Dota 2 Polycount Contest 'Q&A Thread'
Replies
-
I was secretly hoping they would surprise everyone and reveal 15 winners instead.. there's just SO many good entries and it feels like something they might do.
I just hope they don't do no double up stuff, like 1 person gets two spots that's straight BS then.
Also if your getting errors, spaces/longnames are bad and always end in error.
Yea EMC reinstall will help. -
Yep, reinstall fixed it. It did crash one more time when I tried to "customize" the character I'm working on, though.Yea EMC reinstall will help.
However, afterwards I first selected another hero and then back to my hero and no crashes so far. Really weird behavior. Can see all my items properly now.
Weird, I hope it doesn't happen again before I submit. /fingers crossed -
$!nz - Man, I followed all the steps of your post and it didn't work for me. The items that I imported are invisible in the game. Do you know what I did wrong?
-
$!nz - Man, I followed all the steps of your post and it didn't work for me. The items that I imported are invisible in the game. Do you know what I did wrong?
You kind of have to have 2 copies of everything by this I mean one of your set items at heroes/models + heroes/items <keeping the compiled zip files extracted were they are.
I also put my textures as above except in materials/heroes/models + materials/heroes/items were ever my hero directory was so if I did clinkz I would have my copies any where it said clinkz hope that helps.
If not check the Dota 2workshop thread in pimpin I updated the process in-case you missed something. -
I can't edit the "background and video" by collection...I rebuilded it twice.
There is no move to edit form...other links work.
ADD: all right. It should be after "main information editing". -
I'm having the same problem as Eduardo. Trying to preview anything in the workshop submitter causes DOTA2 to crash.
This happens to both normal and test client. It worked perfectly last night...
It still crashes after re-install! Any ideas?
EDIT: seems to work now after i previewd an item for a different hero first. How odd... -
You kind of have to have 2 copies of everything by this I mean one of your set items at heroes/models + heroes/items <keeping the compiled zip files extracted were they are.
I also put my textures as above except in materials/heroes/models + materials/heroes/items were ever my hero directory was so if I did clinkz I would have my copies any where it said clinkz hope that helps.
If not check the Dota 2workshop thread in pimpin I updated the process in-case you missed something.
Where can I find this .zip file? -
Here's a video of what I just did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yZz_azpwE&feature=youtu.be
I compiled my file in TEST not BETA, seems no .zip file is created in test my mistake on that part though should still be self explanatory anything in the 0x
folder are your custom models and the files you need.
^the only thing I don't show is the placement of the texture files which is just the same exact process except you go to materials/heroes + materials/items and put your compiled .vtf/vmt texture files in their.
Again you have to compile your files with the default names you get when you extract your "dir.vpk" files. You will see my files are called shoulders which is the default name for the items I'm replacing.
Hope it helps. -
Also if your getting errors, spaces/longnames are bad and always end in error.
Yeah I think the spaces are what did it as it just worked fine using a single word. Thank you! -
Yeah I think the spaces are what did it as it just worked fine using a single word. Thank you!
Awesome glad It helped, figured had to be that, but its understandable that you don't put spaces would just make naming things incredibly hard later on.
I am guessing with every new set I would just keep the naming the same as the default gear when sending them off. So shoulders, bracers, sword whatever your replacing, though you would need to extract the content and find what Valve has named their items so you can mimic those naming conventions when making your custom sets. I think in the end they will have to rename everyones items that must suck, if you think about it.
If you leave them the default names they stay under your sets folder name and then you would have default naming conventions replacing the originals.
^Just making this aware to those posting sets to not name them uniquely just name them the item your replacing don't add numbers. I think that will help Valve out more, though I am not sure if naming interferes with the way the game handles custom sets but after playing with test I can only assume this is how it should be in the end, if not well at least it is nice and neat.
:poly136: -
Hey guys, I'm almost completely done with my set and I am running through a huge technical hurdle at the moment and I need your help.
When I imported 2 of the 3 items into the game, they seem to have imported in without a hitch. When I noticed the diffuse maps showing and not the normals and masks, I double-checked my file types and re-imported them in using the bit versions suggested in the technical requirements (.tga format: 24-bit Diffuse and Normal, uncompressed; 32-bit Mask1 and Mask2, compressed RLE). When I imported them in, the normals finally showed up:
But the masks don't look like they appeared properly because the specularity was displaced evenly around. Here are my textures (of the head slot item) for reference:
And if you need to, here is a link to my WIP thread for some other shots:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107375
I am not sure why the game is not reading them in properly... I am pretty sure it has to do with the mask files. The reason why I suspect this is when I had blank channels for the masks (at 24-bit instead of 32-bit), they would compile fine and just would not show the normal maps, specularity, etc. But once I made custom masks (at 32-bit--both compressed and non-compressed), the game decides it won't read them as they are.
