Possible Projects Interest

[SickAlice]

I didn't mean the mobile games, no. The PC versions that are signed in the Blender plug-ins. Hence why I asked if there was something specific to the new mobile games that was needed. I don't know spit about those games so I just assume any roller coaster resource can be found in one game as easily as the other.

And embedding keyframes is a good idea yeah. I don't think I consider it mostly since I never see it in files in the game and I try and stick to how they set things up. But actually thinking now about it that cool fountain might actually have embedded keyframe animations.

Actually hears what you do otherwise. Well there's turntables in the circus levels of Super Mario 3d World and I think that's brres format and that is a super easy format to work with an export. You can a whole bunch of tools for that at VGR or any of the Mario Kart/Smash Bros. modding sites.

Else if it has to be that android game:

- Get the program called Asset Studio GUI for your OS and install it. It's Freeware.

- Get the data for that game. Either play it on an emulator and walk through a data to hard driver extraction tutorial OR download data/obb from one of those apk hosting sites.

- Extract data OR obb to a choice directory. Obbs extract with 7zip.

- Load the directory with the program.

- Now you can either dig through all the junk that comes up and find the exact thing you want or just select everything but your going to export the resource obvs. It sounds to me like you'd want everything to dig through.

- Go to the Export menu and choose whatever works. "All" if you hadn't checked any boxes. "Selected" if you had. Note if this comes out a mess the other option is select the individual item and go to the Model menu and chose an export type. That shouldn't be a thing but these games can be tricky. Try the first thing, pretty simple.

- Export to a choice directory, I usually make a folder in advance myself so I can keep track of everything.

- That's it. It will either work or it's a propriety format then it's off to Xentax with you. If it's a Unity conformed format you will have plain files. FBX, PNG's, WAVS, MP3's and the link in that export directory. Normally when it comes to animated you're going to look for a subdirectory named Animator and the FBX's inside it will have embedded animations. You will be preview them in Noesis and export them as whatever choice format then. The textures may be along with the model or somewhere else, likely a directory called Texture2d. They set it up so it exports assets real nice and organized like that.

Good luck. And if it fails this is otherwise a good resource for you. So is the brres stuff, brres specific programs, BrawlBox or whatever the current version called and the like. Easy way to get models and their animations.

[Randomdays]

Thanks for the Assist Studio GUI heads up and the process - I was not aware of that.

I'll grab the mobile RC games and see what happens.

I'm not at home to check, but I'm pretty sure that FFvt3R uses embedded animation - the spinning RADAR dish at least.

[SickAlice]

I'm still lost on the why's here but I guess. I just don't see struggling over this when the alternate already exist and as well all the work your trying to figure out already has been. It's not here on these forums though it is in the game and the art docs. But I don't have money to buy all these games and programs just to collect a single model file. Well I kind of might but I'm not doing it. Likewise just in the event I am not harsh on piracy but I don't do it myself. No interest in wrecking my already buggy work OS as well as I mentioned I either used to work with the people that make a living selling that stuff or even might of helped make some of this stuff you use somehow. Just not a thing I do myself but not a thing I really hold against people or see even as terrible. Though in contradiction I do light on fire and turn into an agent of wrath whenever someone steals my own art. Just to be humble about it. But in the end it's what I mean when I say I don't see it. I'm not looking at what you are, a specific thing. All I see is a resource that's already ripped, stock art, free, attainable almost anywhere with no license needed and otherwise is just a textured cylinder in the first place. Because if it's not? See Art docs, it bypasses the limits of the game then when added cumulatively to the stage load will cause a crash, hence why the models in these games are so simple and then countered with textures. Like again is this a specific request from someone here? Is it getting that much use or could they do without? Or is it a collecting hobby kind of thing, I get that one personally btw. Sometimes I have to look at a certain model, I just do and don't use it past that. But I say because alternative and in this case really, really easy and already figured out and provided ones. Just to try and help and solve this for you. I mean why make all this exponentially harder when it has already been figured out, is simple and is readily available for free? All you have to do is go there and to them which of course is not here on this forum. To explain to you why I'm lost on this. I know you want to get animations that aren't normally available, that's something that appeals to me too but a spinning cylinder? That's not hard to find. So what am I missing about this specific android game and version of it? What is it for? I mean this game provides all this and how to do it. There's no search "if" there's a file with an embedded spinning animation. Spinning files as well ones that have forward momentum are common in this game as is the method, tools and already provided files to copy via the game and this community. I'm just lost on going through all the other stuff then to do something that is already done. It just doesn't click with me.

