I really must pull my finger out and try these out.  I especially like the idea of Set Dressing as a single prop.

These are great tools. I'll wait, however, for the Nub versions.

Great work Riley!   Wow, those are some most excellent utilities!

Now, if people would only get over their irrational fears of the command line..

. . .

We'll soon be crossing similar bridges as each other, with our MED interface work -- I'm doing scene editing, which will also require prop placement UI tools, because scenes allow for rotations of them on all axes, just like your tool! 

---

"Badge, Manny! BADGE!!"

Yeah, I know about the codes. Yet...

I had a look at the text in the package, it's a marvel what you've done. Everything one need to made a ''different'' movie is there. All what I asked modders to do for me to make IOR I could now do myself. And the possibility of making a prop transparent is the perfect tool I need right now. So I guess I'll have to try my luck with the command prompt.

---

INCIDENT AT OAK RIDGE
Download the file or install VeohTV player to watch the film.

rileyman:

Silly-Monkey:  The "mesh reconstruction utilities" I've been referring to are some new tools that will let people pull objects out of existing sets, create "emptied-out" versions of sets, and rearrange sets back together into props for convenient filming on the Blue-Screen.

The first version will contain four utilities: (several others are on their way)

1. Mesh Reports : Mesh files contain the data used to make up the shape of a prop or set, as well as reference information on what textures to use.  This utility outputs a text report on a mesh file.
2. Prop Extractor : Want the old record player in the 30's Living Room as a prop?  Or perhaps the Living Room all cleared out?  You tell it what pieces of a mesh file you want, it outputs a prop.
3. Prop Transformer : Want to tip over a chair?  Make a darkened version so it shows up correctly in night-time scenes?  Make a bigger version of a tree?  Perform simple transformations (translation, rotation, scaling, light-map changes) on a prop.
4. Set-Dressing-to-Prop : Are you using the Blue-Screen and sets-as-props to film most of your movie?  Tired of having to dress up the set every scene?  Convert saved set dressing into an all-encompassing prop.  This utility in particular will be a massive time-saver.  (Sisch is already enjoyed its fruits in her upcoming Dark Obsession film.)
   

There's just some testing and fine-tuning left to do.  The next modpack I release will be the "Casting Office - The Complete Works"...  I'm using that as my testbed to make sure all the utilities work.  The modpack will contain several variations of the casting office exterior, as well as a handful of individual objects: the flag pole, the patio chairs and patio table, and the street signs.

Thats just the awesomest awesome to ever be awesome. I built and rebuilt sets in Bombshelter over and over to match animation locations, that is the giggity of giggitys

---

grickey:

Now, if people would only get over their irrational fears of the command line..

Indeed.   And Gleem, I'll definitely be wanting to join forces sometime soon (ish) on scene editing.  My next film I'd like to be able to do more complex camera motions, without resorting to copying the end camera position to the start of the next shot.  Not to mention I'd like to be able to place additional extras, without having to use a bazillion auto-animated props...

Jase, scroll down a bit more on the last page and you'll see that those tools have been released.    (My signature contains the perma-link.)  I'm thinking I should post a new thread on the main Movies forum, as this isn't exactly a run-of-the-mill mod release...

And now for a few screenshots of the "Casting Office - The Complete Works" modpack that should be released within the next few days.  I'll also be giving out the batch file I've used to create this modpack, which people can use as an example of how to use the "Prop Extraction" utility.

Bare Casting Office Exterior

The full casting office exterior, with flora, street signs, etc., will be included in the pack, of course.

Additional Props

Two concrete tree / hedge pots, a chair, the patio table (with and without the parasol), two street signs, the flag pole, and five different window frames.  The window frames will come in single-sided and double-sided varieties.

As always, all props will be available in light (as shown above) and dark versions.  The full casting office props will also be available in a version with proper shadows.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

That Set Dressing to prop tool is a REAL time saver.  Combined with Tarison's Blue Screens and Dr. House's scene mods, alot more doors are opening...

---

Absolutely incredible work, my friend.

Looks like I picked a time to head on back...

---

Thanks guys...