One major reason why I suspect it to be a mask problem is when I import the shoulder slot item into the game, the game thinks a bit and crashes completely. When I do this with a 24-bit mask, it uploads fine, just doesn't show the normal and spec information...
I'm not exactly certain what the cause of the problem is or if it's a software/hardware issue. All I know is the mask files aren't compatible with the import and compiling features in the game. I would really appreciate it if anyone has any advice on this issue and thank you for reading. -
Hi every one I am trying to get my Items into the DOTA2 Engine and I am getting several different issues but I dont know why as all the models are compiled in the same way they have no history and are each skinned to the correct bone.
(Please note the names might not be 100% as Im doing this from memory atm)
Rifle -WeaponRoot_0 and Cocker
Hat- Head
Cape- Back1-5 Back 2-5 etc (by this I mean all the bones that correspond to the cape animation etc)
They are all importing but each is having a seperate issue as displayed in the image bellow
I am away most of the weekend due to work and so will have to have one last try Sunday evening before trying again to submit them before the Contest Deadline please if anyone has encountered any of these problems can you tell me how you overcame them
I would realy like to get these submitted for the contest please help
Cheers
Dan -
@Bold Elf, on the hat front, check to see if you have UVs on the hat. I know it sounds weird, but humor me.
I've had experiences where deleting history has screwed with my UVs... Also, are you remembering to change the name of the object when importing it into DotA? I found out the hard way that all iterative tests should be named uniquely (in other words, if your object is named "Object00" and your next attempt to view it is "Object01", you can't switch back and name it "Object00" again and expect to see something different... Unless you're willing to delete four folders every single time you preview...)
@DRa90NBoi
This is gonna sound weird, and I'm not sure it will do anything, but have you considered switching the white patch on the Mask 1 R and G channels to the right-hand corner instead of the left?
I had a similar issue with my Lina set when I first started getting things into the game. However, I noticed that when I worked on my CM set, when I put the white spot in the opposite corner, I didn't get any of the same issues.
EDIT: I just realized that the green channel of my normal map wasn't inverted. Have you tried inverting the green channel of your normal map?
Give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen? -
Please help!
I'm having a huge problem trying to upload my weapon for the Lone Druid.
Unfortunatley it's not allowing me to do a print screen so I"m unable to get an image. But what's happening is when I import my weapon it somehow gets oriented to the center of the model and scaled waaaay up and squashed. So he basically looks like a mushroom man running around.
I thought I had the weapon bound correctly I've placed it exactly where the original sickle he uses is in the maya file and all the vertices are skinned to the weapon joint. What am I doing wrong here? -
8-Bit... a couple of questions. Did you use the Maya ASCII for Lone Druid that came from the workshop? Have you been able to import the weapon just fine before?
-
Here's a video of what I just did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yZz_azpwE&feature=youtu.be
I compiled my file in TEST not BETA, seems no .zip file is created in test my mistake on that part though should still be self explanatory anything in the 0x
folder are your custom models and the files you need.
^the only thing I don't show is the placement of the texture files which is just the same exact process except you go to materials/heroes + materials/items and put your compiled .vtf/vmt texture files in their.
Again you have to compile your files with the default names you get when you extract your "dir.vpk" files. You will see my files are called shoulders which is the default name for the items I'm replacing.
Hope it helps.
THANK YOY MAN! The video helped a lot! It worked just fine here. Thanks! -
Ah, I just tried that it and made no difference... Well, I actually moved the white dot to an unoccupied spot in the UVs since some of the corners are covered by textures. The game still crashes when it loads the mask textures for the shoulders.@DRa90NBoi
This is gonna sound weird, and I'm not sure it will do anything, but have you considered switching the white patch on the Mask 1 R and G channels to the right-hand corner instead of the left?
I had a similar issue with my Lina set when I first started getting things into the game. However, I noticed that when I worked on my CM set, when I put the white spot in the opposite corner, I didn't get any of the same issues.