[BentonGrey]

- If you didn't know this about 3rdR you can use a nif with an idle keyframe as a map object. I used that with the Last Hunt Spider-Man game prop I made. It's how I made him appear to be to struggling to crawl out of his grave. I mean you can full on place it in the character directory and point to it so that means you can use any character by whatever is assigned as their idle just as well. It just defaults to that Idle, I'm not sure why but it's the fast way to make animated map objects.

That's fascinating!  I didn't know that!  I really need to remember that!

Scripting questions: I can only help in general ways, as I don't know much about that kind of thing, scripting pathways and such, but the scripting documentation is pretty great, and we might be able to figure it out.  Or perhaps Alex might know something about it.  A possibility would be to make your rollercoaster objects cars and use the car-path markers in some fashion as you build the map.  I haven't messed with that stuff, so I have no idea how that would work.

[Randomdays]

I haven't looked at scripting much for the FF games, but did a bunch on other games, so I might have a base to build on.

The car pathing is a good idea. Since the carts are on a track I would have to make sure that the characters can't interfere with movement. I'd have to look at making two types of carts and setting them up differently as well I think - empty and full. I'd hate to have the Hulk pick up a cart full of kids and throw it at somebody - bad vibes.

[SickAlice]

See Benton that was one of those by accident things that we aren't supposed to be able to do I was talking about. No credit to me at all, I just goofed and imported the wrong thing and it worked so I started playing around and seeing what I could do with it. Same with Bumblecar keyframes and BAF

If you don't the keys I mean are Val's Bumbleecar V2 keyframes. They were made broken but in a great way in that you can place them with any nif in the games and so long as the structure is set up right, being it's in a directory in the character directory, named "character.nif and has a skins directory with it's textures in a standard? Yeah, you can look at it in CTool then. That includes FX and if it has it's own embedded keyframes in the nif like most FX CTool will default play them.

I don't typically host other peoples stuff without asking but made an exception and have those keys on my work page, they're that essential. Aside I think Val would approve. When RD mentioned the Copter I thought about the old days, man I am getting up there, at NPI and GPatrol. And thought about when Val released that. And as always he did a real thoughtful easy to understand tutorial, one on how to do spinning stuff of course. I wasn't much interested in learning it then, I should have since rotation is essential stuff and it turns out is real easy when you know how. At any rate.

Also curious RD how you dloaded it? Prior I assume. I don't need it, it comes with two of the Transformers works at least anyways but just curious because I can only access a limited amount of zip files on a Wayback page from a single date, one that was before he did that copter or any of his V2 and Versatile stuff. And I looked at them btw, five minutes ago. The one included with Topspin, well it's the same copter with a recolored texture. Man his animation is so clean, I'm jealous. Like I said TJ went over this with me long ago too and I've yet to get rotation look that slick. Anyways though you importing a model on that should work. It does move up and down but if by turntables you mean the carnival ride, not the ground level deco object (they are both called that which is why I say) I think that wobble is natural for those rides. I have motion sickness and can't go on them, I only used to go to those parks to draw cartoon likeness of people and make some cash and maybe toss a ball at a dunk tank clown. But else if you know how you'd remove the wobble in the main key like how rotating for climb works. I would not suggest it, if Val left that in there and he knew this stuff well it means it had to be though. Probably something breaks if you pull it, maybe the blade rotation is so clean because the wobble is passed off to the copter itself?

