Chivalry UGC Questions and Answers
polycounter lvl 10
Hey folks,
We'll try to be on hand and answer questions as often as possible here, so ask away!
If your question is directly related to the previous Arms and Armor contest, please ask in this thread.
Your post will be directly edited with the answer, which will be written in blue.
Replies
A: Those limitations were only for the contest. There's not presently any limitation on bundling or not. Team specific limitations are also no longer relevant.
Q: What can we make, beyond primary/secondary weapons and helmets? Shields? Bombs? Entire suits of armor? It was stated that arrows can't be remodeled but can be re textured? Can we set these up for customising heraldry like the default ones?
A: At the moment, we fully support creation and integration of helmets and all weapons (including tertiary weapons and EXCLUDING ammunition types such as arrows). We technically support tabard/shield patterns and emblems, but don't have any current plans to support integrating them into the microtransaction system. We are hoping to support full character replacements at some point, but there's a significant amount of work to be done there before we'll have support up and running.
Q: What constitutes a set, for the competition it was a helmet and a main weapon with option to create secondary weapon/special weapon. Can a set be created say with more than one of each type, say you wanted to do an entire collection of one classes weapons in a particular style (hypothetically, I ain't got that much time!) would they be submissible as one item or would each item beyond the core set need to be submitted separately? Can a set be just weapons? Would it be better just to submit each item separately and follow a naming convention?
A: Now that the contest is over, sets can be made up of whatever you want. Could be a class specific one (make a helm+primary/secondary/tertiary weapons for a class), or agnostic (make one primary weapon for each class), or team based (one longsword for each team), etc. It's up to you. When integrating the assets, we will try to honor the way the set was intended to be bundled, but reserve the right to split things up if we need to. If you intend to bundle items together, please submit as a single set. The uploader also has a 400mb limit, so that may change the way that you choose to do sets.
A: Shields do need some patterns. We'd need a minimum of one pattern texture (one pattern per RGB) per shield.
The collision with shields matters a lot, particularly with arrows, so shield sizes and general shape need to conform to the shield type (and more specifically, the physics asset) that you are creating a replacement for.
Should we create LODs or are those generated by the engine?
A: LODs are not required for items. We will make them in house upon integrating the items into the game.
Who maintains ownership of the artwork and copyright of any models and textures submitted?
For example, would I be able to sell my items on a marketplace (say the Unity Asset store)? Or does copyright transfer to Torn Banner upon submitting to the contest and the Workshop?
A: The content creators will maintain copyright of their models and textures. We will be adhering to the current Steam Subscriber Agreement found here: http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/
Supplemental Workshop Terms – Revenue Sharing
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoplegalagreement/?appid=730
Can I create multiple weapon sets using the same helmet or should subsequent weapons be done on their own? I don't want to do all of the weapons.
A: no, please do not have multiple submissions using the same assets.
Q: Are helmets literal or can we do other head gear like a hood or crown?
A: Other headgear works as long as it still fits the aesthetic of the game.
Q: Is it safe to assume that most of the weapons have the same 'mount points' for the characters hands? I see in the Double Axe reference file there are two nodes called b_weapon_handle and b_weapon_root.. but in there Dane Axe reference file these nodes don't exist.
Thanks!
A: The 'mount point' for the weapon is usually at the origin, but it always good to test out a basic mesh the socket manager when your are designing a grip/handle for the weapon.
Q: I have noticed that a heavy crossbow has 6166 triangles which is above the required limit. Can I model my heavy crossbow with 6000 triangles in mind?
A: If a weapon model exceeds the general triangle count we've set, matching the count of the actual is fine.
Q: If I was to add a crest from the old chivalry lore pages to my weapon (ie- engraved on the blade) would that be alright seeing as it's game related, or would that breach the no artist marks condition?
A: Anything within Chivalry's lore is fair game. Just keep in mind that weapons will end up being able to be used by both factions.
For helmets, do we need to put polys in where the head blocks the players view, i.e. the inside of the helmet? Or are you using a double sided material for the helmets?
A: Helmets will be knocked off as static meshes so they need to contain some geometry to prevent players from seeing through the mesh.
Is there any restriction on items bearing religious iconography that is accurate to the time period? Depictions of religious symbols, saints, or gods? Certainly I am not thinking of anything that is preaching religious ideals outside of the context of the game, but I think such iconography was present at the time.
A: we try to avoid any specific religious iconography, try to find a way make it your own and its not a problem
Do crossbows require blood masks? If not, can I instead utilize that map for the EnvironmentMapMask map instead?
A: Crossbows and bows do not require blood masks. If you want, you can utilize that map for the EnvironmentMapMask, but usually the specular map will look good enough in that slot.
Q: Do we need 3 levels of the blood mask? I noticed the great sword didnt have any but the flail has 3 levels of the blood mask.
A: yes, the Red, Green, and Blue channels must contain different levels of blood. from least bloody, to most bloody. Here is our tutorial on creating bloodmasks
How much can the shape of the weapons differ from the shape of the original in game meshes?
