Bow-weirdness with GOM, crash with GOAT

**Moon** · February 01, 2012, 08:03 AM

Mesh file and figure\attachment textures for this modified unit would help.

**G|I|Sandy** · February 01, 2012, 08:59 AM

Attached are all 4 textures in .dds and .texture formats as well as the .mesh file. Thanks for taking your time to look at this. Here is .modeldb entry:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Note: this model is for testing, i used it to find what is wrong. It has a shield attached on top of the original model as described in the previous post. Some textures may be misplaced, but this i will edit later when model files work. It would be good if i knew where the problem is and could fix it myself in future, or even better avoid it.

I believe it has something to do with normals. If i understand correctly normals are responsible for lightning and shading. Might be the root of problem, my guess GOAT messes up added parts' normals in some way. Just a guess.

EDIT: attachments textures have different name, but the shield textures are essentially same and uv maps match. The textures are for melee militia, just in case you want to know. I did not start texturing this properly yet. Need to fix the model first.

**AnthoniusII** · February 01, 2012, 09:18 AM

Why do you still use GOAT to merge ms3d parts?

**G|I|Sandy** · February 01, 2012, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by AnthoniusII

Why do you still use GOAT to merge ms3d parts?

The end result is the same, added parts are bright (the model that is selected second in the merging menu). GOAT merge function worked. If merged with GOM, then its more trouble with skeleton merging. When i used GOAT for merging last week heads were missing, using Sims2 fix underweighted bones feature in milkshape helped. This time it all worked without any fixes. Only problem remaining is brightness.

I try using GOAT for working with archer models because it can retain extra bones and thus no trouble later with bone assignments.

UPDATE: Problem solved. GOAT works just fine. Added (bright) parts need to be selected in milkshape and the faces must be smoothed by clicking ctrl+M. Then save it and merge with external skeleton bowbone.skelemerge. Use GOAT to convert everything back to .mesh. Done! Funny thing, I have thought of it while being unable to sleep thinking about the model and possible solutions to fix it last night.

Thanks to all who participated in this.

**wicked_lester** · August 19, 2012, 06:08 PM

This might be a massive noob question but can somebody provide links to GOM and GOAT? I´m not quite sure what i´m looking for in terms of which is the best version to use.

**T&D** · August 21, 2012, 04:29 AM

[Tutorial] Be a Modder: Doctoring of Medieval 2 units.
[Tool] GOAT and GOAL: A collection of modelling and animation utilities
GOM aka Grumpy old man's converter aka mesh to ms3d converter

**wicked_lester** · August 28, 2012, 11:47 AM

I give up. I´m way to inexperienced to add bowstring animations. Would anyone consider adding the bowstring animation to some of Taro_M´s gondor units? Specifically Gondor Archers ug 2 and Ithilien rangers.

**AnthoniusII** · August 28, 2012, 11:51 AM

Try harder.
Read all posts from the start.
Read all posts that advices some teaks.

**wicked_lester** · September 01, 2012, 02:46 AM

i need some help with vertices on the bow. When i tried myself it made the bow look sort of like a w.
Plus it changed the texture of the bow to chainmail which really confused me.

**AnthoniusII** · September 01, 2012, 11:56 AM

Dowload Banzai's animation pack.
Inside the pack you can find a folder named examples.
In the bowstring subfolder you can find two models.
Open them with ms3d and check their bows vertices.
Check each vertice and assign your bows ones according to that example.
When you will see that you unit's bow work then use GOM to convert that mesh to ms3d model.
Errase everything exept the bow and the arrow.
In you future units use GOM to merge that bow/arrow to you units.
Then go to GOAT and put the new skeleton. The bow will work again.

Use GOAT to make the ms3d model with the new skeleton a mesh.

**wicked_lester** · September 08, 2012, 07:20 AM

After many hours and alot of shouting i got the vertices's for the bow working. It´s still a little jagged but i´m satisfied for the time being.
There is just one last problem with the textures. The bow has chain mail textures in the middle and the arrow is all black even though it looks like it should in ms3d.
Does the new bones affect texture assignment in-game and how do i fix it?

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=w1spol&s=6

**AnthoniusII** · September 08, 2012, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by wicked_lester

After many hours and alot of shouting i got the vertices's for the bow working. It´s still a little jagged but i´m satisfied for the time being.
There is just one last problem with the textures. The bow has chain mail textures in the middle and the arrow is all black even though it looks like it should in ms3d.
Does the new bones affect texture assignment in-game and how do i fix it?

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=w1spol&s=6

Open your ms3d model.
Press "unhide all"
Check if bow group is assigned where its suposed-material- to be "attachment" or figure. If its does not assign it to proper material.
Press "select all"
Select texture co-ordinator
Go to bow and see where the bow's uvmaps are.
Select bow's uvmap and drag it on the texture that is suposed that exists for the bow.
Select arrow's uv map (if its separated from the bow's ones) and drag it on the proper texture.
Close texture co-ordinator.
Save your ms3d model with the proper name.
Select GOAT to convert it to mesh.
Good luck.

**wicked_lester** · September 08, 2012, 09:30 AM

Finally got it working. Thank´s for pushing me to do this myself.

**AnthoniusII** · September 08, 2012, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by wicked_lester

Finally got it working. Thank´s for pushing me to do this myself.

My pleasure...
As a quote said

You are no favoring a man by donating him a fish to eat. Learn him to cutch a fish to be able to eat everyday. That is a real favor.

Now in this matter you wont have to ask anyone to help.
Ofcourse do not hesitade to ask for help.
Someone here is always in disposal to help.

**wicked_lester** · February 20, 2013, 01:13 PM

Hey it´s me again. I have started working on adding the animation to a bunch of units that are currently without. Which of course mean adding an arrow to each model i´m working on.
So my question is regarding the arrow itself. Is there a resource that is open for use by anyone? Or if i use one from say... tatw who do i ask permission from?

**G|I|Sandy** · February 20, 2013, 06:34 PM

wicked_lester

You can make your own arrow, just create the simplest cylinder (3 sides, 1 stack) and an arrow head. Place them very close to each other and hide inside right hand sleeve. Assign the back of the shaft to bone_rhand, and the arrow and the front end of the shaft to bone_bowoffset (if I remember correctly). You can test the model by merging with the animations (if you have them at hand as .cas file) to check the position of the arrow. Or... you can just open the attachment and have a look. I believe Banzai has released these as open source, but the links were down the last time I checked. So there shouldn't be any problem if you use the arrow.

EDIT: You will also need a skelemerge file to do the bone assignments. You can find a detailed tutorial in this thread and in the tutorials section of the forums. Also, TATW has Banzai's animations in the packs, so there is no need to do anything with the animation files.

**wicked_lester** · February 26, 2013, 01:44 PM

Hello again. I´m currently working with Taro_M adding bowstring animations to his units but i have run into a problem. with a few of the units i cant merge the file with the external skeleton and as far as i can work out it has something to do with the files size.
So the question is.. What is the maximum file size GOAT can handle? or... Is there a version of GOAT that can handle sizes of 5 Mb and above?