help IAI Arava WIP

[toot 292]

I'm making the arava for sf2 and have finished the model and the animations, however when i tried to export it to sf2 (using blender 2.79) i got this:

this is the model:

if anyone can help me figure out the issue ill appriciate it

[toot 292]

I havent started on the skin yet, if that could be an issue

[toot 292]

ok development - it had something to do with the scale, now i just need to figure out why it doesnt use all animations

[toot 292]

The problems i'm encountering are

1) applying scale ruined some of the animations, if someone can help me figure out how to do apply scale without it doing anything to the animations ill appriciate it

2) seems like the exporter doesnt export emptys which i've based the animations upon :/ 

[toot 292]

all the missing stuff are parts that were held with emptys for animations and stuff

this part moved for some reason and it's animation also broke

 

[OlWilly 105]

On 10.05.2024 at 11:46 PM, toot said:

2) seems like the exporter doesnt export emptys which i've based the animations upon :/ 

I am not a much 3D guy myself, but if this helps - to export the multi-object model to SF2 engine you need to establish a kind of "master node". Select one object in editor (usually it is fuselage) and make it a parent to all other nodes, so it sits at the top of hierarchy.

Not sure about emptys, in any case you can use just a really smol object which would not be seen in the game. I saw this in several working models and did the same recently. This is usually done to enable elevons or drooping ailerons as making them through data file is not always possible because the game engine doesn't allow two functions for a single node

 

 

[toot 292]

8 minutes ago, OlWilly said:

I am not a much 3D guy myself, but if this helps - to export the multi-object model to SF2 engine you need to establish a kind of "master node". Select one object in editor (usually it is fuselage) and make it a parent to all other nodes, so it sits at the top of hierarchy.

yeah you need a hierarchy for 3d models and ive set everything to the fuselage, which works as intended. However the emptys (and what ever is set as their children) dont apear. That's why the image ive posted from the lod viewer doesnt show all the control surfaces and the parts that had animations. I'll try maybe changing the emptys to some tiny cubes that you cant really see, But i want to get more suggestions from people who have already managed to get blender aircraft working right 

[OlWilly 105]

15 minutes ago, toot said:

That's why the image ive posted from the lod viewer doesnt show all the control surfaces and the parts that had animations.

Speaking of which, I don't think you need to complicate it that much if you make a simple animation.

Making a parent node for control surfaces is usually done when you need to assign a double function to a single node, like elevons (pitch and roll) or rudder-airbrakes (think F-22).

A single function node could be animated using only the pivot point. I know that setting a pivot in Blender is not that user friendly as in 3DSMax, but nothing impossible.

And also, you don't really need to create the animation for control surfaces. Just set-up a pivot point and then point the according node in DATA file. The movement limits are established there as well, the game's engine will handle the rest

[toot 292]

1 hour ago, OlWilly said:

Speaking of which, I don't think you need to complicate it that much if you make a simple animation.

Making a parent node for control surfaces is usually done when you need to assign a double function to a single node, like elevons (pitch and roll) or rudder-airbrakes (think F-22).

A single function node could be animated using only the pivot point. I know that setting a pivot in Blender is not that user friendly as in 3DSMax, but nothing impossible.

And also, you don't really need to create the animation for control surfaces. Just set-up a pivot point and then point the according node in DATA file. The movement limits are established there as well, the game's engine will handle the rest

blender 2.78 and 2.79 from what i know dont allow angled pivot points, so i have to use empty's that have a locked track to another empty like in this video (without the large circle in the middle):

 

[+Nyghtfall 2,152]

I think for straight movable surfaces that don't need an animation (ailerons, elevators and rudders) you have to set the origin of that mesh to the rotation axis of that surface. Look at the pictures - the red circles mark the rotation axis and the yellow point marks the origin of that mesh.

Angled Pivot-points are possible too - just not very intuitive to set up. I use a plugin for that (PreciseAlign), that unfortunately is gone from the Internet. I'll post it later.

You have to test it though. Although I made a plane in blender for testing purposes, I never made a data.ini for it and so my only tests were mapping and animations in LOD-viewer.

[toot 292]

Yeah for straight ones I've done it before, things like the elevators and the rudder, but the wings are angled. I'll do more testing and hopefully I'll be able to actually make it all work

[+Nyghtfall 2,152]

Fair enough.

Here's the Plugin to align pivotpoints, just in case someone is interested.

