Possible Projects Interest

[Randomdays]

Great job on all the MIB Cranlox! You've been busy.

Just getting back from vacation and catching up.

Almost done moving everything over to the new laptop.

One thing I've been doing is getting reacquainted with the Sims 3 now that I have enough speed to actually play it.

I had done some map work, trying things out, a few years ago, and thought this would be a good change up from doing characters for a bit. Not sure how far I'll get, but I'm going to try to take a Sim3 map and put it in FFvt3R

Looking around, besides all the default maps, someone had started and got a long ways into, making a map of GTA 3 Vice City. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have your heroes flying around in it?

https://www.freshprincecreations.com/sims3vicecity

I made a sim for it, gave him some cheats codes to make him always happy, and a lot of money to buy a fancy sports car to explore the map with, and I've done a little work in Blender with it.

A few observations so far;

1) How big of a map layout can FFvt3R handle? I'd like to do one big map instead of breaking it up. I've never looked at Tommyboy's New York map, but I heard it's huge.

2) The Sim3 version of the map isn't complete or 100% accurate, due to engine limits, and the FFvt3R has its own limits as well, so it won't be a perfect clone of the original game.

3) The textures for the buildings so far aren't that high res - a lot of them 256x or 512x. If you look at some of the screen shots from the link above you'll see it looks a bit outdated in places. The good thing is that since everything is so low tech, FFvt3R should have no problem handling it. There's a much better looking version on Deviantart, but its based on the GTA4 remake and I don't think it would work to well for us.

4) I've done some captures with both of the model capture programs - 3DRipper and Ninja Ripper, and they both have their pluses and minuses. 3D ripper captured the map from one side to the other E/W, and about a third of the way down N/S. A couple more captures should get it all. I can capture as a obj file and work with it in Blender. What it can see from the capture point show up in their proper location on the map.

  The main problem with 3DRipper is that it captures the X and Z axis fairly well, but not the Y, so everything comes out kind of flat and has too be worked with. It's also grabbing EVERYTHING I think, including the insides of buildings and furniture and such, which has no use for me in this project.

Ninja Ripper grabs each object in its proper Size in all 3 axes, And I have to use Noesis to change its "rip" files into "obj" files for Blender. Each object is separate and would have to be hand placed on the map. I also have no idea how far the capture can "see" from my base point when ripping, so I don't know how much of the map I'm getting.

For both of them, a big problem is the models and the textures are given random names and each model and texture has to be looked at and I have to figure out what goes with what. I have Sims 3 with the world open as I work to help with that, but its slow. I've also seen that some things only popup on the map when you're close to them, so 3D ripper won't catch that.

Ninja ripper grabbed 392 models and 260 textures. From the same point, 3D ripper grabbed one big obj file with everything in it, and almost 2500 textures! The obj file of about a third of the map is made of 366 separate models.

I've done a first pass on 4 buildings so far, finding their textures and turning them into nif. Each has alpha turned on so I'll have to go back and remove that on each, and each will need their selection and Collision boxes added as well.


I'm hoping the final product, if I get there, will be worth the wait.


A few pics of where I'm at below. The last pic is a nif in Character Viewer

[WyldFyre]

I have never explored the map-making part of FF as it seemed a daunting task to me. Looks like a good way to add some new maps to me.

Tommyboy's New York map is indeed huge. I remember at the time it came out he warned that not all computers would be able to handle it. Honestly, I don't know if there is a limit to what the game can handle, but there is definitely a limit to what computer and graphic card memory can deal with. I was okay with T's map, but others had some difficulty with it.

[Kommando]

That looks cool. Good luck making it work.

[Randomdays]

Very daunting. The bit of work I had done before with the amusement park rides, gas station and McDonalds showed me that. Hats off to Tommyboy, Benton, and the other map makers.

I got up to 8 models done as well as part of the road, but I think that continuing down this road will take forever.

I put my original GTA VC on the new laptop and got it running - not that easy with Win10. But neither capture program works with it.

The Deviantart version of the map was part of a mod for GT4, adapting Vice City for that game. My original thought was that it would be too much for FFvt3R, but looking at it, it doesn't seem that bad - more demanding than the Sims 3 version though. I'm going to swap over to this version and see how it goes, and go back to Sims 3 if it doesn't work out.

The map is split into pieces and I grabbed a part which is about the same area that I was working on. It's in XPS format, but I was able to get it into an obj and into Blender, and best of all, the textures are set up correctly!

Pic from Blender below

[Randomdays]

Update on the map making.

The deviantart modder did 5 different sections of the Vice City map. 4 of them fit together fairly well when importing to Blender, but one of them,the one I was working on before, was the wrong size and had to be enlarged and rotated to fit.

