Anyone intrested in Neverwinter Nights model converter?

Borundin · Post by **Borundin** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:53 pm

Hi all!

Just checking if anyone would be intrested in a little LUA script I have been coding over the last couple of days. It can convert (most) ASCII MDL files to OGRE mesh, skeleton and material files. It doesnt support all of the MDL features but the most important ones are covered.

I have found it useful for "prototyping" my fantasy rpg project. I dont have the skill nor the time to create decent models, textures and animations. This tool let me try out concepts as well as benchmark scenes etc.

You can get alot of beautiful tiles and models from this site. "Tir Na Og" (Trees and foliage) and "Dwarven Halls" (Tileset) are quality hakpaks that I have used personally.

From a legal point I believe that alot of the community models are still derivatives of Bioware game assets and therefor probably not useful for distribution. Though some of the hakpaks have pure orginal content as far as I can see. They could probably be used in non commercial projects at least(?).

makeshiftwings · Post by **makeshiftwings** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:59 pm

Ooh, I would be very interested. Does it separate the creature animations into seaparate animations? Like walk, run, attack, etc. And are you using the NWN tiles to build a level? What are you using to assemble them together?

Edited to add: Oh, as far as using the tilesets, I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure it works like this: anything that was created with the Bioware tools or using any of their content is off-limits. For anything that is completely original, unless it contains some sort of copyright notice placing it in the public domain, you're still not allowed to use it in anything other than its original intended use (in an NWN mod) without writing to the author and getting his permission.

Borundin · Post by **Borundin** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:04 pm

Yes it separates animations into the normal Ogre format just like you describe. They are commonly called cwalk, crun cslashr etc. All gets saved into the skeleton file upon conversion.

I dont have any tool yet to assemble the tiles together

But that would probably be my next project.

CombatWombat · Post by **CombatWombat** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:28 pm

That'd be great if you'd be willing to share the script. I could certainly do with some placeholder art to stop me from focussing too much on doing my own models

I imagine a nice place in the ogreaddons module might be made for such a useful little beast

Kentamanos · Post by **Kentamanos** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:35 pm

I can't remember whose project it was, but I saw someone who was clearly using NWN assets for testing/demoing etc. It was an OGRE project, so perhaps it's someone who you could collaborate with.

I'll try to find the project again...

Post by **sinbad** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:05 am

You would indeed earn yourself a place in the hallowed halls of the ogreaddons with such a project

Kentamanos · Post by **Kentamanos** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:15 am

Kentamanos wrote:I can't remember whose project it was, but I saw someone who was clearly using NWN assets for testing/demoing etc. It was an OGRE project, so perhaps it's someone who you could collaborate with.

I'll try to find the project again...

Scratch that, it was something called "Alpha Foundation" that is using the IrrLicht engine. Check out the 4th screenshot on their front page:
Alpha Foundation

That's definitely NWN artwork. It mentions this at the bottom of the page actually.

Borundin · Post by **Borundin** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 12:34 pm

sinbad wrote:You would indeed earn yourself a place in the hallowed halls of the ogreaddons with such a project

That would be an honour! ... but the thoughts of having to learn CVS, brrr

(We only use SourceSafe at work...). Still always good to learn something new I guess

Hope I can release something later tonight or perhaps on friday.

Post by **sinbad** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:43 pm

(We only use SourceSafe at work...).

Aaaiieeeee! <throws holy water and waves symbols of any religeous denomination available>

Kentamanos · Post by **Kentamanos** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:47 pm

sinbad wrote:
(We only use SourceSafe at work...).
Aaaiieeeee! <throws holy water and waves symbols of any religeous denomination available>

At least they're finally fixing this in 2005

. I haven't tried it yet, but there's this thing called the "law of averages"...

spoot · Post by **spoot** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:07 pm

I would *LOVE* to see an app or script to convert NWN content to Ogre mesh's.

I'm working on an rpg type application where importing NWN packs would be a very very very very handy thing.

Borundin · Post by **Borundin** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 12:56 am

New thread about mdl2mesh converter can be found here