[Update with amateurish video Tutorial]
Perhaps people who are more familiar with 3ds Max and such will be able to take what I've put here and do some better stuff with it, but here's my tutorial for what I do to put models into the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh2Pd5Gti0g
Since I am a beginner with this, any tips would be appreciated!
[Original post]
The question I have will be at the end, and deals with a texture problem I have noticed.
First up, I want to thank Wangrin for his unending patience back when I was starting this a few years ago. Wangrin and the other guys who have helped me throughout the years, like Uanime5, .Mitch., and Bullgod, amongst others, are geniuses!
History:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Now, this made me want to continue with my original intention of putting models into Shogun 2. So, I took the past 24 hours to crash-course myself through what I learned way back when from Wangrin and the others who worked with him on various threads. In addition, I used Warman222’s Rome 2 importing tutorial, amending it for Shogun 2's system (and for using 3DS Max 2010 instead of 2013, though 2013 was needed to get the raw-data art files first) and in a few hours, I was able to get Hope Estheim’s head into Shogun 2! It isn’t scaled quite correctly, so I’ll fiddle around with it a bit more ‘til it is just right. You might notice that he is missing his hair and eyes. There is a reason for this, which I’ll discuss in a bit.Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
There is only one instance of the mod, yet there are three options in TWeak. Could it have to do with the Lods? Also, the shiny-ness of his face I'll fix. It's just the strength of the options I set. [EDIT] Actually, there is a 4th Hope head model in TWeak. It's at the very top, defying the alphabetical order. I didn't notice before. So, yeah, I'm assuming this issue has to do with the Lods.[End of Edit]
The head looks pretty good with certain helmets, like Kato Kiyomasa’s.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Now, onto my problem and subsequent question.
The reason Hope doesn’t have his hair or eyes is because they use different texture files than his skin. Shogun 2’s files work under the format of a single diffuse, level, gloss, and normal per model. That means I cant, as far as I know, put both Hope’s head and eyes, let’s say, as a single modded part:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
My solution is to instead have his head, eyes, and potentially hair be separate parts. Like, his eyes could be in the “campaign” or “hat” path, and, of course, his hair would be in the “helmets” path.
For Hope, this isn’t a problem, though it does present one more question that the Romance of the Three Kingdom’s mod presented (with the Xaihou Dun model):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Does anyone know if Shogun 2’s engine allows for transparency?
I suppose my real question is this: is there a way to connect texture files? It doesn’t seem likely, but it is worth an ask. Some models, like Dynasty Warriors models, have the entire model work with one texture file, which I’ll show in a second. That means I can include their head, eyes, hair, eyelashes, and whatever else I want all at once, since they use the same texture file. That’s great.
But, I have encountered models that are on the opposite extreme. They have a plethora of texture files or every little thing.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
So, yeah. Those are my observations and questions. I have a lot of faces, and some clothing I want to add to the game. This is really fun so far. The song "I'm Singing in the Rain" comes to mind with this, symbolically.
=======Edit 1=========
So, perhaps having the eyes as separate models can be good. I just realized I could give them different colours. But, you know what is weird? The eye mods dont have multiple entries in TWeak like the head does. I dont get it.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
=======EDIT 2=======
Okay, so I've figured out how to combine textures. I used this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KyKl7_K_tg
I had to change some things, since following the tutorial exactly doesn't do what I want it to.
The main differences is that, when you do the "Render to texture" thing, you need to set it as a "diffuse" map not a "complete" map. A complete map has shading and lighting on it, which is not what we want. Also, the whole bit with flattening the map is not necessary for this, since there is a lot of open space on the texture for the skin to place the texture for the eye. So, that's nicer.
It's not perfect, yet, but I can finally have heads with eyes connected for models where the eyes are different base textures from the head.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
This means that my only remaining question, as far as I can see, is whether or not I can force Shogun 2's engine to have transparency texture maps. As default, it doesn't. There are only 4 texture files per model: diffuse, gloss, level, and normal. Nothing for transparency. But, I wonder if it is possible to force Shogun 2 to read a 5th one, one for transparency, if that is how transparency works (that's how it works in 3ds Max, at least - it's a texture path), but I'm new to this, so...
Whelp, so far, so good!
Yo, if anyone wants a particular model's head or mask or something put in, let me know and I'll give it a go, haha. I only link the head and neck bones, so no moving mouths or eyebrows unless I get more free time to fiddle around with it. Also, I haven't yet added anything else except around the head area, so adding stuff connecting to other bones might take a bit of trial and error work to be done.
=Update=
Wow, when you get the gloss map just right, the results can be glorious!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: