Question Question Question

[Haito_Kanakura]

I have searched everywhere and found out that there are no player character mods around. Im guessing its because of the fat and muscle attributes, though i was thinking do you think its possible to take cj's dff and replace the face. Im planning to put Denzel Washington's face on Cj (For me He's in par w/ Samuel L Jackson in Bad a??ness in Training Day). Im not asking for a how just want to know if its feasible.

[YOTAM111]

HOW RIPLACING ???

[YOTAM111]

HOW REPLACING FACE???

[Augh]

YOTAM111 - go away

 

Haito - This is really another case of "noone tried". Most are content to rework the skins for CJ's borked up caveman mesh so there's been little progress, if only due to noone being on hand who is able, or interested, to model a character from scratch. I'm able, and up for it, but things have been happening so yeah. I showed some time ago a higher res character I thought about bringing down to GTA level polys, who basically sucks hard by comparison to my currents. So yeah, persons with the right tools and abilities told me "make a model worth getting ingame, and we will see about it". So, I'll see about it speakin for meself, probably starting in a few weeks. Speaking for YOUR self, it comes down to really the same things;

 

Making an actual model. GTAF is reaaaally not a good place to learn about any elements of character creation I'm afraid, but if necessary people can point you at places with more useful information. (While they will probably protest, I really would just pass straight over the "player skins" area here, it isn't worth your time if you are actually going to try and do this)

 

Getting around the factors like weight loss and gain, and getting CJ to shut the f*ck up with his constant talking, if necessary (2nd is pretty easy)

 

Rigging the entire shiz with the SA skeleton, or replacing it. Here be dragons far as I'm concerned. This is the stage we need a player model worth proceeding with for anyone to really bother cracking in to.

 

I would look into it if I were you. It's worth doing, and reskinning doesn't really work. Well, it's just kinda lame imo, why not make the character model GOOD instead of hiding it behind ecko unlimited logos.

 

[dertyjerzian]

Augh, I see you around a bunch and I like you man. But, besides the starting model, the CJ model is a gopod model.

 

Granted, it's got a hunchback in the beginning, but by the time he's buff he looks right. That half-crikked neck at game start... he grows younger the buffer he gets lol.

 

That said, are you sure you can't import stuff from the player.img to max with the help of Kam's scripts?!?

 

Oh, and let them protest over in Skins, aside from a few VERY talented skin artists here, how many TShirts does CJ need?!? I never get changed. Once in a while. What I need to dress up a polygon for? So I agree with you there. But, just to correct CJ's crooked ass neck.... That would rule.

[Augh]

Haha thanks man. Remember not to read too closely all the time and it should work out fine. I get these uhh allergies They bring me out in fists, you've probly noticed o_O

 

Soooo yeah. CJ can be worked with, problems mostly though for me are that a. yeah he has a sortof mongoloid broken backed stance, and definitely seems to be a really really light mesh around the hips and legs, particularly for a mesh that does so much ducking down, crawling, sneaking around etc etc. b. He is kindof an ugly f*cker too. Agreed, the worst case by FAR is the start-out base player, it's not so hard to fix him up by degrees. Personally though, I'm close to obsessed with cheesecake, and would rather not stare at CJ's hairy ass all the time. My personal plan was a female player character bypassing as many technicalities as possible. Some of my recent high res meshes starting to get fairly cute, so the time will come eventually for that.

 

Re issues with that; CJ won't talk, good. I don't want him to talk, he babbles nonsense. CJ won't get fat. Good, it's annoying when he can't run like a porker. CJ won't do such and such a thing. Good, I skip the cutscenes cus I've already seen most all 90's hood movies, so have seen them all, etc etc etc. So yeah, most all solutions will come down often to people asking about this and that, usually the answer being "work out the solution you can easiest live with". Most of mine personally are a little pragmatic, if that is even close to the correct word. This part gets into big big differences of taste and routine for most people I suppose...

 

Big long tangent, but there you have it. For no reason. As to exporting crud out of the .img, I recall bones causing Kam all sorts of havoc before, but then I was sent scurrying by uh things, and didn't find out more. Kam if you are reading this, what are you thinking about it?

