in answer to your first port, you can use 3DSMax, you are not limited to gmax. and to your sanity check errors, the most common reason for a sanity check error is forgetting to hit the resetXform button under the mesh tools rollout of the NWNMax plug-in. Also it is advised that you never change the name of the aurora base/ignore N-gons/dummies, I don't know if it matters or not, but I play it safe and I don't change their names. Also when you export the model, be sure to click "Export Geom only" do not export the animations.

Hope this helps,
Mav

in answer to your first port, you can use 3DSMax, you are not limited to gmax. and to your sanity check errors, the most common reason for a sanity check error is forgetting to hit the resetXform button under the mesh tools rollout of the NWNMax plug-in. Also it is advised that you never change the name of the aurora base/ignore N-gons/dummies, I don't know if it matters or not, but I play it safe and I don't change their names. Also when you export the model, be sure to click "Export Geom only" do not export the animations.

Hope this helps,
Mav

TY sir,

I admit shortcutting on the tutorial steps as I wasn't replacing the model with something else, I was only editing an exsisting model and exporting it back. But on closer examination of the stock import NONE of the verts are welded together which would explain the sanity check errors.

I will correct the verts, and delete everything except the base hilt model and save it as a custom model, then replace an exsisting saber hilt as per the tut and see if it works.

I am still wondering when I retexture it, do I need to have everything in the kotor\override folder to ensure the correct texture paths or does it matter ??

Thanks for the help.

if you want to use a custom texture, than yes, the .tga and .txi files will have to be in the override, but you can use MDLops renamer function to ensure that the textures for the new model have a unique name so you wont override the game textures.

if you want to use a custom texture, than yes, the .tga and .txi files will have to be in the override, but you can use MDLops renamer function to ensure that the textures for the new model have a unique name so you wont override the game textures.

I finally got it into K1 last night (thanks to Achille's tutorial), and all works great except for 1 small detail- My blade is invisible. It does damage but it's completely clear, my tga's and txi's are in the override folder but I can figure out if the blade texture file is referenced correctly from the model file, or because I moved the verts on the 2 planes that are the blade in the model. Has anyone else ran across this problem ??

I also figured out the sanity check problem- I welded together every vert that appeared in the sanity check report (i had to move a couple that were too close together as they aren't supposed to be welded together). Perhaps my welding of a couple of verts on the end of the blade funked it.

I'm trying to use the Turquoise blade color. The texture is direct from the game and unaltered, maybe I need to remove or fix the alpha channel (doesn't it control opacity???). Maybe all I need to do is take it to a workbench and install the crystal ????

I dunno, but as it's almost perfect I'd sure like to get the blade working, please help.

^^^ as far as I know, you're not supposed to move the verts or adjust anything on the planes for the blade...

^^^ as far as I know, you're not supposed to move the verts or adjust anything on the planes for the blade...

doh.
well, before I start from scratch, I just realized I didn't add my new crystal (which has the color info) to the saber crystals 2DA file. (I'll be using Mav's tut for this one)

But since I didn't actualld do a 'cut and paste' the hilt into another sabers file ( I edited a short saber by streching the hilt and blade) and renamed it, I actually imported someone elses saber and matched the blade planes length between the 2 sabers then deleted the other persons saber from the model. Perhaps I can simply delete my current blade planes, and import another set of planes from someone elses saber model (as they should be already at the correct coordinates), i would hate to relink the whole mess.

BTW, anyone know where K1's color codes are listed ?? I assume theres only 7, but I'm not sure which is which without exporting every blade color tga. Maybe I can use 'longsaber_crystal_pack_by_chainz_v1' to fix it.

I assume theres only 7, but I'm not sure which is which without exporting every blade color tga. Maybe I can use 'longsaber_crystal_pack_by_chainz_v1' to fix it.
Not sure how it would 'fix' anything, but feel free to use the mod and/or files contained in any way you see fit :)

The longsabers (Malak model saber) is still a single handed saber.. just well.. long.. hehehe..

