Doom3world

Start with 3ds Max and an md5 exporter and then go from there.

Well, I do use 3dsMax 2008 and I have a good understanding of it, too. I have an .md5 importer for it and I can get the characters textured, rigged and animated (using D3's animation files) all working fine. I even figured out how to properly attach heads to characters, too. Whilst I love working in Max with these assets, I'm really sad we never got an easy-to-use cinematic tool in Doom3 Editor. It would have made so much difference. If you look at games like the original Far Cry (which shipped not too long after - or before? - Doom3) it came with fantastic tools for movie making, including time-line based keyframing and RT previewing in-game. I always hoped, over the following years, that some enterprising soul with a good understanding of these things would put together a proprietry movie-making tool (like Unreal's 'matinee' for instance) to use within the D3Ed... but apart from the frankly embarassing Machinimation2 (started off well, quickly got abandoned by Fountainhead) nothing ever showed up except for the few tutorials to feature here.

The problem for me - and I suspect many others - is that whilst I'm perfectly good with timeline-based keyframing animation packages I'm hopeless with scripting and programming issues, so working with D3Ed directly to create movies is pretty much a non-starter. I simply don't know the first thing about programming or scripting and therefore lack the depth of knowledge needed to get the best out of the game engine. Over the years I've seen a few fairly passable machinimas created within D3, but compared to the likes of HalfLife2 or Unreal I'm sad to see this wonderful - very cinematic - game engine has been conspicuously under-used for creating interesting, polished movies.

I still work with D3 assets inside of Max. I feel comfortable doing this. But what irritates is that I'm always aware I'd rather be working within the game engine proper. I've tried, struggled and failed several times over to get a handle on scripting issues, but I now know my strengths (and confidence) lies in more accessible, traditional 3D applications.

I just hope when id finally release Rage and we can get our hands on the next-gen of idTech we also get a fully-featured editor which allows those of us who wish to, to make in-game movies without the headaches, lack of explanation and technicalities in D3...

Excellent work so far, and I don't think you'll have to worry about censoring it, there a replaces that will host it, especially with the quality that it represents.

The trick to making a cinematic sequence is to work on all the assets for a scene in your modeling/animation package at once.

You can export a selection of brushes from the level editor into an OBJ model which can be imported into your application and used as the "stage" and you can import all the characters to be animated.

Once you've animated your characters and the camera you can export both to their respective md5 formats. From that point, it's just a matter of writing declarations which IHMO is much easier than scripting. And while this seems to be your struggling point, it's not as difficult as you make it out to be.

For every character in your scene, you'll need a new model declaration. And each model declaration will have to reference the md5mesh you imported and md5anim files you've exported. You already know the location of these files so that shouldn't prove difficult.

It's also preferable if you create a new entity declaration for each character. All each entity declaration needs to do is inherit from "cin_base". Then you simply specify what model declaration to use and what animation to use.

In summary, each character would require two declarations and you could put it all into a single DEF file. It's so simple I can write up a template and you'd just fill in the blanks...



From that point it's just a matter of placing these entities into your level with the same position and orientation you used in your modeling/animation package and triggering them the same way you would a door or a light.

Thanks, Rich. You've always been a very helpful presence on these boards. I wish I had your level of knowledge about the D3 engine

I can see what you're getting at, but I think I'll just stick to working with Max. That way I stay in control and I actually get things done, instead of continually running into brick walls. It is fun to work in Max with Doom3 assets, but obviously nothing beats the real game engine. I'm just not 'analytically-minded' enough to be able to 'see' lines of code or script in any meaningful way. I'm much better with design tools. Typical designer, huh?

I don't see modeling or animating as any less technical. It's more so. If you can wrap your head around rigging a model, setting weights, inverse kinematics, or UV mapping, how can you let a few short snippets of text intimidate you? Food for thought.

Because those other things you mentioned all are visually respresented and you can see what you're screwing around with as you do it, for the most part, where as some even tiny snippets of code can be complete garble to someone who doesn't understand the language, because you can't actually see anything.

Exactly. As designers, we work on a very visual level. Kind of WYSIWYG, most of the time. Doom3 Editor, when it's concerned with entities and scripts, is not so intuitive to folks like me.

Rich, just a thought - and I know you'll probably say no - but worth a shot:

Any chance of tutorial (just a short one) on how to create a 'scene' in Max and get it into Doom3? A basic step-by-step with clear explanations of what is happening and why? I know it's cheeky and you'll probably not want to do it, but I can't even begin to explain how grateful I'd be. You could use basic assets from Doom3 and any version of Max. The main problem I have is understanding which script to use, when and why to use it. Also, some explanation of why certain entities (movers, triggers) are used in particular ways would be useful.