 

For me, I'd really like to just see people throwing these The Crow and Slipknot and 50 Cent and crap out the window, and start concepting their own characters, it is a piece of piss, really fun, and the way this stuff is supposed to be done. I can barely hold a pencil and I can come up with some passable concept material. I don't even like to link to it given the environment, but since people usually are dubious, here is an example, it's a concept for a mecha/sci fi character that formulated itself, all I had to do was pour out my brain afterwards. ANYONE can do this, the gfx type guys out there could make this look GOOD. I truly emplore anyone who is thinking this is anything other than insanity, to grab a pencil, severed limb, rock, anything, and scratch out a picture on something. Then MAKE IT REAL. This is all that it takes, seriously! Go to polycount or bobo the seal (google, I won't crosslink) or somewhere if you want to look at good low poly meshes and see how they really work effectively, questions are common to everyone.

 

End public plea hehe.

 

Once I get settled later this week I'll probably reinstall SA and see about whats what for making some real moves on this at my end.

 

Dude can have his thread back now

 

Cheers, ttyl

[Haito_Kanakura]

So what Augh was saying is... It can be done but the effort and dedication needed would be humongous??? Maybe but i'll try it. So for starters... would the tutorial bout character modding from vice city still applicable with SA??? Oh and thanks for the links i think a few areas of my models face needs refinement. I doo agree that we should start being original but i already did that for Never Winter Nights and im tired and too lazy to start another one from scratch. All i want is to build fast and play soon.

Edited September 1, 2005 by Haito_Kanakura

[dertyjerzian]

First and becomimg formost the more I think it:

 

 

mongoloid broken backed stance,

 

hahahahaha!

 

 

My personal plan was a female player character

This is a very good idea! Was my idea too. When I saw you mention that the power that be was waiting for a worthwhile model, I thought "gotta make a girl" off the bat. But it needs to FIT in SA. And it should take advantage of all the player features that CJ has. She should be a thug princess lost in the hood. (just for a start of course, for a worthwhile player ) Mainly, I'd like a female player in C.N.G.

 

Very nice concept, and professional looking as base art. Keep working on it! I literally can barely hold a pencil right now! Injured so I cannot even draw. I didnt know you were deviantart that site is awesome. I think I've noticed you post it before though and said that then too lol, so sorry if I repeated myself.

 

@Haito:

 

 

So what Augh was saying is... It can be done but the effort and dedication needed would be humongous??? Maybe but i'll try it. So for starters... would the tutorial bout character modding from vice city still applicable with SA??? Oh and thanks for the links i think a few areas of my models face needs refinement. I doo agree that we should start being original but i already did that for Never Winter Nights and im tired and too lazy to start another one from scratch. All i want is to build fast and play soon.

 

It cannot be done, but I haven't tried to import CJ, so...

Old tuts will not apply, at least not for the new features CJ has. You see CJ is revolutionary to GTA games, he has many pieces, some only seen at certain times when equipped. (hair-do's etc). A player model for SA will not be for novices. Also, there will most likely be no ability to make one until SA-style payer models are made. Make a model, show it off, if the power that is decides he'd like to see it in game, he might make the ability possible!

 

He won't for 3D pacman, ok? lol

 

[justa_newbie]

biggest problem I see is the fact that there is no actual

solution to exporting a custom character model (or player

model parts) that actually werks to R*'s .dff needs.

 

I've got a new ped model that is 85% complete that is

skinned/weighted properly according to the bones offa

the girlfriend/pro chick peds, but even when I get the remaining

15% of the texturing work done, all I'm left with is a model

that works like a charm in 3ds (via Kam's .ifp imported animations,

but it still can't go into SA for myself or others to enjoy.

 

So I have to think there may be other people out there with

their own custom models that might like to put them ingame

as well......

 

This hinting that some people are waiting for good models

before they put work into making a proper exporter seems

to me poor logic in a way. I think if there were a proper

exporter for character models that actually existed and

worked it would not only facilitate the ability for those that

already have models ready/close-to-ready to use them, but

would also stimulate a major flow of new models as well.

