I haven't really messed around with the in-game compiler yet so I can't say. I have heard that it's really bad with attaching at the moment, so I would wait until valve smooths it out (or submit it the old way?).
And what is the old way exactly? Sorry, but I saw the in-game tester yesterday and I aimed at it only, any links for the old method?
Hey guys, just a quick PSA, there's now a subforum on the official dev forums for Workshop Tools, Bugs and Suggestions which can be found here http://dev.dota2.com/forumdisplay.php?f=407
@Machucha:
That looks awesome, I really like the texture work on the wood part!
Okay ... i just used the new test tool from valve to see my Belt for axe and it failed.
The compiled was sucessful but it just was a grey belt without textures, also it has no animations and is just static in the room.
Do i have to animate a belt for axe?
This is how it should look.
Also its just a Test Costume part ... wanna get it run before invest much time into dota 2 items.
I do not really understand what you mean with that ...
search on google what is non mainfold, if your using blender press ctrl+alt+shift+M it will select all non mainfold verticles, you will have
an idea of what i'm talking about
I'm following the guide on page 24 but stopping just before using 3d party compilers for models and textures. They are both not an option as I'm using 64bit Photoshop and the StudioCompiler crashes. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
So I have a question that I haven't seen any information on. When I look at the way valve does their mask textures I have no idea how they are used.
My thinking is the mask 2 slot is for a color specular. However when you compile your model through the dota workshop it requires a mask1 texture.
Can anyone please give me more information on what the mask textures do and how they are set up.
Thanks!
"_mask1" is a 32-bit texture and every channel is used.
Red is the detail map mask.
Green is the diffuse and fresnel warp mask.
Blue is the metalness mask which controls where the Color and Fresnel are suppressed.
Alpha is the self-illumination mask, where the color is drawn from Color texture. Even if you are not using this, fill with a NON-BLACK color. This is done in order for texture compiler to keep this channel. If it is black it will be thrown out and the shader will think it's pure white and your item will be full bright.
"_mask2" is 32-bit and again every channel is used.
Red is spec intensity.
Green is rimlight intensity.
Blue is tint spec by base color. Please note that this is INVERTED. Black sets tint by base color; white uses specular color.
Alpha is the scale factor of specular exponent from shader. For example, if the specular exponent is set to 16, then values for this channel of 0...255 will control exponent values from 0 to 16. Look at the hero's specular exponent number to get a good idea of what values to use in this channel for your item.
The color channels in these files are translated to special effects ingame. For example, the amount of green that you have in mask one may give your items high specularity, or something like that. I suggest looking at the Dota2 workshop technical requirements page to see what color channels equal what effect in which mask.
Because there is a new technique how to import models I want to try it. I was so depressed last time when I tried to import it. Thats why I used preview screnshot from P3D on my last item.
I think it can looks better with better textures and with preview from the game. If anyone can help me, pm me here or on my steam. You will get 49% of earnings if we get it right, dont worry. The item which we will repair is http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=83365347
Next: On my item I got 350 faces, does it means that the item got 600 polygons? Are the weapons which got heroes on Valve`s files LOD0?
So I've managed to get everything working just fine as far the model goes; skinning seems to work fine and there isn't much/any clipping, but I can't get the texture working despite having what seem like perfect .qc and .vmt files -_-
I just can't see what's causing the texture to not properly be applied. The paths all seem correct and I've got a material with the same name "phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_color" on the object when exporting from Max. I'm using a modified .vmt of PL's current lance and the .qc is also from one of his models.
So I've managed to get everything working just fine as far the model goes; skinning seems to work fine and there isn't much/any clipping, but I can't get the texture working despite having what seem like perfect .qc and .vmt files -_-
you qc has a little difference from mine, i dont set a a path for the smd, in mine is
$model "courier" "donkey.smd"
(its donkey because im testing it on dota test replacing the original one)
one thing that could be causing your problem is in the export of the smd file
open it before compiling and check if it have a sequece like this:
Cleaned up my .qc and .vmt a bit and found a discrepancy in file naming (go figure) with my source .tga in Max.
