Ok, so what program IS actually compatible with Unreal's animation and model format?

[Skywolf]

Blender is already out of the question. The .psk/.psa exporter on that thing just gives a bunch of random polygons and support for vertex animation are out of the question aswell. Google is as helpfull as ever (darn Unreal Engine 4) so I'm kinda lost here.

What program can actually import and export Unreal's ancient alien animation and model format? And what program can correctly export skeletal meshes and animations?

[han]

ActorX. See: http://www.gildor.org/downloads

[Skywolf]

Isn't that just an importer though? Haven't tried it but judging from the name it seems like it is.

[Turboman.]

I never tried it myself but, I've heard that Milkshape3d natively supports both skeletal and vertex meshes from Unreal. Not sure if that program still exists nowadays though, that was back in the days of windows95/98.

A more up to date choice would 3dsmax, it IS possible to import both vertex animations and skeletal animations into 3dsmax from unreal.
For Skeletalmeshes, Han already posted a link to the ActorX exporter which can put PSK/PSA files into 3dsmax... but it's designed more towards UE2 titles so it has a lot of issues with UE1 skeletal meshes.

And for Vertexmeshes, I believe Qtit once posted a tool on OU that helps with that. First you can just export all your frames to .obj files using the 227 editor, then you can import them into 3dsmax using a tool which automatically stitches them together, found [url=http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/objloader-v1-4]here[/url].

[Skywolf]

Milkshape3D seems to be able to import only the model part of vertice animated models. Importing the _a.3d file simply crashes the program. It does however create an _a.3d file when exporting although I can't find a way to make vertice animations in the program itself. Might be that you have to animate using skeletal animations and then export that but I''m not sure.

Is there a tool to batch export all the frames to .obj format? Because having to do this manually for each frame will take way too long.

[Turboman.]

Is there a tool to batch export all the frames to .obj format? Because having to do this manually for each frame will take way too long.

[url=http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1439384432]The tool posted in this thread is capable of batchexporting .obj files.[/url]

[dustinechoes849]

this can open them
the psk's and vertmesh thingies atleast

I use the software to convert models into .OBJ so I can make insane PAC3 stuff for Garry's Mod lol

[Dr.Flay™]

*Shrugs shoulders and switches on images.....*
*Well that was a waste of credit, thanks*

For those that do not know what "This/The" is, because they are browsing on a mobile device with small or no images, or those that will never find the post because the most important key words (eg. the name and site) are missing...

"This/The" is actually called "3D Object Converter" and can be found at http://3doc.i3dconverter.com

[Kajgue]

Blender does work to create skeletal meshes, although verteces must be 100% weighted to 'one bone', rather than only partially weighted, and verteces must not share bones. I haven't figured out how to get only partially weighted bones working yet.

[Skywolf]

I made the mistake of not having the armature and model at the origin of the scene. However, I noticed that you get weird deformation when the model is smooth shaded where this wont happen when it is flat shaded.

Not sure about the bone weights though. Haven't really played around with it because of the above mentioned issue.

[Skywolf]

Ok, so spend the last days trying to get some Python knowledge with as goal to write a small script that makes it easier to work with 3ds2unr. Turns out that Python itself isn't really that hard but the poorly documented and pretty much un-googleable Blender api is.

Anyway, here is a small script that takes each frame in an action, makes a new scene with the name of an action, and then puts every frame of that action as a new object while naming it properly so you just have to export each animation (scene) as seperate .3ds file and let 3ds2unr do its thing. Haven't tested it very extensively so use it at your own risk (aka, make a backup before executing this thing).

Made everything on global scale just to annoy Python veterans .

Code: Select all

import bpy

baseob = bpy.context.active_object
basesc = bpy.context.scene


if baseob.type != 'MESH':
    print ("Selected object is not a mesh")
    raise Exception()
        
print ("Active mesh =", baseob)

    
for action in bpy.data.actions:
    
    if not len(action.fcurves): #check if action has keyframes. If not then it will be skipped.
        print ("No keyframes in",action.name,", skipping.")
        continue
    
    bpy.context.screen.scene = basesc #Sets the start scene for use later.
    
    for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
        ob.animation_data.action = action

    framemin, framemax = action.frame_range
    range_min = int(framemin)
    range_max = int(framemax)
    tot_frames = (range_max - range_min)
    action_range = range(range_min, range_max)
    print (action_range)
    print ("framemin =", range_min)
    print ("framemax =", range_max)
    