 

Anyhow, it's all moot without a proper exporter.

 

 

justa_newbie

[dertyjerzian]

Show screens at forum! Only way you will sway someone to create such a utility!

 

I imagine many would not like the I/O to be made until we are sure no one tries replacing CJ with inspector gadget

[justa_newbie]

okay...well...she's very preliminary, but here:

 

 

direct link:

 

http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots9tn.jpg

 

but as I said...still need to do 15% more work on her textures...

she needs a jogging suit that says "holla back" at least

 

justa_newbie

[Haito_Kanakura]

Guess if its that complicated then maybe it would be better to stay with SA vehicles. I started this thread coz i've got this model thats been sitting in my pc for ages. It was my first organic model and right now its just plain useless (i also modified it and made a copy that looks like Denzel). I do hope some body can figure it out andmake a tut. I haven't tried skinmeshing yet and thought SA would be a great test bed. well gotta go have to finish uv mapping my AH-1w Super cobra.

[dertyjerzian]

okay...well...she's very preliminary, but here:

 

 

direct link:

 

http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots9tn.jpg

 

but as I said...still need to do 15% more work on her textures...

she needs a jogging suit that says "holla back" at least

 

justa_newbie

She seems too shapely to be animated in a convincing way to be the player. Could be a ped if her face was fixed.

Of course, I do understand she is still preliminary

 

PS, keep that ass round tiger! LOL

[justa_newbie]

Haito_Kanakura

 

That's a nice model you have there! Not having experimented

with exporting vehicles but reading some of the threads leads

me to believe at this point you're more likely to have success

getting a vehicle ingame than a new NPC or even player character.

 

That being said, I'm stubborn and enjoy modeling characters,

so I'm planning on forging ahead and *hoping* somebody that

has the interest/talent to create a working .dff exporter for

character models will do so (I think Kam has been working to

get a functioning .dff exporter for characters for 3dMax) .

 

Bottom line is whether I get any character models ingame or not,

I've learned a lot just trying to get one "ready" to put in

the game.

 

Good luck with your quest, however you choose to pursue it!

 

 

justa_newbie

 

 

[Augh]

justa_newbie's screenname is misleading. Awesome work man.

 

Ok I am back. I suck at the whole scanning through and using neat quotes thing, I'll try and keep it clean heh. I thinking though we should start a new thread for this if Haito is preffering either to stick to vehicles or "build fast play now". The whole problem for my imo at least is that rehashes and imports are done to death and kinda suck. So yeah maybe it's time for somewhere to look at these issues. I'll start one and see if there is any interest. I'm surprised by even this level so far.

 

Lessee. Nope, I was saying not so much the effort is gigantic and offputting, so much as that the effort simply needs to be undertaken. In a lot of ways people make more sense than mechanicals for modeling, they aren't actually that hard. Rigging is a lot more complex, but there's less difference than people assume to make a sexy chick, a motorbike, some old dude, a bunch of aliens, an adjustable wrench etc. Just look what justa_newbie managed from just looking into it some.

 

re; the whole stylistic thing, I just will do my thing haha. I have fairly narrow and esoteric tastes, and frankly I think the whole ghetto fabulous horsesh*t was a bad idea, at least as executed this time around by R* If people are wanting to do girlfriend models and hood themes and such there's no reason for everyone not to communicate what they each found doing whatever type of a character rings their bell. This stuff all gets pretty preference specific, so yeah, the more people looking at characters the better, always.

 

As to the whole problem of a dff exporter to handle boned geometry (snarf) it's a case of no need until there's a need. Time to create a need.

 

I'll go start that thread dealie w/ the stuff I originally came to post and completely forgot to get around to. Hopefully it won't bomb too hard.

 

Cheers, keep looking into this stuff anyone who is interested, please

[Haito_Kanakura]

F??K Im gonna burn my pc!!! The FAT got screwed and i lost everything as in everything GRAHHHH!!!