A quick find all/replace in the .smd and it's all good!
Now for some detail work, adjusting the grip placement/general scale issues (I think it might be a tad too long now that I can see it on PL a bit better), jiggle bones on the feathers and it's off to the workshop.
How do you bind your item to the correct slot with the new Dota2 export method?
I smooth bound my monocle to Kunkka's head joint, and i rotated the joint and observed that it followed the rest of the model as intended, but the skeleton joint binding data in my item must have been lost or corrupted somewhere in the export process?
Do i need to make the skeleton joint a member of my reference layer when exporting to .smd?
Also, the .ma file valve packages the character and instructs you to bind the item to the proper joint is "y axis up", and everywhere else i read z-axis is supposed to point upward. So i tried binding my item to the .smd kunkka head with the z axis upward, and in the new Dota2 test are my item was following the rest of the model, but it was horribly distorted and floating off to the side.
Then i tried doing what Valve said, and bound my item to the .ma Kunkka's head, same thing. I choose smooth bind to the little circle at the top of the skeleton, and everything seems to be fine in Maya, but it doesn't translate at all to source.
I think the bone, named the same as the bone in the hero, needs to be in the file in export so the compiler can tie your skin to the correct bone in the hero. I usually just import the whole skeleton, because the compiler (at least, the old one) discards the unused bones.
Useful info, much appreciated! It is just odd, i thought i was using the exact same method i already experienced success with, but if the problem is me not exporting the entire skeleton, it is possible i may have accidentally successfully exported by selecting it all before.
I tried it, but i couldn't spot my item, deformed or otherwise. This was in the z axis up configuration, bound to an imported Kunkka.smd skeleton.
Now i'm going to try in the y axis up environment i guess....
Update: Nope, nada. I am going back to working off of the .ma valve provided, at least i had some result to work off of then...
How do i fix this?
Update2: Gonna try Spudnik's method, export the model and the bone to .fbx, import to a new scene then export to .smd
I did not try the new tool , but I suggest you do it the old way.
*Decompile her original bow
*Take the output QC
*Edit it and you only need to change some lines (Don't copy paste below , these are NOT for the bow)
// path to your SMDs
$cd "C:\...\...\Desktop\Drow Model"
// keep same
$modelname "heroes/drow/drow.mdl"
$model "default" "drow_model.dmx.smd"
// Add . smd after .dmx as shown below
$lod 1
{
replacemodel "drow_model.dmx.smd" "lod1_drow_model.dmx.smd"
}
*Keep the rest of the QC.
*Get GUIstudiomdl
*Get Source film Maker on Steam
*Follow Cyborgmatt's guide on how to add dota 2 to SFM till step 10
*Open GUIstudiomdl , Config , Set Ep1 parth
*Set ep1 path to SFM's studiomdl.exe which you can find in SFM's "bin" folder
*Back to GUIstudiomdl , set Targetmod to dota 2 and make sure ep1 selected
*Load up your QC , from File
*compile
*if it hangs , leave it even if not responding.. usually gets stuck for 1 minute then compiles fine for me.
*You will find your compiled MDL's overwriting dota 2 models in the SFM folder.
*Use these MDLs in either in game test tool or model viewer (CS:GO HLMV works great , SFM and Alienswarm are fine)
i tried what you suggested & tried spudnik's guide as well. definitely getting there but now i'm just stuck
I probably need to fix all the masks. I dont have a clue about it. But the FBX import is working. I think its a lot easyer to preview the item now.
Can u guys tell me why the weapon is not reciving lights ?
Yeah, the ingame compiler works a bit weird with weights. What worked for me is to have a clean scene except for my meshes and the bone they attach to and then do "Export All" and export as an FBX.
i tried what you suggested & tried spudnik's guide as well. definitely getting there but now i'm just stuck
Hi Pwnies, if you check the previous page we just solved this issue with one my my models.
It is more than likely an issue with the naming conventions of your files.
Make sure that your files all follow the same conventions and that you also have a material applied to your model (in whichever program you use) that also has the same name as your .vmt file.
