Maya to .mdl

[o_koochy]

Hopefully this is the right place to post this!

(rebo, this is more aimed at you <3)

I'm using Maya 6.0 here.

Lets say I have a small model I wish to use in a map. How do I export it to a .mdl and have it ready to be used in Hammer as a prop?

Is there a small plugin I need for Maya?
What about bones, how do I define weights for ragdoll physics?

Thanks for any help~

[o_kam]

\SteamApps\[username]\sourcesdk\maya\ ?


http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/

[o_koochy]

I know how to model, but wouldn't have a clue about anything else to do with Maya. Maya didn't recognise any of those files in that DIR as plugin's or anything.

I think I just need to model in Maya, then export to XSI. I'll try that.

Thanks Kam babe <3

[o_lt.hinkle]

you have to copy them all to your "my documents/maya/6.0/scripts/" folder ( or wherever your scenes and such are. Then you'll have a "export SMD" option in the File-menu , ( use "export as reference" for both ref and phys smd's , and leave everything unchecked for idle, or animation smd's )

and you dont need XSI , i can very easily create smd's straight from maya...

[o_koochy]

Thanks for that Hinkle :>

Ok, I figured that much out. Now how do I make it so I can use them in Hammer? What about .QC files and where do I convert the .SMD to .MDL?

[o_lt.hinkle]

you'll need to know the basics of making .qc files, for prop models i use a tool called "HL2 compile toolkit" , but you still need to make the .qc yourself... also your maya directory structure is important ( put the scene in then "default/scenes/" folder ... and the textures in "default/materialsrc" ) or they wont export properly. ( if you use msn or something pm me for my email and i'll help you get started )

[o_monkeystevie]

Does this help?

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/mode...ng_models.html

[o_rebo]

A good way to learn about qc files is to decompile a mdl and examine the qc file.

Basically what you want to do in maya 6.0 is smooth bind your mesh to a single joint, this ensures every vert has 100% weight on that joint. Your mesh can then be exported with the SMD export MEL scripts in the SDK.

You can then compile with studiomdl.

[o_koochy]

Ok, I don't mean to sound stupid, but let's start with the basics here.

I have made a simple cube, textured it with a Lambert and is now covered in a bunch of squiggles from a .BMP made in paint.

I then made a joint and placed in the center of the box... and this is where I got lost. How do I assign vertices to joints? In milkshape, it was a matter of selecting some vertices + joint, then clicking a button! I'm not too advanced with the small bits with Maya, all I can really do is make basic stuff with polygons :(.

Now, for some more stuff.

I have saved my cube in \default\scenes\test.mb
I have saved my .BMP in \default\materialsrc\test.bmp
When I export, it goes to \default\smd\test.smd

Now, I understand I'm doing something wrong somewhere as when I import the .SMD into Maya, I get this little thing.



I guessed it was due to me not exporting the model correctly, until I tried to import some of the source .SMD's from the \sourcesdk_content\hl2\modelsrc\ directory.

Example:
\modelsrc\weapons\v_grenadeGrenade_reference.smd

And all that shows up... is a skeleton and that stupid circle thing (above). Shouldn't there be a mesh of some sort?!

What am I doing wrong? :(

Finally:
You speak of decompiling models rebo -- how does one do this? I have GFscape, so I just have to extract a .MDL then use a program somewhere?

Thanks <3

[o_lt.hinkle]

well select the bone and the mesh , and in the Animation set go "skin > bind skin > smooth bind" and click the option box , change the "max influences" to "1" , ( source supports up to 4 , but you dont need that if you have only 1 bone ). Thats it , all verts should now be assigned to the bone.

i think you'll have to use a .tga for a texture, cuz i dont think there's a progie that does .bmp to .vtf ( except for the vtf photoshop plugin maybe ... )

[o_rebo]

Yeah what Hinkie said. ^^^.

[o_rebo]

Also i think there is a bug with the default maya import scripts, ill try to up the one i use today.

[o_lt.hinkle]

here's how to fix the bug

open up this in notepad : /maya 6.0/scripts/smd/smdMakeShader.mel

find :
connectAttr -f ($place + ".mirror") ($fileTex + ".mirror");

and change it to :
//connectAttr -f ($place + ".mirror") ($fileTex + ".mirror");

[o_koochy]

Ok.

.smd meshes now show up in Maya, but not in a very clean manner. I managed to get my model into .smd and then back into Maya, but there were bones everywhere, when the original model only had 2. When I imported a valve smd, the same thing happened. It's probably just issues with the importing tools (rebo upload those ones you had! :D).

I thought I'd upload the model so that if you have a moment, can check that I'm doing this right.

lamp_test.zip 130kb

It's the .mb in that zip.

Also, with .qc files (after reading the valvesrc content page) has completely lost me. Could you please write me out a simple .qc file for this object? I tried writing one using guides from an example .qc but it didn't work, heh :(.

Anyways! Thanks _heaps_ for the help Hinkle and rebo. You're both awesome.

<3