Gnomekindle Shoulder Pets - "Fix"?

[meepsa]

I was just wondering, I know the pets can't be done for the dragons due to missing model in relevance to the texture (how hard would it be to fix this? I have....okay experience with maya so if it's something a novice could give a try I'd be willing), but

I was thinking though, if not for dragons, perhaps there could be a way that they could still equip them, but only in Khutit form? seeing as it uses pretty much the same rig as bipeds.

[Racktor]

Makes sense, don't think there'd be an issue with khutit form. At least, I wouldn't think.

The issue with the models is that there is literally something wrong with them. As far as I'm aware, there was an honest attempt at fixing it but there were errors or missing plugins and it didn't work. The actual fixing is just moving the models up to place them on the shoulder of dragons, I believe.. kind of like how dragon heads are floating in a certain spot compared to the body. (Pretty sure you know that; modding an ancient head on an adult gives a floating head) It just literally didn't work, sadly, as far as I'm aware anyway...

[Kesstryl]

Why can't the dragon treant pet just be mimicked? If it worked for that pet, just copy what was done. Also there is a phoenix bird that I've seen a dragon wear. Same concept, just take the models, change how they sit on dragons, and copy their placement in reference to the mesh.

[Racktor]

From what I have inferred, the raw models that would be used for this are literally corrupt. There was an attempt to just re-export them as is, even in biped style with no adjustments, and there was a pile of errors.

Believe me, I'd love to see dragon shoulder pets, too, but it's not possible. The only way would be completely re-modeling them.

[Guaran]

What really should happen with all the dragon shoulder pets, is change them to use the wing slot and not the chest slot. After this change is done, they could go about making it so one could go on each side of the player.

The old pets models may not be reimportable/fixable as Racktor said, I don't know what assets regarding the models the devs do/don't have. It would probably be worth re-trying to import those, as the devs this year have been really great at fixing all sorts of client issues. They may have better luck.

But the newer made pets (Treant/Phoenix) should be adjustable so that they can fit the wing slot, and wear one on each side if desired. I never play with one on, since it takes an armor slot for both bipeds ad dragons. The best ultimate fix would be to add one or 2 new slots in the equipment windows, just for shoulder pets. And allow them to only be equipped in the new slot.

[meepsa]

It would probably be worth re-trying to import those, as the devs this year have been really great at fixing all sorts of client issues. They may have better luck.

the problem isn't client related, it's exporting from Maya Extension (.mb/.obj) to .gr2, which is done in Maya, which is the problem.

A better idea would be leaving them as is for now, and redoing them completely once the Unreal 4 transition begins, seeing as they a large portion of the models would have to be redone anyway. it would mean that the annoying plugins which are causing the current problems wouldn't even be needed anymore for exporting the models. (or so I'm guessing, as I'm pretty sure Unreal doesn't support .gr2's haha)

[Guaran]

All they need to do is start with (for the ogre, spider, treant, maggot pets anyway) the normal model for the mob the pets are based on. So the Aegror model ( to properly make the aegror pet), the ogre model, the treant model, the maggot model, and just shrink it down. The parrot is the only one that doesn't have a life sized mob elsewhere in game to start from. But the parrot pet already works on both shoulders (for bipeds anyway. Someone was telling me the new pets only show up on one shoulder for bipeds. Better than nothing).

And these devs this last year have figured out how to fix stuff that's been busted for years on end. If anyone can fix them, they can.

[meepsa]

woah hey, I'm not saying they can't, I'm sure they can (heck, they've done an amazing job so far), I'm saying it would be more efficient work-wise to just completely start over. Yes they could use the base monster models to work with, however, those would still need a revamp then once the conversion to unreal begins (trust me, 70% of the models currently used do not agree with most modern engines, including unreal, and that's counting models recently made, I'm almost 100% sure that all models that were in before VI took over simply won't budge), meaning the work done to fix them before was basicly extra work that could be used to focus on other things (*cough* T3 revamp *cough*) before they jump to unreal.

and heck, I would love to see them be a bit more unique rather than a midget version of a mob. (not counting the cow pets ofcourse, those are awesome)

as for the parrot, it actually does (kinda) have a base model. In the texture you can see bits from the chicken texture, meaning they most likely used the chicken model as a base and worked on it from there, sure it's no 1:1 comparison, and it'd have a horrible UVmap, but alteast it wouldn't be starting over from scratch.

[Kesstryl]

Can the .gr2 format be used in other 3D editors? There are tons of plugins and even just pure file converters out there. Surely it doesn't have to be limited to Maya?

[AmonGwareth]

Limited art time... focused on other things of greater importance such as t3, future plans, etc. Maya and Max models are compatible with unreal 4 no matter when they were made. They just don't have all of the bells and whistles. Not all of our assets have raw art any longer, some have been lost. Some are a horrid mess, particularly those made in max. gr2 are animation files and is a standard industry format, not a proprietary one to Virtrium.