Guys, the files which Valve give us are LOD0? So if it have 300 faces in .obj does it means +-600 polygons in smd(triangles) file?
I am little bit depressed over this, because it really means my models are pretty much useless to work with.
Can someone ask this and show me his wire for lod1(used in game)? Thanks very much.
Tips for everyone struggling to get the models properly linked:
- As Spudnik said, a clean file seemed to do the trick. Duplicate, unlink and export the joint you need. Start a new scene, import the bone, import the mesh. Deleting the history and freezing the transformations seems key. Do it every time you join it.
- I can't confirm this but it seems like my importer wasn't refreshing correctly when I imported a new version. It would just keep important the first FBX over and over. To fix this I think closing the publisher and starting again refreshed the import.
- Final tip: be patient. I feel like I need some Class A drugs after that.
I had some luck with the ingame preview with the fbx format. One thing to notice is after the first preview its best to reestart dota2 i dont know why this happens but the viewer get stuck with the first compilation. The process is preatty easy im using maya 2012 on the deafult settings to export. When the fbx file is done open it, and check the file structure. You dont need nothing but the mesh and the bones.
I got mine to work, what i did was i decompiled Kunkka from the dota game files, imported his .smd to maya, oriented the model to the z-axis, then imported my item. I then deleted all the history of my item froze all transformations and fixed it to his head. I then smooth bound the monocle to the head joint, deleted his head mesh, everything except my item and the skeleton was deleted. then i clicked export all to .fbx format and compiled with the Data2 test tool ingame. It still needs a lot of tweaking, but here it is.
When I export my sword as a FBX, it comes out really huge, but attached to his hand in the game compiler. When I export the exact SAME file as a .smd, it comes out the correct size but not attached to his hand, on the floor unmoving.
When I try what you people have suggested, a completely clean file, it still has the same results.
Hi Pwnies, if you check the previous page we just solved this issue with one my my models.
It is more than likely an issue with the naming conventions of your files.
Make sure that your files all follow the same conventions and that you also have a material applied to your model (in whichever program you use) that also has the same name as your .vmt file.
Hope this helps.
i saw your prev. post, i really can't figure out what i'm doing wrong, i've got all the file names right, i matched with the vtf, still cant get those textures to stick.
@eleryn, have you tried resetting your transforms?
I have another question, is transparency applicable to items? i would like to apply about 50% transparency to the lens in my monocle for instance.
Is that possible?
And if so, how?
According to the Technical Requirements:
The "_color" texture can be 24 or 32 bit. Use 32 if the alpha is needed for opacity
So simply apply a 50% grey alpha (I'd go a bit lighter, 50% may still be too little) where you want it to be semi-transparent and save the diffuse color as a 32 bit.
Replies
And what is the old way exactly? Sorry, but I saw the in-game tester yesterday and I aimed at it only, any links for the old method?
here is the weapon of axe's caveman set im working on.
let me know what u guys think!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=85105458
Shape outline for necro staff. I dub thee, Heartstopper!
(think the base of the pole needs work though, I do have polys to spare!)
@Machucha:
That looks awesome, I really like the texture work on the wood part!
support me on this if you want it too!
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=48761
Let me know what you think
The compiled was sucessful but it just was a grey belt without textures, also it has no animations and is just static in the room.
Do i have to animate a belt for axe?
This is how it should look.
Also its just a Test Costume part ... wanna get it run before invest much time into dota 2 items.
P.S: Got it Largs.
search on google what is non mainfold, if your using blender press ctrl+alt+shift+M it will select all non mainfold verticles, you will have
an idea of what i'm talking about
I'm following the guide on page 24 but stopping just before using 3d party compilers for models and textures. They are both not an option as I'm using 64bit Photoshop and the StudioCompiler crashes. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
My thinking is the mask 2 slot is for a color specular. However when you compile your model through the dota workshop it requires a mask1 texture.
Can anyone please give me more information on what the mask textures do and how they are set up.
Thanks!
"_mask1" is a 32-bit texture and every channel is used.
Red is the detail map mask.
Green is the diffuse and fresnel warp mask.
