but I'll check before I go and when I get back to see if anyone needs it sent

[cmdrkoenig67]

I wonder if the individual keyframes could be combined into one file?  This would be amazing, if it will work.

Those middle eastern warriors look amazing (and they look like they might be low-poly, which is good)...they'd go great with the map I'm making...Heh-heh.

Dana

[Randomdays]

the Empire Earth games play from a view simular to FF, with tons of units moving around and fighting. Each game has units going from prehisory up to the future - with 100s of different unit types including ships and planes.

I've checked some more with Zoo Tycoon 2 and it looks like the buildings in game are also nifs. It might be possible to use them and the staff/visitors as well. If the buildings in Empire Earth could be used that would be sensational

[cmdrkoenig67]

I agree, Randomdays.

Dana

[bearded]

can you send me one animal? I'll see what I can do. beardinlair@aol.com

[Randomdays]

One Nile Crocodile on its way.

[Randomdays]

another update.

Going through Empire Earth 1, It has a nice included editor for making your own maps, placing units and buildings/trees,etc as well as making your own scenarios. The skins for everything are available, but the models are converted from 3ds to a special type of file that can't be worked with without the developers tools. The poly count/details on the the units is low enough to make this no big loss, but I had hoped some of the buildings could be worked with.

Empire Earth 2 is much easier to work with, after digging up some info on the web. All game items - units, buildings, scenery, vehicles are nifs, zipped up in a large file and with a  ".nifcache" extention instead of just ".nif". Nif scope opens them fine though.

the textures are also stored in a large zip in 2 types. A strange file with a ".pcpatch" extension and a normal file with a ".texcache" extension. From what I read, the pcpatch file is about 1x1000 pixels and of unknown use. nifscope will convert the texcache file into a dds, and converting it again to tga skins the nif in nifscope. So far I've converted/ viewed a German Nobleman and a camel mounted bedouin.

Detailed for the Nobleman wasn't all that good, but the bedouin looked allright with a photo skin face.

animation this time is done in groups of single action kf files. IE the nobleman has 6 different kf files - 2 idle, attack,dead, jog and walk. I tried attaching one to the nif, but got this error "couldn't find the animation's root node ()"

I don't know much about maps, but since the map items are static, I'm thinking that buildings and environmental items ought to convert over easily. I can grab a building mesh and skin and send it to Dana or anyone who wants to check it out.

If anyone wants to check out the Zoo Tycoon 2 test croc or the 2 test EE2 units, let me know.

EE1 came out in 2001, EE2 in 2005 and EE3 in 2007.Hopefully EE3 is modable enough to extract the meshes as it looks like it has the best graphics (though the worst gameplay). Going to check that out next.

If anybody has any of these other games, they also use the same engine and might have some useful resources ;

Sif Meier's Railroads, Pirates! and Civ 4 - lots of possiblities from trains, ships, buildings

Star Trek Bridge Commander - TNG game, maybe some Trek models

Axis and Allies - WW2 game

[bearded]

yes.
i can do it.
am able to import the croc, and import the bones. i will have to make custom animations, and create the animation text for each animal. so, choose amongst yourselves which one you want me to do next. am working on croc now, as proof of concept.

[Randomdays]

That's great BIL. Are the animation files provided any use at all?

Also, size - are they close to being correct for FF or do they have to corrected, and poly count - how is it compared to FF?

For EE2, I installed FFVTTR since it wasn't on the hard drive. I renamed the nif for FFVTTR and set up a standard skin folder and put it in character viewer and it showed up fine. The camel riding nomad for EE2 has 2 seperate skins, one for the rider and one for the camel, which should make reskinning easier. Renamed one of the idle.kf files provided and still getting an error.

EE3 IS setup like EE2 for file setup, but the 2 units I extracted looked different in nifscope. The nomad in EE3 has a camel figure, a seperate shield next to it, and a seperate rider next to the shield. They skinned just fine, but haven't had a chance to see how they look in character viewer. Hopefully they combine or can be combined somehow. Kf's are set up like in EE2

I can send them to BIL or anyone who wants to take a shot at tem when I get home.

Wikipedia has a complete list of all animals in Zoo Tycoon 2. Right now I've got the camel riding nomad and a german noble put together from EE2 and 2 different nomad rider types from EE3. Since I've gotten the hang of setting them up now, it wouldn't take long to set up more though. I saw that ZT2 had things like bears, triceratops and giant bullfrogs in various expansions.

[bearded]

ok, good progress on the croc. i was able to import the bip from the nif, and then import the kf from the raptor, to work from. the only stumbling block, and i can't figure out why yet, is the physiqued croc got paper thin, x y and z. it looks like a japanese folded paper art. but, the animations work! that dang raptor almost works for the anims i need, all i have to do is lean him forward a bit.
i don't know about size yet. that might be the reason he got all skinny.
the reason i couldn't use the free fish is they are very high poly. when i try to optimize them down, the verts for physiquing are all crazy all over the place.

