GTAGhostbusters MOD! Player done, but why crashes?

[PGV]

Ok, me and my team are working on a Ghostbusters GTA VC MOD.

 

First of all, I made the player, it works in the prewiev fine:

 

 

Now, when I try to start to play the game crashes and sincerely I don't know why.

 

Every help will be credited, this gonna be a great game MOD and your nickname will be seen all around the world if you solve this bug.

 

First of all , let me explain what I did to create the player:

 

 

0) I imported in 3D Studio Max 7 one original GTA player using latest Kam's Max scripts. Then I imported also the proton pack (addon 3d stuff on the player's back) , which is a 3ds file.

 

1) By pressing H e a list appears, here I selected all the addon 3d material (everything besides dummy01 and its subcategories) and pressed select.

 

2)Pressed unlink selection

 

3)Pressed select and link

 

4) By clicking on the arrow with 3 lines the list of what I did not select at point 1) (dummy01 and its subcategories) appears.

 

5) I selected the first main element in the list and pressed link.

 

6) I pressed the common white arrow, pressed H and selected all the elements, pressed select.

 

7) Pressed again H and selected just the first element of the list, pressed select.

 

8) I went in the section Modify (on the right)

 

9) Cliccked on Editable Mesh

 

10) Choosed Attach List (down, right) , selected all the addon 3d objects (proton pack) and pressed attach

 

11) In the window Attach Options I choosed Match Material IDs to Material and gave OK

 

12) I exported the DFF

 

 

The resulting DFF is big (about 4 MB), but works in the GTA skin prewiev.

 

Is there something wrong? I forgot to do something????

Please help. Our team put a lot of work in it, it would be a shame to not being able to create this MOD for a stupid bug.

 

Some prewiews:

 

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2559/pr...unfinal24sv.jpg

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/5295/ma...ezzatura3ex.jpg

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3199/winnie0us.jpg

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4913/ul...tegoozer8gl.jpg

 

The 4 ghostbusters:

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/1618/pvenkman4ie.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4007/rstantz5re.jpg

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/7290/espengler5jx.jpg

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/8483/wzeddmore5mj.jpg

 

 

[AK-73]

I couldn't follow your descriptions step-by-step but... did you attach the vertices to the relevant bones too? spine1 and spine would be the most obvious choices, I guess. It's not enough to attach object x to the player model, every vertex of the model needs to be attached to 1 bone so that the game engine knows how each animation frame is going to affect it. My advice is to give all the vertices of the back pack the same bone weight (it's a rigid object), maybe 0.7 spine1 and 0.3 spine? Just a guess, you'll have to fiddle with it and figure it out yourself.

 

Alex

[PGV]

Thanks AK-73.

 

But do I have to attach the vertices to the relevant bones too even if I took an original unmodified GTA player?

 

Isn't it basically already done?

 

Probably you say that the game needs to know how to eventually move the backpack.

 

So, woudn't you please give me a basic idea on how to attach every vertex of the model (you mean the backpack model or the whole model?) to 1 bone so that the game engine knows how each animation frame is going to affect it?

 

How do I give all the vertices of the back pack the same bone weight (it's a rigid object,yes), maybe 0.7 spine1 and 0.3 spine?

 

Please, I implore you, you are our last hope! You'll be credited for that help! Please!

[AK-73]

Sorry for the late reply. Well, basically all vertices of an original player model will be attached to a bone if imported correctly, that is with the A for auto-skin on. Takes a while to import the model but it needs to be done. Then the model will have a skin modifier on it. Check out the documentation for the skin modifier and fiddle a bit with the bone weights and learn how to paint them. All the original model vertices will have vertex weights already, go into skin modifier envelope sub mode, hit F3 for wireframe view, scroll through the bones and study the weights of the original vertices. Because of the vertex modifier you will have no immediate access to the underlying geometry, I think (Anyone correct me if I am wrong, I'm no expert at this myself.) I usually add an edit mesh modifier, attach the other geometry (backpacks in your case) as usual and then move the edit mesh before the skin modifer on the stack by drag-and-drop and collapse it (right click). If everything works fine you will have again the extended model but the vertices that belong to the added geometry still have no vertex weight. When giving them vertex weights by means of painting with that ball-like paint tool, I usually add again an edit mesh modifier go to element sub-level and move the relevant part out of the way, deleting the modifier after every vertex has been given some bone weight. I think it's necessary to move the modifier down the stack too. But it's been a while since I have done that and there may be some smarter ways to do it too. All I can say is: import the basic player model with the auto-skin option on, check out the doc for the skin modifier and learn to fiddle with it a bit. It will take some skill to get it right but a backpack should not be too difficult.

 

Alex

 

[PGV]

Sorry for the late reply. Well, basically all vertices of an original player model will be attached to a bone if imported correctly, that is with the A for auto-skin on. Takes a while to import the model but it needs to be done. Then the model will have a skin modifier on it. Check out the documentation for the skin modifier and fiddle a bit with the bone weights and learn how to paint them. All the original model vertices will have vertex weights already, go into skin modifier envelope sub mode, hit F3 for wireframe view, scroll through the bones and study the weights of the original vertices. Because of the vertex modifier you will have no immediate access to the underlying geometry, I think (Anyone correct me if I am wrong, I'm no expert at this myself.) I usually add an edit mesh modifier, attach the other geometry (backpacks in your case) as usual and then move the edit mesh before the skin modifer on the stack by drag-and-drop and collapse it (right click). If everything works fine you will have again the extended model but the vertices that belong to the added geometry still have no vertex weight. When giving them vertex weights by means of painting with that ball-like paint tool, I usually add again an edit mesh modifier go to element sub-level and move the relevant part out of the way, deleting the modifier after every vertex has been given some bone weight. I think it's necessary to move the modifier down the stack too. But it's been a while since I have done that and there may be some smarter ways to do it too. All I can say is: import the basic player model with the auto-skin option on, check out the doc for the skin modifier and learn to fiddle with it a bit. It will take some skill to get it right but a backpack should not be too difficult.