There's 2 complete sets of colors in the mod BTW, so be sure you're using the base ones unless you want my custom funky zig-zag blades freakin you out :xp:

Not sure how it would 'fix' anything, but feel free to use the mod and/or files contained in any way you see fit :)

The longsabers (Malak model saber) is still a single handed saber.. just well.. long.. hehehe..

There's 2 complete sets of colors in the mod BTW, so be sure you're using the base ones unless you want my custom funky zig-zag blades freakin you out :xp:

Since my saber is now using a crystal thats 'un-named' in the crystals.2DA file, I figure that adding the correct data into the file will hopefully fix the invisible blade as the blade was originally the k39 item (from the 'sith saber')recovered from korriban. If it doesn't fix the problem, my plan was to use you 'MoTf' crystal for the saber blade (since the uti file is known to work) since it's the correct color.

Now that I'm thinking about it... what makes the game know the diff from a short saber, and a 'long' saber ???

My hilt is a hair longer than Malak's, and the blade is a bit longer (as it sits lower in the hilt but ends at the same height) as well as narrower- My saber began as short saber #6.( see post 150)

But since I didn't actualld do a 'cut and paste' the hilt into another sabers file ( I edited a short saber by streching the hilt and blade) and renamed it, I actually imported someone elses saber and matched the blade planes length between the 2 sabers then deleted the other persons saber from the model. Perhaps I can simply delete my current blade planes, and import another set of planes from someone elses saber model (as they should be already at the correct coordinates), i would hate to relink the whole mess.

If you want a the longest blade length then use malaks saber model.

I think your over complicating things. Making sabers is straight forward but it should be done a certain way to minimize possible mistakes.

Open your saber hilt in gmax or 3ds and delete everything except the hilt,then import Malaks hilt position your hilt, unlink malak's hilt and link,yours then reset xform and export.If you get a sanity error only about welding verts then ignore it, its almost impossible to make a model for KotOR and have all the verts welded.

EDIT: Now that I'm thinking about it... what makes the game know the diff from a short saber, and a 'long' saber ???

It's the base item that determines what type of saber it is. Use KT to open baseitems.2da and it will make sense.

Its best not use other peoples uti files. You can extract a new copy of one of the defualt game saber uti's and then edit to suit your needs. doing this will also allow you to release the mod without needing to get anyones permission since your useing the games files and not another modders files.

Thanks T7, between your advice, Achille's tut, and the tut from the first page, I got it working. Seems my initial export of the MDL file from the game was funked, as I was missing the 2 plane dummy's that control reflectivity of the beam from the backside from the get-go. Now that I've made 6 sabre's over the weekend I'm comfortable with the process (but I have to admit, the UVW unwrapping I cheated by doing it in milkshape then converting it back into Gmax). I'll post it in kotorfiles this week.

Does the same procedure work with K2 models as well ?? or can I just add it 'as-is' to K2 ??

I hate to bump a thread over a month old, but is there another link to get the tutorial? The one from SWK doesn't seem to exist anymore. I'm guessing it was lost when the server went down.

I'll check. To my knowledge the site is intact. However, it is possible that the tutorial was moved elsewhere.

Edit: I verified and the file is indeed missing. What's weird is that it seems that it is the only file missing in the entire site :confused: I contacted t7 and he will upload it again later today :)

I hate to bump a thread over a month old, but is there another link to get the tutorial? The one from SWK doesn't seem to exist anymore. I'm guessing it was lost when the server went down.

Ok, it is re-uploaded. :)

To save ya from having to go back to the first page here is the link
saber tut (http://www.starwarsknights.com/HL_Tutorials/saber_tut.rar)

Alright, thanks for the tutorial and...thanks for puting it back up. lol

Are there any tutorials, or publications out there that are easy enough to read and simple enough understand how to take hand-drawn artwork and convert it to a 3-D by using PhotoShop CS?

Like the Darth Talon MOD, or this image: http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gmaxhelp3vi.jpg) ?

I can draw anything, character wise...
This what I can do so far:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n107/SithStarSlayer/VOS-SHOWDOWN.jpg)

The image on the right is the original, on the left is what I turned it into.
I just haven't got a clue as to how to do this from scratch, digitally.

