Resources

Hey guys, I'm new here so be nice

I've been working with the Custom Models tutorial for a few days now. I'm making all the infected have clown skins in my new campaign lol. One little problem: I can't get the models to compile with the new skins. Here's what I'm doing:

1. Download the decompiled models (thanks Samm!)
2. Create 2 new directories in the "addons" folder
---a. stressrelief\models\boomer
---b. stressrelief\materials\models\infected\boomer
3. Put the decompiled boomer files in the "models\infected\boomer" folder
4. Put my new boomer skins in the "materials\models\infected\boomer" fold
5. Open up the mdldecompiler.qc with notepad++
6. Set $cd "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead\left4dead\addons\stressrelief\models\boomer"
7. Set $cdmaterials $cdmaterials "models\infected\boomer"
8. Compile... Completed!
9. Hmm, that was too easy!
10. Load up the newly created boomer.mdl in HLMV... no skin!?

I knew it was too good to be true. I'm obviously leaving out a crucial step. If someone could shed some light on skinning models, that would be great =)

I tried this so many different way and just can't seem to get it to work, so I would really appreciate any insight.

Thanks,
Jimmy C

Well, I don't know if this question is stupid or not, but I don't have a "StudioMDL.exe" for compiling. How would I go about getting it?

Edit: Nevermind I got it. HOoray for me!

Edit 2: Ah, Christ. Can't get it to work whatsoever.

Trying with weapons though, using a premade shotgun model. Model doesn't do anything and I managed to break the skin on the shotgun.

Go me!

Shilo wrote:Weapons are a bit different than player models lol.
If I recall correctly, their QC files are more akin to prop models, and you have to assign the texture name in the modeling program rather than pointing to it in the qc like for a player model.

Ah, God. >.<

edit: I managed to at least get the game to not use the default models.

Trying to use a custom assault rifle and I now have the giant red ERROR as the world view.

Pretty hilarious. It's still default when playing in firstperson though.

Shilo wrote:Sounds like it can't find the model maybe. Try checking the console to see what the error is. If it can't find the model, it should state the path and name of what it's looking for.

Console doesn't say anything. I've now managed to get the default out of the hand models.

So now in first person they're just holding nothing, still a big red ERROR in the world model.

I'll get it eventually.

Also, would I just repeat the same process for custom hand models?

Shilo wrote:Have you tried viewing the model with model viewer? Does it show up or is that an Error too? If it shows up, then it's something wrong with your paths, if it doesn't, then the model didn't work properly when compiling.

First person is really annoying to do =P, and it doesn't work properly online as far as I know. There is a tutorial here about how to do weapons.
http://www.fpsbanana.com/tuts/7436

And ya, I assume it would be the same for custom hands. Just decompile one of the original hands, and follow how the QC is.

Well. I tried it again and console actually helped me out: "MDLCache: Failed load of .VVD data for v_models\v_rifla.mdl"

Don't have a clue why it's failing to load. It's there with everything else. I'm not having any issues in model viewer, it opens up and looks good.

It also works when editing weapon_rifle.txt and playing in a single-player.

And thanks for the link, I'll check it out

Totally edited, woot:

as I continue to work, I fix and solve problems. Went back to the default world as I just couldn't get the custom (and I don't care anyways, it's the view I want) to work. I got the viewmodel to work, and had a hand issue which I solved thanks to your link.

Now, I have a new issue I don't know how to fix.

Pictures are worth 1000 words. Happens when I reload. Then, if I jump on and off a ladder, it goes back to proper reloading.

What the hell?

fatdogm wrote:mines nowhere near ready for release but heres a pic to show some progress, going with the title left in pajamas

Nice! xD

She should have a pair of these on her feet, though:

Shilo wrote:Ah yes.. the lovely.. problem. You can play online like this, but the only way to fix it as far as I know, will stop you from being able to play on most servers.

If you go back to the tutorial I linked before, http://www.fpsbanana.com/tuts/7436
there is a section "4. Compiling and problem solving". This is how to fix that arm thingy.. Believe me, I know how annoying it is

Ah, damnit. I keep getting so close but yet so far >.<

I really appreciate all your help though, Just realized I forgot to mention that

okay, i have two .mdl files and im not sure if i have a problem, other than the fact that it doesnt work. In the models/survivors directory there is a file that i cannot see in the file browser and can only see in the model viewer. It is the mdl for the survivor_namvet where i had to change the name but keep the same number of letters. In model viewer it returns an error and wont show up. However, survivor_namvet.mdl shows up in model viewer with the custom model showing. When i run L4D Bill is invisible.


