Hey guys,

I appreciate all the help that this forum has given me. Never in my wildest dream had I ever thought about 3dModeling, but somehow, you guys made it look so easy...

and, well... it is!

But I'm on my third model (saber hilt). And I've done everything to my knowledge, the same way I've done it before. However, the end result came out like this in the game.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/losthardy81/nohold1.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/losthardy81/nohold2.jpg)

The model looks fine, but is NOWHERE near her hand.

I followed the replacer tutorial to the "T"... 3 times... on the same model...

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Something I discovered when importing my .3ds mesh to the scene the first thing you have to do is resetxform on your model or setting up your pivot point will be a nightmare.

Example I build compared to the game model export my new mesh close max later , re open max import the game ascii Unlink the "old hilt" then import the .3ds mesh .. and selected it and hit resetXform, then set the pivot just like in steps 7 and 8. Then link my hilt to the anim dummy and export

Hope this helps ;)

svцsh

Hello,

It took me almost as long to figure out the orientation wierdness as it did for me to code the replacer!

The important things to remember are:

1) 3 things determine the position and orientation of a hilt:
a) The mesh itself
b) The pivot point of the mesh
c) The parent object of the mesh

2) Hilts MUST be linked to the correct dummy object in order to come out right. Look at the original hilt model to find the correct dummy to link to.

3) You MUST link the hilt to the dummy! Not the other way around! The best way to check is to right click the hilt and choose properties. You should see that the hilts parent is the dummy object.

4) Reset xform. I don't really know what magic this does in nwmax, but it makes a lot of things work. In any model you are working on if it comes out funny try selecting the mesh then hitting reset xform then export to ascii again.

This is what I do in order...

1) create a hilt from scratch

2) convert to editable mesh and attach all pieces, then add the "Aurora TriMesh" Modifier to the hilt.

3) import ascii model from KotOR tool

4) scale my hilt to match the imported hilt.

5) detach imported hilt from dummy

6) line up my hilt at origin and match to pivot points using the "align" tool in Gmax.

7) resetxform (Safe Pivots is checked)

8) attach new hilt to dummy.

9) delete old hilt and export

-------------

This has worked for me in the past, but everyonce in a while I get this problem and can't figure it out.

Steps 5 - 9 are in the order provided in the "Replacer.Txt" that comes with MdlOps, so I know those are right...

Hello,

Well looks like you got the steps down alright.

Maybe try doing a reset xform before you align the pivots and see what happens.

If it still does not work send me your gmax file and I will take a look at it. You can get my e-mail address from the top of the MDLOps readme.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot, and if it works or not, either way... you'll hear from me.

Thanks again!

Thanks a bunch man...

Apparently there were A LOT of factors in the problem. One of which, is that I was using the "Fast Linker" instead of taking the time to attach all the items correctly.

Second was the ResetXform... technically since the hilt was in a place OTHER THAN origin when I did the ResetXform, it was assigning the hilt's origin as somewhere else... hence, appearing out of her hand...

While other may not have understood what I just typed, I do... and hopefully you do too....


Basically everyone, line up your hilt with the original, THEN perform the ResetXform, THEN align the pivots...

Thanks again guys,

You've yet to let me down!

::LostHardy81

Hey no problem happy to help , I didn’t mention hilt placement on the 000 world axis or / origin because that’s a given, if it’s supposed to replace the original It has to be in the exact same place as the original. My first hilt I built in wire frame inside the frozen default to ensure easy work flow . Happy you got it working now ;)

svцsh

Yeah, the hilt being in origin IS a given, my issue was that I was doing the ResetXform outside of the origin, then moving the hilt TO the origin, and the game was reading the coordinates of where I performed the reset AS the origin...

well, now that I've confused myself, i'll be off to do my first skinning job!

Thanks