Blue is the metalness mask which controls where the Color and Fresnel are suppressed.
Alpha is the self-illumination mask, where the color is drawn from Color texture. Even if you are not using this, fill with a NON-BLACK color. This is done in order for texture compiler to keep this channel. If it is black it will be thrown out and the shader will think it's pure white and your item will be full bright.
"_mask2" is 32-bit and again every channel is used.
Red is spec intensity.
Green is rimlight intensity.
Blue is tint spec by base color. Please note that this is INVERTED. Black sets tint by base color; white uses specular color.
Alpha is the scale factor of specular exponent from shader. For example, if the specular exponent is set to 16, then values for this channel of 0...255 will control exponent values from 0 to 16. Look at the hero's specular exponent number to get a good idea of what values to use in this channel for your item.
taken from http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements
This still seems really intimidating because I've never made these types of masks manually before but I will give it ago.
Do you know if there is anyway to generate the separate channels with aprocedural process? Like from a bake or something?
Thanks again!
You need all 4 separate texture files to properly compile:
Your folder with the textures should looks something like this-
"slotname"_"itemname"_color.tga
"slotname"_"itemname"_mask1.tga
"slotname"_"itemname"_mask2.tga
"slotname"_"itemname"_normal.tga
The color channels in these files are translated to special effects ingame. For example, the amount of green that you have in mask one may give your items high specularity, or something like that. I suggest looking at the Dota2 workshop technical requirements page to see what color channels equal what effect in which mask.
yay! thanks so much =]
i still dont know how the portrait works, still need to try changing the position of the model acording to the 0,0,0
is there something about the face poser on alien swarm?!?!
Because there is a new technique how to import models I want to try it. I was so depressed last time when I tried to import it. Thats why I used preview screnshot from P3D on my last item.
I think it can looks better with better textures and with preview from the game. If anyone can help me, pm me here or on my steam. You will get 49% of earnings if we get it right, dont worry. The item which we will repair is http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=83365347
Next: On my item I got 350 faces, does it means that the item got 600 polygons? Are the weapons which got heroes on Valve`s files LOD0?
The .qc
$cd "k:/work/props/dota 2/phantomlancer/models/heroes/phantom_lancer/decompiled" $modelname "items/Phantom_lancer/phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata.mdl" $model "default" "phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata.dmx.smd" $scale 1.00 $surfaceprop "default" $cdmaterials "models/items/phantom_lancer" $hboxset "default" $hbox 0 "spear_1" -102.509 -13.784 -6.553 186.610 13.039 4.290 $surfaceprop "default" $keyvalues { } $illumposition 34.764 -25.033 77.483 $sequence BindPose "BindPose" fps 30.00And the .vmt
CustomHero { $baseTexture "models/items/phantom_lancer/phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_color" $normalmap "models/items/phantom_lancer/phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_normal" $diffusewarp "models/heroes/sven/sven_diffusewarp" $maskmap1 "models/items/phantom_lancer/phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_mask1" $maskmap2 "models/items/phantom_lancer/phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_mask2" $SPECULAR_BLOOM_SCALE 0 $SPECULAREXPONENT 53 $SPECULARSCALE 50 $SPECULARCOLOR "[0.9 0.7 0.1]" $RIMLIGHTCOLOR "[0.5 0.8 0.9]" $RIMLIGHTSCALE 10 $DETAIL1BLENDMODE 3 $DETAIL1SCALE 1 $DETAIL1BLENDFACTOR 3 $cloakPassEnabled 1 Proxies { TextureScroll { texturescrollvar $detail1texturetransform texturescrollrate "0.2" texturescrollangle 55 } invis_proxy { } status_proxy { } hero_proxy { } } }I just can't see what's causing the texture to not properly be applied. The paths all seem correct and I've got a material with the same name "phantom_lancer_weapon_featheredNaginata_color" on the object when exporting from Max. I'm using a modified .vmt of PL's current lance and the .qc is also from one of his models.
