Out of hibernation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Timu Sumisu
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You guys'll be getting a battle model, chibi-ized field model, and maybe some extra goodies.
 
Blender and photoshop. If blender can animate for ff7, someone let me know... it would be glorious.

also, have an update:
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Are you view it in blender or FF7? IE making parts in blender then stuffing it into FF7?
Depending on the process you are using you should be able to animate it in blender (why wouldn't you in other words).

Cyb
 
I /could/ animate it in blender, but how would i get these animations into the game?
 
The models are made as .3ds and when completed are exported piece by piece (upper chest, head, etc) and are converted using pcreator. There hasn't been a process and conversion tool for the animations yet. That would be pretty awesome though. Otherwise Kimera works to edit the games animations for now.
 
Hello everyone.

Yes, Kimera can edit animations, but it's a real pain. The option is there more as a proof of concept than an actual end-user feature. I've got plans to make it more reasonable, but it's going to take a while to implement.

I'm actually surprised nobody came up with a script to, at least, import the animations into Blender (or any other modeling suite). It would be pretty easy. It would be rather tedious too, though.

By the way, nice job Timu Sumisu. Good luck with it.
 
Could you magic some blender export plugin Borde? Pretty pleeaaaase!!
 
I'm sorry Timu Sumisu but right now I'm working on something else. Also, as I said, it's not exactly the most exciting task to tackle. I promise I'll give it a shoot some day (if nobody does it first), but don't hold your breath.

By the way, I'm curious, what do you want to do exactly? Is it the cape physics simulation?
 
I /could/ animate it in blender, but how would i get these animations into the game?
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The animation format is a bit complex if I remember correctly (delta compression).  Lots of bit packing et all.

The skeleton / HRC data is known.

My guess is convert blender information to rotation information based on the bone data then convert from the rotations to deltas then compress the delta data. If I remember correctly the start rotation and position information is in the first few bits of data. Also some animations are things like moving an arm or one step. (The battle code repeats these animations which include rotation and translation information for the delta informatino).

I'm a bit fuzzy at that point (heh) as I am unfamiliar with blenders python scripting and python API. The internal data formats might be at issue as well.

I believe the dx/dy/dz data is on the whole model whereas the delta data on the angles is per bone (using bone length for the offset). I can't remember much more (lame I know).

Cyb
 
Both field and battle animation formats are pretty much fully decoded already Cyberman. Kimera sourcecode includes functions to decode and encode both formats.

It's true battle animations representation could pose a problem for a scripting languange since they involve working with a bit stream, but one could work with an intermediate format (such as COLLADA) and do all the conversions on a separate program written in C++. Many modeling suites also include an interface for writting plug-ins directly in C++, though they are usually pretty nightmarish (I shudder to think of the time I had to write a plug-in for XSI).
 
While cape physics would be cool, My want for an animation export would be to simply have an artist friendly way of making animations for the game. make a set of actions in blender, name them according to what ff7 wants, and hit export -> boom you have new animations :P If only it were so easy.

Also if ff7 could be tricked into using some kind of mesh deformation it would be kool!
 
If someone were to create said tool, does that mean we'd no longer need to break up the models into pieces? Not certain on how the game even loads the models though.. lol Sorry for my ignorance.
 
Nop, I don't think there is any way of making FF7 render skinned models. Maybe Aali could somehow do it with his custom driver. But really, I think QGears would the most viable option for getting rid of that restriction (and many others).
 
I think it'd be easier to make a new game with current era tools :P
 
Was Q-Gears stopped by Square? Like when they tried to port Metroid Prime to Cryengine 2 and got shut down?
 
I think it'd be easier to make a new game with current era tools :P
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Pretty much. Though that's what QGears is, to some degree.

Was Q-Gears stopped by Square? Like when they tried to port Metroid Prime to Cryengine 2 and got shut down?
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I don't think QGears project was ever officially stopped. The last version was released more than a year ago, though. Since there are still several aspects of FF7 that noone seems to have figured out yet, the project isn't going to be completed anytime soon (if ever).
 
Making FF7 render weighted meshes isn't very difficult at all actually, the problem is inventing a new model format to support it and writing the loaders/exporters/etc for it. This is something I've wanted to do since like version .6 of the driver but I don't think I will ever have the time to actually do it.
 
Making FF7 render weighted meshes isn't very difficult at all actually, the problem is inventing a new model format to support it and writing the loaders/exporters/etc for it. This is something I've wanted to do since like version .6 of the driver but I don't think I will ever have the time to actually do it.
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I even fear it would be useless work, because we have to less model artists around here, who can redo all models to make it workable. And when it's done, SE has surely released a remake for PS4/5.
 
Making FF7 render weighted meshes isn't very difficult at all actually, the problem is inventing a new model format to support it and writing the loaders/exporters/etc for it. This is something I've wanted to do since like version .6 of the driver but I don't think I will ever have the time to actually do it.
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You never cease to amaze me Aali. But yes, you're right, writting the associated tools would be a chore. If you ever decide to go on with that, I'd suggest using an existing format (such as Cal3D) and expand it with any additional data needed.
 
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