Sexvision

Driver · May 5

Very nice effect. I also did some testing on this with @state808 but did not use the translation vector. thats a nice touch.

hfg2 · May 1

6 hours ago, hfg2 said:
Trying to do something about, but the UI part/usability part is killing me, not sure how to implement this in a simple and easy to understand manner.

Should I output a single object as a custom name or should I output the entire scene as separate objects, using generic names or using their blender object name?

Another thing is that each h5m file can't be reloaded, somehow hook5 are caching them, so if you overwrite a new h5m file then is not possible to reload them without restarting, for now I just add a number at the end and I increase the number with each export if one already exists.

Attached you can find a WIP project that I used to make the exporter. You need to fix the paths for the textures for materials and then you need in the code at the end to fix the paths where to export, as now is something like:
prefix = "horse"
counter = 0
extension = ".h5m"
folder_name ="F:/Games/VX/Mod/ActiveMod/_hook5data/objects/test"
The code is Blender 2.79b compatible, probably the final addon project will be Blender 2.79b first as well, but should be easy to port to latest Blender like 3.5,3.6 or 4.0 later with some improvements in logic/speed of taking precomputed/blender self calculated normals/tangets/bi.

horse_test.blend 1.93 MB · 2 downloads

Very nice thank you.

For the object name i think blender object name makes the most sence.

I work on parts of meshes already because i like to do the room as a separate object and fill it with h5m objects that are centered. Makes our game into a sandbox where posibilities are endless. Also its easier to finish something as i work on small parts of a room. but thats just personal preference.

So probable a single scene as a h5m object would be enough.

I understand the path stuff and blender 2.79b is perfect.

Thanks for sharing.

Im gonna play around with it some and see the results.

hfg2 · April 29

44 minutes ago, hfg2 said:

Multiple people claimed that the h5m file is not supporting png files for stage2 and stage3 files, so I've decided to put this to test, because my memory was playing tricks to me.

What I can say however is that swapping/removing the png for dds and the other way around while reloading the h5m file is a sure way to a game crash.

horse-test.zip 1.19 MB · 0 downloads

yep thats working now. that would be very helpfull indeed.

any change i can get my hands on this nice plugin of yours

Trapp · April 20

Happy birthday to you buddy.

hfg2 · April 19

16 minutes ago, hfg2 said:

Oh, I think I got you or maybe this is what @Sexvision intended to say. Is not possible to load h5m objects in Substance Painter. That is correct, we need to do a conversion to an obj file in order to import that. That is the problem.

H5M is not limited to Hook5. The H5M binary format is public and it can be used/imported for example in Blender, I did that in my plugins.

Unreal only supports its own uasset file format, but it is possible with plugins to use any other file format at runtime, so it is possible to import obj/fbx/collada at runtime. Same for h5m files.

Hook5 can work with png for stage2 and stage3 files as well, one of my frequent mistakes was to have same png file along the dds file, trying to edit the dds file and wondering why it would not work. If both png and dds files are present then the game will load the png version.

For h5m object you can use either png or dds file, but if the filename is embedded as dds then it will not load the png. I think it also works with bmp files (havent tested recently), but this must be hardcoded.

quote:Hook5 can work with png for stage2 and stage3 files as well, one of my frequent mistakes was to have same png file along the dds file, trying to edit the dds file and wondering why it would not work. If both png and dds files are present then the game will load the png version.

This is correct if you use a passfiles. Than it can actualy be anything as its specified in the pass file.

But for hook objects the _norm and _spec notation must be in dds format for hook to read them. This is hardcoded in hook 5 i believe. I have tried other formats but they dont work even if i specify them in the .mtl file before converting the spects and normals need to be dds format. For the diffuse texture it does not matter what format its in.

hfg2 · April 19

1 hour ago, hfg2 said:

Actually failed to explain properly to this question.

Not much progress on the pose editor itself, things are changing fast in Unreal and still not sure which approach should be the best. While watching some VaM tutorials/showcases on youtube I was convinced there could be something much better than the usual pose editor interface found in TK17, so now I'm also considering a mixed interface/an alternative to the TK17 pose editor.

Regarding the graphic pipeline, just like mentioned above things are moving so fast on the Unreal scene that I feel unable to keep up with everything, so much things and eye candy and I don't know what I should implement first. I know this is not the proper answer but I will explain more hopefully in my next posts.

Regarding the mentions from @Sexvision about h5m format support. First, there is no better format really, going for fbx or obj file format can't be better for a couple of things. Obj format for example is a text file, processing it takes time (slow) and the texture support is like 20-30 years old maybe. That means Obj file format doesnt know anything about PBR. H5m on the other hand was implemented to be 3d pipeline friendly, is already in binary format and vertices/faces materials are pre-sorted to be easily sent to the graphics card.