EDIT: I just realized that the green channel of my normal map wasn't inverted. Have you tried inverting the green channel of your normal map?
Give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?
I'm not sure about the normals being flipped--they seem to show up fine in the viewer, it's just the highlights are blown out due to being max specularity (for some reason... I blame the masks, heheh).
Still not exactly sure what is wrong but I'm still thinking that it's the masks that are causing the issue. The ones that crash the game are the 32-bit (compressed and non-compressed), 4096x2048 masks for the shoulder item. And the other masks (both 32-bit and 2048x2048 ) compile without crashing the game (though it takes the program a little bit to get that going). So the masks either don't work or crash the game.
By the way, all the textures were saved directly off of Photoshop and I am unsure if the game reads in all information, including image meta-data or whathaveyou that could be causing the long compilation and/or crashes...
Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'll try a few other suggestions if you or anyone else has any, and if that doesn't work, I'll attempt to re-download and reinstall the game, though I doubt that will fix my issue.
Edit:
And here is the updated layout of all the textures used if it helps:
The shoulders textures have space reserved for any additions needed since I didn't max out the poly count for that piece. I don't think that contributes to my technical issues though. -
Hi there,
What may be preventing me from submitting file?
I'm able to import it, but when i press the final 'submit' button it gives me the spinner that my item is uploading, after a while it opens a steam browser with page "Sorry, an error was encountered while processing my request.
That Item does not exit. It may have been removed by author." -
Does anyone know how we can preview our item sets on the respective characters in-game? And I mean the complete set not just one item at a time when you upload them.
-
Cross-posting this from my wip thread. Can't seem to get my creatures to animate
---
Does anyone know how to import creatures properly? I have the weapon models working in the game as a test so things appear to be working in general. When I try to import the bird, though, it has its wings linked to Beastmaster's arms in the preview window. Also, when I replace the game's bird files with those generated by the import it'll be visible and have the correct size/position in game but won't animate. I'm getting the same issue when im-/exporting the original FBX file from Max, by the way. -
Hi there,
What may be preventing me from submitting file?
I'm able to import it, but when i press the final 'submit' button it gives me the spinner that my item is uploading, after a while it opens a steam browser with page "Sorry, an error was encountered while processing my request.
That Item does not exit. It may have been removed by author."
Having the same issue here. -
EMC, Gregorein, have you guys bought anything using steam before?
-
EMC, Gregorein, have you guys bought anything using steam before?
I haven't on this account, no. Does that affect the submission? :poly122: -
YES! Buy something cheap, then try submitting...
@DRa90NBoi
Let's try an experiment... Take the R and G channels from the original mask 2 of the shoulders (they should be in the zip you got from the character's workshop page) and put them on to your custom mask 2, then import into game with a new name.The purpose of the experiment is to see if the generated masks are affecting the in-game behavior (as I have reason to believe that they're actually not...).
I've been making tweaks to Lina, and I've discovered a similar problem to what you're experiencing (on the belt piece). I tried putting the R and G channels from the default belt's mask 2 into my mask 2 and there is NO difference in the specular of that item!
So, try it and report back here whether there are any changes or not in how it's displayed. If there isn't any change, there's a strong possibility that there's something else that determines how speculars and rimlights interact with the items that we don't know about...
EDIT : After messing around further, I think I'm pretty close to understanding what's happening. Just out of curiosity, I compared the normals I baked with the default normals for the character's belt. The default doesn't have wrinkles baked in... As a matter of fact, they're almost FLAT! Okay... So armed with this information, I can conclude that we can't just copy-cat the original's masks because the situation we've created is completely different from the originals! THE PROBLEM WASN'T THE SPEC OR RIMLIGHT MAPS, it was the way we were choosing to handle the Spec by color and Spec Exponent maps!
This isn't much of a problem, we just have to tweak our maps, and understand what we're doing. -
YES! Buy something cheap, then try submitting...
Bought Mark of the Ninja, tried submitting another item, same error.
Hopefully we can get someone from Valve to shine some light on this?
It's 2 days away from the deadline.
By the way, do you mean buy something from STEAM or buy something from the workshop?
-
You may not want to listen to me anymore, but how long after you made the purchase did you wait to submit?
-
You may not want to listen to me anymore, but how long after you made the purchase did you wait to submit?
No way, you are trying to help and I really appreciate it. :poly121: If you have anymore ideas, they are 110% welcome. Can't hurt trying.
