Is it posible to make a character for torque with milkshape

#1 Characters can be created in milkshape, but if you want them to use the same animations as the default characters, you will need to name your bones according to the Character Studio naming style. Otherwise, you will have to create your own animations for walking, jumping, etc.

Be warned that Milkshape only supports 2 bones per vertex if you are doing skin-style animation. This will somewhat limit the motion and realism of your character (without strange deformation bugs), but if you are just starting out, it won't be that big of a deal.

#2 I have never gotten any skeletal config in Milkshape3d to attach correctly to the default TGE animation .DSQ's; I've gotten close, very close, it attaches to the animations, but the transforms are horrendous, it's rotated 90 in perhaps two axis, and some of the entire body actions cause it to contract in towards Origin...that said; it is possible to get a fairly decent simple character going...segmented mesh would be best too. Good luck, there are a few tutorials around using Milkshape3d.

PS-in fact, just open the Help files on the Menu bar and there are a few, including some animation ones, Ms3d is a truely awesome program; does lots of things fairly well, and it's inexpensive...my opinion after purchasing GamesSpace, is that Ms3d is a little ahead. So what, no big time rendering; I'd rather have better animation...

#3 I know this is an old post, but in the event that you have not yet worked it out:

Yes you can make a character model in Milkshape (I've made a few recently since I bought
Torque - although I am no great modeller).

You will need the milkshape exporter, the most recent one - it can be found on the Torque site...somewhere.
Steps:

1.Create your model as you would normally.
2.Create your joints and attach vertices as you would normally.
3.Create a joint called "eye" and a joint called "cam" which are where the camera is positioned
in first and third person views respectively.
3b.Create a joint called "mount0" for weapons to be mounted on to.
4.Create your animations as you would normally - with the run/back/side animations or any looped
animation the first and last frames must be the same otherwise you will get jerky movement.
5.Use a single .png texture for the model.
6.Create special materials by creating a new material, renaming it in the following manner:

seq:run=1-10,cyclic - where seq indicates an animation sequence, "run" is the default move forwards
animation that Torque knows about, and 1-10 are the frames which should be the start and end frames
of your run sequence, it needs to be cyclic as well.

other sequences to create that the engine recognises are:
seq:root the basic idle animation
seq:back
seq:side (shuffling to the left - the engine mirrors this animation for shuffling to the right)
seq:jump
seq:fall
seq:standjump
seq:land

I use my own sequences for "death" animations called "die" usually and which I play using
"Setactionthread("die"); in the script when the player dies.

Okay, once you have done all this go to export in the main menu. The exporter should
show an option for "export animations" which you should tick, then press "Export DTS".

If you have any problems then email me on "gezeder" at "swiftdsl.com.au" replacing the at with @

#4 Hey, Milkshape experts,

I can export using idle, run, etc. and I can bind the proper keys in Torque to use these animations in the game. But I am having problems with weapons movements like swinging a sword or firing a crossbow, etc. Do either of you know how this is exported and, even better, how I bind the mouse buttons to use it?

Thanks,

Joe

#5 Milkshape will work for characters until you get to the point where you need multi threads for the arm up and down movements. It sucks because I like how easy it is to do things in it but you can't fully make models in milkshape without giving up a lot.

#6 At this point, I think the only major thing 'missing' from Ms3d shapes are weighted vertices and the Frame0 for reference[ie, the Scene]making rigging a bit tricky....I believe the DTSPlus! exporter has been updated to generate DSQ filetypes...and it runs with a Cfg...so you could cull and force export nodes as needed it would seem finally from the milkFarm...:)

#7 But does it support multiple threads?

#8 I'm a bit lost on what you're defing as 'multiple' threads...

I thought.....that exporter allowed you to set up the sequences vias a dialog on the main export GUI. Thus you can load a single shape with 'multiple' sequences to call using the index handle'name'[root,run,death1,etc...], or now export them as individual dsq filetypes and load at runtime via script...and cull/force nodes as needed on a per output basis.

How are you refering to 'multiple' threads, Paul, I don't understand what you mean then and it'll be nice to add this to my animation section of my notebook...;)

#9 Threads like in multiple time lines storing information seperatly for each bone. So when the run animation plays it doesn't effect animations assigned to the arms. MS is a single time line animator which effects all bones when an animation is being played, threads is just another word for it.

So you can tell me if I'm wrong about that, because it was explained to me like that when I posted a thread about this problem by an assosciate here at GG. I don't know what threads are myself but I assume they are in association with the time lines. Multiple timelines means multiple threads.

Do you need ink?

#10 The new exporter for milkshape allows you to put priority levels on animations this is supposed to make it possible for multiple threads. The problem is that I do not believe the milkshape exporter is fully functional. I have a model that will work well with most animations that I use but when it comes to sitting he will only do it about half of the time. The code works flawlessly with the orc character so I know that it is something with my model. If someone knows anything that may help please let me know.

#11 I may be wrong, but I think Ken Finney's book talks about creating multithreading animations using MS3D. He may not call it "multithreading." It's in Chapter 14, "Making a Character Model."

Ken describes how to make a move-the-head-around animation that runs separately from and simultaneous with a walk-run-strafe animation. He may also include an aim-weapon-and-shoot animation in all that.

He mentions DSQ files, but all the animations in his book are part of the DTS file. I assume that's because the DTS exporter that was available when the book went to print didn't support DSQ exporting.

#12 The book does describe multithreading a little (as you said above). I would not recommend following the books instructions though because it really does not give good detail on what to do. I have tried rigging objects like it does in the book and it either mixes animations up or crashes the game. I also noticed that when you read the forums the community has better advice on rigging vehicles and weapons aswell.

#13 Milkshape can pump out some good animation as long as you have the proper joints and time lines all down pat. Heres a link i'm sure most have seen before Animation

And here is a file that has some good movement, Shows jumping, walking, knife fighting , climbing ladders ect ect. TRIAL

#14 Thanks alot Allan For the Links those would definitely come in handy for alot of people in the community, myself included.

#15 I've actually gotten a Milkshape generated DSQ file to load into the same shape that was exported to DTS format thru GameSpace!! Can you imagine that, :0. The DTSPlus! exporter is an excellent tool in the box....


Here's how you could get that Ninja ready quick; (TOOLS)Scale All[by25%]...then...(Animate)RotateAll[Y=180.0].....rename some appropriate Joints to some Node default names...and yer ready for some quick testing. The positioning of some nodes may be wacky, but for quick process workflow outlining....;). It would be great if someone could produce a nice little Ms3d To DSQ guide, ;).......

#16 I would like that alot. I was able to make my own custom .DSQs from my own custom bone structure in Milkshape. Only thing is that it did not work as I hoped. I think I have found the problem since then I just have not had a chance to try it out. If I do infact get it working as expected I will try to come up with a very comprehensive resource on characters in milkshape.