[TUTORIAL] Modify Torchlight Meshes with Blender

[spectre900]

hey its me again.

ive been trying to make some edits to the Zealot mesh (from the Vindicator 1.6 mod) but I can't seem to export it with skeleton and animations. the model itself seams to load just fine, but crash the game when starting it. looking at it in the TL-mesh-viewer the textures and model looks fine but she is uhh... planking. =/

so I checked the converter log and found this line:

Spoiler: show

OGRE EXCEPTION(6:FileNotFoundException): Cannot locate resource zealot2M.skeleton in resource group General or any other group. in ResourceGroupManager::openResource at ..\..\..\..\OgreMain\src\OgreResourceGroupManager.cpp (line 753)
Unable to load skeleton zealot2M.skeleton for Mesh conversion. This Mesh will not be animated. You can ignore this message if you are using an offline tool.

any idea what is wrong, or what I am doing wrong?

[N3MES1S]

hmm, i cant help u with that spectre, but the guy i remember that some modders had very difficult times to export animations+exqueletons, almost in Blender, i am just learning how to export non-animated objets lol, so i am a bit far away from you -.-

Anyways, finally i successfully imported a model from sketchup into Blender, and exported into the game, so finally i can design the weapons in sketchup ^^ ->

(Yeah i know the sword itself is very basic but it is just a test :p)



I only need to learn how to apply attached effects (Any tutorial out there or some examples?? =) and some affixes and i am ready to go to desing a weapon pack :p

[Rusty]

I wish I could help spectre, but I have not worked on skins ever.

As to your question N3MES1S, I suggest opening up TorchED and using the UNIT editor. Create a new sword and link it to your sword mesh. Also try downloading this mod by Heron http://www.runicgamesfansite.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=197&act=down&actionhash=1328738588-c15cbb804b45474c974dd07876d70039b40e6ca7 and look at it's .dat file to see how he attaches the poison. I learned through this method, and it is actually pretty easy. Good Luck

[N3MES1S]

Thx Rusty, i cant download that mod u linked in the previous post, anyways istn that the Heron Sword pack?? cuz i already had it, but i dont see anywhere in the weapon dat files attached particles..

Yea i am using torched to create the particles, the problem is, i cant get the right size / orientation of the particles, and sometimes the mesh just dissapear... and i dont know why. I create the particle and the particle link layout file, and everything is ok and i get the particle in-game, but i really dunno wat to change to make it smaller and in the right direction..

[Dusho]

@N3MES1S
There is a modding guide from AttackGorilla if you want to apply custom particle effect on weapon: http://www.runicgamesfansite.com/showwi ... sland:3213
Regarding direction of effect, there are actually several ways to achieve the correct one. Link between weapon and particle effect looks like this:
Weapon (its own position and orientation)
....................+-> linked Particle Layout (its own position and orientation - BUT relative to weapon)
.....................................+-> Particle effect (with its own position and orientation - BUT relative to particle layout)
Orientation are defined by 3 vectors e.g. (-1,0,0) (0,-1,0) (0,0,1) -> this orientation should revert X and Y axis, but keep the Z axis. So in order to get particle effect correctly relative to weapon, you have to have both orientations and positions (particle layout and particle effect) correct. Just use orientations from AttackGorilla's guide...
BTW. nice to see more modders doing new cool weapons !! keep it up, N3MES1S.

@spectre900
Mesh files contain link to skeleton file within. I believe I made Blender importer script and TL mesh viewer in way to no freak out (and crash) if something is not present (though, you should get warning in Blender console). But ideally skeleton file linked in mesh (in your case zealot2M.skeleton) should be present in same folder as mesh file.

[spectre900]

@N3MES1S
@spectre900
Mesh files contain link to skeleton file within. I believe I made Blender importer script and TL mesh viewer in way to no freak out (and crash) if something is not present (though, you should get warning in Blender console). But ideally skeleton file linked in mesh (in your case zealot2M.skeleton) should be present in same folder as mesh file.

the skeleton file is in the same folder so it should in theory work (I think).

well first i import the mesh file from the mod folder where all animation n stuff are stored.
then I just make the nose longer to make it obvious if the export works or not.

one of the settings I use but have tried a couple of other combinations.

Spoiler: show

after export I run the zealot2.mesh.xml trough the XML converter. only way that seams work and gets the file size right. the skeleton file is there so it should work but still get that error.

Spoiler: show

after that I open it in the viewer, and the edited mesh loads and textures work but there is no animations. the image below got the original mesh file.

Spoiler: show

I have tried using the OgreXMLconverter option while exporting but that makes all textures n stuff not work and the file size is only half of what it should be.

[Dusho]

what script are you using to import .mesh into blender ? is it this one? http://code.google.com/p/torchlight-to-blender/ ?

[spectre900]

what script are you using to import .mesh into blender ? is it this one? http://code.google.com/p/torchlight-to-blender/ ?

ya, I think that's the one.

[Dusho]

strange then...
using this script it should import mesh and armature together with vertices weights for animation, then editing the mesh and exporting (just mesh), you should be able to use modified mesh with existing animations (.skeleton files). Ogre Exporter should be version where it sorts bones according to IDs, only then original animations can be used - but you're not even getting skeleton, so there must be wrong something else.
You sure you have skeleton file in same folder as mesh when importing to blender?

[spectre900]

this is the folder I use as the "import" folder.
zealot2.mesh is the one I import, and red is the skeleton and all the things seems to be there when loaded.

Spoiler: show

even tried to copy the exported xml files to the that folder and then run them trough the XMLconverter. same thing.

