[BF2C Cre8or_94]

thank you very much for that fast reply in first place, MS. So if I am right I can just import the skinned mesh into 3ds max with the bf2 plugins?

*EDIT*

I was able to import the the skinnedmesh from the soldier, thought it seems as if it is 10 times bigger than the 1p skeleton. I'll try to rescale it properly.

*EDIT*

Ok, I was able to rescale it, and it fits the bones now. I'm guess I'm ready to move to the second step you mentionned earlier, the weighting of the bones. I sorta know what it means, since I've done it to get my M4 to work in crysis, but I have no idea what this is gonna be like for bf2. Please enlighten me on this and show me the way to go

This post has been edited by BF2C Cre8or_94: 07 July 2008 - 08:50 PM

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Ok, first you should import the 1P_setup.ske skeleton for the arms and both 1P meshes (left and right arm ) . After that you give each of the meshes a 'Skin' modifier and add the bones from the right arm to the right arm mesh . Same for the left arm .

Now start to weigth vertices. Imo this is best done through the 'WeightTable' after setting the advanced parameters to a 'Bone affect limit' of 2.
Set the weigthtable to 'Selected Vertices' and start with the shoulder bone . note that there should be smooth transitions in weigthing so that the vertices on the seam between one bone and the next should be weigthed to both bones gradually. A vertex only affected by one bone mostly has a 1.0 weigthing while a vertex affected by 2 bones with the same strength has a weigthing of 0.5 per bone.
Here's a screen shot of a 3P soldier ( no 1P shots here atm ) with the root bone selected and the weigthing displayed:

Note how the weighting is gradually reduced where other bones take over. This will give you uninterupted joints.

It is of the first importance to have everything reset before starting the weithing process. Also the positions must be very exact on start.
Its a complex process and requires some practise.

[BF2C Cre8or_94]

hmm... I know now how it works, but it seems as if I'll have to spend some hours getting the weighting done, just to start animating? Or is there an easier, time saving way? Anyway, I've done what I wanted, another way around. My initial problem was to get the hands and arms of the soldier to appear in the scene to make animating easier. Well, I've done that, by adding each mesh to it's bone in the hierarchy, and as parented objects move with their parent,...



I'm satisfied with this right now, but of course if there was an easier way to do the vertices weighting, I'd do it rather than having to cope with my method.

This post has been edited by BF2C Cre8or_94: 08 July 2008 - 07:01 PM

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

By attaching a mesh to a pyramid you're not 'weigthing' but only make the mesh a part of the bone movement. This will not reflect the ingame movement.
No, there's no easier way for weigthing
As said before its a complex task. You probably now can imagine the work necessary to make new soldiers

This post has been edited by mschoeldgen[Xww2]: 09 July 2008 - 07:06 AM

[BF2C Cre8or_94]

hell yeah I can! And that's why I'm satisfied with my method as I said, but thanks for your help anyway

[infinityloop]

Thank you for this great tutorial!

I followed your instructions step by step, but not for the 1p animation. i used it for a 3p animation.

I had no problem to alter the stand/standdeploy/turnleft/turnright animation files. works like a charm ingame.

But i have a quite massive problem with the animations for walkforward/walkbackward/strafeleft/straferight.
I modified them exactly the same way as i did the others. i only modified the arm-animations.

But when i move my solder now from left to right, the feet do not move at all.
If the solder goes forwards or backwards, the "sinks" into the ground so that he is only visible from the hip upwards. (feet are in the ground).

Anyone an idea how i fucked these animations up?
I allready tried a couple of times to ensure that i did it the same way as i did for the other working animations.

[1/2Hawk]

This happens when you include the bones from the waist down in your {ANIMATED} selection set. Remove any lower body items from that grouping and re-export and it should fix the problem.

[infinityloop]

1/2Hawk, on Sep 22 2008, 02:48 PM, said:

This happens when you include the bones from the waist down in your {ANIMATED} selection set. Remove any lower body items from that grouping and re-export and it should fix the problem.

oh my ....

thanks for that tip!

i will try that out this evening as soon/if i get home from work. :-/

[azreal64]

Thanks for the tutorial MS, but I seem to be stuck on one part. I'm somewhat of a beginner to Max's layout and what have you, and I'm not exactly sure how you 'parent something'? Could someone explain that part a bit more?

[clivewil]

in max the operation is known as 'linking' - if you link A to B, A becomes a child of B. B is the parent object. in my max (v7) the icon for it (called Select and Link) is 2 small white cubes connected by a chain (and the one next to it has a broken chain, which is the 'Unlink' icon)

to link, first click on the Select and Link icon mentioned above and then click on the object you want to be the child. hold down the LMB and drag until the pointer is over the object you want as the parent. when you're in the right spot, the parent should flash. release the LMB.

if you've done it correctly, in the object list the child should now appear directly under the parent, and slightly indented to the right (assuming you have Display Subtree active in your list)

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Find more about 'parenting' (linking) and the display window in the hierachy help thread:
http://bfeditor.org/...?showtopic=5013

[azreal64]

Alright I got that down, but after I exported my animation, it tells me that "Scene Parse.exe" has to close down and I get this weird file called blah.baf.ske that is 0kb and I have no clue why.

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

The exporter determines the kind of object to export by the naming of the 'root_' object helper. I think you plan to export an animation but somehow end up with a damaged *.ske file ? that points to a wrongly named 'root_' object where you accidently have something in it like 'root_skeleton_blablabla' .
To export an animation your root should probably be called something like 'root_animation_My1PFire' which would lead to a file called 'My1PFire.baf' .
BAF ( Bone Animation File ) is the correct filetype for an animation, while SKE is an exported skeleton (probably undesired in your case )

[mrful]

Can this be done with gamx?

if that is the case, I would be verry happy!

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Afraid not The reason is that the BF2 tools for gmax lack the skeleton import function . It might be possible to reconstruct at least the 1P skeleton with gmax onboard tools but that is a challenging task 'cause the position and rotation of bones must fit 100% for good looking animations. Also the names of the bones need to be 100% correct or the animation will not work.