OBJECTIVES:
-Lightsaber hilt model to be placed correctly on the PC's hand, not too up and not too down.
-Lightsaber blade projected correctly on the tip of the lightsaber.

TEMPLATE USED:
w_Lghtsbr_007.mdl (note: g1_w_lghtsbr01.uti)

PROBLEMS:
Firstable, every basic steps that I had taken are already checked twice for correctness (ie: link the objects, ResetXForm, etc.). So please don't ask whether I already did the basic steps needed for this to work.

Okay, lets get dirty. To achieve my objectives, I already find the right spot for the hilt and the spot proved to be correct when I checked in the game. The only problem is the Z coordinate of the hilt have to be moved up 2cm which of course breakthrough the blade objects (plane333,334,335,336).

So I did the next logic thing to do, moved the planes up 2cm. It didn't work. When I checked the output mdl using gmax (don't bother getting in-game), the hilt position are correct, but the planes position are reverted to default position.

I thought perhaps that because the planes were moved up without re-align their pivot like we did to the "lshandle". So again I did the next logic thing, cloned the planes, move them up, re-align their pivot based on the old planes. Still didn't work.

Next shot, I cloned all the objects, move them 2cm up, align their pivot based on the old objects, re-link everything, delete the old objects, re-check everything, export, mdlops, and my heart was beating faster because I thought "this is it, I did it, this is the ultimate showdown." and BANG, it still didn't work. All the objects are reverted to their default position except for the hilt.

CLOSING:
I hope my description of the case are clear enough. So, please, can someone help me? (T_T)

I will call your hilt "custom". So import default hilt and breack link to dummy. Move custom hilt over default (x,y,z axis). Here make adjustment on z axis in order to put hilt custom in good hand position (z axis). After that center pivot like the tutorials says and if you want to move blade up or down (away or close) to the default hilt move pivots on z axis. If you move pivot +2cm on z axis the blade will have ignition 2 cm away from your hand. Do not move meshes or dummy planes.
1. Moving hilt mesh on z axis change in hand position of hilt;
2. Moving hilt's pivot on z axis you move ignition start point of blade.
I hope it helps.

XA-R01 you may want to try using w_Lghtsbr_001.mdl + w_Lghtsbr_001.mdx to rig your model with, I have found that the several of the other models have little quirk's that can sometimes be abit of a pain to work with.

If you want to move the hand placement of your hilt down, simply move the pivot point of your mesh up on z after you have aligned and reset Xform.

Guys, I seemed to have found the problem. About 2 hours after I posted the original post, I tried to use model 001 as a template. I succeded move up 2 planes while the other 2 revert to default postition (compared to model 007, all planes goes back to default position).

At that point I realize that the planes that keep goes back to default position are the planes that have "dummy" properties on the modifier list, the succeded ones are the planes that have lighsaber color texture applied (editable mesh). You can't replace the dummy planes on mdlops, only the editable mesh planes. All the planes of model 005,007,008 are "dummy" while model 001-004,006 still have 2 planes that are editable mesh.

My questions are:
1. Is these "dummy" planes are because limitation of mdlops (in converting from binary to ascii) or limitation of NWMax plugin (in importing the ascii) or limitation of gmax/3dmax?

2. Is there any workaround for this problem? Because I really want to use model 007 as template. Model 005, 007, 008 have bigger file size than that of model 001-004,006. In-game, you could see where the extra file size goes, model 005,007,008 have bigger blade. No, that's not because the color texture are brighter. I copied the w_lsabreblue01 texture and rename it to w_lsabregold01 and then load up g1_w_lghtsbr01 and g_w_lghtsbr01 in-game. You could see model 007 have bigger blue blade than that of model 001. The blending effect are also improved, make it more movie-like.

NOTE: I HAVEN'T TRY OLDFLASH'S SUGGESTION, I WILL TRY IT AFTER I GO HOME FROM THIS INTERNET CAFE.


Off-topic for a split second:
Are Fred Tetra and cchargin are part of Kotor Developing Team? or Bioware dev team? If not, why Bioware never release an official Oddssey Engine editor? And how Fred Tetra and cchargin can write a program for Kotor? Is there any Kotor source code floating around somewhere?

@T7nowhere: Sorry for my other post (request to Hefe). You're right, it should have been goes to PM. It's just that I don't know him (or her?) and I was hoping by not going into PM and using thread instead, I will get reply if not by him then by someone who know him. Or even better, someone have the missing Hefe's texture file. I'm even hoping you would reply and says: "I have the file you're looking for." ;p


DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MDL 007 AND 001
D:\Pic.jpg

Hey guys, I want to load pic of difference between model 001 and 007, but it doesnt load up. How to load up a pic to a post anyway? I already use insert image and type the path. T_T

IF you want to upload pics just use an image host like http://photobucket.com/) .
then include the images link in your post. I am interested in seeing the difference between the models, I've never noticed anything special about those models, but I have made a point to primarily use 001 or 006 when I want the longer blade.

