Sovereign Model Editing

The modding pack has some special files for maya to insert kumquat materials, but I can show you how to bypass that later on by inserting XML data (Havok XML) straight into the exported 3d file.

They actually never released a file with a model bound to a skeleton, but I can make one up for you if you'd like. Otherwise, you can just use Physique or Skin in 3ds max to make your own.

For weapons and shields, you can use this method https://forums.elementalgame.com/399409 to create your own 3d files (you'll need to re-align them obviously).

Armour is trickier, because some parts of the armourpieces are bound to the default skeleton. I have no way to import a fully bound model from the game into 3ds max or maya. For the parts that aren't skinned you can use the same method as above, but for those that are skinned or should be skinned you'll need to bind them to the skeleton obviously.

In the game's XML those files look different in their implementation, ex skinned

ex un-skinned

I'm not an expert but I have modded a few skins for armor and all the game models and skins can be found in the game directory under

\Stardock Games\FallenEnchantress\Gfx\HKB

not sure if that is what your looking for.

DsRaider, skinning is also a "technical" term when working with 3d models. Each 3d model ("mesh") needs to be bound/skinned to a skeleton in order to be animated.

Omnimmotus I'm working on exporting a working skeleton to 3ds max at the moment.

Okay here's an exported skeleton. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32649007/skeletontomax.max

I didn't bother cleaning it up, but there should be 74 joints, not 95. If you keep the havok export settings in the file (set to the correct 74 joints) you'll be fine (well, obviously you have to make sure to skin to those 74 joints, not the 95).

If done correctly this file should export a clone of the skeleton found in K_Male_Skeleton_01.hkb, but without the local havok frames (_LCF) which are fixed points used to attach weapons and such to. That doesn't matter, because you won't be using this skeleton for anything but to bind the mesh to.

Thank you, Heavenfall! I cannot express how grateful I am for your help, and for going out of your way to set that up for me. I'm not used to communities being so helpful and responsive, haha. I'll work with what you've given me as I have time, and if I run into any other questions or issues, I'll ask for your advice.

Thank you again, and keep up the great work on helping the community and developing Stormworld.

I'm just excited that someone else is taking an interest!

I'm shocked that there's any limit to people taking an interest, haha. Sometimes I think people don't realize the sheer amount of potential in Fallen Enchantress, as well as the Elemental series as a whole. It got off to a rough start, but could very well become one of the finest game series of all time.

You know, this may seem sad, but you know what the best way to grow the Fallen Enchantress armor and clothing modding community would be? Make a nude mode for the women and provide fairly simple tutorials on how to make your own armor and clothing to go with it. The modding community at the Oblivion, Fallout and Skyrim Nexuses will flock over to the Fallen Enchantress Nexus to make all different kinds of crazy (and adult-only) clothing and armor.

The percentage of mods on those three Nexuses that are adult-only, especially female clothing and armor, is shockingly high. Then again, if it's what they like and makes them enjoy the game more, not sure anyone can say it's "wrong" per se. At least they objectify the men as well as the women.  I support equal opportunity objectification.

Speaking of which, it might be nice to have the default Sovereign models (both male and female) with their actual ingame skin weights and skeleton as a modding resource. (If it's possible to extract those skin weights, or get them from the very kind art team at Stardock.)

While many/most pieces of armor don't need to fit the exact skin weights, (assuming they need skin weights on multiple bones at all) clothing and some other things would need to match the originals to not have gaps between parts. For example, if the hands and feet are changed to be flippers and have webbing (like mermen), they need to be able to attach to the rest of the body properly without gaps by having the same vertices and weights at the connection with the torso/legs as the original hands/feet.

It would be nice indeed. Unfortunately they didn't release those. I also have no method to extract those from the game. But I have my own skinned meshes in maya and while they may not be perfect they are very near. The art kit actually has the instructions to replicate the male/female meshes fairly well with binds. Usually all I need to do is fix the ribcages to the spines instead of the arms, and the upper body area to the neck instead of the (rotating) shoulder joints.

You don't even need to edit the model to put nude models in, they are just textured like that (okay, maybe if you want huge breasts and so on).

If anyone wants to make a nude female texture I can alter the model file to insert the custom texture instead of overwriting the default texture for that part of the mesh. My own interest in that sort of stuff is... limited.

By the way, if you imported anything to the game yet you probably already noticed that the texture is flipped 180 degrees vertically. If so, you've probably used <Texture_All> for the textures in the game's XML. The kumquat engine has like 15 materials with different properties though (I mentioned those above). They all have special characteristics such as where they inherit the background colour, or eyes opening and closing. The DLL is only for maya but I can show you how to insert the kumquat material classes into a Havok XML mesh when you feel like learning.

