How to bring an external model into Rome 2 Part 1: Set Up and Helmet.

[Rewinged]

Really appreciate the tutorial Warman, it has helped me a lot! I hope you find the time to upload some more tutorials at some point too, that would be greatly appreciated, though I understand it's time consuming to write these guides up. Thanks again

[Rewinged]

Sorry for the double post, got a couple questions though. After using god old BOB to compile my helmet and tunic models/textures I can assign them just fine in the variant editor, but the body armour doesn't appear to be rigged at all. Its basically a tunic with chain sleeves and I rigged the sleeves up with all the arm bones but in the variant editor the model still appears to be in the T shaped position while the hands are disconnected and lowered as they usually appear. Is that normal or should the rigging be morphing the model's arms to line up with the hands?

Also, the helmet is sitting perfectly in the variant editor but when I tried throwing together a .pack file that changes the triarii to be wearing the helmet they instead just have no helmet at all. All the textures and the rigid model are in the right folder structure in the path, I've checked that over and over, so I'm not sure what's going on. I figured if it was visible in TWeak it would be visible in the game.

I hope someone can lend me a hand. If they do I'll give them a cake or something haha

[warman222]

I'm not sure about your second question but you're right about the first one, you have to morph the model so it connects like that.

[Rewinged]

Ah so I need to change the model myself to line up correctly with the bones in the arms? I'm an idiot haha... Thanks Warman!

[Rewinged]

Just an update, I have the helmet working correctly in game now. I'm not sure what I did differently... I followed HunterWolf's video from your old thread step by step and it worked just fine. The only thing I can think of that I had changed was the render settings. By default it was on DirectX 11, but that was really buggy so I switched to direct x 9 and it all looked like it was working, but this last time when I followed HunterWolf's video I had changed it to direct x legacy, so I have no idea if it was a difference in the steps in the video or in the direct x mode haha. I still can't get the armour to rig at all though... If it's rigged correctly when I click to play the animation in 3DSMax it should move with the skeleton right? Even if I make the tiniest change to the example armour's rigging it suddenly stops responding to the animation too. Could it be my version of 3DS Max? I'm running 2014 64 bit.
If it's easier I could post some screenshots to better explain what's happening. If I can get it fixed then I'll let you know how I resolved the problems here for anyone else who may encounter the issues. Thanks!

[GuyD]

Still confused about the crest points. roman_cavalry_helmet_2.cs2 contain information about AP_crest_centre, AP_crest_right, AP_crest_left, yet it's impossible to find any of them in the .max file.

[butcherjoe]

Thx for the tutorial warman222 and especially Hunterwolf's video tutorial it helps alot, I finally got my modelled centurion crest from zbrush inside CA variant editor

[weeag]

thanks..I will try this on the spartan helmet.

[richardpbeavis]

Total beginner here but someone please help. Where do I get the example files from CA? Namely the cavalry hemlet used by Warman 222 in this tutorial. Thanks!

[Rewinged]

Total beginner here but someone please help. Where do I get the example files from CA? Namely the cavalry hemlet used by Warman 222 in this tutorial. Thanks!

They are included with the assembly kit on steam. Once the kit is installed it should be in your Rome II directory. The example models are in Steam\steamapps\common\Total War Rome II\assembly_kit\raw_data\VariantMeshes\VariantModels\man

Hope that helps!

[richardpbeavis]

They are included with the assembly kit on steam. Once the kit is installed it should be in your Rome II directory. The example models are in Steam\steamapps\common\Total War Rome II\assembly_kit\raw_data\VariantMeshes\VariantModels\man

Hope that helps!

Thanks Rewinged it did help! I've been able to create my model successfully but I am having a problem with the original model popping up when I zoom out. I assume it is a LOD issue. I edited the model file and replaced lod1-4 with my new model but this yellow crest model still loads when I zoom beyond lod1.

Anyone know how to solve this? Thanks!

[richardpbeavis]

Solved thanks to GuyD

In 3dsmax you should unhide all objects and either replace lod2,lod3,lod4 or just delete them.

[Man of West Gondor]

I was wondering how do you add Side and center crest to a custom helm? I tried doing it on the variant definition and it doesn't work. Is there something I'm suppose to add in 3ds max before exporting the helm?

[warman222]

I'll let you guys know when I figure that out, For now you could just do it the old fashion way and either have it part of the helmet model or have a new crest model placed where it would go on top of the helm. If that makes sense.

[Glowhawk]

Hi could somebody please help...... when i get to the stage of rigging the bones i don't seem to have any!? when i click the add bones button the window that opens is completely empty. Ive now tried the entire process 3 times now just in case i missed something, but i have the same problem every time! any help and guidance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks everyone

[Avetis]

Hi could somebody please help...... when i get to the stage of rigging the bones i don't seem to have any!? when i click the add bones button the window that opens is completely empty. Ive now tried the entire process 3 times now just in case i missed something, but i have the same problem every time! any help and guidance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks everyone

The bones are hidden by default. What you need is actually go to "Display" tab at right column. Find "Hide by Category" scroll and uncheck "Helpers" checkbox.

[Glowhawk]

Thanks Avetis! i did get there in the end and managed to get a helmet and a few other things in game, i now have a problem with trying to get a shield in game. BoB keeps giving me a error and no matter what i try which has been all sorts or things ive had no luck, BoB converts the textures fine but the cs2. is a no go. here is the error

Texture folder: variantmeshes/_variantmodels/man/shield/tex** Processing WARSCAPE::RS_STANDARD_WITH_DECAL_DIRTMAP_V5 **
VERTEX_LIST_CLEANER cleaning 2155 to 2155 vertices.


ERROR: Rigid mesh 'thespian_shield_lod1 Subobject 1' is missing texture 't_decal_dirtmap'.
Mesh thespian_shield_lod1 Subobject 1 missing required textures
Writing file: c:/program files (x86)/steam/steamapps/common/total war rome ii/assembly_kit/working_data/VariantMeshes/_VariantModels/man/shield/thespian_shield.rigid_model_v2
Mesh 0 Lod 0 shader decal_dirtmap 2391 indices 2155 vertices
Attempting to write XML file...
Failed.


=====================================
Duration: 47 msec(s)

what is 't_decal_dirtmap'???????? any help or info would again be highly appreciated thanks everyone

[Avetis]

Looks like you didn't apply the material to model or something similar

can you post screenshot of material editor or just share the max file

[Glowhawk]

Looks like you didn't apply the material to model or something similar

can you post screenshot of material editor or just share the max file

Thanks for your reply it got me thinking and put me on the right track and after many many more hours of playing around i have managed to convert the model with a dirtmask but this has gave me another problem. In Tweak the Shield looks fine but in game i have a pattern or texture that shouldn't be there!



this is getting frustrating been at it all day! and this is the last thing i need to complete my mod apart from a few tweaks here and there. any help yourself Avetis or anyone else can provide will without a doubt make my day thanks everyone.

[Avetis]

At the bottom of your material at material editor you can find the custom attribute field. The reason of your problem can be decals, so try to input "default" into those custom attribute field and re-export the model.