I do suggest though learning how to manually do rotation. Both by key and by animated texture if you don't have the second down, I don't know here. But given how interested you are in using that animation, like seeking it out elsewhere I think that would be your best bet. Again it seems like a big chore, I mean I avoided it but it is easy when you get it down. Choppy looking but that's one of those limits to this game engine is all, not a lot of seamless transition work around in those days for animations. But in game and not CTool it tends to escape the eye. My other and this is just me here is to avoid those models you want. I looked at them tonight, several versions of those games and similar. Same with CAD but I have a background there and know to pass. But simple models and psyche it with the texture, I suggest it because I know overall you are looking at loading a lot of different things here, not just the turntables and assuming multiple of them too. Vanilla cylinder with a texture trick would be my route but I have a good deal in working with that specific trick and get that it isn't second hand to everyone. Else older versions of that game series or similar types. Anything for the era of Freedom Force is going to have a great match for Freedom Force. These moderns ones, well those rides have a lot of small parts and spokes and such. Like that buggy, I scrapped the whole thing as you probably noticed but the steering wheel which I kept as a wink to the original. There were so many faces, doubles and all on that thing it was pretty spooky. A lot of data baked right into models too for that matter that was glitching in parts the game real bad. This is just all what I suggest mind you, mostly thinking about how an amusement park is going to have a lot to load and probably a lot of things you would want in addition. Like I would have to have bumper cars, a floating duck shooting barrel, a dunk tank clown, a cotton candy vendor and seagulls. More seagulls present than anything else haggling guests for their popcorn.

Right so BAF, another broken piece in a good way. So Saracen over at Alex's released this one a long time ago and the model for the fro in question is busted some way. In way that in Nifskope you can import any 3d obj in. You can copy and paste it to any nif and same result. Any, no limit. Doesn't matter if Nifskope would reject it normally or the Nif would. And it will work. I never bothered to look into why, I assume the usual and something about model values but I've used that since close to when Nifskope was even first introduced. Because it works that well and nearly any static part you see on any of my stuff is originally that fro. By accident as usual, otherwise with that old version of Nifskope certain stuff wasn't happening or would import but be all messed up.

So stuff like that. Ink's Exodus being Gren's Taskmaster's ancestor file since I'm glancing over at it right now for another, so the nif you can use to retain the lost animations for the Taskmaster nif (original came down from the Azreal keys as much did of course). Just half the stuff I get is straight from messing around and seeing what happens Mad Scientist style. Other half from listening, reading and following the tutorials and doing it by the book of course.

Anyways hope any of that stuff is of any use to either of you, these bits have been of much to me now so I thought I'd ramble on it a bit before starting the work day.

*edited: Whoops. I realized the name of that nif file is a violation of the circumvention rule, one I implicated myself when I was moderator elsewhere even. Edited but I'm sure you know the one. Man, I really am getting old and slipping though. I'm normally right on top of that and have been noting it happening here to boot otherwise.

[Randomdays]

SA - yep - I had downloaded a lot of NPI stuff back in the day when I was hoarding before the site went down. Though with wayback there's still a lot available - I think about a thousand or so zips overall.

Some good ideas on the theme park to keep note of.

On the RC mobile games - downloaded RC3 touch apk - extracted the ogg file - extracted the files from that to a directory. There were 20+files in that numbered 1-20 something, all the same size, similar to a multi-part zip

Pointed the Assist Studio at the directory, but no data came up at all.




Yes, I bought RC3 and Theme Park world. As well as Zoo Tycoon2, Wildlife park 2, Civ 4 and the rest, usually a they came out, but sometimes in the bargin bin. Atlantica Online was a free download.

Some games I've bought multiple versions of the game, like NWN1 and EQ, with different expansions and upgrades with them.

As for why, well, in a way as you said, they've already been done. Why struggle to build a good looking ride, when a game I bought has a good looking one ready to go. Like the good looking Marvel figures from some the Marvel apps being ported into the game. Some of the rides are a lot more complex than a spinning cylinder.