As to your question, about half an hour, I think. Right now I closed the client and will wait for another 30 minutes before trying with my 3rd set item. -
Thanks for the suggestion--I experimented with that before you mentioned it, and it does seem it was the R and G channel screwing things up with the shoulder load and making the game crash. So to solve that, I had to make sure all my R and G channels of Mask1 were solid black without any extra pixel information. The only channel that would need at least one pixel of information would be the Alpha channel of each map, otherwise, don't put pixels were they don't belong... or they will crash your game (at least in my case, heheh).@DRa90NBoi
Let's try an experiment... Take the R and G channels from the original mask 2 of the shoulders (they should be in the zip you got from the character's workshop page) and put them on to your custom mask 2, then import into game with a new name.The purpose of the experiment is to see if the generated masks are affecting the in-game behavior (as I have reason to believe that they're actually not...).
I've been making tweaks to Lina, and I've discovered a similar problem to what you're experiencing (on the belt piece). I tried putting the R and G channels from the default belt's mask 2 into my mask 2 and there is NO difference in the specular of that item!
So, try it and report back here whether there are any changes or not in how it's displayed. If there isn't any change, there's a strong possibility that there's something else that determines how speculars and rimlights interact with the items that we don't know about...
I then proceeded to fix my issue with the specularity because everywhere it was being blown out. After so many hours of tweaking both the Specularity (Mask2 R) and Specular Exponent (Mask2 A), it turns out that the Tint Specular (Mask2
was the culprit. For some reason it works kind of backwards that what I initially had put down (even copying over the original textures from the source didn't produce different results and made it even more frustrating to match the masks), so I had to invert some of the areas affected by the blown-out specular effect and that toned down some of the brightness. You would think that the tint wouldn't contribute to the over-specularity besides just the color of it, but in this instance, when combined with the original specular, it did.
I have to head out now, but I will try to adjust the values some more to get it where I want and post some of the results after I get back. -
@DRa90NBoi
Actually, your assessment was quite helpful... and precise. I wonder why the maps act differently on some characters and not others...? -
Figured it out and uploaded my items! Man, this submission system is a tough nut to crack. It works, but it really makes you work hard for it!
If anyone else is having issues, it seems like the Dota submission struggles when you add characters like "_", numbers or long names. At least I avoided those three things in order to get my items in.
So freaking happy right now.
Thanks again DashXero. -
Edit: Fixed, it worked for me now. :thumbup::poly127:
-
Hey guys, I'm almost done with my submission (yay) but have a few questions about the final stages.
1. Is there a way to preview all of the items together? I kinda need that for preview images for the final submission.
2. Is there a way to view the high poly model before uploading? Just want to know if that works. In a similar note, is there a way to see the portrait with your items?
3. Has anyone who has worked on Death Prophet figured out how to get the misc item to scroll like it does for Valve's?
Thanks. -
Hey guys,
I understand the process of compiling the models to view them all at the same time(until I can attempt it and be proven wrong). However, you need a .MDL to do that and all I have are .FBX. Basically I'm losing my mind and its probably because I lack the tiny brainpower probably required for this task.
Thanks
--Crazyman -
TheDude537 wrote: »Hey guys,
I understand the process of compiling the models to view them all at the same time(until I can attempt it and be proven wrong). However, you need a .MDL to do that and all I have are .FBX. Basically I'm losing my mind and its probably because I lack the tiny brainpower probably required for this task.
Thanks
--Crazyman
When you use the submission tool inside Dota 2, it compiles all of your stuff into an mdl. The mdl is stored somewhere in Dota 2's directory, don't know the exact location, but you could search for it by the name you gave it in the submission tool. Note that using the submission tool creates a preview first, you don't actually have to submit it. The preview shows the generated mdl.
Let me know how you managed to view them all at the same time if you can get it to work, because I want to know as well. -
hi guys,
noob question here, do i need the dota 2 test in order to submit or the dota 2 beta have now is just fine? I hope it is good though, because the internet connection here in my home is really slow for downloading another dota 2 test copy.
thanks -
Beta is fine.
-
Hey guys, I'm almost done with my submission (yay) but have a few questions about the final stages.
1. Is there a way to preview all of the items together? I kinda need that for preview images for the final submission.
2. Is there a way to view the high poly model before uploading? Just want to know if that works. In a similar note, is there a way to see the portrait with your items?
