Home » Site » General Discussion » How high poly/quality can fable the lost chapters handle
| Re: How high poly/quality can fable the lost chapters handle [message #70202 is a reply to message #70201] |
Mon, 31 March 2014 18:09   |
xxNick
Messages: 54
Registered: March 2014
Location: San Antonio, TX
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I don't really enjoy telling people to refer to Google. Besides, for your questions, Google is only going to point you back to our site.
Alright, first you need a DirectX import/export plugin for 3DS.
xporter
Take note that this plugin cannot export rigged models. So if you want to make new npcs, armor, bows, that windmill thing with the sails, you need a separate plugin that can.
Now, here's the problem. It hasn't been updated for 2013 yet.
Panda DirectX Exporter
You can try one of those other ones. I never had any luck with kwxport myself, but it hasn't updated yet anyway. You may want to look into this one, which I've never heard of and never tried and only just now found by looking for the first plugin I mentioned. But, I'll be very honest with you, I can't help you use it if there are any problems. It's going to require some self-sufficiency.
Plugins for Blender, last I checked, were semi-capable of doing import and export of static models for DirectX and needed a little bit of extra work to get them back into the game.
Here's the other thing. The game's models aren't in DirectX format. You need a tool to export them as DirectX. Both FableExplorer (any available version) and ChocolateBox (also any available version) are capable of loading and exporting models as DirectX. Not all models are compatible. You'll recognize them when you load them, easy to tell apart by looking at the mess they are in.
So, you'll open up your tool of choice, double-click graphics.big, and you'll get a list of graphics entries. Most of the first ones you'll see are animations, you'll be leaving those alone. Further on down is where you get the good stuff. Double-click the one you want, and click "Export LOD" - not the one that only says Export, that gets you the raw data. Export LOD will spit out a DirectX file that you can import into 3DS, provided you have the plugins. It will also export dds images of the textures the model uses.
Important note, there's a lot of data conversions going on with all this. FableExplorer translates the raw data to DirectX which an asian 3DS plugin converts to a native scene which is then translated back to DirectX by an englishman's (I'm only assuming he's English) 3DS plugin, which FableExplorer then translates back into raw data. Usually data going back in is okay, but on the way out, floating points get jittery and vertices like to move around, UV coords shift dramatically, and sometimes (almost always), weird stuff just happens.
When editing, it is imperative you take note of how the hierarchy, helpers and point of origin work. Fable is extremely picky about how it handles models and screwing anything up (and sometimes screwing nothing up) will cause problems. There are tutorials available on the forums here, and if you have any specific questions I'd be happy to answer.
Importing models back into Fable is a bit tedious. You have to import the model over all but the last LOD, and assign textures to each submesh one at a time, and then go to the next LOD to assign textures all over again. And a carelessly placed click can undo work. It's very frustrating.
The tools aren't heavily user friendly, they're not really even dev friendly. So you really need to be patient and take some time to learn how everything works. I need to emphasize patience, because learning this stuff can take a while. I recommend combing the Fable Graphics 101 thread. Oh, and before you do like me and think that some models are just uneditable, it's probably a problem with the name of a submesh, read about that here.
MOST IMPORTANTLY
You're not alone. We're here to help. If you're stuck on something, let us know, but don't give up! The learning curve is a little steep at the beginning but over time you'll be doing this stuff like you've been doing it your whole life, it will become second nature to you, very natural, like breathing, and you'll be setting things up without thinking about it with that awesome muscle memory that gets developed.
How to make a good Fable game.
And how to make it even better.
[Updated on: Mon, 31 March 2014 21:15] Report message to a moderator |
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Fable: The Lost Chapters Mod Scene
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