For the theme park idea I'm working on, I want to go with a "Lost World/ Jungle" feel to go with it, and both RC3 and Theme Park World have that already set up, ready to go. So, not just a ride in general, but the "theme" in "theme park". There are whole park setups in these for one specific type of park - Western, Halloween/ Horror, SciFi, etc.

Besides that, I've always like some of the tycoon games, the Theme parks and "The Movies" for what you could do extra with them. Seeing an end game business running smoothly with all the AI peeps running round.

So, I want to make a map with the Jungle Theme Park setup. Have some rides scattered around, some park guests, some shops and food stands, etc. And then bring a character in to walk the map, or have a rumble room fight on it.

And, for me, the challenge of  finding something new with the game - 1st importing new meshes back in the day, and now getting new animations in. Seeing some of the new imports with their animations running around in game is neat. When I get done with some current projects, It'll be fun going over mapping and scripting and learning that.

As I learn things, new ideas "click" as well. Like knowing I can't do a full rollercoaster, but figuring out to do a sidepath to get something that works. Kind of like figuring out the inside/outside thing you're looking at. When you get a solution to a problem like that, it gives a lot of satisfaction.

[Randomdays]

As an example (its not downloadable) here's a ride from the game that would look good on a Halloween themed park.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/rollercoaster-tycoon-touch-ghost-train-ride-4854540828b44c05baf1c81cad68a712

Edit - So I was able to open a RCT3 ovl file using game extractor. There were 3 file types inside the pack - bsh - "bone shape", bas - "bone animation" and flx - "flexi texture". I'm not familiar with any of these file types.

The free version lets you check out the files and export them. The paid version would let you save the 3d models as objs, and convert the textures to something more common. Not sure if it could handle the animations.

[SickAlice]

- ".obb" not ogg. I don't know if that was a typo given an ogg file is a commonly used file in games. The contents of the data folder will either be many files with naming that conventions that are just a string of very long numbers followed by files with the names level* (possibly) then *sharedassets which will the asset file type as well the split type. Or a directory full of directories each containing a small number of files (one to two) that have a similar naming convention. Or a folder filed with dat files with a similar naming convention. The program works as do the ones here and always have.

Just no to the rest of it and there isn't much of a point to me saying it given your responses. Aside we've been talking on this stuff for and you know more about the subjects of modding any of these games and 3d modelling and animation than I do so there doesn't seem to be much I can offer right here. Good luck and have fun with what your doing.

[Randomdays]

Typo 


Thanks for the offer to help before, even if there's nothing you think you can do to help.

I went ahead and installed my copy of RC3 and loaded it up to check out the park creation set up. It ran with no problem (no setting admin or anything). Loaded a ride into an empty park okay as well. I need to see if there's a cheat to make all rides available and see if one of the ripper programs will work with it - they should. Not ready to get too deep into the mapping yet though.

[Randomdays]

Update.

The EE3 rocks pack has been updated with bounding boxes and re-uploaded. A couple of tweaks done, and an extra pirate chest added. On the Mega site.

After loading some patches, I was able to get Sim Theme Park installed and running. I wasn't able to get any models from the files, and the 2 ripper programs wouldn't work with it - probably too old at 1999.

For RCT3, no luck with getting the models extracted and viewable, but both ripper programs worked. I'm not an expert on Ninja ripper, but it rips each part of a multipart mesh separately, and I would have to assemble them in Blender, and you have to go through all the meshes in the scene to pick the ones you need. Some are pretty complicated so I didn't try to go that route yet.

3d Ripper rips the whole scene as a large obj file. You can then go in and hide the parts you want and delete the rest.

In normal "park creator" mode, the models come out slanted and unusable, but if you rip in "ride-cam" mode they appear normal.

Below is a pic of a merry-go-round as a nif taken from ride-cam mode. With a turntable kf, It should spin on the game map.

