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| Thread: Heroes 5 Modding: 3D Attempts and Theories |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · NEXT» |
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VokialBG
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posted February 05, 2008 12:26 PM |
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Edited by VokialBG at 12:47, 05 Feb 2008.
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Heroes 5 Modding: 3D Attempts and Theories
This thread is for discussing the modding of 3D Models and Geometry in Heroes 5.
What belong to this threads: Small guides and examples, not long enough for separate thread; Theoretical possibilities in H5 Modding; Work in progress; Generally discussion about the modding 3D Attempts and Theories;
Modding Thread Group:
3D Attempts and Theories|Sounds and Music|Map Scripting|Texture Editing|Texts and Interface|XDB Modding
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Daystar
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posted February 05, 2008 01:08 PM |
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It is possible to extract the 3D models with a special program made by ?CrazyPill? but no one knows how to de-extract them. The Editor suggests that it can read .ma and .mb flies (Maya) but on testing it does not seem to work. See Wulfstan's letter to Nival for more information.
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VokialBG
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posted February 05, 2008 01:27 PM |
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Thats why the name of this thread is "Attempts and Theories" 
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Gnoll_Mage
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Supreme Hero
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posted February 05, 2008 07:12 PM |
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I asked Morrock over on ArchangelCastle whether he could take a look at making a wrl2mesh program, but he has not been able to so far. At any rate, we have no ma2wrl converter, unless we can get a model from Maya to 3DS, then save as WRL from 3DS (Daystar, a q. for you maybe?) Btw, has anyone tried to contact Crazypill?
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sfidanza
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted February 05, 2008 08:24 PM |
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As far as I know (but I didn't have the time to test it myself yet), at least skeletons and anims can be extracted. But to put them back (through the editor) is bound to require the granny SDK with Maya exporters (there are references in some xml files), so it's no surprise that it doesn't work without it.
Sadly, I guess that this SDK has no free public license, so I'm not too confident that we'll allowed to use it at some point, but we never know.
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okrane
Famous Hero
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posted February 05, 2008 08:32 PM |
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All this time you're spending modifying this game could be spent programming another Heroes game, which will be made by fans and players and I would surely buy it...
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Cepheus
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posted February 05, 2008 08:39 PM |
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Modding is far, far easier than programming, let me tell you. I doubt more than 2 of us actually have any smidgen of experience with a Hex Editor, let alone a full programming language.
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mamgaeater
Legendary Hero
Shroud, Flying, Trample, Haste
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posted February 05, 2008 08:47 PM |
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there are programs which teach you how to program.
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Cepheus
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posted February 05, 2008 08:51 PM |
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If you have the time / will to learn. Personally I'm happy to stick with squeezing the creative life out of the game we already have rather than going off to make another.
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Gnoll_Mage
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Supreme Hero
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posted February 06, 2008 12:43 AM |
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Quote:
As far as I know (but I didn't have the time to test it myself yet), at least skeletons and anims can be extracted. But to put them back (through the editor) is bound to require the granny SDK with Maya exporters (there are references in some xml files), so it's no surprise that it doesn't work without it.
Sadly, I guess that this SDK has no free public license, so I'm not too confident that we'll allowed to use it at some point, but we never know.
Free Maya exporters are (in theory, not tested) available for reinserting skeletons and animations, if I remember correctly.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted February 06, 2008 12:59 AM |
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Quote:
Modding is far, far easier than programming, let me tell you. I doubt more than 2 of us actually have any smidgen of experience with a Hex Editor, let alone a full programming language.
You don't need a hex editor for programming, and the basics are not more difficult then messing with xdb files. Creating a game however is a whole different story because you first need to create an engine. There are games very moddable, so you can create your own game out of it (like unreal series) but I doubt these engines are suitable for turn based strategy.
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MMH5.5 Downloads | MMH5.5 Translations | MMH5.5 FAQ
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Cepheus
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posted February 06, 2008 05:02 PM |
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Quote:
You don't need a hex editor for programming
Yes I know, it was just an example...
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Daystar
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posted February 06, 2008 10:02 PM |
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Could someone link me to CrazyPill's account?
And does anyone know how to examine an .exe file, because if so I could send them the .exe that converts MESH to .wrl, perhaps we could make it go backwards...
And yeah, .3ds to .wrl is easy.
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Cepheus
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Far-flung Keeper
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posted February 06, 2008 10:04 PM |
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Gnoll_Mage
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Supreme Hero
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posted February 06, 2008 11:47 PM |
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*sigh* Another failed attempt to try something regarding this whole model thing. I had a look to see what functions are available inside the granny dll - about 750 of them, apparently. I then tried to run one which looked good (_GrannyConvertFileToRaw@8), just to see what happened.
Unfortunately, VB doesn't like function names with at characters in them, so I had to try an alternative method to run the function. Although it doesn't raise any errors, this method doesn't seem to work. But in any case, I have no idea what values need to be passed to the function anyway, so my attempts really were pointless. All this makes me in awe of what CrazyPill did for us.
On that note, are you going to contact / have you contacted him, Daystar?
Edit1: I found a program that can load proper granny meshes (not Nival ones) and convert them into some sort of format ( ). It looks like I might be able to edit it to make it export skeletons and animations, which would then in theory be editable... Now if those 3DS exporters that I mentioned do actually work, we would be able to change skeletons and animations!
Edit2: no, I cannot make it export animations and skeletons. 
Edit3: I looked inside the exe, there's 4556 lines of assembly code or whatever it is, most of it makes no sense (although I now realise that he didn't use an inbuilt function to make the wrl, he got the program to write it manually by looping through all the vertices stored in the file). Now the question is, did he therefore manage to work out the file structure of Nival files?
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Daystar
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posted February 07, 2008 03:21 AM |
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Edited by Daystar at 03:23, 07 Feb 2008.
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I sent out an email and an HCM.
Wait, 'ang on a minute, you can open/look into .exe files? Could you do the same for this one? It's the mesh to .wrl, perhaps you can figure out how to make it work backwards?
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Gnoll_Mage
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Supreme Hero
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posted February 08, 2008 10:22 AM |
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That was the one I was looking at. But I'm nowhere near good enough at that sort of thing to be able to work out how it is functioning. So sorry, there's nothing I can do...
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Daystar
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posted February 08, 2008 01:20 PM |
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Ah well.
I haven't heard back from CrazyPill yet, I hope he hasn't changed his email.
I'm going to talk to a...friend...and see if he knows about hacking a .exe file.
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How exactly is luck a skill?
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Gnoll_Mage
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted February 08, 2008 03:34 PM |
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I think his ICQ number might be 54394373 if someone is able/wants to contact him that way (assuming this is the same guy here o/c - he has the HoMM games and his posts look vaguely `computery`).
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Kronos1000
Promising
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Fryslân Boppe
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posted February 08, 2008 03:37 PM |
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I have a theory that might work has someone got an mb file?
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Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?
Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa? - 'The Wanderer'
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