I honestly will understand if you cannot do it, but I thought I'd ask. I just need someone with a good understanding of these things to help show me the way.

Thanks again, Rich. I live in hope.

Create and animate everything in Max, export the pieces individually as ASE or MD5 or MD5Camera models. When you place those pieces in the D3 editor, they will all be at their proper location. Make a trigger to activate the camera, set the md5's to CINEMATIC 1, done. It literally takes only a handful of minutes to create a simple cinematic. It takes only a little bit longer to create a more complex scene.

One difference between the way I do it and what Rich wrote is I use "inherit/func_animate"

Hi Brian! I downloaded a few of your videos the other day - thanks. I found the videos on preparing models in Max for use in D3 very illuminating - if brief! You do make the above sound very simple (just like Rich ). If he can't do a tutorial (in a bit more detail) how about you? You both know this stuff - how about it?

Sorry to be a pain. If you can't - no worries. I know you guys are busy with your own projects. It's good to know you're still involved with D3 stuff.

Thanks again for the videos!

I am too busy with my mod right now to make a tutorial, but when it's done, I could probably do it.

@dogstar In answer to your question I use lots of level scripting for my cinematics.
working with .md5 in max and exporting for d3 does take a few more steps than traditional level scripting but so far It's been camera tricks and movers with level scripting and all have worked quite well. I agree that those that doesn't know it well may have trouble but it's like learning any language or even a musical instrument, once you learn a few notes you can eventually play a tune.

Good luck with scripting once you get the hang of it you can do some crazy great stuff.

I had a feeling it was the lack of visual feedback that was the detourant.

I don't use Max so I can't craft up anything that would be application specific. However, it should be possible to illustrate the process using existing assets.

I don't want to derail this thread any farther so we can discuss this in a new thread or you can wait a few days to give me time to draft something up.

The one thing that D3 has over other editors is that changes are instant and in real time. and can be readily seen as to where some editors you can only see lighting in the game only. half-life is one example.
I'm glad to see and hear feedback on 'LEVEL EDITING' in any way shape or form, I will acknowledge however that if your script is wrong at any point it just won't work and what's cool is the editor will tell you what's wrong. how cool is that. I'm amazed the folks at ID got it all to work in the first place.

F2 F3 and F7+F6 works great when editing. for seeing changes. the other night I spent over an hour just getting the camera angle right of the EH ship coming out of the wormhole into the alternate universe.
D3 editing is great stuff but sometimes it takes the right moment to understand it. at first I had no clue a year later it all hit me and was just like walking and breathing eating and shitting. I thought unreal ed was cool but D3 really is where it's at. as for derailing the thread rich no worries, I like hearing how everyone is doing and what their thoughts are on what's going on in which if I can help I will best that I can. also seeing interest in this thread helps me knowing that others are interested in learning as well as trying new things that may be possible yet hard to do. like cinematics. so everyone that has commented here I appreciate your
thoughts, opinions and questions.
Best to all and everyone, got something to say let's hear it.
I'd also like to thank everyone for their support as It keeps me motivated in finishing this project
Rock and Roll!

Thanks, Rich. Any help is really going to be appreciated.



I'm sorry I seem have to taken your thread a tad off-topic - if Rich thinks it's best to continue this particular discussion (getting max cinematics to work in Doom3) then I'll leave it up to him to start up a new thread when/if he can put a small tutorial together on it. On the other hand, since we have a discussion going here - and you don't seem to mind - we could all just stay here and see this thread updated as we move forward... Thanks for being understanding, bladeghost. I really do admire your work and your initiative with Doom3Editor. Your mod looks absolutely stunning.

Thanks bud! I do recommend you take some time to learn a little bit of scripting , it's really not that diffucult to do some simple things and it really is a lot of fun, best luck with it.
few things are used more often than others like, well here's some that I use often as an example.




Here's a new screen I kinda like and thought I'd share it.


more later on....

Ok progress report, after watching the movie again and then running through the mod up to about 70% in the mod completed, I realized 2 things, one is that since this is a single player game the story will be different and ambience is king. some areas actually had me on my toes especially in the EH ship itself.
The other is since it's a doom 3 mod I can take the story in a different direction and create many unexpected elements. That's half the fun. Currently working on the foward decks of the eh ship soon starting to rebuild the medical area then the bridge and beyond. there's still many things to make like loading screens, objectives may not be necessary but we'll see. and some models and a few more cinematics. but as I rewrite the story for a (single player game) it's getting there.

Excellent, can't wait til it's finished.

Not sure if this good news or not but I plan on making a multiplayer map of the Event Horizon ship as well, possibly as a seperate download as the single player is already at about 65mb.

also heres a shot of medical...





Have a great one...

Here's a shot of the multiplayer on the bridge of the EH, my first multiplayer map so we'll see how this goes.