Just FYI, rysto has pointed out a couple of bugs in those mesh utilities.  There are a handful of mesh files that come with the game that it isn't finding properly.  I know what's wrong there, and will be fixing it asap.  He's also found that textures on some modded props were becoming distorted after putting it through the set-dressing-to-prop utility.  I'm not sure what could be causing this, but I'll look into it.

Stay tuned...

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

The two aforementioned bugs have been fixed.  Anyone who downloaded the Mesh Reconstruction utilities should grab the new version below.  The old links redirect to the new version, to ensure nobody accidentally grabs the wrong one.

Download the most recent version of the Mesh Reconstruction utilities here.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

rileyman:

The two aforementioned bugs have been fixed.  Anyone who downloaded the Mesh Reconstruction utilities should grab the new version below.  The old links redirect to the new version, to ensure nobody accidentally grabs the wrong one.

Download the most recent version of the Mesh Reconstruction utilities here.

Well, I think either, I don't know how to run things or I dont have something that needs to be installed to get it to work.

I can't really explain what the "error" or what ever was, ut I managed to get a 10 second capture so you could see riley. I really have no idea what I did or didn't do. I just downloaded, un-zipped the file, read the "readme" and "user amnual" and tried to opent the set dressing tool.

---

TMO Studio: Closed

TMU Studio: Temporarily Closed

Spelling Skillz: none

rileyman:

The two aforementioned bugs have been fixed.  Anyone who downloaded the Mesh Reconstruction utilities should grab the new version below.  The old links redirect to the new version, to ensure nobody accidentally grabs the wrong one.

Download the most recent version of the Mesh Reconstruction utilities here.

Well, I think either, I don't know how to run things or I dont have something that needs to be installed to get it to work.

I can't really explain what the "error" or what ever it was, but I managed to get a 10 second capture so you could see riley. I really have no idea what I did or didn't do. I just downloaded, un-zipped the file, read the "readme" and "user amnual" and tried to opent the set dressing tool.

EDIT: Sorry for posting the same thing twice. It gave me an error on the first time I pressed post. So I thought it hadn't posted it, so I hit back, and hit post again. Could a Mod or Admin, delete the second post? Sorry again. I would do it myself, but I gotta leave, and by the time I get back online, the edit time will have long ran out.

---

TMO Studio: Closed

TMU Studio: Temporarily Closed

Spelling Skillz: none

frosty_frost09:

rileyman:

The two aforementioned bugs have been fixed.  Anyone who downloaded the Mesh Reconstruction utilities should grab the new version below.  The old links redirect to the new version, to ensure nobody accidentally grabs the wrong one.

Download the most recent version of the Mesh Reconstruction utilities here.

Well, I think either, I don't know how to run things or I dont have something that needs to be installed to get it to work.

I can't really explain what the "error" or what ever was, ut I managed to get a 10 second capture so you could see riley. I really have no idea what I did or didn't do. I just downloaded, un-zipped the file, read the "readme" and "user amnual" and tried to opent the set dressing tool.

theres your problem frosty.

DO NOT click on the apps, they are command line applications.
click on START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/COMMAND LINE

when command line is open, type the following in

cd desktop    then press enter
cd r3tm         then press enter

and voila your there

i am preparing a wink tutorial for ya all (hope ya don't mind riley).

---

Go right ahead with the wink tutorial, stvndysn...

There's a "Installation Instructions" section in the user's guide that's bundled in it -- in both PDF and MS Word formats.  My original post also has complete information for getting started, and for making full use of these utilities.  Once you get over the hurdle of learning how to run the command-line, things will get a bit easier.  And once you've successfully run a few commands, it'll be like riding a bicycle.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

cheers riley.

here are 2 tutorials
meshreport
makeprop

these are basic tutorials to give you the knowledge of how rileys utilities work

MESHREPORT

MAKEPROP

---

I've actually changed the name of "makeprop" to "extractprop" for this general release.  Some of the command options have changed ("-rba" is now "-rtp", for example), and there are also some new things in there.  It'd probably be if you could update those tutorials to match the new stuff, if and when you have the time.

There are also two new applications.  So for Steven and the handful of others who had been helping test this in beta, grab the new package.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

Rileyman, I don't know what to say "woot", "WOW", "Awesome" "Holy turn set dressings into single prop batman" ? This is fantastic stuff, The set dressing prop tool would be awesome by itself, but you have released a great deal of tools in this little zip file.