Texturing is more or less something that can be supported later, h5m textures can be Substance painter friendly (I'm not expert in Substance painter), h5m usually support dds files or png files.

Always remember that Unreal has its own file format for textures and models, out of the box Unreal engine has no support for dds or png at runtime, so a custom loader must be used for those.

Also Unreal engine has its own material editor (using nodes), implementing the usual PBR cloth shader from hook5 is actually resulting in a very basic material in Unreal that mimics PBR. For people looking to get the best graphics out of their models they will have to make their rooms not using obj/fbx/h5m/whatever at runtime, but create the rooms in Unreal Editor and exporting them as custom maps to be used in the actual game.

But not everyone wants to install their own Unreal Editor instance, so for those people custom object loaders to make their own maps from obj/fbx/h5m/whatever objects should be available.

I don't know that yet. But for existing projects using static meshes Nanite must be enabled in the editor to be used later in runtime.

That was a intresting read. I did not know that h5m was binary. I did see the node setup for unreal engine and it seems very simular to the blender node setups. I did install Unreal engine a few year back to check it out but never got that far to set something up. May need to dive in it some more

hfg2 · April 18

6 hours ago, hfg2 said:

A bit stuck right now in other projects, slow progress on "gaming" side.

1. Alternatively I'm working on a converter for G8F to G3F (and maybe vice versa). I think I've done the heavy lifting, but finalizing this is a bit exhausting. Still not sure if I should fork this into Daz plugin or keep it as a Blender plugin.

2. While doing some investigation I learned some tricks that should allow to export two levels of details for G3F characters:

-first one would be LOD1 (which should be exactly the base resolution)

-second one would be LOD0 (base resolution subdivided and smoothed)

This trick would allow me to have high quality characters, problem is I didn't implemented it yet, is just an idea, I know/I feel this will work, and it should work awesome, but problem is I haven't done this yet. I still might get stuck in some issues.

What I want to achieve is to enable game runtime loading of morphs at base resolution, for LOD1 this would be simple because of direct vertex matching, nothing complicated, for LOD0 it might be some averaging of neighbors vertices.

Now there might be another thing that appeared... and might make my efforts futile, and maybe I will have to rethink the workflow pipeline, maybe it will help and improve the quality of my work or it might scrap everything.

Those two videos I'm talking about, Nanite support for skeletal meshes with tessellation/displacement.

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3. And at last I also think more and more about finishing the h5m project I had in Blender, so that h5m objects could be exported/imported using Blender, then implement h5m objects in Unreal.

I still don't know if this is important or not, it might be useful for sure, but can't decide on the viability of this, lol.

While the Blender could help people make their "rooms" in Blender for TK17 and Unreal projects don't know yet if this worth the effort or not.

I would leave point 3 for what it is. h5m is actualy not that good. the problem with it is that you can only use .dds files for normals and specs and that leaves Substance painter out of it. normals out of substance painter dont convert well to .dds files. The only good thing about h5m files now is that you can kitbash.

Berger already made the tool to get h5m to .obj but it flips the UV on its Y axis.

For unreal its easiest to use obj or fbx files as i understand it. And that is where all h5m files start anyway.

Sexvision · April 3

3 hours ago, Sexvision said:

Go for it

If you want to use Substance painter you will need to repack the UVs probable. Let me know if you need anything

Sexvision · April 3

15 hours ago, HDiddy said:

@Sexvision if yo do not mind. I would like to finish this room kind sir.

Go for it

Trapp · March 9

He Trapp,

Im sorry to read live is kicking you in the ass right now. It all seams so unfair. Also losing a close friend is a hard pill to swallow. Live should stop for a second and everyone should take notice of this event. Also the trigger for most depressions

I read the comments and it seems you have some good friends here with some solid advice. Depression is no joke and many of us are working hard to stay positive. Your not alone in this and we will be here if you need a ear/friend.

Things that i learned in therapy are:

1. Dont make live changing decisions when your feel down and out.

2. Go outside more (sound silly but it helps)

3. Keep people around even if you dont want to and talk.

4. Rest helps. Dont need to be sleep. just laying on your bed is rest to.

5. Actualy being creative is something that helps. Just dont make things to big or put pressure on it.

6. Keep things small so you can finish them. Keep making things smaller untill you can.

7. This is kind of personal but for me lisening to music helps a lot. (use headphones to block outside noise to get rest) I sing to keep focus on the music and not let my mind wonder to much.

8. If you have a bad day let it pass without fighting yourself and try again tomorrow.

Hope you will do better soon and we can enjoy your presents and artwork again. Dont be a stranger.

You are loved.