Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Location: Osaka (JP)/Hong Kong/Germany
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 12:06 pm Post subject:
How to convert VXL to SHP?
Pardon me, my experience with graphical assets is very limited, maybe this question has an obvious answer. Is there a handy way of converting a voxel to a SHP, without going the route of first converting it via 3D modelling software and then back to a sprite sheet? (All 3D editing programs are well above my budget). _________________
Mao Zedong wrote:
Our mission, unfinished, may take a thousand years.
a) use a free 3d program (blender, truespace, gmax, etc...) see modding tools. Since you get the 3d model now from VSE, there shouldn't be much more work necessary in the 3d program. Just set up a camera and light system (we have templates for several programs on ppm) and render the thing
b) voxel viewer and many screenshots
c) create plain colored terrain tile (e.g. clear.tmp with just white color). then go ingame and take screenshots of the unit from the game (best way to make the SHP look like the VXL for things like deploy anims) _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Truespace is also a horrible tool; This coming from someone who used it for a couple years. If you're gonna learn anything, learn how to use Blender. It's free and is up and coming in the industry.
I'd go for LKO's choice c), it's probably the easiest and nicest looking since it's rendered ingame. _________________ "Don't beg for things; Do it yourself or you'll never get anything." QUICK_EDIT
Unfortunately that's only practical when you you need just 8 facings and the unit has no turret. It's not impossible to get all 32 turret frames as well by turning the chassis invisible, but I imagine it'll be quite a tedious job... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
invisible chassis
TurretSpins=yes
and 32 screenshots later you have all turret frames
On slowest game speed, it is pretty easy to get a screenshot done on each frame. I'm doing this for years for all the ingame preview gifs of my buildings, anims and other stuff
even a walk anim should be easy to do with the right map setup.
e.g.
-make select.shp and health bar invisible and have your testmap with the plain colored ground loaded.
-select the unit (without any visual indicator that it's selected) and press f to make the screen follow constantly the unit centered on screen
-let the unit move around and make screenshots while it moves
-with the unit centered in the screen, a simple batch conversion in Irfanview can crop it out fast, accurate and easy.
Then it's just bringing the frames in the correct order (if you are careful when taking the screenshots, there isn't much work to do) and separate the shadow.
Though you can also convert to SHP and separate the shadow in SHP Builder. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
TurretSpins=yes
and 32 screenshots later you have all turret frames
On slowest game speed, it is pretty easy to get a screenshot done on each frame. I'm doing this for years for all the ingame preview gifs of my buildings, anims and other stuff.
Haha, which means that you are using Yuri's Revenge for that right?
That tag is designed for Floating Disc only. Yuri's collection agency! _________________ PPM Halloween Season 2021 QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Location: Osaka (JP)/Hong Kong/Germany
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:01 pm Post subject:
TurretSpins is present in RA2 and it was even in TS already! It just wasn't used before. It is said that it was originally intended for implementing a MRJ, but of course it matches the Floating Disk very well. _________________
Mao Zedong wrote:
Our mission, unfinished, may take a thousand years.
BTW Having experimented with turretspins on voxels, I can tell you that the normals direction spins with it...
Meaning your voxel has to have the same normal values repeated for all sides for proper lighting, which also means you lose half (or 3/4) the normals space. This also means your turret will only look good as a 2 or 4 feature sided object.
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How to convert VXL to SHP?
It is said that it was originally intended for implementing a MRJ, but of course it matches the Floating Disk very well.
