Draconi player model (and modeler help needed!)

I thought to try my Blender skills at a player model yesterday. Since my modeling and texturing abilities are minimal, I made it by editing an existing player in Xonotic (the Gak). It has many issues still, and I need help from better modelers if I am to make it commit ready.

Description: The draconi is an anthropomorphic lizard warrior, similar to a dinosaur or crocodile. I kept UT2004's Mokara in mind as a reference, though the idea is original. There is a male and a female version, males having long twisted horns while females have short simple ones.

The model can be found on the branch mirceakitsune/playermodel_draconi in GIT. Or, if you don't use GIT, you can download it from here or here (blender source included).

Like I said, the model has issues and several things left to do. But my modeling skills won't let me finish them sadly. Here is a list, in case anyone can take the models and fix what I couldn't do:

- The most urgent issue is the UV mapping in some areas of the model. Specifically those which were stretched and re-created from the gak. They are: The horns, the muzzle, the tail, and the legs from knees and down. I tried tweaking the UV's, but don't know how to position them any better than this.

- The texture needs improvements and more detail in some areas. The draconi model doesn't use the gak's armor parts, so some areas which were behind that aren't as good looking and have a simple texture (like the feet). The tail especially needs a better one. Someone also needs to draw the mouth along the muzzle... which I can do once the UV mapping issues are fixed and I know where to position it.

- The model might have problems with vertex assignments to bones, as I had to add new vertices along the way. Eg: Some vertices might have gotten assigned to multiple bones, which can cause spikes to poke out of the model when rendered by Darkplaces (haven't seen such being the case for this model but someone needs to check to be sure). Till now, I seen an issue with the fingers on the hands getting stretched in some poses.

- The poly count needs to be reduced for the finger nails (both models) and the tip of the horns for the female model only. The default poly reducer in Blender brakes the model, so I can't do this properly.

- Since I don't have a good poly reducer script, I can't generate the LOD models either. IIRC there was a program specifically for this in Xonotic, but I don't remember where to find it.

- The normal map might need to be generated with a better editor than mine. The one I made looks less intense than other player models, but if that's ok I can leave it like this.

- Once the model and texture are over, someone needs to generate the preview images in the same style as the current ones for other players. I don't know how that's done myself, so they can all look the same way.

Those are the main problems that come to mind. As for design changes, I have some on my list. Typically, giving the hand 5 fingers and not 3 like the gak... but that's a major mesh modification and I couldn't do it myself. Otherwise, I plan to improve the head design and make it more round and pretty. It still looks a bit odd from the side.

Please note this isn't meant to be a zombie beast of sorts, and I don't plan on adding blood to the muzzle, ripped flesh and that sort of thing. If anything, I'm trying to make it a rather cute model... enough so it can fit in a shooter like Xonotic by default

Anyway, here's a bunch of screenshots of how it looks at this stage. Please comment and, if you're a modeler and want to help, look into the remaining issues. Thank you



[EDIT] A final playable version is at last out! Get v1.1 here: Download 1, download 2, GIT repository.

How do I force my bots to play with this model? I want to try it out.

How do I force my bots to play with this model? I want to try it out.

sv_defaultcharacter 1;sv_defaultplayermodel "models/player/draconi-m.iqm"

And to be safe I'm gonna ask how to put it back the way it was before I try it.

And to be safe I'm gonna ask how to put it back the way it was before I try it.

Just set sv_defaultcharacter back to 0. Those are safe cvars to change.

Commented on this at http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php...7#pid19897

Again, interesting work!

(continued from the screenshots thread)
I think different hitbox sizes for different player models won't become reality, since this would require different weapon behaviors/physics for different player models, and I gathered that this would inevitably lead into some sort of screwed-up mixed cvar salad.

In my opinion the model still needs refinement in the following areas:

• upper legs/waist are a bit too thick
  
• as mentioned the "helmet" should be distinctive from the rest of the head
  
• the horns should stick out at sharp edges from the head, not so smooth
  
• the head in general could use a more dragon-like forehead, maybe take a look at the dragon face from sintel - currently there's a lot of mammal reference in the head
  
• the tail definitely needs to be bent the other way :o)
  

Oh, and please don't take my feedback as "I WANT IT THAT WAY GO DO IT!!ONE", that's only a friendly suggestion how I would think a lizard character would look good without decrediting the work you already have - quite visibly - put into this!

Tried tipping the tail up.


Better? Worse?

