Sorry your browser is not supported!

Getting Your 3D Media, Into FPSC.

by, Tony (teamhalo)

Programs:
Fragmotion
Any 3D Modeler

Difficulty:
Novice

Hello, I really like to see new users contributing to the FPSCreator community. I come from a

time back when only a few users contributed models so it's great to see more people contributing to this community. This tutorial's purpose is to get your completed models into the FPSCreator engine and get you started at making custom media for your projects. The software we will be using to get our models into the engine is called Fragmotion ( [href]www.fragmosoft.com/fragMOTION[/href] ), keep in mind this is NOT a 3D modeling tutorial. This tutorial will not teach you how to create new content, only to get already existing content into FPSCreator. Okay, now lets get started shall we?

This tutorial is broken down into steps so please follow each step in detail and only one step at a time to achieve the most promising effect.

Step 1
Right now, you should have your 3D model file exported from your 3D modeling application along with the texture for that model file.

It is important to note that Fragmotion supports numerous file types.
*A 3d model in one of these file types is required to complete this tutorial.
Fragmotion can Import:
.x
.fbx
.3ds
.xsi
.dae
.obj
.xmdl
.dbo
.mdl
.bvh
.b3d
.md2
.md3
.smd
.ms3d
.ugh
.arg

A texture is also required. Preferably I use textures in the .DDS (DirectDrawSuface) format in the form a power of two (512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 etc..)

Step 2
Open up Fragmotion. The way I like to do things is that when I import from another modeling source, which uses a different scale than FPSCreator and Fragmotion, is I utilize what is called the Merge option. I first import a model that is already in FPSCreator, then merge another model into it, and use the FPSCreator model as a reference when scaling the merged model.

First we are going to import the FPSCreator model "AI" as a reference for our new model. In the import window, navigate to your FPSCreator entitybank directory. "C:/Program Files/The Game Creators/FPS Creator/Files/entitybank"

Click the folder labeled "scifi"
then click the folder "characters"

You should now see a list of files in the .X format. You can use any character you like, but for the purpose of this tutorial we will be using the AI.X character.

Import the Model.



Make sure these settings are checked in the top toolbar:


This is what you should now see:


Okay, the reason we imported this character was so that we could have access to the skeleton.

We will be using the skeleton to properly judge our entity's size. Now we have to prepare to import our model.

Step 3

First we need to delete the charachter's mesh.

We are going to use the "Select Vertex" tool, which is located in the right panel labeled as

"Tools"
*If you do not see "Select Vertex" as an option in the "Tools" panel, click the drop down box

and make sure you are in the "Select" category.


Now with that tool selected, we will be selected all of the vertices in the open mesh.
In the top box labeled "Left" click and drage over all of the mesh. You will see a green box appear as you select it. After you make your selection release the mouse and all of the vertices

with turn from a yellow to a dark pink color.



Now press the "Delete" key on your keyboard.

This is what you should see.


There is still more to do with this model. In the top left of Fragmotion there should be 3 Panels, "Textures","Schema"and "Animations"

Select the "Textures" panel.

You should see a texture labeled "ai_1_D2"
Click on it to select it.


Now press the "Delete" key on your keyboard.

Select the "Animations" panel.

You should see an animation labeled "Anim-1"
Click on it to select it.


Now press the "Delete" key on your keyboard.

We have just prepared Fragmotion to import our 3d model and then to get it into FPSCreator.

Step Four
In Fragmotion, click the main "File" button and select the "Merge" option.


A windows explorer window will pop up asking you to locate you 3d model file that you wish to import.
Do it.

With your 3D model file selected, press import.

Another menu with come up asking you to "Uncheck the items that should be excluded." Ignore this menu and click "OK".

This is what you should see.


With your 3d model file imported into Fragmotion, you can now edit it as you see fit. using the vertex selection method discussed earlier we can select our 3D model.

With your model selected, we are now going to scale it in proportion with the FPSCreator skeleton.

Select the "Scale" option under the "Transform" category in the "Tools" section.


Click and drag left or right on your model in any viewport to increase or decrease it's scale until you get it where you like it.

Now we are going to texture our 3d model file. Now is the time to find a place to put our entity

in FPSCreator. With a folder located inside the entitybank, paste you texture file where you intend to store the entity's files.

Step 5
In Fragmotion, with your 3d model properly scaled, it is time to put our texture on the model.

In the "Textures" panel, there should be a blank texture that appeared when you imported your 3D

Model file. Right click that blank texture and select "Open Texture"

*If there is no blank texture available upon importing your 3D model I will address that issue in a later post if there is enough concern.

Now navigate to where you pasted your texture in the entitybank folder.

Select your texture, and press "Open".


Your 3D model file should now be textured.


Now it's time to delete the skeleton and export in into FPSCreator.

We need to use the "Select Bone" tool.
In the tools panel, under the "Select" category, click on the "Select Bone" tool.


Be sure that there is now geometry selected, unselect any vertices.

Click and drag with the mouse and select all of the blue skeleton.
*Again, you should see the box follow your mouse and dissappear when you let go.