Precise Align v1.2.7z

[toot 292]

What if i were to change all the emptys to small cubes, and then in the INI file i can remove those meshes entirely from the model? will it also remove the shadows? or is it just overthinking about it and i can simply make them tiny and forget about it?

i mean doing something like this:
https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91656-hiding-a-node/

[toot 292]

All the animations are done, gonna start texturing now. Only thing that might be weird on  the final product is the ailerons since they are angled and blender 2.78/2.79 dont allow for angled pivot points

[toot 292]

Does anyone know if its possible to have multiple meshes share one texture image in blender? i see that most of the time there are like 3-4 textures entirely for a plane that's made in 3ds max, and those include the wings, control surfaces, etc etc. But in blender you cant do multiple things in the same texture image, leading to you having to make a texture for each part for itself (one for fuselage, one for a single flap). 

the only way i saw that would make less images was to join parts, but that would mean the hirearchy wouldn't be as i want it to be.

[toot 292]

i basically need to do this but in blender if it's possible

 

[+yakarov79 10,691]

I wish I could help but I have no experience in blender. (yes I tried but I am ok with max. Hope someone can figure this out because the project looks interesting. Or someone can put together everything in max for you when you are done with mapping, tinkering, etc.

[Wrench 9,632]

the game engine (tm) likes things seprete. we've had several (very) old mods that have things all mapped together, and it's caused nothing be grief

[+Nyghtfall 2,152]

Of course you can map multiple meshes on one image. Instead of creating a new image for every mesh, you can also select the same image, you already used for another mesh. For example "fuselage.jpg" in your screenshot could also be used for the wings if you have enough space left on that image.

Look at the picture:

OuterWing_Left and Pylon_Inner_Left are 2 seperate meshes, but are on the same texture-image called SimplePlane_LeftWing.jpg

You have to export the UV-layout for every mesh, insert it on your texture-file, save it and then reassign it as texture for a mesh, so the changes become visible. I think it's not possible to just view the mapping of all meshes together at once, because you need to be in edit-mode to see the mapping and that only works for single meshes.

 

The general way (for me) is:

- create a the texture-image in Photoshop.

- map a mesh and select the image in blender as texture-file

- place the mesh and export the uv layout (UV/Image Editor"-windows menubar "UV->Export UV Layout")

- import the created .png-file with the meshlayout as new layer to the texture-file in photoshop (important: insert to original position, otherwise it is placed on a different position on the texture-file than the actual mesh is)

- save the updated texture-file

- reassign the updated texture-file on blender to see the meshes, that are already mapped

- repeat until done

That way, you also create the base for your models skintemplate.

 

You should have something like this, if you have finished mapping all single meshes of a model:

Edited May 18 by Nyghtfall

[toot 292]

after testing it out with a test rig it worked. @Nyghtfall you're an actual legend

[toot 292]

gonna start doing everything tomorrow, hopefully ill have a template by tomorrow

[+daddyairplanes 9,232]

input from the skinner side of house

you will get better skins if you have several textures rather than all on one. it doesnt need to be a dozen or even TKs usual 5, but loading all on one means you are making everything smaller to fit on one space. yeah you could go big (2048 or 4096 px)but if you did that why not break things up (say a fuselage/tail grouping and a wings. engines/ various parts grouping) for more detail.

sorry, i do not know how you would do that in blender (barely got the hang of it in Maya) but end user wise,  all on one can be a pain for anything outside of a weapon or small ground vehicle

[toot 292]

I'm not planning on putting all skins all in one page, I'll separate it into 4-5 which are the fuselage, wingR, wingL stabilizers(might make two for those) and if there's anything in-between well do those

[+mue 714]

On 18.5.2024 at 4:55 PM, toot said:

... since they are angled and blender 2.78/2.79 dont allow for angled pivot points

As Nyghtfall already wrote: blender 2.78/2.79 does allow for angled pivot points. If you rotate an object it actually does rotate the pivot point (and its attached mesh). To see the rotated pivot points you have to set the Transform Orientation option to Local, e.g. through the Transfrom Orientation Selector in the 3D view header or with Alt-Space.
The problem with blender 2.78/2.79 is, that you can not directly rotate the pivot point without rotating the attached mesh. But you can use this workaround:
- First rotate the object (pivot point and mesh) in the opposite direction.
- Then apply the rotation to the mesh with Ctrl-A Rotation. That resets the rotated pivot point to the global axes but keeps the mesh rotated.
- Afterwards rotate the object back in the wanted direction. That rotates the pivot point in the wanted direction while the mesh is back in its original orientation.

[toot 292]