[Guide] Making M2 models without 3Dsmax.

[Glynbeard]

Any luck with anyone so far? I keep getting a error message as I try to convert it back with the CMD.

[Heavenfall]

I've managed a few conversions, however they have all crashed wow so far. Only 2.0+ models.

[joeyshinobi88]

i've been able to successsfully edit the bloodelffemale mesh using the m2to3ds 2 script posted earlier today, saved it as a .3ds, converted it to a .m2 and placed it into a patch-x.mpq and had it load in WoW on a live server without the game crashing.

however, the mesh doesnt appear on screen at all and appears to be very very small.

i appear to be under a bed or desk or something now, i'm not sure where i left this toon earlier but it's in an inn somewhere.

I also can't move or zoom the camera in or out, though i think that's because i didn't click "import animations" as an option when importing the mesh into 3d studio.

i've got a couple of ideas on possible fixes that i'm going to go ahead and try while i'm at work today (next 4 and a half hours)

i'll keep you updated if i figure anything out.

-Joe

[joeyshinobi88]

test 1:

I imported the bloodelffemale.m2 into 3ds *with* animations this time, made no edits to the mesh and immediately exported it as a .3ds, then converted it back into a .m2 and put it into patch-x.mpq and put it into the data folder.

no change. at this point its leading me to believe that the importer script is broken but i have a few more ideas that i'll try.

[joeyshinobi88]

test 2: I take the same .m2 from test one and instead of putting it into patch-x.mpq i replace the bloodelffemale.m2 in common.m2 using ladik's mpq editor.

the blood elf female meshes are visible now, but results are inconclusive as it's an unedited copy of the .m2 thats just been converted to .3ds and back. next step is to make an edit and follow same steps to see if it actually worked.

possible problems: the .m2 injection into the .mpq might not have worked how it said it did. common.mpq has a history of lieing to me when i'm trying to edit it.

[joeyshinobi88]

test 3:

i make a simple edit (selected the tip of the boobs and dragged them out lawl) and saved it, then inseted it into common.mpq.

when i open common.mpq in mywarcraftstudio it shows the edit (see picture) however, the edit doesnt show up in game. atleast i know that my mpq editor isn't lieing to me.



next step is to try replacing every instance of the bloodelffemale.m2 in every .mpq in the data folder to see if it makes it show up in game. stay tuned.

[joeyshinobi88]

test 3: replaced the bloodelffemale.m2 in common.mpq and patch.mpq

result: back to where i started



wtf.

i've also noticed that when the .m2 is selected in mywarcraftstudio it doesnt have any animations or skins selectable.



however, i've also found that none of the other .m2 files are working quite right in mywarcraftstudio (see picture of the gnome male m2 below as an example)




anybody know what's wrong?

-joe

[joeyshinobi88]

note to the mods: should i move my posts to a new thread in the requests board? im not sure if my trial and error belongs here or not.

[Fault]

check my new post guys

[Adrenalin3]

Your model has no textures Joe.

[Muatmessmoko]

Posting 5 times in a row is bad :P

[joeyshinobi88]

Your model has no textures Joe.

=o ohnos. that mean i'm going to have to learn dbc editing? =(

btw muster, you've gotten this to work? have you tried working with character/creature meshes?

[Adrenalin3]

=o ohnos. that mean i'm going to have to learn dbc editing? =(

btw muster, you've gotten this to work? have you tried working with character/creature meshes?

Yes ive gotten it to work many times.Check my edit in the main post.

[Simey]

Okay, now I'm the one who has to ask the stupid question :/
"How do you add blp textures to your model?"
In 3D Studio Max I can't add a blp file as texture. Should I convert it into png or something, then add texture in max, convert back to blp and convert to m2 with the blp file? :/

[JimbobGo]

Its possible on Live. You need to update 3dstom2 though. The 3ds format sucks big, floppy, sweaty donkey dicks so goodluck getting anything animated in game. Whats needed is something like a FBX-M2 or even MS3D-M2 conversion. The WOW import scripts (one of them floating around at least) is capable of importing animations et all to 3DS Max9, then you can export it to MS3D format and maintain animations, bones, materials uv(easy to fix anyway). A script that seperates the geosets to different elements instead of cramming it all into one big seizure inducing mesh wouldn't hurt. When you create the m2 from 3ds you'll have to open the model up in M2Modder and fix the texture flags depending on what type of model it is and how its going to use the skins. (Creature, Character, Item ect) Example: Items use Cape 2 for their main skin and some have Hardcoded additional ones, but due to limitations on M2MOdder being able to insert absurdly long path names into the file for a hardcoded texture is out unless someone wants to rewrite it. The WOW engine does not handle very high end models well at all. M2Modder will (rarely, maybe 5% of the time) crash part way thru conversion due to submeshes for some reason. If you just insert another folder path to get around the long path name insertion problem with m2modder (upping the limit from 15 to 35 for example) it will crash everything. You can inject particles, extract ect as well still but yet again you have to fix the programs and its more than a bit buggy, the client usually will refuse to load those models even if WMV does.