The 5 pieces make up less than half of the game map, So I'll probably have to fill in the gaps the hard way with the sims3 map if I get that far. The downtown area is fairly large and it will take some time just to get that part done. I don't think he's going to do anymore.

When all 5 pieces are loaded into Blender, we're sitting at 80 megs total, 471k polys and 4500 different map items.

I brought in a character nif from the game for sizing and enlarged all of the map at once. It was way smaller than for FF and you'd have been a giant in it without resizing.

The numbers will go down a lot as I go, not only due to removing items as I convert them, but deleting duplicates faces on some some of the items, and deleting the building interiors which FFvt3R can't handle due to our engine limits.

I'll also be skipping things like street signs and lights, some trees and rocks and such, and using the original FF items since they're already set up to use in the game.

Needless to say, most of the map and buildings will NOT be destructable like in the game.

All the textures and in png format, with the largest looking to be 256x - well in line with the FF games

The process so far is selecting a map piece, simple like a piece of grass or complex like a building with different parts and textures. In edit mode I delete any duplicates, smooth out the mesh, and make sure the polys are facing in the right way and not upside down and invisible.

After exporting the item as a nif, I have to convert the textures for it from png to tga and sqaure it up if its a rectangle, go into nifskope with it and adjust the lighting on it, and change it to look for the tga instead of the png.

I've got 16 nifs done so far. When I get more of the map done, I'll look into map making in FFvt3R again about putting things together and merging dats, etc.

Usually a nif sits in the center of its field, and you have to hand place them on the map to line them up properly. The ones I'm doing are in their original position from the map, way off center, and will hopefully automatically line up with each in the editor.

There's also the question of if the main level of the map is "ground level", will I be able to under that, like moving into the water with a drop off to it. And what stops you from going past the edge of the map? I don't think its a huge bounding box or anything like that.

Besides the main map, I'll be adding some updated civilians and vehicles to the map if I can. I've already grabbed some Vice City people, and there's lots of cars out there to add in also.

[Randomdays]

Trying to get the 1st set ready to play around with in the level editor. I concentrated on the western island downtown area to the north - everything above the bridge going to the western island.

I'll have to go back over what I did before with the level editor and refresh my memory. Luckily Benton has good notes on line.

One of the big questions was if the level editor would work on the new laptop - its rather finicky I've seen, but luckily it seems to come up fine.

One thing I would like some help with up front is the textures. All the textures were in png format, and when I converted them to tga, I guess I lost my alpha and transparency with it. Anyone willing to take a bunch of textures and give me my transparencies back? I can zip up a pack for my megasite or email it to whomever.

I'll be making a new thread on mapmaking and posting as I go. Hopefully it will help some modders who want to get into it, and answer some questions I have as well.

[cranlox]

I'm here to help with the textures!

[Randomdays]

Thanks Cranlox. I'll put them up in a bit. I know you're probably still not feeling well, so take your time whenever you can get to them.

[cranlox]

No problem, I'm resting and running to the bathroom, except for the breaks I guess I'll be able to do it.

[Randomdays]

They're up in the requests folder in a rar called "Vice Alpha". There's about 30+ of them. I included the original pngs as well as the converted tgas. I think I got them all but there might a few more

Thanks again

[cranlox]

I was able to do all of them except 1, which is in gray scale and always ends up losing transparency. I don't know why, even by converting it to dds, it occurred to me to even convert it to negative to save it in reverse and revert from there and it got stuck again when transparency was lost. Sorry for that one I didn't make.
here!I leave them for your download

[Randomdays]

Thank you so very much!

[Randomdays]

Spent some time today trying to find a few missing TOS Elite force models and skins, but game up short. I think these may be lost to time

If you know TOS you'll know whom I'm talking about

1) There's an Amok Time 2pak that has the executioner and Stonn. And come to think of it I don't think there's a T'Pring or T'pau out there at all. The only Amok Time pak I've found is for Kirk and Spock

2) There's a Menagerie Pak I have with 3 Pikes - 2 from the cage and 1 in the wheelchair, plus Spock from the cage,normal, away team, and in dress uniform, and Commodore Mendez in normal and dress. What I've been looking for is the larger pak, or the special "The cage" pak that should have Majel Barret and Yeoman Colt, among others in it. Both those characters are missing. Maybe the Talosians and Vena as well (Orion slavegirl version?}

Edit on the above - it seems I DID grab the larger of the tow Menagerie paks back in the day. It added 2 skins for Number 1, and 2 for yeoman Colt, in their ship and away team uniforms. No normal version Vena but the Orion Slave Girl version is in an Alien pak. So, still no Talosians or normal Vena (but maybe a reskin of the Orion version would cover that.)

