[FF7PC] Battle model > Field model Conversion FINALLY!! (2006-04-30)

[ChaosControl]

OMFG!

I registerd (after many visites) when I saw this topic O_O
man... your a genius, if you dont comtineau this i wil personally come to your house and eat your comp xD

Thanks, your work makes many FF fans happy

[Niai]

Oooh... fantastic. The battle models actually fit in a lot better than I had originally thought. Keep up the good work, Reunion!

[Borde]

Woooo!!! this is looking good!
About what Goku7 said, I think he is right. I've been thinking about several characters that could be redone using parts of other battle models. But doing things like changing the colors and resizing the models manually would be boring. That's why i'm working on a little proram to do some of this stuff easier.
However, I think converting all those models would be a very heavy job for Reunion alone. If there was some more people working on this, It wouldn't be senseless to think on a full set of models replacement. Or that's what I think, at least.

[Marc]

Amazing progess still.  You obviously put a lot of time of time and effort into this.  Really great job.

[Borde]

Oh, I've been thinking how would look like a hi-res SD model. And ...


I think this could be a solution for the clipping poblems produced by the difference between the size of the original and the hi-res models.
Actually, this model is still a bit taller than the original SD one (it's about 1.5 times smaller than the hi-res model) and thus it doesn't fit perfectly on the background (but has a few less clipping problems).

[Goku7]

About what Goku7 said, I think he is right. I've been thinking about several characters that could be redone using parts of other battle models. But doing things like changing the colors and resizing the models manually would be boring. That's why i'm working on a little proram to do some of this stuff easier.

Thanks for the support.  And if this little program you're working on is going to be capable of resizing the models, have you considered you might be able to use it to automate the process of converting models from battle > field, to help Reunion?

However, I think converting all those models would be a very heavy job for Reunion alone. If there was some more people working on this, It wouldn't be senseless to think on a full set of models replacement. Or that's what I think, at least.

I would try to help him with the conversions, but I'm afraid that I have no skill in the way of drawing or modeling at all.  What I CAN do, though, is provide a delivery system for any upcoming releases that doesn't require LGPTools -- providing that DagSverre doesn't have any objections to getting his program involved in this project....

What program, you ask?  Dag's Patchmaker program.  Since it runs on a difference engine, we can simply let it analyze the differences between the original Char.lgp and the modified char.LGP, and create an executable patch that will modify the original LGP to make it contain the new data of the modified LGP.  Since we can't use an FFpatch to do this (because Reunion's modfication adds completely new files to the LGP archive, and FFpatch doesn't record such changes), and since not everyone seems to have success with Centra patching, using Dag's Patchmaker might be the only solution at this time.

Oh, I've been thinking how would look like a hi-res SD model. And ...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/usebio/SD_CLOUD.jpg


I think this could be a solution for the clipping poblems produced by the difference between the size of the original and the hi-res models.
Actually, this model is still a bit taller than the original SD one (it's about 1.5 times smaller than the hi-res model) and thus it doesn't fit perfectly on the background (but has a few less clipping problems).

I know that Cloud has had ego issues in the past, but......this is the first time he's shown physical symptoms of Big Head Syndrome!

All joking aside, I think I agree with EmperorSteele said (on page 3) in that it would be counterproductive for Reunion to consider the SD-model approach as the only solution, since he's already spent so much time working out the bugs with the non-SD approach.

That being said, I think the reason why Borde's SD-model doesn't have as many clipping problems as the non-SD model, is simply because the SD model's legs are smaller, and happen to match up with the original model's leg length, so that alignment with the background had been preserved.

[Borde]

Sorry Goku7, but I think I can't do a battle->field conversion program. Mainly because I don't know how to generate the normals automatically (well, neither manually in fact). Besides, acording to what Reunion said, there is also some rearragement work to do on the files (If I din't missundestood him) and I don't know how to do this either.

[b-chan009]

If it's not too much to ask, is it also possible to use the standard cloud battle model instead?  The high-res model looks nice, but seems out of place when compared to the standard battle models of everyone else.  Just wondering!  

[Goku7]

I just thought of something.  Reunion, is it within your capability to have Cloud's hands be rotated 90 degrees during the crawling or ladder-climbing animations?

Sorry Goku7, but I think I can't do a battle->field conversion program. Mainly because I don't know how to generate the normals automatically (well, neither manually in fact). Besides, acording to what Reunion said, there is also some rearragement work to do on the files (If I din't missundestood him) and I don't know how to do this either.