EDIT: I finally figured something out but now i have another problem on my hands. My model flattened in the model viewer and in game. When i compile it i get this message but repeated a lot more times

WARNING: Model has 2-dimensional geometry (less than 0.500 inches thick on any axis)!!!

any ideas on how to unflatten my model? or what model it is referring to?
also how to i go about creating the phymodel? could i just take bills and use it when comppiling?

thanks for the great tut btw

im using Blender and i think that's the problem. It gives me options to export as a Static, Physics, or Animated mesh. I have tried Static and Physics both and neither have seemed to work. Are there any options it shows when attaching the armature, like how to deform it? I think blenders defaults might be screwing it up. and it isnt my model because i have tried using the bill model and it does the exact same thing.

ill just keep working at it and see what i can come up with...

okay, maybe ill do that and wait and see if any new blender exporters come out any time soon that fix the problem. thanks for your help

Ok. I'm almost fully finished with this stuff! (Yay)

I got the world models to work and such, but I simply need to rotate the world model 90 degrees, as instead of lieing on it's side, it's pointing straight up.

According to the link you gave me a while ago, I need to rotate the Physics Model 90 degrees, I just have no idea how.

Edit: Also, thanks to you and your Repoman, you encouraged me to rent the movie.

Have yet to watch it though xD

Shilo wrote:Woohoo, I'm passively spreading the movie! lol
Hope you enjoy it though it's probably not for everyone lol.

As for the physics model, just rotate your model, export it as a reference smd to the name phymodel.smd and compile using that.

/facepalm. Why isn't that the first thing I tried to do? I was editing the file trying to see if I could add some command like $rotate xD

Anyways, now that I've done that they're fine on the ground, but stick straight down when on weapon tables. What now? D:

Edit: Nevermind, rotated the actual model instead of the phymodel, and that did the trick.

Edit 2: Nevermind again. Now the shotguns are sticking out of the player's stomach instead of being on their hands. Yay.

Shilo wrote:Ah yess... it took me MUCH tinkering to get my new medkit model up there to face the right way.. and on top of that.. it gets some problems too lol. I ended up rotating the model over and over in max, exporting and recompiling to get it working

The things we do for custom things.

Also, after getting this to work for the most part, I re-wrote the instructions for custom weapon models. I credited you 99%, as you are the genius that figured the idea out.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... st10761953

Shilo wrote:Indeed!
I love how you put that credit part lol, that made my day lol.

I'm glad

Anyways, I have this mostly figured out, so you shouldn't see me around this thread for a little while. Again, thanks for all your help

Well, I'm back!

Since there aren't that many models out there, I tried making one. So my friend modelled me up a Jack Daniel's bottle for a molotov, and I tried compiling. It's untextured, so it's still pink and black, but the model itself looks like this:
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc24 ... nt0001.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc24 ... 0000-1.jpg

Any idea why? Something I did compiling or something he did modelling?

Get the error message:


v_models\v_molotov.mdl/v_models/anim_v_molotov.mdl : missmatched parent bones on "ValveBiped.weapon_bone"

v_models\v_molotov.mdl/v_models/anim_v_molotov.mdl : missmatched parent bones on "ValveBiped.jiggle_rag_dn1"

v_models\v_molotov.mdl/v_models/anim_v_molotov.mdl : missmatched parent bones on "ValveBiped.jiggle_rag_dn2"

(I personally think he didn't connect the new model properly or whatever, but I'm not a modeller so I'm not certain. Hence why I'm here )

Edit: Problem #2, get this when trying to compile:

ERROR: unknown model option $poseparameter

After removing those lines from the qc, I got:

ERROR: Unknown model option $cdmaterials

/facepalm

Shilo wrote:Well for one, the links for the 2 pics got messed up there lol, apparently you need to use the url tags for urls.. I found that out a while ago the same way lol.

The "missmatched parent bones" error sounds to me like maybe a bone got deleted. Like it's looking for the skeleton and not finding the right/complete one.


"$poseparameter" huh... odd. Well I know the medkit doesn't have that in the QC.

Try getting the missmatched parent bone error fixed first. It might be the other one is related to that. Hmm..

Oh, silly me.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc24/Lithium717/l4d_hospital01_apartment0000-1.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc24/Lithium717/l4d_hospital01_apartment0001.jpg

I don't think they're related, as one is a playermodel for Louis and the other is a molotov.