Armature + MD5 Export Problems

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#1

Hi guys, first off I’d like to say that I’m more programming orientated than modelling so I’m not very “up” on modelling terminology. I’m attempting to make some models for a small game demo I’m working but I’m running into some problems in regards to armatures and also exporting (specifically MD5 models).

There are two seperate problems, both of which appear to be focused around armatures.

  1. Sometimes when I scale a model along with the armature the model is scaled in multiples (the scale increase of the model x the scale of the armature), but this is only visible when it’s exported to MD5 format.
  2. Once an armature is added as a modifier the Edit Mode and Object Mode views can sometimes become very different (scale, position, etc) and the work done in one isn’t recognisable in the other. It has even been the case that work done in Edit Mode would be undone when I moved to Object Mode.

I’ve managed to get quite far with a lot of models only to get stuck at these points, which is amazingly frustrating! So any ideas you guys can throw at me would be majorly appreciated!

PS: I assumed I’m probably doing something silly (knocking hotkeys or such) which is why it’s under basic problems.

PPS: If anyone here is looking for an opportunity to help with a project (RPG, Swords and Sorcery) and would want to help me with making models on any level then please say!

#2

not sure what game engine you’re using, but I know that md5’s don’t support scaling.

doom3world.org & modwiki.net has pretty much everything there is to know about the md5 format. I’d check those places. Doom 3 needs some things very specific, but they’re not hard to do, you just need to know them.

#3

Okie dokie, I’ll give those two places a scan.

For reference I’m using my own engine :).

#4

I always give it a test in Doom 3, just to double check. :slight_smile: I found that if it works in Doom 3 & not in something else there’s something specific the engine’s looking for. IE Iron Grip:Warlord uses a modified Q3A engine with md5 support & the line labeled “command” needed something it it. A blank would cause the game to crash, but D3 could read it fine.

Python also doesn’t support as accurate floating numbers as doom 3 does so some glitches are because of this. IE a Doom 3 model has 10 decimal points while the blender export can only do 5.

I’d suggest downloading one of my pre-done md5mesh/anim files so you can reverse engineer it for use. Here’s a weapon set & I also have the source files I used to make it:

Here’s a monster I made: http://planetdoom.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Doom3Mods.Detail&id=77

Everything done in blender & Gimp.

#5

Thanks a lot Friar! I’ll have a look at them. I’d rather not start over with my models as I’ve put in a fair bit of time, but I will if needs must.

I’m wondering if maybe I needed to have parented the armature to the mesh before doing the extra work I’ve done, so that they scaled together. All confusing when it doesn’t work quite how you expect.

PS: Friar, the rock monster looks pretty cool in the screenshot. I can never come up with any good ideas for how to make golem type creatures.

#6

that would a bunch of rocks put together. :slight_smile: The idea was from the movie “Galaxy Quest”.

md5 needs to have ALL bones parented to a bone called “origin”. “origin” must be lower case too. After that, anything goes. You also don’t NEED to parent in blender: the md5 format just needs the bone names to match the vertex groups on the model. Parenting is strictly just so you can use it in Blender.

To scale you need to scale in object mode. I’d do all your scaling before you animate the mesh. Use some reference blocks to get your scale correct. They’re setup for id-based games which all have the same scale (this should include q1/2/3, doom 3/q4/prey/etqw, hl1/2+all sold mods, CoD series, MoH series, etc): http://www.katsbits.com/tools/#misc