thebiz:

oooh.  I might be giving this a wirl tonight.  Thanks Riley.

As will I. Im so glad you finally released this riley

You wouldn't happen to know the demnsions of the blue screen would you?

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The regular blue screen looks like it measures:

Floor:  21.7 meters wide, 16.1 meters deep (to the center of the curved backdrop), 13 meters deep (to the edges of the curved backdrop)
Backdrop:  20.6 meters wide, 3.1 meters deep (due to curvature), 8.5 meters high

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

I was asking becuase I wanted to make a room/building for the blue screen, but didn't know the size.

Also, when I made my first room, and pulled it into MED, nothing showed up, just a grey background. i think I messed up on the .ini part. Making the walls and everything.

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I included a handful of simple room INI files in the download package.  "testroom2.ini" is the only one that doesn't require you to install the Door and Window Cutout Props pack.  So, have a look at those sample script files -- and be sure to give the documentation a read over.  The most important thing is that all your [wall] entries be in clockwise (or at least consecutive) order around the room.

If you get to a point where you're sure you're getting unexpected results, feel free to send along a PM.  Paste in the contents of your room INI file(s), and hopefully I'd be able to spot what might be going wrong (whether it be in the INI file itself, or a potential bug in my code).

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

Mesh Reconstruction Utilities - Version 0.0.21a

This is a minor revision to the Mesh Reconstruction utilities. It consists of a number of bug fixes, and some minor feature additions.

• With the new "-bones" option, you can now retain and translate bone data, in the Prop Extraction and Prop Transformation utilities.
• Using Windows Explorer, you can now drag one or more set dressing INI files onto the Set Dressing to Prop application. All the props it creates will be placed in the same sub-folder.
• The "-c" option in the Room Builder utility now works properly.
• Added "exclude-bottom" and "exclude-top" properties in the [wall] section for the Room Builder utility. These allow you to control whether the bottom and/or top portions of manual cutouts are rendered.
• The Room Builder utility now optimizes its output by consolidating meshes that use the same texture and material settings.

Download the latest Mesh Reconstruction utilities (version 0.0.21a).

Download the Door and Window Cutout Props modpack (for use with the Room Builder).

View or download the online PDF documentation.  Adobe Reader is required.

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

Very nice Riley, I can't wait to get into this tool.

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The XTM

TMOA

DCMF

Hope you find some use for them, melghoul.

I'm taking a very brief (couple of days) break from modding efforts on my future Public Transit film.  In the meantime, I'm revisiting some public mod-packs I've had in the works.  Over the past few months, I've done plenty of custom mod work for the likes of jase180, MefuneAkira, and ubernewbie; all for upcoming films.

In the works are the complete deconstructions for the Sci-Fi Bridges, School Library, Danger Dojo facility, and Urban Bar set.

The first release will be the Urban Bar set.  Ubernewbie asked for a few props pulled from this set for one of his upcoming Enigma episodes.

Coming Soon : Urban Bar - The Complete Works

You'll get the full set as a prop, with all surrounding land and set scaffolding removed.



You'll also get several variations of the bar set (as props) emptied out.  Lighting variations will be included, with appropriate shadows removed for each version.



A complete bare version of the bar set (as props), also with lighting variations.



And a variety of individual props pulled out of the bar:  the bar and counter, the stage, tables, chairs, stools, wall-mounted television, mounted lamps, the two awnings, and a construction lift.  A few other props not yet pictured here will also be included (the rounded booths, the rounded wall section containing the booths, and some new picture frames).



Work remaining on this pack:  some more lighting work, the final few props, and thumbnails.  It should be done before the end of March.

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

Genius Riley, genius. 

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Its safe to assume I will find a use for some, if not all of the bar works...Seeing as how I seem to end up drinking in a bar in nearly all my movies (and in real life on a daily basis).  Haha.  Excellent work as always Riley.

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Teaser out now

Wow. That's awesome! I can't wait until you disassemble the beach!

Thanks guys.

One of the interesting problems with the Urban Bar set:  there are two different levels of flooring.  The main area is lowered; the area by the door is raised.  People may well want to be able to use both areas.

So, do I lower the entire prop down so that it's level with the upper area?  You could raise it on your own when you want your actors in the main area.

Or is it more convenient to have it level with the main lower area?  (So that you don't have to adjust it in every scene that uses this area, which I presume will probably be far more common.)