For example, If the head of a warhammer is larger, and the handle is shorter than the in game mesh will this cause compatibility issues, or are the chosen weapons going to have animations and collision fixed by the Torn Banner team?
A: the bounds of a weapon should not differ significantly from the base weapon. things to consider: the "damaging" area of the weapon should not be mismatched in any way (length of a blade, placement of an axehead, etc) and the handle should match exactly wherever the hands of the character are to grip it, so to avoid clipping through the fingers.
Can I use Gloss map on weapon? Most example weapons do not contain it.
A: In the shader, we do not use a map that effects specular power, but we do have a slot that masks the use of the environment map called EnvironmentMapMask (weapon) or RGB Fre_Env_Trans (helmet). This texture effectively reduces the reflectivity of the surface by reducing the contribution of the environment map. In almost all cases, this slot uses the diffuse or specular maps to mask the environment map to save texture memory, but if it's absolutely necessary, an additional map could be used in that slot.
А question about bows and ranged weapons in general - do I have to rig them, or should I just model it and you'll do everything in-house if there is anything needs to be done?
A: you will need to skin weight your model to the skeleton of the weapon you are replacing. Example meshes can be found on our weapon specifications page. The crossbow should be smooth bound to the skeleton utilizing all relevant bones.
Depending on what crossbow your doing, the bones will change and different things will be added. but ill just use the light crossbow for example:
The bone: b_crossbow_handle should have the main body of the crossbow weighted to it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gzjyhac565d4o0n/handle.jpg?dl=0
the bones: b_crossbow_l_front_(A,B,C,D,E,F,G) and b_crossbow_R_front_(A,B,C,D,E,F,G) animate the arms of the crossbow and should smoothly bend during animation.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zz6031ksp6ex34k/front.jpg?dl=0
the bone: b_crossbow_string_11 moves the string up and down the crossbow and should have full influence of all the string vertices.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0s38ay5i1b8x1v3/string.jpg?dl=0
the bone: b_crossbow_lock moves the locking mechanism up and down during firing and reloading animation, and stopper object that your using to hold the string with should be fully weighted to this bone.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ywlnc1tqmmo1dy1/lock.jpg?dl=0
b_crossbow_trigger moves the trigger up and down
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zubvfloxs66dddv/trigger.jpg?dl=0
Are there style restriction in regards to the tone of the game/art direction. Example: A Helmet with beer cans on the side.
A: Submissions must fit within the style of our game. More details can be found on our content specifications page and our Style Guide
Beer helms are not allowed, sorry.
Q: can I submit asian, mayan, oceanic, turkish weapons (a scimitar for example) or is it strictly period based?
A: Anything that could plausibly found in europe/middle east up until the 1500's is fair game. These don't necessarily need to be replicas or period accurate items, as long as the design looks believable enough to fit into the style of the game. Check our style guide for more information.
Q: Once you have committed an item to the work shop and you want to make an adjustment to a file related to what you have committed. Is there a way to re commit adjustments made to the files?
A: Unfortunately editing workshop submissions isn't possible at the moment. We're hoping for a fix at some point soon but I can't give an exact ETA on that. It would be necessary to create a new submission for the time being.
However, is there a way to actually play a game on a locally created server while wearing/holding our creation ? It would really help the review process when it comes to checking wether or not the item fits well - both from a design and technical standpoint. And of course on top of that, it would be nice to be able to freeze the game and freely fly around our character for screenshots, similarly to the Dota third person view.
(I am aware that it is possible to play the game in third person, but I haven't looked into ways to make the camera freely rotate around the character, although I assume it is possible considering that UT3 allows for that.)
Thank you for your help !
You can use the noclip command (type ghost into the console) to fly around your character, and the slomo command to slow the game, or the pause command to freeze it. I don't think you can fly around when the game is paused though.
Unfortunately, the system for getting helmets on characters heads/weapons in hand is extremely convoluted right now for modders/content creators. Im going to be working on this issue to see if we can make it possible. If you want to send me the files I can throw it on and send you screenshots/videos if you'd like.
I personally hope all the content created for the game is unique ,but once in game is forgettable and blends in with all the original weapons and gear.
My second question is,if just about anything will have a chance to make it in game,will there be an option on the client side to hide or display in game the weapons that are created from the workshop? Ultimately it's up to TB to decide the style of gear and weapons,but if it's too over the top or high fantasy I'd like the option to pick and choose what is displayed. So at least for my gaming experience,the game still feels Medieval as opposed to Middle Earth.
A: to your first question, we have just put together a style guide its very WIP but it contains a basic run down of where chivalry sits on the 'Realistic medieval war simulator-vs-High Fantasy' spectrum. We hope to add more information and specificity soon.
On your second question, there are no plans to include an option to disable cosmetics. We feel this would be unfair too people who paid for them.