I'm having a bit of trouble getting my saber mod I created for K1 to work in K2. I suspect it's the model itself (the MDL/MDX) but I also noticed the filenames for K2 are a little bit different. Is there a K2 specific lightsaber document available so I may chase down my problem ???

^^ You need to re-rig your hilt with a K2 hilt model, you can't just compile it as a k2 model.

delete everything in your k1 gmax/3dsmax scene except for your hilt and import a freshly exported and decompiled K2 hilt model. Rig, export and replace.The process is exactly the same.

^^ You need to re-rig your hilt with a K2 hilt model, you can't just compile it as a k2 model.

delete everything in your k1 gmax/3dsmax scene except for your hilt and import a freshly exported and decompiled K2 hilt model. Rig, export and replace.The process is exactly the same.

Yup, I figured as much- I seem to recall Redhawke saying the k1 model won't work in K2 but I figured it was a script problem.

Anyhow, I took a look (with GMax) at all the k2 saber models and found a problem I can't fix:
sabers 1 thru 5 are standard lightsabers that blades end at the same spot but start at different places near the hilt.
#6 is a short saber.

...but 7 thru 10 are interesting as they have VERY long blades (as they appeared the first time I opened them with GMax), but as I open them the second and later times the blades no longer appear in Gmax- nor do 2 of the 4 blade planes show as an aurora trimesh- they ALL show up as 'dummy' s to the hilt. Does GMax open these puppies from a file buffer after the first time I opened them or are saber 7 to 10 simply 'bladeless' ??

If there is a GMax filebuffer, where is it, and can I purge it to make these saber models import correctly again ??

Don't worry about the blade less game hilts. When using the replacer function you won't be replacing the blades, only the hilt. YOu can however change the orientation of the helper but thats it. IF you really need the blades then just use a model that has a couple of the blades there.

btw what are you trying to do?

Simply converting the K1 saber I made to K2, but as I used Malaks 06 saber from K1 (for the ungodly length blade) as a template I was simply looking for it's equivilent in K2 (it's not saber 06 in K2). After the initial import into gmax, GMax quit displaying the blades in the viewer for sabers 6 thru 10. I saw at least 2 in 7-10 group that had longer than stock blade lengths in Gmax the first viewing, but forgot what number they we're and since I can't see them anymore I didn't want to make 4 sabers just to find the one with the longest blade.

Other than that I've already got it into the game but I have to re-do the mdl/mdx again as GMax defaults to the wrong alpha channel value, and I forgot to correct it before I merged it with saber 8 (the one I'm using in game), so my hilt texture is very dark.

[edit 11-17] I corrected everything and used #9 for the template. It's still a stock length blade (as is #1-5,and 8) but the start position of the blade is perfect, I may leave it as-is and release it next week unless I find the longer blade in the other 2 models (7 and 10).

[edit 11-27] My bad, it is #6, tho' #9 is much better looking

Do I also need MDLops when using 3Ds Max 8 ?

- Ghost Down

Do I also need MDLops when using 3Ds Max 8 ?

- Ghost Down
Yes. :)

It's the only way to convert the model to a readable format (ascii) in 3dsMAX

It will also re-convert your model after MAX export so that K1 or TSL can read it.. (binary)

You'll also need to make sure you have the NWmax plugin for 3dsMAX:
http://nwmax.dladventures.com/)

I have looked all over swk for your saber tut t7, and i cannot find it. could someone help me find it please. Sorry i should be more specific. when i click on the link it takes me to swk. i tried saving target as but it save the swk page. Is it something i am doing. sorry to bother you with my ignorance.

^^^ ??? The Download link is on the first page of this thread.

i tried saving target as again but it saves the swk web page. The link takes me to swk. I am completely lost. Sorry for my ignorrance

I tried every single day this week to download the saber tut with no ____ success. the download link takes me to the starwarsknights.com web site. I have looked all over for it , but can't seem to find it. So I simply don't care anymore.

