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[TUTORIAL] Creating non-animated custom M2 with mdlvis

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Mjollna:
Hi <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

Two weeks ago I started to discover M2 format and M2 making/editing. I think I have now a working process to create a non-animated custom model more or less from scratch, so I make a post here to share how I do it. If you have ideas on how to make it better, I'm totally open to suggestions.

Thanks a lot to Vel for all the tips in the chatbox and various posts over the forum, and to Tigurius for the converting tools & tutorial, it helped me greatly to create my own model and consequently write this post.

I don't use Blender/3dsMax at all here, I tried a little with Blender/M2i but I've had lots of problems converting back to M2, so finally I feel more confortable with mdlvis.

Tools used :
- mdlvis 0.40 eng version : <!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=59&t=790&start=0<!-- l -->
- ConverterMDX_lazy.exe : <!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=59&t=785&start=0<!-- l -->
- CollisionAdder.exe (modified version 2011-10-27 - topic page 2) : <!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=59&t=788&start=0<!-- l -->
- Optional, if you make custom textures : any image editing software like Gimp or Photoshop and a blp converter.
And that's all <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

Preparing a model for editing

I made one that I think I'll reuse every time from now on, so I share it to speed up things a little.
It already has 3 textures linked in it and some starting vertice to make further editing easier. It's based on Wow 1.x NewElfRuin02.
Here it is : http://gaming.mjollna.org/docs/m2_base_model.zip[/url]

It's interesting to have such a model since it passes conversion to M2 whatever the edits in mdlvis (or so it seems to me), and apart from changing/adding textures, you don't have to edit the mdl anymore.

However, I post the method I used to make it, in case you'd be interested in doing that for another model :
- mdlvis can open Wow 1.x M2 models directly. So choose a model you like from a 1.x version and open it in mdlvis.
- If you want a more or less blank model, delete every geosets except one. In the last one, leave a few vertice to make later editing possible.
- Save as mdl.
- Open the mdl file with a text editor.
- Follow this tutorial : <!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=20&t=32<!-- l -->
- Open in mdlvis again, check if everything looks ok, save as mdx.
- Try converting the file (see the last paragraph of this post). If everything looks ok ingame then you're done <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->

Editing the model

You can follow this nice tutorial for mdlvis. It has pretty much every feature covered, even animations which I haven't tried yet :
<!-- m -->http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/3d-m ... ng-179193/<!-- m -->

Some things I find useful to know :

Vertice and modeling

- To add vertice, you can extrude from a face or a group of faces. Copy/paste vertice or faces is also very very useful.

- Be careful to keep you model clean : delete free vertice, don't add unnecessary faces, keep the general triangle shapes as nice and simple as possible.

- I've tried the "optimize" function and it seems to work nicely, but I'd make a backup save and ingame test before/after every time anyway just to be sure.

Textures

- To add a new texture : save as mdl, add the texture path in the mdl file and link it to a geoset. Some copy-pasting will do the trick.

- If a face you've just created from 3 vertice looks transparent even though it has a texture (F button), select the face (click in the middle of it) and click the "-1" button to flip the normal.

- If group of faces looks darker/lighter than it's closest neighbours (it can happen if you detach a group of faces as a new geoset for example), try selecting all those faces as well as some other ones nearby with the same orientation and click the "average normals" button.

Other

- Using shortcuts in mdlvis can save you a lot of time.
There's one I've found by luck (and doesn't seem to be indicated in the menus ?) : middle mouse button toggles edit/rotation tools, it's very handy.

Converting and adding collisions

- For conversion, I use the following command on Windows :

--- Code: ---ConverterMDX_lazy.exe mymodel.mdx 0.02
--- End code ---
(the 0.02 is a scaling option).

- For collisions, just copy the M2 model you've just converted and it's skin file in the collision_adder.exe (the 2011-10-27 modified version, which changes the way bounding box normals are created) folder, drop the M2 on the program and you're done.

- If you experiment crashes or weird behaviour ingame, try to look exactly where it happens and correct the model. It happened to me mostly because of corrupted vertice or free vertice I hadn't seen, and once deleted + redone it was all ok.

Have fun <!-- s:) -->:)<!-- s:) -->
Feedback welcome as usual.

---------------
2011-10-27 small edit : changed Collision Adder ref. to indicate the latest version.

Vel:
This method is suitable only for non-animated models.
----
This tutorial you make life easier for so many newcomers.  :)
----
What can be done by this tutorial?
1) Gears models (weaponsshieldshelmetsshoulders e.t.c)
2) Doodads (...  ;) )
3) Menu models (mainmenu  character screen etc) (Unanimated)
-
Thank you for your efforts Mjollna

Everon Mightbane:
Yeah, this has made me think I could start getting into custom models. Thank you very much.

Vel:
If you have problems, ask questions, I can help

Jack:
Nice one. I actually was thinking about asking one of you guys to do such a tutorial a few days ago...now that's what I call telepathy :D
Thanks Mjollna, gonna sticky this one.

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