And on another unrelated topic...  My blog has a new entry about lightmaps that people might find interesting.  Plus some reference info on lightmaps -- I've posted about that on the forums before, but this gives it a permanent place that doesn't get buried by forum activity.

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

I would say lower it... because if you work with all the scenes on it, the feet of the actors are cut off when you want to film on the dancefloor or at the door, a thing which gave me great problems when shooting Schröder... I wouldn't mind adjusting the level!

Great work as always Riley... what would we do without you? I love all the possibilities you give us!

I'm like sisch, I prefer to adjust from below floor level.

You could always make both versions or someone could make it themselves with your set dressing to prop utility too. 
(Rysto was not paid for this shameless plug.).

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I definitely lean that way as well...  I'm not going to make both versions -- there are enough variations already, with all the combinations of lighting and emptied-out vs. filled.

When I pulled out the booths from the Urban Bar set, I noticed a problem.  As you can see below, they look fine from the front; but they have no backing.  But since booths are typically placed in an alcove against a wall, I made use of my Room Builder to deal with the issue.



The mod-pack will have various versions of the booths (including two of them side-by-side, as they actually exist in the set).  But I'll also make the room scripts available...  which can be used on their own, or as part of a library for making custom bar or diner sets.

This was also a opportunity to make a little tutorial on customizing wall textures with the Room Builder.

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

would it not be possible to make a 'wall' as tall as the back of the booth?

i think that should be possible ubes

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Yes, it should be possible to fill in the back of the booths with the Room Builder...  It's complicated by the fact that a portion of the booths does have a back wall, another portion does not.

If you have a need for the booths to be sitting out in the open, without a surrounding wall, I can maybe look into it.  Or you might be able to "massage" the Room Builder scripts I used to create the surrounding wall on your own.  It would involve setting "interior = false" under [global], changing the "height = " to the height of the booths, and possibly changing the "raise = " value.

Anyway, I came on here today with a Mod-Pack update...

Urban Bar - The Complete Works


Download the Urban Bar Set-as-Prop variations.

Download the Urban Bar Props.

Download the Room Builder scripts, used to create the surrounding walls for the booths.  (This is to be installed in the same folder as the Mesh Reconstruction utilities.)

View the online directory of props contained in this mod-pack.  (I plan on going back and adding an online directory for my past mod-packs at some point.)

Door and Window Cutout Props

The Urban Bar contains several new doors and windows.  I have therefore also updated the Door and Window Cutout Props mod-pack, for use with the Room Builder application.  The new doors and windows are also included in the above Urban Bar Props pack.

Download the Door and Window Cutout Props.

Download the Room Builder library script.  (This is to be installed in the same folder as the Mesh Reconstruction utilities.)

Making of a Mod-Pack Tutorial

I wrote up a new tutorial on using the Mesh Reports and Prop Extraction utilities.  It follows along as we create the Bar Counter as a prop.  Hopefully, spending a half-hour or so reading this tutorial, and experimenting with the knowledge therein, will empower you with the ability to extract any prop from any set!

Read the Making of a Mod-Pack Tutorial.

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

To TMO or Not To TMO - Modpack

This modpack contains all the "mostly generic" mods that were custom-made for To TMO or Not To TMO.  The film itself will be uploaded within the next hour or so.

27 Animated Humans, wearing modern casual and formal costumes:


They are animated as you see in the film.  You can alter their animations by following the various tutorials found on DCMF or SkinShack (one written by Gleem, another more thorough one written by rysto)

I have loked for the tutorials on changing their animation as you have said but I cant find anything on them. can you help me. I would like to use them in my up and coming film AFTERMATH.

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I'll see if I can explain as best as I can...

The key to making a prop animate is in choosing the appropriate animation file, giving it the right filename, and putting that file in the right place.

Step 1 - Finding the appropriate animation file

Animation files end in ".anm".  The game stores several thousand of them in what are called PAK files -- giant compressed archives containing all the game's content.  You will need to use MED or Reshoot to extract these ".anm" files.  If you aren't already using it, go to DCMF, download and install MED, and get familiar with how to extract files (among other modding tasks).

Looking for animation files can be a bit of an easter egg hunt.  They have filenames that give clues as to what the animation might look like, but you're sort of on your own in discovering just the right one.  Those with "idle" in their filename are a place to start.

