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Thread: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

  1. #41

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    Hey all, still alive and kicking! Even kicking up old threads.

    Thanks for the rainbow teeth image, Krinharth! With this, it's entirely possible to custom-edit the new (and sometimes awkward) "default" for dragon claws and horns. I do not want white horns, as they are gawdawful ugly on my head!

    Behold:

    Happy Talitha has claws, CLEAN teeth, and pretty candystripe green horns!

    It even plays well with my hatchling, though not all of his teeth stay clean.

    This works for other heads as well, to a degree, but if you look closely you can see where tooth and horn textures overlap, mainly in the form of a few (or more) off-colored teeth and/or horns. It is also possible to remove the white claws and/or wingclaws from the dragons who are too dark-scaled to like that look (or simply alpha tint the claw image to suit).

    Most ideally, horns and teeth should have entirely separate textures, which frees people to edit horns to suit while retaining their pearly whites. But this is an edit to the model itself (texture map references) and thus cannot be done by the lay modder.

    Whaddya say, Devs? A little project to poke all the dragon heads? Have the tooth meshes reference 1-2 tooth texture locations on the image, and horns reference any of the others. Horns should not reference teeth, teeth should not reference horns. This keeps them separate for colors and modding. And voila! Everyone is happy!

    I'm gonna keep working on this texture, too...

  2. #42

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    *hands Talitha the Dragon Dentist emblem*

  3. #43

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    As far as I know, none of the devs can change the UVs of the model to switch the texture space for all teeth to one area and the texture space for horns to another. It would require going back into the base model meshes and editing their UV layouts, so that's a pretty impossible request at this time. You either have clean teeth and horns, or you don't, with the current UVs.

    I've personally tried several methods to opening the old models in a modern version of Maya, but the file type is quite.. primitive, and I can't find a way to convert the mesh's file type used for the game into an OBJ, FBX, or similar to actually edit it. Can only view it in the Granny viewer.
    Last edited by Kida; May 21st, 2015 at 01:45 PM.

  4. #44

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kida View Post
    As far as I know, none of the devs can change the UVs of the model to switch the texture space for all teeth to one area and the texture space for horns to another. It would require going back into the base model meshes and editing their UV layouts, so that's a pretty impossible request at this time. You either have clean teeth and horns, or you don't, with the current UVs.

    I've personally tried several methods to opening the old models in a modern version of Maya, but the file type is quite.. primitive, and I can't find a way to convert the mesh's file type used for the game into an OBJ, FBX, or similar to actually edit it. Can only view it in the Granny viewer.
    I have managed to open the gr2 files in Maya with the help of a friend of mine, sadly we don't have all the files anymore and I'm not entirely sure whether we'd be able to export the files to .gr2's again (we should, but ya never know)
    I could try giving him a poke and get a workaround to the UV-map overlapping? ^^

  5. #45

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    Would love to know how you did it, seeing as all the tutorials I've found online are outdated/certain programs don't seem to work any longer. :P Exporting is significantly harder since I don't think it can be done legally, unless you acquire a license from Granny 3d (which is expensive!) to use their program. I also don't think the UV changes will work with an animated mesh, as animations are baked with the model (and so, its Uvs) and exported in that fashion. Unless Istaria handles it differently from most.

    Factoring in animations.. the fix to just tweak horn/teeth locations in the UV map is terribly complicated and not worth the effort once you think about it.

  6. #46

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    It is difficult but not impossible. Every head that has horns would need to be modified. I had chosen a spot between the head and the wing textures that would have worked fairly well. At the time, there seemed to be no reason why it would not work other than the time required to make the changes and get some client & database changes made. The horn texture itself I would have made as its own image and placed it using the offset.def file. It would have allowed for horn color be one of several new creation options I was going to make. I really regret that life forced me to step away from working on the game and the dragon appearance improvements that I had planned.

  7. #47

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    If the devs don't have control over all aspects of the game's construction and operation...that's kind of worrisome to me! I figure they must have some way of fixing/editing models, or where would we be if a real need arose? I realize something like parsing horns and teeth that aren't technically broken is a low-priority and time-consuming affair, but still. (That's what stubborn modders are for.)

    I didn't figure on it being completely impossible. I mean, it's computers! Even if I have to peel apart the model with my fingernails and edit it as a raw text full of numbers, it's not impossible! (I'd have to be Tony Stark or something, though. In a cave. With a box of scraps.)

    I'm stubborn. I want to put my shoulder into it and lean hard before I give up and admit I can't move this mountain.

    First off, to make it easier/simpler, I wouldn't make a whole new horn texture/location. Just shift the ones that are already there. Logically, this means these locations are already mapped in various head models, and it could just be as simple as transposing & exchanging locations. Coordinates? I know I'm not using the technical terms, but I'll see if what I'm thinking matches up with the practical application.

    Question 1: Does anyone know which specific program version numbers were used to build Istaria? i.e. Maya 4, Granny 1.6, etc?

    Question 2: Is it true, the rumor that the original Horizons game shipped with some kind of player modding/editing software (like Elder Scrolls do)?

    Question 3: Khutit heads--are these completely separate models or are they just Adult head meshes plopped on the biped-shaped body and would hold true the same changes?

    I'll just keep fiddling with this on my own time and see what comes up. As the experts have stated, it won't be easy. But I'll try for myself.

    I'm also going to keep messing with the existing texture image so it looks better on various heads, maybe make some different visual options for people. I got lucky with my head, it fixed easy and I like the look.

    If all else fails, there's always the un-mod in the KB!


    (Plan B: Win lottery, buy all of Istaria, throw money at it for Overhaul of Awesome.)

  8. #48

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    The devs have full control over all of the assets. Even though I don't work on the game anymore, I still have a set of the raw assets (from a few years ago) cause I keep hoping that someday I can contribute again. Sorry, I can't distribute them to anyone.

    Q1: The character models were made in Maya 6 or maybe 5 for some of the older ones. I can't remember which version of Granny at the moment. But it was the last version of Granny that would work with Maya 6. You can't use new Granny exporters because RAD Game tools replaced a compression function that the version of Granny in the client needs. The world assets (rocks, trees, buildings) are a mixture of Max and Maya. Early on they used Max and switched to Maya later on. It's exporter is Alchemy which I doubt you will find much if any information on now.

    Q2: There was no player editor. There was once an idea for a quest editor that players could create quests and submit them. It was never completed and released.

    Q3: Khutit heads are separate models. Originally, there was just one khutit head. A few years ago I took the adult dragon heads, modified them and grafted them onto the khutit body with some reshaping to make them fit the proportions a little better.

    Good luck with the lottery. I'd love to see Istaria take over the world.

  9. #49

    Default Re: Dragon teeth, claw and mouth texture modification.

    I'm kind of glad that after all this time that i haven't been on istaria that i finally get to reactivate my account and see that a mod is not needed anymore for the teeth..claws and all that to be the right color
    my name is pronounced Dr-A-zil
    It has always been my dream to be a dragon in real life
    to help the community of Malatora
    the future holds the key http://fedcom-online.webs.com/

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