[BentonGrey]

Well, this is still fantastic news.  That stinks about the fish Bearded, but thanks for trying.  RD, did you say something about marine animals?  If they've got any fish, those would be RIDICULOUSLY useful to me.

:EDIT: Looking over the roster for the marine expansion, this is my wishlist=
-Great White
-Bottlenose Dolphin
-Orca
-Pacific Walrus (for Tusky!)
-Blue Marlin

[GogglesPizanno]

You all piqued my interest, so I started playing around with city objects form Civ4 (as well as some that users have ported from EE). And Randomdays was right... those nif's and textures just go right in, and can be placed on a map using ffedit once you get a template set up. The only thing they lack is a destruction version. If people are willing to accept the old FF version of destruction (ie. the flat plane wall with destruction texture as opposed to a true 3D inner building) then it shouldn't be too big of a deal to chop them up.

[Randomdays]

Right now I just have the basic ZT2 istalled, but I can easily install the expansions and grab some fish. The only thing I would be worried about is the expansions upgraded the graphics so I'm not sure about poly count.

Is there anything in nifscope or other program that will give you a polycount for an object?

Not sure about EE3 yet, but I know EE2 has a few ambient creatures running around for hunting/fishing and just for looks, and I know I saw a whale.

Goggles, for Civ 4, wasn't sure about the polycount on the units as they're not too big on the map. How do they look? For the buildings, I'll have to look, but I think that they might have a damaged mesh/skin for EE2

[BentonGrey]

Awesome news Goggles!  We are so very sorely lacking in buildings!  RD, please do check out the fish for me.  I've been after them for ages.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Even an fx like a school of fish swimming around would be cool (kind of like the pigeons and crows).

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Even an fx like a school of fish swimming around would be cool (kind of like the pigeons and crows).

Dana

This is true, but I definitely want Aquaman to be able to summon some finny friends using the appropriate attribute.

[Randomdays]

Will do when I get home. Will probably start a new thread on this in Meshes to get some more attention.

In between Civ 4 and EE2 and EE3, that should add a ton of buildings, western, oriental, arabic, middleages, and on and on. Since each game covers thousands of years history and the entire world, it should really make for some good looking maps. Sid Meier's games, if they can be opened up, would add tons of new stuff as well. I'm thinking that besides ships and trains, there might be cars, trucks, scenery and of course, pirates!

[bearded]

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/beardedinlair/files/testing%20area/
far from complete on the animations. really, only idle works. and run, sort of.
i phsyiqued it, and tested, now i will work on the animations. should be good by tomorrow night. uploaded so ppl can see that it works!

[Randomdays]

Thanks a lot Bearded. I put him in the danger room and he seemed about the right size.

I put the camel mounted nomad from EE2 in but got mixed results. He appears normal in the character creator, but in the rumble room he's pretty small and all I can see is the skinned camel, not the rider. My attempts at screenshots failed.. I'll have to try again later.

I have a feeling the EE2 meshes will all be small, while the ZT2 meshes will be about the right size.

The EE3 nomad doesn't work at all for the game, though it appeared skinned in nifscope, although spread out.

I'm getting ready to send some buildings to Dana and hopefully he can take some screenshots and post.

[cmdrkoenig67]

He's looking very promising, Beard...Great work!  Thanks for the contribution of the mesh too, Randomdays.  I'm very excited!

I have a few animation suggestions, you may consider, Bearded...His flying animation could be a swim animation, and for melees he could  have a bite (of course), a head smack (a sort of uppercut, but with his head striking upward) and a tail slap?

Dana

[daglob]

Grab and roll...

[cmdrkoenig67]

That's a good one, DG...I forgot they do that with their prey.

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Depending on what their .kf files have available we might just be able to cobble something useful together out of the existent animations.  I know for Aquaman's finny friends they won't really need to be able to do too terribly much.

[Randomdays]

I don't know if this will help Bearded or not, but this is a wiki for modding ZT2. Maybe he can use it to see how they exported the kfs and import them back in.

http://zt2modding.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Tutorials

Edit - reading further (farther?) it looks like we're out of luck with ZT2 at least, and will have to do any kfs from scratch

http://zt2modding.wikia.com/wiki/.bf

[GogglesPizanno]

Just a little more FYI on the buildings. The can be placed in the game relatively easily, however characters can walk through them. Building don't necessarily need a bounding box, but I tried adding one anyway. Didn't help. One or two of the buildings I tried appear to be slightly more physical, but still suffered from the issue of not being target-able by melee attacks.

It's all very weird.

The structure of each nif was very similar, but slightly different among them. I going on the assumption that Civ4 and the like were a bit more forgiving with the nif format than FF is. Im gonna try loading each one into blender, and then exporting back again using the FF export settings to see if that somehow sets the nif properties correctly for the FF games.

To be Continued...