Any help is appreciated.
you qc has a little difference from mine, i dont set a a path for the smd, in mine is
$model "courier" "donkey.smd"
(its donkey because im testing it on dota test replacing the original one)
one thing that could be causing your problem is in the export of the smd file
open it before compiling and check if it have a sequece like this:
end
triangles
models/courier/donkey/donkey_color
59 -7.2319 34.360939 68.72908 -0.104586 -0.99417 -0.026233 -0.127875 0.550537 1 43 1
59 -6.61327 37.223461 69.815521 0.811124 -0.27145 0.518066 -0.141377 0.604913 1 43 1
59 -7.78692 37.488811 70.092308 -0.533409 -0.253859 0.806864 -0.12023 0.610929 1 43 1
if you dont have the line after the "triangles" its because you are not exporting with the proper texture
you need to assign a material to the object and point it to your .vtm file
Cleaned up my .qc and .vmt a bit and found a discrepancy in file naming (go figure) with my source .tga in Max.
A quick find all/replace in the .smd and it's all good!
Now for some detail work, adjusting the grip placement/general scale issues (I think it might be a tad too long now that I can see it on PL a bit better), jiggle bones on the feathers and it's off to the workshop.
don't use double negatives =S
did you tried to do what I said?
Yes and it helped to get it compiled but now is the result not good as you can see in the pictures .
How do you bind your item to the correct slot with the new Dota2 export method?
I smooth bound my monocle to Kunkka's head joint, and i rotated the joint and observed that it followed the rest of the model as intended, but the skeleton joint binding data in my item must have been lost or corrupted somewhere in the export process?
Do i need to make the skeleton joint a member of my reference layer when exporting to .smd?
Also, the .ma file valve packages the character and instructs you to bind the item to the proper joint is "y axis up", and everywhere else i read z-axis is supposed to point upward. So i tried binding my item to the .smd kunkka head with the z axis upward, and in the new Dota2 test are my item was following the rest of the model, but it was horribly distorted and floating off to the side.
Then i tried doing what Valve said, and bound my item to the .ma Kunkka's head, same thing. I choose smooth bind to the little circle at the top of the skeleton, and everything seems to be fine in Maya, but it doesn't translate at all to source.
Help?
Useful info, much appreciated! It is just odd, i thought i was using the exact same method i already experienced success with, but if the problem is me not exporting the entire skeleton, it is possible i may have accidentally successfully exported by selecting it all before.
I tried it, but i couldn't spot my item, deformed or otherwise. This was in the z axis up configuration, bound to an imported Kunkka.smd skeleton.
Now i'm going to try in the y axis up environment i guess....
Update: Nope, nada. I am going back to working off of the .ma valve provided, at least i had some result to work off of then...
How do i fix this?
Update2: Gonna try Spudnik's method, export the model and the bone to .fbx, import to a new scene then export to .smd
i tried what you suggested & tried spudnik's guide as well. definitely getting there but now i'm just stuck
qc file
$modelname "items/drow/weapon_bow.mdl" $cdmaterials "models/items/drow/" $model "default" "weapon_bow_lod0.smd" $scale 1.00 $surfaceprop "default" $lod 1 { replacemodel "weapon_bow_lod0.smd" "weapon_bow_lod1.smd" } $hboxset "default" $hbox 0 "spine3" -55.661 -30.012 -8.959 0.000 52.256 9.146 $hbox 0 "Bow1_0" -19.545 -9.993 -22.599 13.253 6.460 21.489 $hbox 0 "bow9_0_D_R" -28.756 -4.839 -18.132 9.263 4.305 0.313 $hbox 0 "bow8_0_D_L" -8.326 -4.305 -9.087 36.113 4.839 18.120 $hbox 0 "bow9_1_D_R" -23.319 -7.619 -12.284 31.375 5.925 7.250 $hbox 0 "Bow3_0_A_R" -18.336 -7.619 -11.868 19.903 5.925 3.613 $hbox 0 "bow8_1_D_L" -22.728 -4.473 -6.963 22.249 5.243 12.800 $hbox 0 "Bow2_0_A_L" -6.105 -16.435 -12.753 