On the other note, I'm not completely sure why your trying to move the blades when you can get the same effect of moving the hand position by moving your hilts pivot point up after alignment. Did I miss something? Of course though it is completely possible to adjust the position of the blades. Svцsh and seprithro have both tilted the blades on an angle for one of their models, so what your doing isn't unheard of, but seems like the hard way to do things in your situation.

Fred and cchargin are simply fans of the game and have dedicated much of their free time to provide us with great easy to use tools. :)

IF you want to upload pics just use an image host like http://photobucket.com/) .
then include the images link in your post. I am interested in seeing the difference between the models, I've never noticed anything special about those models, but I have made a point to primarily use 001 or 006 when I want the longer blade.
"Be careful of what you wish for." ;) Here's the pic. The one that Carth's holding is model 007. Both model use the same original blue texture.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c282/xa-r01/Pic.jpg)


On the other note, I'm not completely sure why your trying to move the blades when you can get the same effect of moving the hand position by moving your hilts pivot point up after alignment. Did I miss something? Of course though it is completely possible to adjust the position of the blades. Svцsh and seprithro have both tilted the blades on an angle for one of their models, so what your doing isn't unheard of, but seems like the hard way to do things in your situation.
The reason I kept trying to move the blade up is because I haven't got the time to go online and read the above reply post. Now that I have, sure I will try them and hopefully, I will succeded.
About svosh, what did he trying to achieve by tilting the angle of the blade? Because from my experience, trying to move or rotate the dummy planes are doomed to fail. and even though we can move/rotate the 2 mesh planes, the other 2 dummy planes will still be in their default position. Visualize this: your blade projected from the tip of the hilt, but the glowing effect starts from the middle of your hilt. that's what I get by moving the 2 editable mesh planes while the dummy planes still on their default position.


Fred and cchargin are simply fans of the game and have dedicated much of their free time to provide us with great easy to use tools. :)
Gee, that means if Fred Tetra never make KT, the whole Kotor modding community would not exist. And if cchargin never make mdlops, we could never mod the models???!!! Speaking of hard cold facts...

The resolution of the pic should be at 1024x768, it got resized by photobucket.com so you could not see the difference clearly. But trust me, the lightsaber Carth's holding have bigger blade.

Ya I can see thats its bigger, it looks a bit like the planes are a little wider.

I'm not sure exactly what svцsh and Seprithro did to make the blades tilt properly and to be honest I don't think they completely know either.(maybe it was a little voodoo) ;)

You can see the results in these screens though.

http://gallery147761.fotopic.net/p12650703.html)
http://gallery147761.fotopic.net/p13416849.html)

Yes, your suggestion works well. Thanks goes to oldflash and T7nowhere. Anyway, I still have few problems and question. Not directly about lightsaber modelling, but still have correlation since I found out the problems when I was modding the hilt.

1. I uses T7nowhere's chrome for all of my hilts (including the downloaded ones). It was great. The hilts that Hefe made have the biggest impact, their color in-game are accurate now. Anyway, I made a new White Darth Revan texture, name it N_DarthRevan02, and edited appearance.2da so that the star forge robes would load up Revan CS model with this new texture. Everything works just fine. This is where the fun begins. If I didn't make a txi file for the new texture, it loads up correctly but the metal parts are not shiny since there isn't any envmap specified. If I made txi file and use CM_Baremetal, it loads up perfectly. BUT... if I use T7chrome on the txi file, it STILL load up CM_Baremetal??!!
I extracted the N_DarthRevan01 and gave it txi file to use T7chrome like I did with my N_DarthRevan02, both of the textures still load up CM_Baremetal!!!
I don't want to override CM_Baremetal with T7chrome, I want them both to co-exist. So... I tried editing the appearance.2da and set the envmap to "T7chrome" then "default" then "****" and still failed, my PC ended invisible everytime wearing the robe (FYI: I quit and restart the game after every 2da editing since updated 2da won't be loaded if the game isn't restarted). The odd is that this appearance.2da editing works for T3-M4 and HK-47 but didn't work for Revan CS model?

2. Oh, by the way, what exactly the function of ResetXForm in lightsaber modeling anyway? I read the tooltips, it supposedly auto-unlink etc., but I didn't quite understand. When I still have the far above problems, I tried to tingle with model 006 as template. The funny thing is that if I select the hilt only and ResetXForm (as the last step before exporting), the planes position would go down (on gmax view panel, don't know in-game). But if I select all and ResetXForm, nothing changed (the modeling and editing still works in-game).

3. And for T7nowhere, where/how on earth did you find/make the incredible stunning magnificent envmap texture called T7chrome???!!! I search everywhere in Kotor Tools directory, zippo. If you made it yourself, how did you know what the envmap texture would be like in-game?