[N3MES1S]

Hi, just to say i got the weapon working with effects, the problem was i was using X axis instead of Y axis, and everytime i changed the x axis i was modifying the y axis lol..

Other thing was , i was modifying the position values on the emitter, not in the layout link file :p, so it doesnt matter wat changes i do, nothing will change lol.

Anyways, here is my first almost 100% finished sword, it need a little more work on it, but that will come later. Thx for everyong for the tips.



BTW, i noticed everytime i start the game, the sword just disappears in the character screen, then it works ok in-game and after that it shows ok in the character screen, any ideas on wats going on??

It has something to do with the Blender export options maybe??

[Phanjam]

Hey N3MESIS! First, that's a GREAT looking sword you got there! Second, congratulations for overcoming the technical obstacles to get your creation into the game !

The non-appearance on the character (selection?) screen happens with the custom lightsaber weapon too. I have no idea why, sorry

[SixshotOverdrive]

@spectre900
As Dusho said, it's missing the skeleton. However, the skeleton you export from blender won't work anyway.
So uncheck "Skeleton name follow mesh"
delete the resulting 'zealot2.skeleton.xml'
and just use the old one.

If that's still not working
open up 'zealot2.mesh.xml' in a text editor and make sure the skeletons actually being linked (it should be at the end of the file)

[N3MES1S]

Hey N3MESIS! First, that's a GREAT looking sword you got there! Second, congratulations for overcoming the technical obstacles to get your creation into the game !

The non-appearance on the character (selection?) screen happens with the custom lightsaber weapon too. I have no idea why, sorry

Yea i noticed that on the jedi mod too, another weird issue TL cant handle.. :p

Anyways, i noticed elemental effects got missing sometimes when i equip the weapon, the custom effect shows perfect, but the elemental effects (like ice damage) are not showng up. But when i go to the character screen, they show up... i dont see why TL have so difficult times managing the effects on weapons..

BTW, this is my first completed sword, the Demonish Sword, i will work on the fx to see if i can make a burning effect from the weapon, but right now it looks good. This will be the first sword of my -some-day-weapons-pack mod :p

And cuz i dont want to misslead this thread to someting else , this will be my last topic about it, maybe i will make another thread in the forum =)



PD. it cant be appreciated in the image but the rounded center detail is very cool, but for some reason i cant get the textured more detailed, even if i am using a 300x1024 texture size. It seems that everytime i load the texture on Blender, it loses detail for some reason, and the final texture is too blurry and less-detailed. I dunno if this is couse of Blender or TL itself.

[Brixtan]

Just popped in to say great work on that sword man - it looks freaking awesome! Astounded at the particle effects too!

[N3MES1S]

Thx Brixtan, im still working on it.

BTW, i noticed that when a class that uses lower scaled weapons equips the sword, the fx didnt scale with the weapon and remains bigger than it should be, any ideas about how to fix this or the value that i need to modify??

[Phanjam]

Agree! It's BEAUTIFUL!

[Arkham]

BTW, i noticed that when a class that uses lower scaled weapons equips the sword, the fx didnt scale with the weapon and remains bigger than it should be, any ideas about how to fix this or the value that i need to modify??

This is exactly one of the problems I had with one of the weapons in my chainsword mod. No way of fixing it as far as I know, just something that has to be lived with. Sweet-looking particle effect by the way.

[N3MES1S]

BTW, i noticed that when a class that uses lower scaled weapons equips the sword, the fx didnt scale with the weapon and remains bigger than it should be, any ideas about how to fix this or the value that i need to modify??

This is exactly one of the problems I had with one of the weapons in my chainsword mod. No way of fixing it as far as I know, just something that has to be lived with. Sweet-looking particle effect by the way.

Oh damn, that is a really hard blow in the head ... cuz i love Vindicator and the Abomination, and i cant use the swords on the Vindicator.. the effect displaces entirely.... sigh. I suposse i need to change the effect so it appears only in half-side of the blade......

I only hope TL2 fix all these issues (and all the others, specially the issue about showing up some effects), cuz it seems that the TL modding capabilites are not that great after all

EDIT: Sadly, i decided to almost remove the weapon effect, cuz i cant find one that fits the flaming sword that i can use on every class without looking weird. I tried with just a halo around the sword, but it doesnt look good (too weird) and i tried with random particles but the problem in the swords is that the effect should be attached along the sword, but if u do that, on other classes the effect looks just out of place.

I was thinking instead of that, to use dynamic textures in the material file, but i dont have any clue of how to to that. I mean, i was thinking on make a glowing detail, for exmaple on the round detail of the sword, (for example, same texture but with the round detail colored in red, or watever). I used to do this on other games that uses glowing effects and something like this, and the game just used 2 textures, the main one and the glowing one, so something similar could be done in TL?? Arkham i know u have knwoledge of using texture animations on the material file.. u think we can make a glowing effect someway???

[spectre900]

@spectre900
As Dusho said, it's missing the skeleton. However, the skeleton you export from blender won't work anyway.
So uncheck "Skeleton name follow mesh"
delete the resulting 'zealot2.skeleton.xml'
and just use the old one.

If that's still not working
open up 'zealot2.mesh.xml' in a text editor and make sure the skeletons actually being linked (it should be at the end of the file)

did what you said and its.... better, got animations working in the mesh-viewer but the model gets completely deformed when viewing them and still wont work when loading the game.

the mesh.xml file do have the line " <skeletonlink name="zealot2.skeleton"/> " and a whole lot of bone assignments in it so I guess it should be linked properly but still get the message from the converter that say the file cannot be located even if everything is in the same spot.