7.428 19.409 7.152 $attachment "bow_mid1" "Bow1_0" -4.65 11.71 -4.90 rotate 9.40 -53.76 -158.70 $attachment "ArbitraryParityChain4_plc8_L" "bow8_1_D_L" 53.28 -0.95 33.14 rotate -0.00 0.00 -0.00 $attachment "bow_bot" "Bow2_0_A_L" 0.99 0.00 0.00 rotate -20.56 -90.00 90.00 $attachment "ArbitraryParityChain4_plc9_R" "bow9_1_D_R" -52.58 -0.38 -34.25 rotate 0.00 -0.00 -0.00 $attachment "bow_top" "Bow3_0_A_R" 0.00 0.00 -0.00 rotate -43.12 -18.87 108.80 $attachment "bow_mid" "attach_bone" 0.00 -0.00 -0.00 rotate -6.57 -21.92 -4.62 $attachment "attach_attack1" "attach_attack2" -0.00 0.00 -0.00 rotate 0.00 0.00 0.00 $attachment "attach_hitloc" "spine3" -0.00 0.00 0.00 rotate 77.68 -180.00 -90.00 $surfaceprop "default" $keyvalues { } $illumposition 2.281 16.606 80.571 $sequence BindPose "BindPose" fps 30.00vmt file
"CustomHero" { "$baseTexture" "models/items/drow/weapon_bow_color" "$normalmap" "models/items/drow/weapon_bow_normal" "$maskmap1" "models/items/drow/weapon_bow_mask1" "$maskmap2" "models/items/drow/weapon_bow_mask2" "$diffusewarp" "models/heroes/drow/diffusewarp" "$SPECULAREXPONENT" "20" "$SPECULARSCALE" "2" "$nocull" "1" "$RIMLIGHTSCALE" "1" "$cloakPassEnabled" "1" "Proxies" { } }I probably need to fix all the masks. I dont have a clue about it. But the FBX import is working. I think its a lot easyer to preview the item now.
Can u guys tell me why the weapon is not reciving lights ?
Hi Pwnies, if you check the previous page we just solved this issue with one my my models.
It is more than likely an issue with the naming conventions of your files.
Make sure that your files all follow the same conventions and that you also have a material applied to your model (in whichever program you use) that also has the same name as your .vmt file.
Hope this helps.
Looking good!
I am little bit depressed over this, because it really means my models are pretty much useless to work with.
Can someone ask this and show me his wire for lod1(used in game)? Thanks very much.
Well, that was frustrating. Workshop link.
Tips for everyone struggling to get the models properly linked:
- As Spudnik said, a clean file seemed to do the trick. Duplicate, unlink and export the joint you need. Start a new scene, import the bone, import the mesh. Deleting the history and freezing the transformations seems key. Do it every time you join it.
- I can't confirm this but it seems like my importer wasn't refreshing correctly when I imported a new version. It would just keep important the first FBX over and over. To fix this I think closing the publisher and starting again refreshed the import.
- Final tip: be patient. I feel like I need some Class A drugs after that.
I am going to try binding the item to his idlepose bone instead of the static model.
Yeah. This isn't working for me.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=81275886
When I export my sword as a FBX, it comes out really huge, but attached to his hand in the game compiler. When I export the exact SAME file as a .smd, it comes out the correct size but not attached to his hand, on the floor unmoving.
When I try what you people have suggested, a completely clean file, it still has the same results.
I'm just about ready to give up I think.
Is that possible?
And if so, how?
i saw your prev. post, i really can't figure out what i'm doing wrong, i've got all the file names right, i matched with the vtf, still cant get those textures to stick.
@eleryn, have you tried resetting your transforms?
That instantly reminds me of the Magus Magnus set, I'd suggest changing the hood.
Hooray! An improvement!!
Now I just need to figure out why it's floating out there rather than in his hand.
Moving it's position relative to the bone seems to do nothing...
According to the Technical Requirements:
The "_color" texture can be 24 or 32 bit. Use 32 if the alpha is needed for opacity
So simply apply a 50% grey alpha (I'd go a bit lighter, 50% may still be too little) where you want it to be semi-transparent and save the diffuse color as a 32 bit.