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MESA - Maya exporter for Source Engine

fuzzzzzz
polycounter lvl 5
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fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
Hello Polycount,

It a great pleasure for me to announce the availability of MESA 2.0
MESA is a tool-set of scripts for Autodesk Maya that can Import and Export to the Source engine.
This is a list of the new functionalities and improvements than MESA 2.0 brings.

mesa2-logo1.png
  • The new environment System is now completely independent from the Source Sdk Environment variables.
  • The Maya.env files is no longer used to define the environment variables that MESA requires to work.
  • MESA provides the project environment workspaces for the 20 Games powered by the Source Engine.
  • The UI has been refines ( check the Screenshots section )
  • Guide Sections (under development) this section will brings some use full tips and important information with the creation of assets vehicles, npcs, items, and weapons.
  • and more…
The new shelf :

mesa-2-shelf.png

Documentation
Tutorials
Export tutorial
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It-hL1xCYiI"]MESA 2.0 Export Tutorial - YouTube[/ame]

Installation tutorial
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pz_rbL0CAw"]MESA 2.0 Installation Tutorial - YouTube[/ame]

Feedback and suggestion are welcome .

Nicolas Kirsch
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Replies

  • Tvidotto
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    Tvidotto polycounter lvl 9
    UHHHH Mesa 2.0!

    cant wait to try it!

    the "older" version helped me importing a Dota animation inside maya, going to try this one on my workflow in couple days =]
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  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
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  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    Hi there, i just post to tell that i just have update the guide for MESA.

    i have posted into source film maker, i don't know if it's a good idea to duplicate the guide for Dota 2 and for TF 2, CS go etc..

    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=186221067

    Some more to come, like how to load heroes animation, and rebuilt partially a model with his animations. It supposed that could be useful for item maker who want to create new heroes animation right ?

    It would be great if some item makers should contact me and tell more about their workflow, and what could be improvement in MESA for the workshop.


    Also if you use MESA and want to support the project and its continued development, you can suggest MESA as toolmakers with valve".

    Nicolas
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  • Tvidotto
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    Tvidotto polycounter lvl 9
    fuzzzzzz wrote: »

    Some more to come, like how to load heroes animation, and rebuilt partially a model with his animations. It supposed that could be useful for item maker who want to create new heroes animation right ?
    Nicolas

    that would be awesome!

    and of course if we use the plugin we will ask valve to able to share the revenue =]

    btw, im having a small problem on the install, have any idea what i did wrong?
    4WtMV.png

    i continued following the tutorial and of course im without icons on maya and the smd option windows doesnt open

    smdOptionWindow;
    // Error: source smdOptionWindow; //
    // Error: Cannot find file "smdOptionWindow" for source statement. //

    btw, im on widows 8 here
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  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    hey Thiago, sorry i had been offline , because of a my of connection to internet that has been cuts for 2 days :/
    I will contact you today, to be sure that everything is properly installed :)

    EDIt :

    hey seem like I know why you have a problem with the MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH and XBMLANGPATH, it seems to come because of the white space in the mesa of MESA ^^

    1. Fix the path of MESA that contains a whitespace in path.

    so the steps to follow :

    edit the "config/mesa_config.bat" with notpad

    check this three lines :
    SETX MESADIR %MESADIR%
    SETX XBMLANGPATH %XBMLANGPATH%
    SETX MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH %MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH%
    and replace like this : (double quotes)
    SETX MESADIR "%MESADIR%"
    SETX XBMLANGPATH "%XBMLANGPATH%"
    SETX MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH "%MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH%"
    2.
    Also there is an issue with Dota2.bat, that is located in "mesa\projects\dota2\"
    i haven't use the right path for dota 2 gameinfo.txt

    edit the file with notepad and look at the line :
    SET GAME_PROJECT=%STEAMDIR%\steamapps\common\Dota 2 beta\dota2
    SET VPROJECT=%STEAMDIR%\steamapps\common\Dota 2 beta\dota2
    the right paths are :
    SET GAME_PROJECT=%STEAMDIR%\steamapps\common\Dota 2 beta\dota
    SET VPROJECT=%STEAMDIR%\steamapps\common\Dota 2 beta\dota
    For sure i will fix all these few issues, with a maintenance update. ( 2.0.2 )
    Thank for reporting that Thiago :)
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  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    Tvidotto wrote: »
    that would be awesome!

    and of course if we use the plugin we will ask valve to able to share the revenue =]

    Thank you alot dude, I would be glad to be suggested as tools makers with Valve, it will help me to maintain a real support and development for MESA.


    for the history note, I developed MESA to work with my own mod project powered by the source engine ( Jurassic-life ).
    It worked nicely with mesa 1.1 and mods before that sdk tools was shipped on steampipe.