Kommando had said he might be interested in making some new TOS skins so maybe these can go on his radar to do.

The "Bridge Commander" game used an early form of nif, as seen on the bridge pic on the map thread, and mainly dealt with TNG, but has bridges, stations, and ships for most of that era, and probably DS9, and maybe even Voyager (if Elite Force doesn't) The TOS Mod covers that era pretty well, so on ships we're probably only missing the NX01 Enterprise era.

   

[Kommando]

Spent some time today trying to find a few missing TOS Elite force models and skins, but game up short. I think these may be lost to time

If you know TOS you'll know whom I'm talking about

1) There's an Amok Time 2pak that has the executioner and Stonn. And come to think of it I don't think there's a T'Pring or T'pau out there at all. The only Amok Time pak I've found is for Kirk and Spock

2) There's a Menagerie Pak I have with 3 Pikes - 2 from the cage and 1 in the wheelchair, plus Spock from the cage,normal, away team, and in dress uniform, and Commodore Mendez in normal and dress. What I've been looking for is the larger pak, or the special "The cage" pak that should have Majel Barret and Yeoman Colt, among others in it. Both those characters are missing. Maybe the Talosians and Vena as well (Orion slavegirl version?}

Edit on the above - it seems I DID grab the larger of the tow Menagerie paks back in the day. It added 2 skins for Number 1, and 2 for yeoman Colt, in their ship and away team uniforms. No normal version Vena but the Orion Slave Girl version is in an Alien pak. So, still no Talosians or normal Vena (but maybe a reskin of the Orion version would cover that.)

Kommando had said he might be interested in making some new TOS skins so maybe these can go on his radar to do.

The "Bridge Commander" game used an early form of nif, as seen on the bridge pic on the map thread, and mainly dealt with TNG, but has bridges, stations, and ships for most of that era, and probably DS9, and maybe even Voyager (if Elite Force doesn't) The TOS Mod covers that era pretty well, so on ships we're probably only missing the NX01 Enterprise era.

If you figure out which meshes you want to use, I can see what I can do.

[Randomdays]

I extracted the head model from the model of Vena as the Orion Slave girl and converted and squared off the textures from jpg to tga. Trying to grab the rest of her next.

1) Do you think this is fine as is, or do you think it needs tweaking?

2) Would it work as a base for a "normal" Vena? The hair is a separate piece and could be removed

3) Just use a standard FF female nif to work from?

[Randomdays]

Complete Vina. She turned out very dark, even with lighting turned wayup

[cranlox]

I never saw much of Star Trek, I do think that with reference photos you can tune the color of the texture to what you are looking for.

It seems well-made to the photos in a corresponding quality.
Spook Piccard and Troi were my only characters that I liked, I don't remember almost anything about the program, I really saw very little of it

If I can help! Here I am

I have had some problems with these, currently only with the lizard

[Randomdays]

Glad to see you up and around and back in action.

Too bad you never got into Star Trek TOS... its still a classic to this day.

Vina looks a bit better now that you can see her.


I threw a few things together and was thinking about a few more...  Dealing with the ones I don't think are out there. Once again Star trek fans will know what I'm talking about.

1)T'Pau - the elderly female Vulcan from "Amok Time" - maybe Agatha Harkness for a base?

2) Talosians - The head from the Hulk enemy "The Leader", or the "Creature King" that Cranox and I worked on, with a robed body

3) The Salt Vampire from the Mantrap - no idea but I'd love to have that made.

4) The flying creatures from Operation Annihilate! - might be simple to make. They always reminded me of a fried egg.

5) I've got Harry Mudd, but what about Mudd's Women, Stella, Norman and the rest of robots?

6) The Horta from "Devil in the Dark" - might also be a simple one. I Have a large pink Blob someone did, from the movie of the same name. Scaled down and with a new skin that might work.

7) Tribbles - I can't find anything good, but maybe the blob again scaled down even more with some "furry" textures

8) The Mugato ape from "A Private Little War" episode

9) Some of the other missing female characters - Miramanee, Sarek's wife Amanda, Losira from "That Which Survives", Sylvia (and Korob) from "Catspaw", and Andrea from "What are Little Girls Made Of?"

10) T'Pring from Amok Time - a version I made in Sims 3 - she would need some Vulcan eyebrows and some additions to the hair







11) Vina Orion Version - a couple of versions from Sims 3 again . Not perfect but maybe good for a base to work from. Even watching a clip on youtube of her dancing, I still couldn't lock down her costume. I think its green and gold...?