We don't want to turn chivalry into a crazy circus, we understand that people do enjoy the immersion of being in a medieval battlefield, these concerns will be in our mind whenever we decide what to put in the game.
https://skfb.ly/BExB
Thanks!
A: this is looking good for the most part.
I noted a few thigs in addition to what Jackalope mentioned below. but your best bet to get feedback on something like this is in your thread. http://puu.sh/coIwb/651cd7df56.jpg
Things like the ridges on the front of the shield can be done the same way. A good rule of thumb is that if it doesn't affect the silhouette you can usually get away with just having it in the normal map.
Hope that helps.
I suppose the middle corrugated ring around the shield boss could mostly be normal mapped too? There's a 5k tri limit though, and it might be a good idea to keep some detail in.
Here's a simple edit that would save you about 518 tris and have no visible impact. Losing the rivits on the front would save you about 288, I'd probably keep the ones on the back as they will look good in 1st person. beyond that I think the star shape in the middle is probably your biggest problem in terms of tri count, merging those edges with the middle spehere would help a bit but probably not enough. Also the handle on the back could loose a few edges and be fine, It'll be covered by a hand most of the time anyway, and when it's not you'll be further away so it will still appear round.
It tells me that I don't have a connection to Steam although steam functions perfectly as well as my internet ???
Does anyone have a solution ?
"Successfully uploaded preview file: "main.jpg"
WSTOOL: Uploading compressed archive: "thegodenblade.zip"
Waiting for Steam task to finish.
Waiting for Steam task to finish..
Waiting for Steam task to finish...
Waiting for Steam task to finish. Error uploading file. Make sure you got a valid connection to Steam.
[nov. 8, 12:23 ] COMMANDLET 'WorkshopUserTool.exe wsinfo_assets.txt' SUCCEEDED"
But my thumbnail is not updated !
What can I do ?
Let's hope I will find one or someone here knows some trick. Because I believe TB will take some time to fix this.
-Is it okay to have a thread here for specific 3d art feedback or is this forum only for items?
-Is there a mb limit for maps aswell? im not planning anything big tho
A: Starting a thread in here is perfectly fine, but you may want to have a thread in 3D Art Showcase to bring more exposure to it, along with the mods/maps section of the Torn Banner Forums.
I believe the size limit was raised to 300mb for maps.
A. You can't have multiple meshes in your final in game product, but you can work with as many seperate meshes as you want and on import they will all be combined into one. The vanilla heavy crossbow is basically the same as the normal crossbow, it uses the same texture and everything. Since that texture's already in the game it adds its own texture for the crannequin on a seperate material id. The set up for material ids depends on what software you're using. I suppose if you're planning a normal AND heavy crossbow this would be acceptable, since it's still two distinct weapons and two texture sets. If you're only doing one weapon you'll need to stick to a single texture sheet
PS sorry for my English.
A: A user on the Torn Banner Forums has created a tutorial documenting how to go about previewing your item on the character here:
http://forums.tornbanner.com/showthread.php/22783-GUIDE-How-to-play-with-your-weapon-skins
I don't think they have that feature implemented, the people who did that modded the asset in the game.
I am wondering, do i have to resubmit everything again or is there a way to just submit over what i have, the thread i created for the original set was pretty popular on steam and i would hate to lose its standing etc.
what should i do as far as moving ahead with this?
A: You should be able to just re-upload your files over your old workshop submission through the uploader. You can also update your images as well.
I was thinking of making skins for some of the lesser used weapons and I wonder if there could be a potential for a weapon with different characteristics. For example I want to do a heavier looking version of an archers cudgel.
A: The weapon skins will only be cosmetic. no alterations to gameplay will be allowed unfortunately. however making a heavier 'looking' version of a weapon is not a problem. as long as it seems to fit in similar bounds of the original.
I've tried lowering it and reimporting the mesh but it still hovers higher than the in-game crossbow. What can cause the issue?
A: It's possible that your pivot point is for some reason not aligned where you want it to be and then the game is importing with that pivot as the in game origin. BUT, provided you don't want to change the size of anything, you can reposition your skeletal mesh in the editor, just open it from the content browser and adjust the numbers under "origin". One note if you do do that, if you're also looking at it in a level you'll need to move the mesh to update to the new origin.
yes, tick bUseblood in material instance and set it to 1.
A: Nothing can be changed on the base models of the characters, so you need to model around it.
I've never encountered this happening automatically, but you can check the mip-level of your texture by double-clicking on it in the asset browser and checking the LODBias number. if this is automatically getting set to a lower mip, maybe you can just set it back to 0
http://puu.sh/gCP4J/f071691f5a.jpg
My eyes are starting to hurt...
haha well we have put the new set of UGC items in the beta branch, so I guess thats kind of a soft announcement, but we'll have a fixed version ready to be set live very soon. but if you want to see what items were added go ahead and load up the beta
@pernach, sorry man can you tell me wether you want to see your item on a characters head or just see it in the editor? because if you have put your item into the editor just throw into a level and check it out.
However if you want to play the game wearing it thats much harder.