Actually, if you examine the basic female model closely, clothing is part of the design and shape. The breasts are held by clothing and the area between the breasts is flat rather than going inward, and if you rotate the camera you can see some cleavage where clothing is holding the breasts built directly into the mesh. Hmm... maybe that's enough discussing the exact shape and nature of Sovereign breasts for now.

Right now I'm quickly creating something fairly simple to try to import: an armor shoulder piece. While I use 3DS Max, I thankfully DO have access to Maya. So if I can bring my created mesh back into Maya without it throwing a fit, I can probably use the Kumquat DLL in the normal way, assuming it doesn't require a lot of additional work in Maya. (I can't remember the exact details of all of this process... I read the documentation back when War of Magic had just come out and they released the Sovereign Pack. I remember I couldn't understand how to use the Sovereign models/skeletons then just as I couldn't now, so it's nice to finally have something I can work with.)

However, any advice or walkthrough of the best way for me to get from point A (my model in 3DS Max) to point B (my model ingame worn by a Sovereign or unit) would certainly be appreciated. Only if you have time and only as much as you want to explain; I've explained things to people before and ended up spending my entire day doing it. I'd rather not steal all your time.

If you'd be willing to give me your skinned meshes I could probably make great use of them. I don't know if you want to throw those out to the community or not, though, so feel free to send me a private message about that if you'd prefer. Also, it'd be helpful if both the skeleton file and the skinned meshes were scaled to about 100 times the size you have them at in the file you posted above and set with the Z axis up, unless that causes issues when trying to get things back into the game. (Although everything is skinned to the skeleton, so I would assume Elemental would treat it correctly as long as the scale and rotation of the imported mesh relative to the skeleton is appropriate.) The size of the skeleton you posted is small enough that the near clipping plane makes it impossible to work with in perspective without scaling it up, and messing with scale or rotation can have very unexpected consequences sometimes, haha.

Since it's a shoulderpiece I would recommend not skinning it at all. That's by far the easiest. In that case, all you want to do is create it, then export it and tweak it until it looks positioned similarly to an existing shoulderpiece in the Havok Preview Tool.

It's only for practice, and I'd like to get used to the skinning aspect and process for Fallen Enchantress. I was considering having a strip of cloth that comes down the back from the shoulder piece rigged to one of the cape bone chains as well, and that would certainly require skinning.

This shoulder piece may be where I'm starting, but it's only the beginning of what I plan to do.   (And I'll probably end up doing a lot of things I don't yet plan to do.) A lot of the other things will definitely require skinning.

Nice. Well, if you got the skeleton importing right you are halfway there.

Here's a file I used recently https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32649007/TR_MO_KamiGuard_idle.max

It should give you a good idea of the settings required in the exporter. The Transform scene and the Create Skeletons need to be altered, obviously. In particular the Transform Scene needs to have the right transform matrix found in the original file.

I just looked up 3dsMax online -- is it really $3600?  If you need it to modify this stuff, the cost could be the biggest roadblock for folks.

So, if folks did want to start modding this stuff, what software do they need and how much will it cost them?

Omnimmotus I missed the part where you asked for a mesh. I'll post it here, but if you have maya can i send it using that instead? The conversion process is far from perfect to get it to max.Then you can convert it how you want it for max.

Well, there's Blender which is free. There's a tutorial in the information sticky how to import from blender to havok (non-animated meshes). Other than that, you'd be breaking new ground as every 3d program has its own little quirks, pros and cons.

Then there's maya 2010 and 3ds max 2010 which I use, and they cost what they cost.

Keep in mind that the large pricetag on certain software is because the intended use is in a corporate for-profit setting, i.e. it's an investment. Fortunately, a lot of them have free software for students or at least reduced academic pricing. 

If you qualify... it looks like you can get 3dsmax for free: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=14185424

Either way would work, or both. I have access to both Max and Maya. Having the Maya files might be best so I can try multiple routes to conversion, and always go back to the clean and functional source. If you've any idea what route might be best to take in converting between programs under these circumstances, I'd appreciate any advice.

The companies making software like 3DS Max make their software easier to acquire for students, as you're likely to stick with (and buy later versions) of the software you learn with.

Besides that, being employed at the right place can help, but that's obviously pretty limited in openings. Having friends who own the software can help as they may be willing to share it with you. Not sure about the legality of that, but it's fairly harmless so long as you are only using it for hobby purposes, or buy the software at a later date, probably a more recent version.

And then, of course, there's software piracy. My feelings on that are somewhat neutral: most of the people pirating it lack the money to buy it, are only going to be using it for non-profit hobby purposes, and may buy the product at a later date if they become more serious. But piracy is a topic we will avoid. If you want the software, buy it or acquire it through things like student promotions.

Also, as Heavenfall pointed out, Blender serves as a free alternative. I learned on 3DS Max, though, so it's the only program I really feel comfortable using.

Thanks for the info!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32649007/shadowfemale.mb

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32649007/golembody2.mb