12) Vina as her normal self, as in the pic above



13) Marta - Orion Slave girl from the "Whom Gods Destroy" episode. I couldn't find a good hair to match her though (Yvonne Craig - batgirl in the 60's show)

[cranlox]

If you talk about this guy I could try to make a try like I do the alien leggings
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Salt_vampire

[cranlox]

I have some stuffed jimmies that I made a few months ago when I started with the alien heads, they were for shoulders but they could work with the tribbles although I don't know what animation they could have.

[cranlox]

I liked the Sims versions, especially the last one, and the yellow one seems to me to have captured the essence the most.

THE shurale seems to me to be really inspired by the ape you mentioned.



The best thing that came out with the image qualities I found, maybe you can cut off the head on the side that has the best eye and mirror that part. Anyway, if not, I'll try again but retouching the base image.
Here I give it to you in case you want to look at it or try if it is useful
Maybe the shurale with new skin and removing a finger from each hand can make a version of the ape you want

https://www.mediafire.com/file/jjoexr8u5zzcqqm/head+simio.rar/file

[Kommando]

The Sims bodies might work nicely.

[Randomdays]

Salt Vampire - that the one. It'd be great to have that

Tribbles - probably wouldn't need animation

Shurale - that looks great - what game did that come from?

On the last sims model for Marta, I think with some better hair it would match pretty good. Also, while Vina as an Orion has red lips, I noticed now that Marta's are green, so I'll have to change that.

On Vina, I think that the dress needs adjustments, and then some changes to its texture. The costume looks like it has "leaves" all over it which could be drawn on

I'm going to try to finish the Trek map before I start with the characters.

[cranlox]

Salt Vampire - that the one. It'd be great to have that

Tribbles - probably wouldn't need animation

Shurale - that looks great - what game did that come from?

On the last sims model for Marta, I think with some better hair it would match pretty good. Also, while Vina as an Orion has red lips, I noticed now that Marta's are green, so I'll have to change that.

On Vina, I think that the dress needs adjustments, and then some changes to its texture. The costume looks like it has "leaves" all over it which could be drawn on

I'm going to try to finish the Trek map before I start with the characters.

I'll try to make some heads of these aliens to see if you like any, basically taking the best photos I can find of them. Look at the ape! I already made the head model. The shurale is from a game called FreedomForce vs 3R hahha it's from the game

[Randomdays]

Duh! My bad! I though he looked familiar.

I wouldn't worry about the Mugato - I think the Shurale would work just fine as is

[cranlox]

I don't know what's going on with the extension I was using, it's leading to better quality creation of textures, but when I export the head models to obj and want to operate them in nifskope it doesn't let me paste them and they can't be seen.
Surely someone who uses another program could also use those skulls, but if until now it has been working perfectly in nifskope, I don't know why it now doesn't allow me to put those .obj files from the source of the extension.
I tried with several heads, all of them turned out very well and with a better texture than what they have been releasing, but I couldn't put them on any base body.


I think there are 2 options or the extension changes when it is updated and it is a little more clumsy and I can't do anything or I forget how I did things. At this moment one of the vampiresalt heads is working fine in nifskope but it is not visible in the preview or in the game

[Randomdays]

Good job on those.

Is the texture a square and a multiple of two?

I also see that your texture location is 2 or more folders deep. If its in it proper place, skins/standard, you don't need any location data, just the name of the texture. And if you send it out to other people, if we don't have it in the same location you put it in, we won't see it.

[cranlox]

I already understood what happened with the texture in the version that was pink, basically I will have to do it again, without eliminating the base object on which I repeated the texture.
In the case of the heads, only import the object to show it with the image to the common tree folder, the image is only for that purpose. I suppose there is a difference in the type of file when doing things in Windows 32 or 64, that's the only thing that occurred to me. When I made the last head of the vampire in Windows 32, it worked well (except for the other detail), I suppose screenshots of Modeled in 64-bit Windows, they don't work on 32-bit Windows, at least for me.

Basically I think it's the difference between using my computer and my laptop, things being on different types of Windows are not "100% compatible"

[cranlox]

Could you RD without rush see if you can put that head on that body? I'm making hands, maybe the feet could be those of the orange monster I made a few pages ago.

body texture could be reusable on other male
there is a little hand here in the rar
There is a little hand here in the rar and what progress with this monster
https://www.mediafire.com/file/nd6udgx0gyt8rt9/STARTREK_VampireSalt.rar/file

[Randomdays]

Thanks Cranlox. Let me get finished with the Enterprise map and that will be next, and then doing the Sims3 imports