The joints on the skeleton with turn green to let you know that you have selected them.

Now press the "Delete" key on your keyboard.

Your model is ready to be exported from fragmotion and imported into FPSCreator.

Step 6
In Fragmotion, click the main "File" button and select the "Export" option.


Locate the place in the entitybank where you placed your texture file.
Once you are in the right folder, next to the "Save as type:" there should be a drop down box.
Select "Direct X Files (.x)"

Choose a file name for your model. Press "Save".

Press "OK" on the next popup box.

Close Fragmotion.

Locate the folder or place in the entity bank where you saved you model and pasted your texture.


Now copy and existing entity's ".fpe" file into the place where you saved you model and pasted your texture.



Rename the ".fpe" file your pasted into your new entity's folder. Name it what you want it to be called in the FPScreator editor. In my case, I will be naming it "Waste Barrel"


Now double click on the ".fpe" file you just renamed into the name of you entity. Choose to open the file with "Notepad".
With the ".fpe" file open, change the "desc" to the exact same name you named the ".fpe" file.

Next to the model text, replace the existing model location with that of your new model's.In this case; since the ".fpe" is located in the same folder for the purpose of this tutorial I will just be putting the model's filename.

Next to the texture text, replace the existing texture location with that of your new model's.
In this case; since the ".fpe" is located in the same folder for the purpose of this tutorial I will just be putting the texture's filename.

*For the purpose of this tutorial I will not be using shader effects so I am deleting the shader name under the "effect =" line. I recommend you do so as well if you do not have the

required shader texture maps.


Now all you need is a 64x64px or 128x128 BMP image of your entity to be used as a thumbnail. I

will be rendering one in my modeling application.
The ".BMP" thumbnail must have the exact file name as the ".fpe" If not FPSCreator will not recognize it.
*Entity thumbnail not required. Looks nice if you plan on distributing though.

Now test out your new entity.


Congratulations on getting your 3D model file into the FPSCreator engine.
Please, if you use this tutorial or like it leave a thanks. it may be a quick tutorial but it took a very long time to make.

This tutorial is free to distribute anywhere; as long as credit is given to me, Tony G (teamhalo).
I have attached all of the resources to this tutorial in the included ".zip" file, including my waste barrel entity, FPSCreator ready and free for you to use in your projects, commercial-free.

And 3 hours later I say, you're welcome and have a good day.
Tony

Ummm...I'm sorry but you could just use Wehtams Entity Workshop,much,much easier and faster.

teamhalo thank you

Nice to see someone else who prefers to do it all manual instead of one of them (in my mind) limiting do it for you app's

One little tip though when using one of the stock FPSC characters to scale your models. They are generally scaled to 80% in their .fpe's, so you may wish to scale them by that in fragmotion before using them to scale by.

Oh I remember those days.

Ummm...No thanks, that entity creator doesn't support half the file types for models and textures that fragmotion supports. That program is very limiting.

I'll stick with fragmotion much, much more freedom and control.


The characters are smaller in game I've noticed so it wouldn't really have much effect if the entity's are slightly bigger.

wow nice tutorial, thanks.

Thanks for the amazing tutorial teamhalo! Actually I already import my media with this technique.

Wish this goes into the next issue of the official fpsc community guide!

Abdul Ahad

Great tutorial but so much unneeded stuff,seriously. Simply import your model,apply texture(create material if not there) and export as .x. The bones just add useless filesize.

I make nearly all of my models and textures manually. I don't use entity workshop.

Silly charger the bones (skeleton\biped) were deleted in the final steps before exporting the flowerpot. teamhalo just used them to scale the model.

@ vortech: good man, best way (in my honest opinion)

It seems like everywhere I see a post of yours, its always negative
or downing somebody else. I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but you just seem
to do that a lot. In my opinion, that's not helping.

@ TeamHalo-

Thanks for putting all the effort you did into this TUT.
It's greatly appreciated by me at least, if it can't be everyone.

The skeleton is deleted at the end, and by the way the skeleton only adds file size when there is a hefty animation present in the file, which if you read the tutorial we delete that animation file.


Also, simply importing and exporting into .x could leave you with a incorrectly scaled model in FPSCreator as every 3d Modeler has a default scale that it is set too so even if the particular modeler that you use works that way others don't.

@ASTEK Thanks I'm going to make more tutorials in the future it's a good 2 hour project though doing them this way. I know when I started up with photoshop/3d tutorials I really preferred uses the ones that had step by step pictures.

Also, I tried to follow the guidelines set for a tutorial in the new Tutorial Compendium it'd be nice to see others follow with this format.
( http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=170978&b=21&msg=2028939#m2028939 )

great tutorial, this helped me make a robot and get into fps creator.

Great tutorial for using Fragmotion, I've had the program for three years and never really got into it but after this tutorial it has clarified just how good a tool it can be. Are there some reasonable sizes that should be used when importing a model, I used a free tank I downloaded and it was a very large size compared to the AI skeleton.

nice one mate this should help a lot of people

cheers henry