I tried every single day this week to download the saber tut with no ____ success. the download link takes me to the starwarsknights.com web site. I have looked all over for it , but can't seem to find it. So I simply don't care anymore.

Gve me a pm with your email. I have it on my computer and I can send it to you.

I am new to kotor modding and decided to try something simple.

I am trying to create my own sabre using T7's sabre replacement guide. Getting to the unwrapping stage and info is thin on the ground.

I've create a hilt in gmax and am at the unwrapping stage. I've been able to unwrap the sides and then at the top/emitter but having trouble with adding the bottom/base to the unwrap. It is a basic model with no switch pretty similar to T7's guide.

Also how do you import a hilt from it original KOTOR state to gmax. I need a step by step guide as I haven't done this before.

Info can be emailed to me at [PM me] .

Mod note: Please do not post your email address on the forums, it will only invite harvesting spam bots. You can use the Private Message function, or the email option in the profile, to contact others directly. ~M

I am stuck on the part where i am supose to link the two sabers together. i am not sure what to do. it is a little confusing. any help would be appriciated. Thank you

Yes I am stuck at the same point as Goldenbob1973 . I've just aligned the pivot points and am unsure of where to go from there in the tute.

I've tried a few things and can't seem to be able to get a file when I export.

im a total noob and im stuck at the bit were you follow the 13 pictures with no instructions its realy hard to get it to look right.

Yep, I followed this tutorial until I got lost at the UVWmapping part.

I didn't understand svцsh's tutorial and Waylon's one uses 3ds max. I just can't see what I have to do when I finished to model my hilt. Could somebody explain that ? I'd be really grateful.

Edit : Just tried again svцsh's. I'm lost at this point :

The section you just mapped is in a free transform gizmo now take this selected part and move off to the left. Now lets make the right and left have the same texture cords so we select both sides holding ctrl + left clicking you can add to your selection. Ok so now with both sides selected the mapping gizmo should be dead center so in th Y axis hit Planar again now move this off to the side in the edit window with enough space so when you go back you don’t accidentally click the wrong part. And do the same for the rest on the X axis for front / back

So the way I have just instructed you will have identical textures on opposite sides of your box , some time you don’t want this so in that case just select one side and map one at a time . ok so now there is a border area in the edit window that all of your mapping has to fit back inside, this is the hot zone that the model looks for , select it all and right click chose scale and scale it down to fit you can zoom in make any adjustment you want flip on a mirror axis and use the fast 90 or – 90 rotate tools to make this fit and match up

I I understood correctly, in the Edit window i should have the three parts of the map ? I don't have them, everytime I hit X, Y or Z (and Planar Map each time), the new part replaces the other one.

I really hate to bump a post that's well over a month old, but I really need help with this tutorial! I got all the way to the end of part one, but then I got lost when T7 said that he would "let the old saying prove it's point."

I must be really stupid, because I have absolutely no idea how to proceed from there! Will someone please give me a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what extrude and bevel values I need to use to make the hilt he made in the tutorial?

Again, I'm really sorry for the Uber-Noob question, but I really have no idea where to go from here!

I really hate to bump a post that's well over a month old, but I really need help with this tutorial! I got all the way to the end of part one, but then I got lost when T7 said that he would "let the old saying prove it's point."

I must be really stupid, because I have absolutely no idea how to proceed from there! Will someone please give me a blow-by-blow explanation of exactly what extrude and bevel values I need to use to make the hilt he made in the tutorial?

Again, I'm really sorry for the Uber-Noob question, but I really have no idea where to go from here!

Holy cow, haven't been on this forum for a while. Anyway, it's been a while
since I've made a hilt, but if I remember the tut you are talking about,
you don't really need to use the exact values. Just play around with them,
at least this way you'll get a better feeling of bevel & extrude.
Trial and error is really the best way to learn to make a hilt in my opinion,
I mean what's the worst that can happen.. start over? yup... not the end
of the world.
Have fun, hope this helps... just don't go crazy on the values, and when
playing with the values use small numbers increments.

loneferret

Can I do the same with head models? I tried to use Bao-Dur's head from TSL and put it in as PC in KOTOR1 but in character selection screen, the head looks like a space ship (and the size too). Where did I go wrong?