 

Alex

Man, thank you very much! That may help a lot.

 

I'll let you know about the result, and you'll be creited for the help.

 

Sorry cause I did not reply before, but I was out of town for 2 weeks.

 

Thank you really really much.

[AK-73]

 

Man, thank you very much! That may help a lot.

 

I'll let you know about the result, and you'll be creited for the help.

 

Sorry cause I did not reply before, but I was out of town for 2 weeks.

 

Thank you really really much.

 

No problem. You don't have to credit me (I'm not a credit-hungry fellow) but if you do I'll of course accept the honor gladly.

 

If you got problems getting it right, feel free to ask here again, it's not a task all that easy. One advice: best to first bind all of the backpack vertices to one bone (say spine or spine1) and from that start working on binding the backpack vertices to all the bones they are actually supposed to be bound to. That way you can make sure that every vertex is at least bound (the export script will not work correctly if even one vertex isn't bound to at least one bone). Just make sure that when finished vertices that are not supposed to be influenced by this original bone (as I said, spine or spine1 would make sense) are not bound to it.

 

 

Alex

 

[PGV]

Well, thanks again.

 

I'm not sure if I understood right what you mean with move the edit mesh before the skin modifer on the stack by drag-and-drop and collapse it (right click).

 

May you explain better, where do I have to right click (also when i added the edit mesh it appeared already as the first one in the list...)?

 

Also how to give vertex weights by means of painting with that ball-like paint tool - I can't see that tool - where is it?

 

I tried to use that vertex button (3 red stars) and the backpack was magically covered with those blue thinies, like was the player initially...

 

Anyway by exporting game still crashes altough the preview works fine.

 

Thank you very much.

[AK-73]

 

Well, thanks again.

 

I'm not sure if I understood right what you mean with move the edit mesh before the skin modifer on the stack by drag-and-drop and collapse it (right click).

 

May you explain better, where do I have to right click (also when i added the edit mesh it appeared already as the first one in the list...)?

 

 

You need to become more familiar with 3dsm/gmax if you want to pull this off. Check your documentation of 3dsm for how the modifier stack works,

working through a few tutorials would be helpful too. This stuff isn't too complicated and can be learned in a matter of days.

That said , after adding the modifier you can just click it and then drag it below the skin modifier. The modifier list is bottom up, that is the modifier at the bottom gets applied first, next the ones above it. To collapse a modifier, right click its name and choose collapse to. Then it and all the modiferbelow it will get applied to the basic model and the modifier removed. Modifiers are like external additions/changes to the basic model and by

collapsing them they get kinda *internalized*, so that they become part of the model and cannot be removed that easily anymore.

 

 

Also how to give vertex weights by means of painting with that ball-like paint tool -  I can't see that tool - where is it?

 

 

Did you check the skin modifier documentation yet? Select the skin modifier, choose edit enevelopes, then scroll down and you'll see entries such as weight, feather and radius or something like that. Set weight to a value between 0 (no influence) and 1.0 (total influence) and set feather to 0 (you won't need it to begin with), experiment a bit with radius (0,02 is a good start value). Below that should be another button that toggles the paint vertex weights mode on/off. Don't forget to switch to wireframe mode (F3 key) first.

 

 

 

I tried to use that vertex button (3 red stars) and the backpack was magically covered with those blue thinies, like was the player initially...

 

Anyway by exporting game still crashes altough the preview works fine.

 

Thank you very much.

 

You need to put a week's work or so in learning 3dsm/gmax. If you don't do that, you probably won't be able to achieve what you want to do.

If you want to learn a bit you can try the tutuorials on this page, they're good. (won't help you learn dealing with the skin modifier but provides basic gmax/3dsm knowledge). I think you need to register first though.

 

Alex

 

 

 

[PGV]

Man, thanks. You brought hope for our mod.

 

A friend found me a good Tutorial about 3d studio max, so I gonna learn what I need to know. By checking also some player making tutorial + your good explanations I'm sure in the end I will find out a solution.

 

Thanks alot, without you I would have probably renounced to the MOD.

 

You'll get a big credit, since beside the original first team of 3 persons working on this mod, just other 2 people + you gave a concrete help.

 

Thanks, thanks a lot! SOmeday your good actions will be somehow repayed.

 

Thanks again.

[AK-73]

 

Man, thanks. You brought hope for our mod.

 

A friend found me a good Tutorial about 3d studio max, so I gonna learn what I need to know. By checking also some player making tutorial + your good explanations I'm sure in the end I will find out a solution.

 

 

Modding games is a hobby, kinda like real-life car tuning. It's something that needs practice and continued effort to bring forth satisfying results.

 

But with a bit patience many things can be done.

 

PM me if you need some help.

 

 

Thanks alot, without you I would have probably renounced to the MOD.

 

You'll get a big credit, since beside the original first team of 3 persons working on this mod, just other 2 people + you gave a concrete help.

 

Thanks, thanks a lot! SOmeday your good actions will be somehow repayed.

 

Being a buddhist, I have to agree.

 

 

Thanks again.