Metal Gear Faces/Units

[Chromegus 10]

As it turns out, making addons is a lot more complicated than I thought:

I was finally able to finish up all the LOD's in buldozer and I even tested out the unit in the game. It turned out that I forgot to update some selections in the LOD's with the highest resolutions (I had done a lot of changes on the original BAS Infantry Kit unit to make it look like the sneak suit). This caused the model to look deformed since some parts of the model were not included in any named selection. Also, since I didn't create separate objects for the pads on the shoulders and knees (it was just texturing work) the pads stretch whenever the unit moves. Another problem was with the face texture; whenever the unit is loaded in ofp, the game gives it one of the vanilla ofp faces instead of the custom solid snake one (I read the facetex documentation but it didn't have anything on custom faces, only on selecting faces that come with the pbo). I also noticed that snake doesn't hold handguns properly, but I think that could be fixed by messing with the proxies in buldozer. Finally, some unmapped areas show up, but that's mostly my fault and could be fixed by making a few more textures and by messing with named selections.

I made some estimates and I believe that I'll have a beta ready for upload by next week. I won't be making any more changes on the model because it will be difficult to fix the model as it is, let alone improve it. This means that the stretching pad problem won't be fixed until a future release after the beta. I know I'll be able to handle fixing most stuff in the model, except for the face texture problem. I'm pretty sure it is a scripting problem, and since I'm a noob at scripting I won't be able to solve it fast enough to release the model next week. If you have any suggestions regarding how to handle the face texture, please do not hesitate to post them here or to send me a PM. Oh, and don't forget that I'm using the llauma head model, not the original ofp one.

[rellikki 7]

Remove the selection "osobnost" altogether from the model. That way the face is permanent and won't change.

[Chromegus 10]

Thanks for the quick reply Rellikki, I'll definitely try your method!

I have fixed most of the issues already, just working on some more tweaks and one new texture...

---------- Post added at 04:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:57 PM ----------

Your method sort of worked. The face was made permanent, but snake doesn't have eyeballs...

---------- Post added at 04:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 PM ----------

Wait a sec, I just noticed that I have two Fset animations near the bottom of the model in O2... should these be placed on each eye? Are these the eyeballs I was missing, or is there another fix?

[rellikki 7]

The Fsets are for the random face script used in llauma's heads. They're not really needed, seeing as you want the model to have only this face, so you might aswell just remove them, aswell as any scripts which would set the face for the unit, since the face is now permanent. :)

You most likely have some kind of mapping problem in the model. Make sure everything's mapped correctly and the eyeballs have the correct texture assigned to them.

Also, make sure the eye balls are assigned to the "hlava" selection.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Rellikki

[Chromegus 10]

THANK YOU!! I just noticed that I forgot to copy the eyeball objects and the teeth objects from the llauma PBO. I think I might even release the suit sooner than I expected!

[BronzeEagle 2]

DAAAAAAAAMN!!!!!:yay::yay:

[Chromegus 10]

Ok, so the model is pretty much ready, except for two things:

First, I don't know how to fix the way Snake holds the gun. It can't be the

animation pack I'm using (DMA) because all the other models in the game hold guns properly. Snake's use of handguns and heavy weapons is what I'm having problems with the most. Check it out:

2nd screen:

The handgun problem only occurs in 1st person view; the model placement looks ok in 3rd person. On the other hand, the rpg problem happens only in 3rd person view and not in 1st.

Another problem has to do with how Snake carries weapons on his back. RPGs are too close to the main model and rifles float too far away from it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix these issues? As soon as these issues are fixed I'll post a download link in this thread.

Thank you in advance. All this work would not have been possible if it wasn't for the support I have received from the ofp community.

[rellikki 7]

The problem is in the proxies. Try deleting your current proxies from the model and copy them back onto your model from the original BAS infantry kit model. As far as I know, the proxies in the original model are correctly placed and there shouldn't be any problems like that. Do this for all the resolution LODs and the pilot view LOD. If the problem still occurs, the only way to fix it probably is to manually move the proxies accordingly to fix the weapon holding. In the pistol's case, for example, you'd need to move the proxy a little bit to the left from the model's view to make the character hold the gun correctly.

[Chromegus 10]

Thanks, I'm making a readme right now and you are definitely in it! If I have time, I'll upload the sneak suit today.

[rellikki 7]

Looking forward for the release! Is it going to need any additional addOns to work? I'd personally prefer if it wouldn't, so the mission makers could arm him with whatever weapons they'd want, be it stock game weapons or custom ones. The choice would be up to them.

Before you release your addOn, you might want to register your own OFPEC tag. Read more about it here:

http://www.ofpec.com/tags/

It's a good principle to tag your addOns for the reasons also told in that page. :)

[Chromegus 10]

Yeah, it appears to be a proxy problem. However, I can't tell which vertice I'm supposed to change. I tried moving the whole proxy, but that only changes the way Snake holds the gun in 3rd person. I replaced all the proxies with the ones in the BAS Kit; this fixed all the RPG problems but it didn't fix the handgun position problem...

---------- Post added at 05:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ----------

Oh, by the way, I decided not to include any weapons on Snake. Also, I haven't been able to register at OFPEC because they haven't sent me the confirmation e-mail when registering a new account. The site just displayed the message "an error has occurred" when it attempted to send me the e-mail...