    MESA 2.0 provides more support as it is possible for each engine branch of the source engine, it's not only with dota 2, but also TF2, SFM, Alienswarm all source sdk version for mod development.

    I had to refine many aspect, to support all this engine branches and satisfying item makers, modders and game developers
    MESA 1.1 was included with the maya workspace, and so when you had to deal with several engine branches, you had to duplicate mesa in each workspace.

    Now mesa 2.0 can deal with all engine branches without to duplicate mesa installation and deal with the maya.env file to switch from one project to another one else.

    Well there are come more with mesa i will not entering into detail too much :)

    Well this should be also an opportunity for me to continue to develop MESA again and again.
    - Make MESA compatible with Maya installation program on unix system like MacOSX and Linux that can run Maya.

    - refine the materials management system to get a better naming convention and access with external apps.

    - I planned to add lot of sample scenes to guide people into creation process, ( npc, props, vehicles, items and weapons and viewmodel_weapon).

    - Create script that generate the hitboxes and don't bother with HLMV to make the job.

    - I also dig around the DMX ascii support.

    - To provide lot of guides/tutorials on my website/steam/polycount and share my knowledge to improvement the usage of mesa for each type of task.
    But doing everything of it require time , and MESA 2.0 development has kept me very far from my personal project, and hmm,
    I am a independent guy who works on his own free time on MESA and few other free projects , I also have to deal with dozen of people each days that come to me on steam and asking for help on source engine MESA etc.

    And then , being supported by Valve as toolmaker should motivated myself in the long travel I have to pass by with all the new stuffs and improvements
    I wish to see in MESA with the next releases :)


    Oh, i have a question about this page : (the links only works from steam.)
    http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/suggestserviceproviders/?appid=570
     (dota 2)
    http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/suggestserviceproviders/?appid=440
     ( TF2 )
    i have dozen of users who have submitted some items on the various workshops, not sure if it absolutely necessary for this to have an asset include into the game, but none of them has been able to suggest MESA as tools maker.
    And myself, i haven't submitted any item on the workshop, so i can't say more on what to do if, some user want to suggest MESA as tool maker with Valve ?
    What is necessary to suggest a tools maker ? :D
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  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    I would like to know if a moderator could remove this topic to dota 2 forum, because it s a real lack of feedback , i think this topic hasn't the best visibility at all

    -red
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  • fuzzzzzz
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    fuzzzzzz polycounter lvl 5
    Hello every ones,
    I would like to ask if there any moderator ( Thiago ? ) or an admin  that can move this topic from here to the Source dedicated forum category, i would make more sense for it to living there :)

    I never post you informed but MESA 2.1 was released like few month ago , and the documentation has been improved.
    some features has been added like the characterization, that make the using of the human SDK to compile your character with all animation set library that are shipped with HL2 and HL2DM sdk.

    I know that still a lot of people that download MESA every day on my gumroad shop, so iam sure many of you remain interested in the use of MESA
    even if i must to admit for different reason that it not always easy to catch the process and the use in maya, even if for me that is very stratight fowrad and never failed when stuff are setup properly.
    I just hope this documentation on my website is better, and once I had released MESA 2.1, I have no more the hundred of questions on my personal , so its probably that this batch to setup, and the fact, that for a very long time there were , no information in my documnatation that implicitly tell to run a second batch to define the game project and workspace directory you want to work with :/
    My english is really not the best, but i try to progress everyday.
    and i had bad a experience at recording the video tutorial , some comment was really hard to consider, just because my voice sound not like they expected to be, but now i read many book in english, lovecraft, lewis carrol and some more at some point i could expect to give what the user expect he gets :)


    Best regards
    Nicolas

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