Total vertex count about 3500. RCT3 came out in 2004, so its probably close in poly count to FFvt3R. Textures are dds. The horses tails and manes have alpha applied to them and seems to be working as it should. Textures seems to be 128x128 and 256x256, at least for this mesh. I did see some 512x512 in the capture.

In sandbox mode, all game assets are available without research. More testing needed, but I'd say these should work in the FF games.

The best way I think is just create a single ride at a time in an empty park and rip from there. A fully maxed out park with lots of rides and peeps could be very complex.

Also, WP2 has some various park goers and staff that could be used, and RCT3 has a peeps designer where you could make and rip people, similar to "The Movies" game and the Sims games.

[SickAlice]

Captain Caveman is done and up over in the release section. Sorry for the delay, I finished it a few days ago. I was knocked out, like literally for a couple of day with sick and otherwise still having server issue. Anyways hope it works for you.

[BentonGrey]

Neat, RD!  That spinning merry-go-round is really cool!  This theme park map you're working towards is going to be awesome.

[Randomdays]

SA - Thanks! - heading over to grab it.

Benton - After the Viking release, the next "pack" should be one for the rest of Doc's men with a lot of Incan/ Mayan/Aztec like buildings, plus some more Amazons and a whole swarm of different lizardmen.

More Theme Park/ Zoo stuff after that, unless other things come up. Dean might return for some more HB stuff. I'd like to do some Fantasy/DnD tuff for Dana, and I've got some Star Trek stuff as well.

[SickAlice]

You have me real tempted to try and make his car and the disco queen looking girls he hangs out with. But man that car looks like it's going to be nightmare to make on the other hand. We'll see, like I said you got me on a vehicle kick. I figure after the next three or so I have planned I'll know if I'm feeling it or not.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome!  I'll be interested to see that.

[Randomdays]

SA - for an easier looking car, maybe just a reskin of the spider-mobile - the Looney Duney buggy from the HB Funky Phantom cartoon

Also - I just found an old import I had done from the DCUO game, and didn't see it on the mega site - Egg Fu. It won't show in the character viewer, but tested it in game and it appeared fine, as well as in the character creator, character select and nifskope.

Converted it from the original FF1 import to FFvt3r. On the mega site under 'others'

[BentonGrey]

Ha, that is quite cool, and what a crazy addition to FF! 

[cranlox]

I did not know anything about this egg, your contribution led me to read old comics with him. Thank you for uploading it and making such an evil and strange rival for ww.

[Randomdays]

At present, I'm concentrating on the master mesh/skin list I'm working on, but taking a llttle time here and there to work on a few things.

1) Put together the Civ4 gunship I borrowed the props from for the autogyro. One basic animation renamed for all the rest.



I've also been pm'ing a bit with Cranlox. Per that.....

2) Since the Eggfu mesh is one basic mesh, setting the shoulder gun to fire correctly wasn't working. I added the cannon from the FFvt3R tank and shrunk it down inside the barrel of the Eggfu gun. This should allow for using it as a weapon point for the mesh. Untested since I'm not up on that part of the game.

  Also, did the same thing on the gunship front gun. Hopefully that works too.

3) Some of my older imports weren't as good as I had wanted, mainly due to having to fit the FF armature to an action oriented posed mesh from the capture program. This made the rigging process a bit more difficult.

Below are 2 pics of Sean Connery Bond from the "From Russia With Love" game. The 1st is the original rig taken from a game capture and put on Gren's Punisher.

The second pic is the same mesh, but taken from a T-pose capture found on the web, also rigged to Gren's Punisher.





While still not prefect, it's a big improvement overt the older rig.

Taking an idea from the readme's from some of Gren's meshes, I saw that he was using Johnny Pataches' hands on his meshes. I took off the Bond hands and attached the hands from the Punisher mesh, already rigged to the same armature. Since hands are probably the hardest things to rig, this worked out well.

Lsst, the punisher skin has white gloves on the hands, so I grabbed a random male_basic skin with normal hands and put that in the skins folder.

