I found my left arm!!! MOD for TACTICOOL WEAPONS and R&R&R EMP RIFLE.

[6741143a24c90JMP-Jack]

Ok. Thanks for your advice. I already know how to do it. Sorry if I didn't use the engineering section, I'm new here. Next time I will be more careful.

[6741143a24e4eJMP-Jack]

 Fusion Cannon. I change weapon position. If I leave as the original, the hand don't shown and the patch become unuseful.
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[6741143a2514fvoodoo47]

it's not a problem, it's not really a rule, just a recommendation - basically, development/beta/work in progress stuff and related talk should be kept away from the Mods subforum, which should be reserved for public releases and general talk only.

anyway, is the gigantic metal01 texture actually used for something? also, as far as fusion cannon hands are concerned, I think Arcaniac had the right idea (though the left hand should definitely hold the body of the gun, not the fusion arcs).


//the pulse rifle is ready to go, so attached to the mod topic.
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[6741143a252b9JMP-Jack]

Yeah, He had a great idea!
The GIGANTIC metal01 texture is for this 2 TINY bars, ah ah.
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[6741143a25414voodoo47]

then it should be scaled to something saner - pretty much everything over 256*256 is overkill for an object texture. also, as mentioned earlier, all SS2 textures must have power of two sizes (that means 256*128 is ok, 250*120 is not).

[6741143a25526JMP-Jack]

Ok. Maybe I stole a simalar texture from the game files...

[6741143a25826Olfred]

I guess my help isn't needed anymore? Or are there still some open questions?

[6741143a25942JMP-Jack]

Hi Olfred. I have a question: How to export simple animations for dark engine?
I need an external program? I rigged some weapons.

[6741143a25c05voodoo47]

Ok. Maybe I stole a similar texture from the game files...

yes, using stock resources wherever possible is recommended.

[6741143a25dd4Olfred]

Animation is a hefty one.
First of all you need to know that there are two types of models in the game; static and mesh.
What you are currently editing are static models, and you can't make "real" animations with them. You can build in hinges and then through an ingame script/settings they can be animated (voodoo47 knows that part better than me).
And with mesh based models you can't just take any ready animation from another game as sadly the bone structure is hard coded into the game. So it needs to match it for it to work.

I don't know if it's possible to change a static model weapon to a mesh one, vooodoo47 might know.

[6741143a26102JMP-Jack]

note about the assault rifle - for some reason, this particular model feels a bit off, if you take a good look, it's like either the gun is very short, or the hand is very long (the palm goes pretty much from the clip to more than the middle of the barrel). for a possible future update, adjusting this would be recommended.

also, for further development, using the dev topic at Engineering would be more practical - I'll split and merge in a moment.

Is't better now?

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[6741143a262e0voodoo47]

yeah, definitely better (still probably physically impossible if you wanted to be 100% realistic, but that's not the aim here, it just needs to look good enough).


well, lets see - things that are relatively easy to do on weapons:

-animated textures (via mtl, see NewDark docs)
-model switching upon changing weapon settings (via NVscript - basically, you have two models for each setting and the script is switching between them, see the SCP laspistol)

parts of a weapon moving or opening or similar is doable, but requires joints on the weapon (I think) and non-trivial scripting that is way beyond my current knowledge - ThiefsieFool would know.

[6741143a26455JMP-Jack]

Mmm... allright. This is a good point to start?

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=817.0#edit

and

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9185

[6741143a265c7Olfred]

Well, first of all, what do you want to animate?

I can give you a Blender file from tacticools wrench model which does have a clothed right arm. Just mirror it and you have a left one.

[6741143a2670cvoodoo47]

moved the alien pulse rifle to the mods subforum as you apparently want it as a standalone mod, though I have to say I'm not a big fan of the 2048*2048 texture - 1024*1024 would probably be enough.

NewDark may have lifted many limits, but rule of thumb is that just because we can, doesn't always mean we should.

[6741143a269e6JMP Jack]

moved the alien pulse rifle to the mods subforum as you apparently want it as a standalone mod, though I have to say I'm not a big fan of the 2048*2048 texture - 1024*1024 would probably be enough.

NewDark may have lifted many limits, but rule of thumb is that just because we can, doesn't always mean we should.

Ok. I update it as soon as possible: I downloaded gimp.

[6741143a26c74JMP Jack]

Well, first of all, what do you want to animate?

I can give you a Blender file from tacticools wrench model which does have a clothed right arm. Just mirror it and you have a left one.

I would like to do a simple animation of the weapon mechanism (I don't know how it says in English ... pullback?). Like tacticool pistol for example. I've already rigged some weapons with blender.

[6741143a26ddbOlfred]

Well, you can most certainly throw that rigging away.
For static models like the weapons (except the melee weapons) you can't do animations like that.
What you do is to seperate the parts that should move from the main model and add a constraint. Now in the game editor you "program" how they should move in certain occasions, like shooting.
At the Bits and bobs for Blender wiki under "Subobject Motion" is a description on how to set it up.
I think I might even have a simple model I could upload for you to take a look at.

[6741143a2729bRocketMan]

Yeah, He had a great idea!
The GIGANTIC metal01 texture is for this 2 TINY bars, ah ah.

I was wondering wtf was wrong with my head because I don't remember putting those blue tubes on that weapon. 

Anyway, Beyond the first few weapons you did, I would think it more logical to move on to the viral proliferator before the fusion canon.  The VP has more of a rifle shape to it than the fusion canon, which is supposed to be enormous and I'm not entirely convinced was supposed to be held like a rifle.  I do like the Arcaniac approach though.  Maybe just move both hands further back, as suggested by Voodoo.

[6741143a27606JMP Jack]

I was wondering wtf was wrong with my head because I don't remember putting those blue tubes on that weapon. 

Anyway, Beyond the first few weapons you did, I would think it more logical to move on to the viral proliferator before the fusion canon.  The VP has more of a rifle shape to it than the fusion canon, which is supposed to be enormous and I'm not entirely convinced was supposed to be held like a rifle.  I do like the Arcaniac approach though.  Maybe just move both hands further back, as suggested by Voodoo.

I like the Arcaniac approach too. But there's a problem: which hand pushes the trigger? The only solution is to "simulate" a grip with trigger for the hided left hand (under the body of the fusion cannon) without adding another mesh: I've already too much polygons for my left arm. Probably can't export the object due to dark engine limitations.

[6741143a276faJMP Jack]

It's better?
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[6741143a277ddJMP Jack]

Arcaniac's hand position
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[6741143a27944Kolya]

On an electronic weapon like this there may be a button instead of a gun trigger and it could be placed anywhere. Also I think the right hand should grip the carry grip, as in your second image. During action the fusion cannon should rest on the shoulder like a rocket launcher. If possible move the whole gun up to hint at that use.

[6741143a27a81voodoo47]

changing the position of the gun is done via Shocked (or dml), but considering the current position and size, only some very small adjustments would be possible. the trigger is nowhere to be found on the vanilla weapon, so the way is should be carried is not really defined, and up to one's imagination (I like the second one better as well btw).

also, I don't think that bit where the red cables go is supposed to be pink.