Sorry croma, but we do not allow 'Porting' discussions here, even for personal use. Rule #7. (http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=127725) -RH

Whoops, sorry! My god, ignorance is a mistake these days. Well, I'll just hit another spot and forget about it. Sorry again for the trouble.

I know it has been well over a year since the last post, but I figured posting this here made more sense than starting a brand new thread (especially since the first likely response would be to read this thread).

Anyway, I've been struggling with GMax trying to get it to import some saber hilts modelled in Cinema 4D and then export them as MDLs. I've pretty much ripped out what little remaining hair I have, but I have finally succeeded in getting a hilt into the game. Unfortunately things didn't go quite as planned....

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Saber-Issues-01.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Saber-Issues-01.jpg) http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Saber-Issues-02.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Saber-Issues-02.jpg) http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Saber-Issues-03.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Saber-Issues-03.jpg) http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Saber-Issues-04.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Saber-Issues-04.jpg)

There appear to be three problems. The first two are in-game and are apparent by the above screenshots - the hilt is offset from the hand by a wide margin and the blade is split in three. I followed all the steps in T7's tutorial subsequent to the modelling and UV mapping (since I did that in C4D). I imported w_lghtsbr_001 and unlinked the hilt (lshandle01), scaled my hilt to the same size and lined up the emitters, aligned the pivot points, resetxform, linked my hilt to the dummy, then exported. I got a huge list of unwelded points in the sanity check (despite "Weld to Nearest cm" being unchecked in the sanity check list). Anyone got some suggestions on possible causes and solutions?

The third problem is with the new MDL made by using MDLOps replace function (i.e. the one used in-game). When I make an ASCII version of this and try and open it in GMax, I get the following error:

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/GMax-Error.jpg)

Any idea what the cause of this is?

Are you importing it through NWMax? (http://nwmax.dladventures.com/)

Otherwise, the same problem (Without the import) is happening to me all the time... :giveup:

Are you importing it through NWMax? (http://nwmax.dladventures.com/)

Yep, running the program via nwmax.exe and importing via the NWmax pop-up/window, the same way I import every other MDL - ones ripped from the game or ones from mods. Never had this error with any other MDL.

Hmmm.....

I have no idea how this is happening then... NWMax was the only idea I had.

What version of both NWMax and MDLOps are you using?

When using Gmax instead of 3dsMax, I got the best results working with NWMax v7.. and MDLOps v5 (http://home.comcast.net/~cchargin/kotor/index.html). Max 7 doesn't have the (global) sanity checking errors (at least not to the .8 extent).

I can't find a link for the old NWmax version.. but I might be able to find it in my archives when I get home later tonite.

0.8b60 of NWmax. 0.6.1a1 of MDLOps.

Old versions of NWmax from 0.4 upwards are available on the official site on the downloads page - http://nwmax.dladventures.com/download/) They have 0.7 for GMax there. Will try it out.

EDIT1 : Nope, still get the error on loading that hilt when using the 0.7/0.5 combo. Will try exporting the hilt from scratch using those and see if it is any better.

EDIT 2: Woo! Success! Using the 0.7/0.5 combo and starting from scratch gave zero sanity errors on export and the resultant model after undergoing replacement could then be converted back to ASCII and opened in GMax no problem. Thanks ChAiNz.2da !!

It also mostly solved my in-game issues as well. The blade is now proper and whole, and the hilt is in the PC's hand. There is some minor clipping of the hand through the hilt though. Observe:

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Hand-Clipping.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Hand-Clipping.jpg)

Not sure if that is a size issue (the hilt is a bit fatter than the default hilt) or something else.

More than likely...

Thanks for the point towards .5 for MDLops, I wonder if .6.1a1 might be my problem too...