I'll put all 3 up probably tomorrow or this weekend.

[cranlox]

The Bond upgrade is awesome! My applause for that.
The helicopter looks great to

[BentonGrey]

Nice work, RD!  The helicopter with the spinning rotors is pretty impressive!

[Randomdays]

Thanks Benton and Cranlox

I'm already using the spinning blades on Doc's autogyro, and I'll probably do updated versions using them on the batcopter and Bond's Little Nellie.

detourne me had done a couple of skopes of Bond back when I created it. One was on TJ's Sy vs Spy. I'm not sure what he put the other one on.

As an experiment, since I don't really skope that much, I put the newly rigged Bond on his unknown skope, making a new version of it.

I think it looks better as well. (New version on the right)

I'll try the Spy vs Spy version later on down the line.

The two new Bonds, the gunship, and a couple of EggFu nifs with possible weapon nodes have been posted on the Megasite.

[BentonGrey]

That new Bond looks fantastic, RD!

[cmdrkoenig67]

SA - Thanks! - heading over to grab it.

Benton - After the Viking release, the next "pack" should be one for the rest of Doc's men with a lot of Incan/ Mayan/Aztec like buildings, plus some more Amazons and a whole swarm of different lizardmen.

More Theme Park/ Zoo stuff after that, unless other things come up. Dean might return for some more HB stuff. I'd like to do some Fantasy/DnD tuff for Dana, and I've got some Star Trek stuff as well.

YAY!

Dana

[Randomdays]

Dana - Christmas is coming!

Benton - Thanks. I think the 2nd bond is actually rigged to male suit. The third one was rigged by dm to TJ's Spy vs Spy I think. I'll try to update that and the Little Nellie.

Cranlox had sent me a link to deviant art meshes for something called the 'Disney mirrorverse". The meshes are in xms format, which I'm not familiar with, but it looks like some have fbx versions as well. Those I can work with by putting them in a convert chain to get them into a nif.

Below is a pic of Sully from Monsters Inc already turned into a nif. He comes already rigged, but I'll probably have to scrap that and start over. In queue for down the line.



While browsing around deviant art, I saw a few things that I found interesting and might be useful for FF1/FF2. The ones I looked at are in fbx format and are probably usable;

1) https://www.deviantart.com/kittyinhiding/art/Justice-League-Earth-s-Final-Defense-Update-764103736

   For me, the Hal Jordan and Barry Allen secret identities.

2) https://www.deviantart.com/kittyinhiding/art/Justice-League-Superhero-Update-772076360

    Constantine on this one.

Cranlox had sent me some links as well I need to go through again.

[cranlox]

I'd really love for that Sullivan to be possible on FFvs3R. Looks great as a Disney warrior
Thanks for so much effort RD

[oktokels]

Amazing work 

[cmdrkoenig67]

Dana - Christmas is coming!

Gasp!  So psyched! I'm still working on that D&D mod, I just don't get why my first mission is a no go.

Dana

[Randomdays]

I'll probably coming back here after the holidays and working on various projects instead of just focusing on one. Moving around just bring some some of the fun back in for me.

1) Upgrades - fixing some of my earlier meshes if I can, like the recent Bond upgrades

2) Fantasy/ DnD characters

3) Marvel/ DC - since just about everyone has been done, looking for characters that have very few meshes/ skin, none at all, or just that I really like

4) Cartoons/ TV - Like the HB Heroes, but branching out to other sources.

5) Some more Trek TOS characters

6) Some more items for the Hidalgo thread

7) Various buildings,people, and vehicles for maps - Firetrucks, firemen, etc - generic things useful for missions.

8) Possible, very few, requests

9) Secret Identities and hero friends like mentioned above.

10) adding to the list

11) "Others"

I'll also be putting up a wish list of a) things I'd like to see that hopefully a skinner, those few that are left, would like to help with, and b) some things I know were made that I'm still missing.


We'll see how things go. Still plenty of things I'd like to work on at the moment.