    
    Fmax = 0
    
    for frame in action_range: #Goes through all frames of the current action.
        bpy.context.screen.scene = bpy.data.scenes[basesc.name] #Jumps to the original scene at the start of each frame.
        
        bpy.context.scene.frame_set (range_max-Fmax, 0.0) #We are doing things in reverse because 3ds2unr demands it (gives sequence errors).
        Fmax += 1
        
        
        num = str(range_max - range_min)
        num2= str(tot_frames+1-Fmax)
        nuls= ""

        while len(nuls) < (len(num) - len(num2)): #calculates amount of zeros to add to object name.
            nuls = (nuls + "0")
            
        s=0

        for scene in bpy.data.scenes: #checks if a scene with the action name already exists.
            if scene.name == action.name:
                s=+1
        
        print ("Trying to creating new object with name:", action.name+nuls+str(tot_frames+1-Fmax))
        
        if bpy.data.objects.get(action.name+nuls+str(tot_frames+1-Fmax)) != None:
           
           if s==0:
#               bpy.data.objects[baseob[0].name].select = False #Can't find a way to actually delete unlinked objects.
#               bpy.data.objects[action.name+nuls+str(Fmax)].select = True
#               bpy.ops.object.delete(use_global=True)
#               bpy.data.objects[baseob[0].name].select = True
            
#               print("object", action.name+nuls+str(Fmax), "found but scene", action.name, "doesn't exist (anymore). Object deleted.")
                print ("Scene", action.name, "deleted but unlinked objects still exists. Please save the .blend file and reload.") #Checks if an object with the same name already exists.
                break
           
           
           else:
               print (action.name+nuls+str(Fmax), "already exists. Frame skipped.")
               continue
       
        else: 
            me = baseob.to_mesh(bpy.context.scene, True, 'PREVIEW', False, False)
            
            nfob = bpy.data.objects.new (action.name+nuls+str(tot_frames+1-Fmax), me)
            
            
            if s==0:
                bpy.ops.scene.new(type='NEW')
                newsc = bpy.context.scene
                newsc.name = action.name
            else:
                bpy.context.screen.scene = bpy.data.scenes[action.name]
                

            CurSc = bpy.context.scene
            CurSc.objects.link(nfob)
            
            print ("Created object:", action.name+nuls+str(tot_frames+1-Fmax),"in scene", CurSc.name)
            
    else:
        print ("Done")

To run it, open a Blender Text Editor editor type, paste this into it, select all objects (like armatures) that affect the geomtry of the mesh you want to use in 3ds2unr, select the mesh you want to use in 3ds2unr so it is the active object (has a yellow outline instead of orange), Click Run Script in the Text Editor.

You still have to go through Wings3D though to fix the UV issue like described [url=http://www.unrealsp.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3659]here[/url].

Quick demo .blend file I used for testing. High quality original content. Don't steal .

Can't come up with a way to get keyframes to work though as these use their own mode in the Dope Sheet on top of Actions.

The next step would be to make a native exporter for Blender itself. But I would need documentation about the Unreal's vertex format first. And even then my little brain would be too stupid to figure that out. But would love to try .

[han]

But I would need documentation about the Unreal's vertex format first. And even then my little brain would be too stupid to figure that out. But would love to try .

If someone would just have written [url=http://paulbourke.net/dataformats/unreal/]documentation[/url] about it or 3ds2unr would even have the [url=http://www.hypercoop.tk/infobase/archive/unrealtech/Files/3ds2unr.zip]source[/url] included or there would be the source of the fully fledged ActorX plugin for Max/Maya/XSI available under a BSD style license which also offers vertex mesh support or han would made a thread and posted some [url=http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1485397789]code[/url] how to read/write the vertex meshes...

[Skywolf]

Alright, thanks to Han hooking me up with some documentation I got Blender to export data and animation files. However I ran into a problem I can't figure out. For some reason does the Lod not function as expected. Unless LODStrength is set to 0 does it always render the mesh at the lowest Lod level. The same mesh converted with 3ds2unr doesn't have this issue but I can't figure out what it does different.

Anybody ideas?

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

in your "#EXEC mesh import" line you can add MLOD=0 to make it a "mesh" not an "lodmesh" which should solve your problem.

[han]

Maybe you miss the #exec MESHMAP SCALE line. Otherwise the MeshScaleMax used for the mesh remains zero, which completly crappity smacks up lod-gauging.

[Skywolf]

Han is right again. Made a typo in the MESHMAP SCALE line causing it to be ignored .

But the plugin is now in a state it should be useable for the public. So I will soon release it (and hope there aren't any massive bugs).