Thanks!

---

theres your problem frosty.

DO NOT click on the apps, they are command line applications.
click on START/PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/COMMAND LINE

when command line is open, type the following in

cd desktop    then press enter
cd r3tm         then press enter

and voila your there

i am preparing a wink tutorial for ya all (hope ya don't mind riley).

Wow, I really feel dumb,lol. . Not onlywas I not running the tool right, I missed the part in the .PDF user guide too. thanks for the tuts styvn, as soon as I get in, i'll give this another go.

---

TMO Studio: Closed

TMU Studio: Temporarily Closed

Spelling Skillz: none

Thanks skelch. 

And no worries, frosty.  I'm perfectly aware that command-line utilities are going to be tricky to get used to.  And a bit of a tough sell to the community at large.  The first reaction towards the command-line is always going to be negative, in this day and age.  But take the hour to read through the user guide, and play around with a few commands, and things will start to come together.

I'm inching close to getting the casting office pack released.  At that time, I'll have some examples for people to work off of.

I also want to note that these are in no way trying to "compete" with MED or MeshManip.  They can be used side-by-side with those applications.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

I GOT IT WORKING!!!!! I exported an old set dressing I had as a test and it worked

I'm so freaking happy. Thanks for his tool riley, it's really gonna help alot of peole out on their movies.

---

TMO Studio: Closed

TMU Studio: Temporarily Closed

Spelling Skillz: none

Holy crap Riley, this is amazingly simple to use! It'll take a while to get used too though

Great work!

---

UPDATE:

the tutorial link in one of my previous posts is dead, and replaced with an updated version

MESHREPORT

EXTACTPROP

once you've worked with extractprop for some time you should be able to work the other apps just as easily

---

Thanks again, stvndysn!   I'm thinking of putting together a website for all my modding stuff, and I'll link to these tutorials as part of it.

And I'm glad a few more folks have had success with the dress2prop application.

The "Casting Office - Complete Works" pack will be out later today.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

And here's the next pack -- a bit smaller than some of the past ones, but still with some useful stuff.

Casting Office - The Complete Works

Download all the casting office props here.
(ZIP file, 3759KB)

This pack contains:

• Three versions of the casting office facility as a prop, each available in varieties with and without flora.
• Several new furnishings, including the patio table (with and without the parasol), a new chair, and a new ceiling lamp.
• Two street signs.
• A flag pole.
• Five different window frames, each available in single-sided and double-sided varieties.

All props are available in light and dark versions.  The main casting office prop is also available with proper shadows.  Props span the Flora, Household, and Miscellaneous categories in the game.

These props were all built using the "r3-tm-extractprop" command from my Mesh Reconstruction Utilities.  You can see the text of the DOS batch file I used to build them here.  If you felt so inclined, you could build all these props on your own.  Just save that text as a file named "r3-casting-office.bat" in the same directory as you installed my utilities.  Double-click on it, and away it goes!  You'd still need the additional texture files from the download above, though.

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU

Coming Soon

Room Builder Application

This application will allow you to create your own custom room interiors.  Rooms can be shaped as oddly as you like, as long as the walls don't intersect with each other.  You will also be able to cut out pieces of the wall in the shapes of windows and doors.

Rooms are built with INI files, which you can type up in Notepad, that give it its shape.  Co-ordinates are measured in meters.  A user's guide will be made available, which will explain how to format these INI files.  Included in the guide will be a complete list of the game's wall, floor, and ceiling textures -- useful as a reference if you don't want to texture the room yourself.

I hammered out two simple rooms in about ten minutes, shown below.  The text that appears over top of the screenshot is the complete text of the room's INI file.

Simple L-shaped room


More complex shape


And, of course, once you have built your own room...  Bring it into the game as a prop, dress it up to your heart's content, and then use the dress2prop application (previously released).

Brand new environments for every film you make!  Quick and easy to make (I hope!), without the need for overly-complex 3D modelling software.

More complex examples to come...

---

Riley Entertainment Website - Movies, Mods, and Modding Applications!
Riley Entertainment on TMU