P.S. what exporter do you use?

better.

you use the iqm exporter found here: http://lee.fov120.com/iqm/

Looks like a starfox but a rat. Though the hair is just flat.

you use the iqm exporter found here: http://lee.fov120.com/iqm/

Thanks, dropped the (2.5) script in my scritps/io and it showed in the menu. Only thing is I don't know if I should just be selecting just the mesh, just the bones, or both, and also I don't know if I'm entering the animations right. Also I don't know what framegroups are and how to get them. Anyone who's done this before?

Maybe I'll try curving the horns down like mountain goat.

Framegroups file: if none of the animations have changed then just use the gak.iqm.framegroups one and rename it to whatever you need to rename it to.

if you do CHANGE the LENGTH of the animations then you have to create a new framegroups file.
1) Don't create a framegroups file
2) Export the iqm
3) In Xonotic console: "modeldecompile models/player/modelname.iqm" (without quotes)
4) Go to .xonotic/data/models/player or My Documents/My Games/xonotic/data/models/player
5) You should see a new framegroups file for your playermodel.
6) Open that up. In framegroups file there are 4 values for each anim: Start, Number of Frames, FPS, and loop.
7) make sure the looping and fps is set to the same as gak.iqm.framegroups.
8) you are done sir.

IQM Exporter: select both mesh and bones. in the animations you have to enter it in the order they are in the framegroups file. I'll make your job easier, just copy and paste below.

Code:

dieone, dietwo, draw, duck, duckwalk, duckjump, duckidle, idle, jump, painone, paintwo, shoot, taunt, run, runbackwards, strafeleft, straferight, deadone, deadtwo, forwardright, forwardleft, backright, backleft

P.S. I have no idea if this will work for blender 2.5. I use 2.49.

ty Dib.

Where do I put the textures?

xonotic/data/xonotic-data.pk3dir/textures/

That looks better indeed! Thank you Feel free to commit that change to the GIT branch if you wish.

Oh dear god, furries in Xonotic. This is a dream coming true. Looks so awesome! *___*

Thanks :3 Like I said, this model was inspired from one I seen in the Unreal Tournament series. Not sure if its creator was also a furry

The shape reminds me too much of a mix of 'roo and aardvark. Not enough "lizardliness", if You get what i mean.

I'm still waiting for someone to help with this model. It's surely necessary to fix the remaining issues listed in the first post, before it can even be thought of for inclusion. Would gladly appreciate anyone willing to help at all if possible.

@ nowego4: Can you post the blend files of the changes you made a while back please (the tipped tail)? Are they for both the male and female models? I have an iqm exporter for Blender (IIRC it's found around the Xonotic website), so I can update them myself.

I'm still waiting for someone to help with this model. It's surely necessary to fix the remaining issues listed in the first post, before it can even be thought of for inclusion. Would gladly appreciate anyone willing to help at all if possible.

@ nowego4: Can you post the blend files of the changes you made a while back please (the tipped tail)? Are they for both the male and female models? I have an iqm exporter for Blender (IIRC it's found around the Xonotic website), so I can update them myself.

Well right now it's only on the male model.

Here's the 2.5 blend I sent to Diabolik, cause I couldn't get my exporter to work correctly as far as textures go But that's nothing new for me. NetRadiant, Exporters, nothing seems to like me

Download

more furries?

Well it's certainly been a while since my last update here. Most works would typically be dead after almost 3 years. Yet with my plans to create a new artistic package on top of Xonotic, I've dedicated my last two days to getting an acceptable version of this model up and running. After all this time, the Draconi sees the light of day and a playable version is out!

In essence, I took the last version I had on my hard drive, and worked to get a head design that looks pretty much OK. I re-based the mesh on the latest Gak armature and animations, also improving the textures and added what else was left.

Note that there's apparently a problem with the frame groups, and animations sometimes blend into each other. I didn't know how to fix that yet but might look into it later. You'll see some crouching in the idle animation for example. Clearly not acceptable long term and this shall be fixed later... but it's also not a problem that blocks the model from being playable. Also, the texture resolution on the tail is pretty bad, but that's all I could achieve with the existing UV layout.

Download 1, download 2, GIT repository.

Is that hoofer holding the new hoover-acting-shotgun?
(Hope that doesn't sound mean.)

Both look quite awesome, but i feel concern regarding its suitability for Xonotic, even modded.

Yeah, the character model does look a bit off when compared to other Xonotic models. Maybe just make it optional in your new mod for the game? It's a good model, it just looks a bit out of place in this game. The angle you showed it at on your other thread looks good, but like I said there's something just a bit off about it. I probably won't be able to decide until I actually play the game with it.