3. Has anyone who has worked on Death Prophet figured out how to get the misc item to scroll like it does for Valve's?
Thanks.
1.
Yea search a few pages back from this one to get your answer and a guide how to provided by tviditto if you have concerns you can ask him. -
Super quick question:
Is the deadline December 3rd 2012 @ 11:59 EST AM or PM ? -
EST it's bold in yellow on the dota 2 detailed page, just click under the banner the green text.
December 3rd, 2012 @ 11:59PM EST
I'm going by this if it's wrong hope they accept my entry..
I have faith in Polycount they know what they are doing. -
Yeah, but is it 11:59 am or 11:59 pm?
-
Pm. It says so on the page.
-
realy?! is it 24 hours?
-
wtf! need help:
http://imgur.com/ZGzw2 -
Bleh, well, I do have a better understanding of the textures now, but after editing and making sure all the proper channels were filled or unfilled, I'm getting the crash on the shoulder piece again...@DRa90NBoi
Actually, your assessment was quite helpful... and precise. I wonder why the maps act differently on some characters and not others...?
Now I'm totally not sure what is going on, but I do know it has to do with the mask... (I even tried a blank Mask1, with and without a pixel in Alpha) When I go back to check the files the game makes (in which it spits out in 4 different folders), it compiles the texture information first and then the geometry (or at least, it looks like it spits out the textures first, as the geometry-related folders are empty). It never completes the importation of the masks but the color and normal maps are there (.tga, .vmt, etc.).
Anyone running into similar problems? And if anyone else wants to try test uploading this piece to make sure if it's the piece and not my machine/game, I can upload the files externally and PM you a link to it. -
If anyone else is having issues, it seems like the Dota submission struggles when you add characters like "_", numbers or long names. At least I avoided those three things in order to get my items in.
Thanks so much! I came here looking for the same error and shortening the names worked for me.
-
I have added my items. This sounds silly asking, but how do I add them to a collection?
edit* - I think I found it! -
How do I add a background image to my collection? I press edit background image and video and nothing happens. I scroll down and don't see any fields either.
Edit: Nevermind. I figured it out. -
Man, I feel silly now, but one major thing I overlooked throughout the whole ordeal was the texture resolution. Obviously, the compiler can't handle 4096x2048 of 32-bit .tga awesomeness--so that's what was causing the crash. After looking back and forth between the source masks for the shoulder item, I realized that they had halved the size of the masks from the normal and color texture sizes, and I assume it was for good reason. I am relieved to have caught that and now I can continue with getting final renders and a presentation sheet.Anyone running into similar problems? And if anyone else wants to try test uploading this piece to make sure if it's the piece and not my machine/game, I can upload the files externally and PM you a link to it.
Given the inconsistancy of the results prior, I am hoping this solves the issue once in for all! Also, thank you very much for the help DashXero and others who have looked into this--I have learned what to look for and understand a bit more of how this process works. -
A couple questions if anyone can help!
1) Is there any particular size our Presentation shots should be? For the main beauty shot as well as the individual item pics? What's everyone using? Does Valve auto resize it?
2) probably a little late for this, but can we use Vert tinting/coloring? Will that work?
C) Are we allowed to post our texture sheets in our threads?
Thanks !! -
Not much sure about how much help this is but I think your presentation shot can be as big or small as you want it to be--I've seen a lot of high-res renders, but my personal preference is that if it's going to be viewed on the web, keep it web-safe or monitor-resolution sized, so about 960 or ~2000 pixel wide at the largest. Valve will most likely resize it to view on the webpage, but it might retain it's original size when full-viewed in the browser.A couple questions if anyone can help!
1) Is there any particular size our Presentation shots should be? For the main beauty shot as well as the individual item pics? What's everyone using? Does Valve auto resize it?
2) probably a little late for this, but can we use Vert tinting/coloring? Will that work?
C) Are we allowed to post our texture sheets in our threads?
Thanks !!
I'm sure you can use vertex coloring if you want to bake it to a texture. I have no idea if that kind of stuff physically transfers over tho their particular game engine, so I cannot say much about it--but to keep things safe, I would keep all color information to the textures.
Heheh, I am unaware if there are any restrictions to that, but if you have progress to share, by all means share everything and anything you want that illustrates your work-in-progress.
Hope any of this helps, if at all and good luck!