[Chromegus 10]

Ok, I tried registering again today under a different username and e-mail. There was no error message this time, so hopefully I'll get that e-mail soon.

So far I haven't been able to fix the handgun position issue. I updated to the WW4 animations but that didn't help. Maybe I'm changing the proxies in the wrong LOD, because so far changing proxy positions in the highest Resolution LOD only changes the position of the gun in the 3rd person. I also tried changing the proxy positions in the Memory LOD, but that didn't do anything...

---------- Post added at 09:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 AM ----------

Update: I was able to register a tag at OFPEC today. While I was changing things in the config I noticed that I didn't use any wound textures. I'm not exactly sure how the wound system works but I'll do some research in a bit. I'm also still trying to figure out the gun position problem.

[sanctuary 19]

Download the BISMan from the BIS model pack and open it in O2.

In the 1st lod , in the named selection panel, leave CTRL pressed and select :

proxy:ak_47_v58_proxy.01

proxy:beretta.01

proxy:rpg7_proxy.01

Once done, stop pressing CTRL.

Now press CTRL and C to copy those in memory.

Open your model now.

In each lods that contains them do this

-select :

proxy:ak_47_v58_proxy.01

proxy:beretta.01

proxy:rpg7_proxy.01

- press Delete key to delete the selected models

-press CTRL and V to paste the previous models you copied in memory previously.

Once you are done with each lods, the weapons should be handled correctly.

[Chromegus 10]

I just figured it out! It is the view pilot LOD that controls how things look in first person view. At least that appears to be the case; since I changed the folder name of my addon to coincide with my OFPEC tag, the textures disappeared on the model. I updated all the texture paths, except for the view pilot one. When I went in-game, the textures and gun placements for the model seemed fine in 3rd person but had disappeared for 3rd person. This could only mean that the gun proxy for the view pilot LOD controls the way models are displayed in first person. I'm going to do some testing now. Thanks for the tips though.

---------- Post added at 10:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ----------

Update: Yes, it is indeed the view pilot LOD that controls how things are displayed in 1st person. I changed the weapon position to make it look a bit better; however, the problem seems not to be the position of the gun itself but the position of Snake's hands. I'll try to mess around with other named selections in the view pilot LOD...

[ProfTournesol 956]

I'll try to mess around with other named selections in the view pilot LOD...

Well, the named selections in the view pilot lod are the same as in the other lod, and for hands they are named "pruka" and "lruka". But correctly positioning the hands so that they fit with the animations is quite hard.

[Chromegus 10]

Yeah, it was a bit of a hassle to change the hand positions, but I finished adjusting them so that they work with most gun models. I'm still looking into the wound system. For now though I think the greatest issue at hand has to do with the pilot view when entering vehicles:

I've looked up other projects with similar problems but I haven't found a solution...

[sanctuary 19]

An annoyance in OFP is that instead of using the pilot view lod as usual for the 1st person view, when you are in a driver/gunner/commander/cargo position, the engine will use the 1st resolution lod instead.

To prevent parts of your head or headgear and the NVG proxy to appear in your 1st person view, make sure that in the 1st resolution lod :

-every part of the head and the headgear and the NVG proxy are included in the named selection

hlava

Sometime it looks like they are, but it is always possible a few faces are not, so select carefully head and headgear and include them again in hlava.

-very rarely this can not be enough, no idea why, and despite every head/headgear/nvg selection are correctly defined in hlava, a few faces can continue to appear when inside a vehicle.

To prevent that, include those resilient faces into a selection named

mireni

If done correctly in your 1st resolution lod, those faces will not appear anymore when you are inside of a vehicle.

[Revan87 10]

i cant wait for this to be released im a huge metal gear fan!!!

[Chromegus 10]

Thanks for the advice Sanctuary. Unfortunately, redefining the "hlava" and "mireni" selections didn't work for me...

@Revan87: Yeah, I could release the suit in its current state but I would rather work on it a bit more to make it as enjoyable as possible for everyone (and hopefully glitch-free).

[rellikki 7]

Thanks for the advice Sanctuary. Unfortunately, redefining the "hlava" and "mireni" selections didn't work for me...

From the picture above, it seems like the "hlava" selection is missing the nostril, mouth and the bandana sections. Carefully make sure those are indeed in the "hlava" selection in the first resolution LOD and it should do the trick. I can't see what else could be wrong with it.

[Chromegus 10]

I included the nostrils, mouth, and the headband again but they still show up when driving vehicles. I also noticed that the back of the ears are visible as well when looking around inside vehicle cockpits. I've read that some people are able to solve the issue by including these faces in the "hlava" selection but others still have the problem even after redefining "hlava." Some older posts I've read say that I could use hidden selections and a bit of scripting but I'm not entirely sure of how that works.

[sanctuary 19]

Having all the faces correctly defined in hlava and mireni should have done the trick, if you upload your 1st resolution lod i'll give a look to see how the selections are.

[Chromegus 10]

Ok, I'll PM you a link to the entire project PBO with the latest changes.

[BronzeEagle 2]

shagohod is on this page if you scroll down

[Chromegus 10]

No kidding!!! Wow! That's an amazing find, BronzeEagle! I've been looking for MGS addons forever, I didn't know someone was already working on something. Thanks, I'll certainly add this to my addon collection! :)