Step 2 - Copying the animation file to the right place

You'll want to make a copy of the animation file you chose.  The filename you give this copy will be based on the filename of the prop.

If the prop was named "p_tmomale01"
You will want to name the animation file "aa_p_tmomale01_v00.anm".

The general idea there is:  add "aa_" to the front, and "_v00.anm" to the end.

You can add a bunch of extra random animations on the same prop by copying a different animation file, and incrementing the number at the end.  For example, "aa_p_tmomale01_v01.anm".

Once you have the animation file renamed, you'll need to copy (or move) it into the following folder in your game directory:
/data/animations/high/autoanimated/

If the folder doesn't exist yet, create it.

Hope that helps.

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

Blog Comments?

Rysto thought it might be a idea to add a comments capability to my blog entries on my website.  I've sort of figured this thread could be the place to discuss my mods / applications / updates. 

Would you use a comments section, if I were to add it?  Up-side to it, I suppose, is you could ask questions or post comments directly related to a specific blog post.  It would perhaps keep things organized and on topic.  I'm just not certain there's much demand for it.

Room Builder - Update Coming

An update to the Room Builder is well on its way.  This update will include better support for light-maps.

Light-maps are an entirely different kind of texture.  That means the application should handle them in an entirely different way.  The new method will work much more like light-maps already work in the game.  The lightmap for walls, floor, and ceiling will all be combined into one texture; yet each given its own region.  The application will issue a report for you, giving you all the information you need to paint your own custom light-maps.

The code for it looks to be ready.  I need to test it further, showcase a few screenshots, and finish the documentation.  The new version will be 0.0.22a.  It should be ready sometime next week.

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

You are the best modder EVER!!!!

-deeb

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Saying something "was an empty void" is not possible since a void is empty.

It would be cool to have a touch of interaction on your website and I suppose linking comments to your blog would keep the comments focused to the subject up for discussion (instead of the generic "nice site/your awesome" kind of stuff).  This thread is more of a pain  to traverse and I dont trust it to stay updated. 

Case in point..the AA prop news.  Hurray for a happy user GUI.  I will admit the command line remains a daunting challenge to me.  I feel like I really have to get a handle on the documentation before I jump in so I keep delaying my working with these tools.  I saw Frosty's room that he was able to create.  Has anyone else put a movie yet with a custom room? 

Q: Now that you have provided a tutorial for extracting set proops do you intend to continue extracting other sets?

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Teaser out now

I guess this thread is more of a "oh there must be something new" marker, that makes people check the website.   I'll have to think about what approach I want to take in adding comments functionality to the blog.  I think I'd like it to be flexible enough to attach comments to tutorials and downloads as well.


I don't know if anyone else has used the Room Builder.  They should be.   It's basically a rudimentary Autocad for The Movies.  Once I get staircases and roofs in there, I'll be able to really show off its capabilities.   I felt I needed to do this light-map thing first, so that it'd be in place for any future types of 3D objects I wanted to add.


Yes, I'll be continuing deconstructing sets.  I've been slowly doing the sci-fi bridges recently.  The issue I encountered with them is that it creates big holes in the walls when you remove the side console screens.  For the emptied-out sets, I'll have to use the room builder to either fill in the holes, or (more likely) just redo those portions of the walls entirely.


The AA props application will be a while yet, as there are a couple of things I have to do with my code to make it work properly with the Microsoft C++ compilers.  It's going to be something of an experiment...  if people respond favourably to the GUI aspect of it, I'll start working on similar GUIs for my existing utilities.

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

My compliments on your excellent website & its contents, Rileyman. I found your tut useful, and I'm curious about the room builder, I'll give it a try when I get the time.
Really nice mods & utilities. AA props would be amazing, I just installed a few of them recently, and they're so handy. I wish they could be dressed like actors or extras though.

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http://tmobar.tk

TM2UT related maps, characters, videos & tutorials

Two minor updates:

The deconstruction of the four Sci-Fi Bridge sets is nearing completion.  I'll be releasing them in the order I approached them.  #2 and #3 (the Trek-ish bridges) will come first, followed by #1 (the 30's bridge), and then #4 (the fighter bridge).  For geeky modderiferous information, check my latest blog entry.

I also wrote a little article called Dispelling the Overlay Myths.  Read it if you want a bit of background information on what DDS and DXT mean; or if you want to know why the 912x512 --> 512x512 overlay size everyone seems to recommend is rubbish.

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