Darn. Well, one always hopes....

[Reunion]

Well yes I could as long as those crawling or ladder-climbing animations are not used by others..

I don't really feel like doing that right now though.. whats stoping you from doing them?

[Goku7]

Zero knowledge of how the files manage to store 3D animation data as mere text, and the tiny little fact that I can't draw or model worth jack -- that's what.

[DarkGunnerGlock]

Hey, Reunion, this stuff is the most awesome thing that I've ever seen. I downloaded the stuff and got all of the files together, but the only things that actually worked were Cloud and the Shinra soldiers. Have you posted the other characters yet, or have I just missed them in the board? Thanks a ton man, keep up the amazing work!

[Goku7]

The stuff Reunion released only contains lighting-corrected models for Cloud and the Shinra soldiers, as far as I know.  We'll have to wait for him to release the rest when he gets around to it.

[rmco2003]

this is an excellent project, I think this will be very worthwhile.  I can't wait for the next release!

[xspudx]

can someone give me a more detailed way to use this? i really dont have a clue what i am doing, how do i work this thing, lgp tools, i dont understand, can somebody give me a really helpful walkthrough for a beginner?

[rmco2003]

Open the char lgp with lgp tools, then use the extract all function and put the files into a new folder. Download the cloud models, and copy the files from each folder and paste them into the folder you extracted the lgp tool to. After you've done this for all of the folders, then use the create lgp function, and select the folder with the extracted files in and replace this new lgp with the old one.

It's a bit vague since it's from memory but that should be accurate since I only did it yesterday.

[xspudx]

many thanks, how far will this patch actually go? because are the battle models that dont exist eg: townspeople, will they just look stupid to the battle models? how long will this take to be complete?

[rmco2003]

well after all of the battle models have been transferred to the field models, then the only way of getting the other field models looking like the battle ones would be to make new models which are apparently near impossible to put back into ff7 without bugs/etc.

[Borde]

I think it could be partially possible. Lots of the NPC could be redone by using parts of the battle models, changing their colors and sizes (which, in my opinion, it's not that hard). This kind of changes can be performed without messing the p files (sinces no information needs to be added, just replaced). But the problem is that there are LOTS of NPCs and very few people interested in rebuilding them.

[Niai]

Is high res battle model Cloud supposed to appear on the world map as well? It doesen't for me, and I'm not sure if that simply hasn't been included yet or I have done something wrong.

[Goku7]

The data for the world map characters is in a different LGP file, if I remember correctly.

But the problem is that there are LOTS of NPCs and very few people interested in rebuilding them.

Well, you COULD just resize the existing polys....

[Niai]

The data for the world map characters is in a different LGP file, if I remember correctly.

Do you know which one exactly? I randomly tried the flevel file but to no avail.

And while I'm posting I may as well ask: Reunion, do you plan on replacing the non party member field models that have battle models too? E.g. Elena, Hojo, Palmer, Rufus...

[xspudx]

well he has done models for the soldiers so i presume he'll do model's for hojo and them

[EmperorSteele]

It wouldn't be too hard to make models for other characters by using existing polys.  I think playing around with polensalta's model (and maybe giving her a piece of vincent's cape or something) could give us Scarlet, and maybe combine Palmer and Barret to make a Heidegger model.  Obviosuly the colors ahve to be changed, but mweh.

[Goku7]

Do you know which one exactly? I randomly tried the flevel file but to no avail.

If I remember right, I think it was in the WM folder, the file in question being "wm.lgp".  I seem to recall the World Map part of the Field Model Hand Patch being applied wm.lgp, so logically....

well he has done models for the soldiers so i presume he'll do model's for hojo and them

Speaking of Hojo, I think he presents possibly the perfect first test of using an existing battle > field conversion as a templete to edit -- his battle model has green skin, so we'd need to change the vertex color values to a skin tone after the conversion to the field format.

Once we can successfuly do that, it shouldn't be too hard to make a similar model for Professor Gast from the new Hojo -- and a Heidegger model could be spawned by a vertex color edit and decapitation of Palmer's model followed by a surgical attachment of the "stock" Heidegger's head.

I don't recall what "polensalta" looks like, but if that doesn't work out for Scarlet, perhaps Elena's model will work with some hair transplants from "stock" Scarlet.....

The list of ideas goes on..... :wicked: