Soldier model distortion, new vest modeling

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Snake Man
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Soldier model distortion, new vest modeling

Post by Snake Man » 2010-08-07 21:48:54

I ran into trouble making soldier model for PMC Somalia mod, I made a new vest modifying the existing torso and then had to do some new polygons around the arms. I tried to make selections correctly LeftArm, LeftShoudler, same for Right* but even when I welded the arms into the torso I still get errors like this in-game:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Tsc5dpJ
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Tsc5fUS
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqHiel9
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqHijkr

It looks like that "the thing" effect which you get when weight maps are distorted/wrong, for example when you scale down a whole soldier model size. But I believe the new polygons I added don't have weight at all, I had no idea where to set them in Modo.

When selecting LeftArm in O2 and doing RMB -> Weights, I get like LeftArm 39% and LeftShoulder 24%, do those values look right?

Or is the weights located on vertices? Sorry I have no idea :)

So, how would I fix weight map problem, or the arms not being connected to torso as shown in the first two screenshots?
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Synide
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Re: Soldier model distortion, new vest modeling

Post by Synide » 2010-08-16 08:25:30

Hi, I had a look at your model and although weighting sometimes plays a part in good deformation I wouldn't worry about too much in this situation. Unless, while playing some anims that the deformation needs some weighting applied.

The priamry problem that affects LoD 1.0 & ShadowVolume 0.000 is that some of the points surrounding the shoulder joints are not part of appropriate named selections. Also, there's a point in the middle-top of the chest that is not part of a selection.

I've identified these points in both those LoD's with the named selection '-Synide_Identified_Dodgy_Points_1'.

I also took the liberty of adding those points to an appropriate assortment of other named selections and tested it with a few of the A1 .rtm's.

Should be all good now.

Cheers, Sy.
existentialist excessionist.

Snake Man
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Re: Soldier model distortion, new vest modeling

Post by Snake Man » 2010-08-16 08:38:30

I wholeheartedly thank you for fixing it, this model has caused a lot of grief for me and Fox'09 so its great that its done now. So thank you :)

However, I still don't understand how the arm/shoulder "joint" works, because I went through that part of the model in Modo in textured, shaded and wire-frame modes and I did not find anything that wasn't set as selections properly.

How did I overlook it? I mean how can I easily see such bad selections?
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Synide
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Re: Soldier model distortion, new vest modeling

Post by Synide » 2010-08-16 12:05:46

mmm, it's probably a little complicated to easily identify over in modo points, verts or poly's that not part of some animated selection over in O2. But, I guess one long winded way would have been to go through each of the vert selections in modo activating them and then 'hiding' them.

Any points left at the end of this process would of course be 'unallocated' and as such wouldn't animate when an .rtm is applied over on the game side of things.
I tried this method over in modo and it indeed ended up with the points left in the 1.0 LoD I highlighted for you in that .p3d being the same.

I suppose a 'script' for modo could be written to easily identify any point/vert that isn't currently allocated to a selection. Haven't looked.

The way I did it wasa to open your .p3d in O2 and apply an .rtm to your model. In this case I applied ArmA\AddOns\Anims\Characters\data\anim\sdr\idl\erc\stp\ras\rfl\AidlPercMstpSrasWrflDnon01.rtm (from A1). When I moved to the first frame you can clearly see that some of the points/verts are left behind in there original positions.

Some of them were slightly obscured by the legs so I went back to frame -0.5. Then selected LeftUpLeg, held down the shift key and selected LeftUpLegRoll as well. Then I hid these selections. Then I highlighted RightUpLeg & RightUpLegRoll and also hid those.

Then I flicked to the first frame again. This gave me a better (cleaner view) or the ofending verts. I selected them and added them to a new selection set called '-Synide_Identified_Dodgy_Points_1'.

Then I reverted to frame -0.5 again. I clicked on various named selections that are part of the final skeleton and adding these identified points to various ones as appropriate. Things like LeftShoulder, RightShoulder, Spine2 & 3, Neck for instance.

Once I'd done this I simply moved to the first frame again and the offending points/verts moved as they should.

Now, technically they should have a little weight applied as per each bone that influences them but that's a little more difficult (and time consuming) todo. That'll suffice for the moment.

With any model that uses an .rtm (principally character models) one should apply various .rtm's to test if things deform as expected.
Also, although these offending verts were part of a polygon named selection they were not part of a vert named selection.

If you are adding polygons to a named selection over in modo and your using that lwo2p3dm to get it back over to a .p3d always make sure that once you have assigned the polygon selection you imediately hold down the ALT key and click on the Verts selection button. This selects the verts from the polygons you have selected. Then assign these points to the exact same selection name as the poly's. This should ensure a higher degree of consistency in assigning things to named selections properly.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, Sy.
existentialist excessionist.

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