EDIT 2: Woo! Success! Using the 0.7/0.5 combo and starting from scratch gave zero sanity errors on export and the resultant model after undergoing replacement could then be converted back to ASCII and opened in GMax no problem. Thanks ChAiNz.2da !!
Awesome! Glad to see it worked for you *whew*... glad it did, I wasn't sure what to suggest next... hehehe ;)

It also mostly solved my in-game issues as well. The blade is now proper and whole, and the hilt is in the PC's hand. There is some minor clipping of the hand through the hilt though. Observe:

Not sure if that is a size issue (the hilt is a bit fatter than the default hilt) or something else.
Yeah, I have that problem too on some of my hilts (http://gallery147761.fotopic.net/p12567097.html).. it's the larger diameter of custom models most of the time. Any of the sabers I ever built that had any kind of detail had a bigger diameter and clipped the hand. Unfortunately it's a small casualty of the limited modeling available to us. :(

It's either thinner, hard-to-see details tubes... or pimped out sabers with some clipping when either idle or flourish (flourish in my case in the above pic). :fist:

I'm actually wondering whether my issue is related to the import process. Tried two other hilts and even scaling them down you can see it's more that they are off center rather than just too wide. The strange thing is though that they look fine in GMax.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_Hand-Clipping-2.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/Hand-Clipping-2.jpg)

EDIT 1: Turns out it was a pivot point/axis issue. When doing the align pivot point it was offsetting the X axis. By only choosing to align the position of the Z axis (as well as still aligning the orientation for all 3 axes) the problem was resolved. The saber now sits properly in the hand.

EDIT 2: With further playing around it looks like the problem is actually the hand position when dual wielding. Seems that the left hand for males and the right hand for females isn't positioned properly - doesn't grip the hilt properly when relaxed and clips through it when swinging. The opposite hand is fine when dual wielding and both hands line up properly when holding a single saber in both hands. Guess there is something screwy in the animations. This is in TSL - not sure what it's like in K1.

^^^ It's from sloppy hand helpers on the body models . Try your saber in single wield stance as well, males and females hold their sabers differently. I try to make my hilts thinner then the stock hilts to minimize the clipping , but there is nothing for it really all the hands clip in one way or another. dbl sabers, or single.

@ForeverNight I tried Mdlops 0.6.1a1 and 0.6.4 alpha both split the blade mesh like DarthParametric's pic above
only mdlops .5 works properly for sabers.

svösh

^^^ It's from sloppy hand helpers on the body models.Yeah I eventually figured that out. Single wield is OK for males, in dual wield for females the problem hand is the right (i.e. opposite to the male).

I have a bigger problem though. It seems that while GMax will import my UV map correctly (importing the model as an OBJ exported from Cinema 4D) and export it properly as an ASCII MDL, when the exported file gets run through MDLOps replacer the UV map gets screwed up.

My guess was that MDLOps didn't like single meshes being unwrapped in such a fashion. I figured it wanted all polys in a single object to be contiguous on the UV map. It seemed to me (from my limited understanding of how GMax works) that perhaps the problem could be solved by splitting off certain sections of the mesh into new objects, as the original in-game sabers appear to be multi-part and various tutorials talk about splitting off polys during UV mapping. I did that but then when doing the resetxform step the hilt reverted to its original giant scale and orientation rather than staying scaled and positioned to the game hilt I'd imported to link it to. I decided to export it anyway to see if the UV map issue was at least resolved but it still screwed it up in exactly the same manner after being run through MDLOps.

Here's a pic showing the original UV map (left) and the screwed in-game UV map (right), as well as the 5 groups of polys that were split off into separate objects to try and (unsuccessfully) fix the issue.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/th_UV-Errors.jpg) (http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo185/DarthParametric/UV-Errors.jpg)

If you have detached edges in your UV map, you need to cleave those edges in your mesh as well otherwise KotOR will get angry. :)

That's what I thought I was doing by detaching the groups of polys illustrated in the pic. Each group of polys corresponds to a discrete section of the UV map. Can you explain the correct way to do it in more detail?

Just select logical groups of ploys like in your pic above but in polygon sub selection mode. Then hit detach and check on "detach to element" Since our sabers have to be one mesh object. This will create the seams for your uv map :) Then map it like you split it up ;) or in your case split your model up like your uv

svösh