Aleist3r's Modding Utils

Discussion in 'Maps, Textures, and Graphics' started by Aleist3r, Apr 6, 2025.

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  1. Aleist3r

    Aleist3r Member

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    I'm probably late to the party by like a decade or two but whatever, let's roll with it :D.

    So, what is this exactly?
    Recently, I've finally started working on a certain project I wanted to do for a long time. With that, I came up with some with some utils to improve my work environment, and since I'm mostly (barring some excepts) in favor of FOSS I've decided to make them public.
    What does it contain (ongoing list):
    • 010 Editor Templates & Scripts : .DAG template, .SKM template
    • Tools source code: DAG to Wavefront obj converter, DAG header parser (very limited use since I just needed tool to print file names of clipping files that contains more than 1 object when I was making 010 Editor template; apparently there's none but I've added its source code regardless); next on 'to make' list would probably be Wavefront obj to DAG
    • Blender map template: currently my main focus, a setup made to allow to render sequence of 256x256 map images (art/ground/); I am working on some prefabs based on pre-existing ToEE maps - there's some untextured ones already included in .blend file (todo: materials, either procedural shaders or from some images or both); attachment is a (kinda low effort) example of new map render

    Link: https://github.com/Alyst3r/ToEE-Modding-Assets
     

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    Last edited: Apr 11, 2025
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  2. Endarire

    Endarire Ronald Rynnwrathi

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    Thankee! Alleluia!

    What are your long-term plans for this tool?
     
  3. Buffed Rabbit

    Buffed Rabbit Established Member

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    I will keep a close look for further updates, ty!
     
  4. Aleist3r

    Aleist3r Member

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    Honestly I don't have any concrete plan since I just add stuff I need in a given moment :D. But, for now I'd say it's probably to finish prefabs in that Blender file so people can fairly easily render new backgrounds (and for example re-render original ToEE/Co8 ones to use higher quality jpegs?).
    In the long term I'd like to have some additional tools for SKM/SKA (I don't use 3ds Max at all ;]) since I know I will need some custom assets (for example, intellect devourer model is unavoidable in my project).

    As a small bonus, to give you a small example of my workflow in Blender when I'm trying to recreate stuff from existing backgrounds, as you can see on attached image, I basically import every background tile (in camera view so they're automatically at correct angle) and relevant clipping files converted from DAG to Blender and start from there - but since clipping files are simplified in many places and background details are hard to decipher sometimes, there's a lot of creative guessing what's going on with some parts :D.
    Second image is a quick render of untextured piece of `art\ground\Map12-temple-dungeon-level-1`, camera set in the middle between 001E0024 and 001E0025.
     

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  5. dolio

    dolio Established Member Supporter

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    You might already know this, but there's some work on blender import/export for skm/ska here. It's somewhat bit rotted and not quite right at the moment. I've been fiddling with it recently, but I barely know anything about blender or 3d modelling in general. I have to look up tutorials just to figure out how to see the animations it's imported and such.

    It might help if someone who actually knows what they're doing could look at the results and advise what seems to be wrong. At least, after I get my changes for it to run on the latest blender submitted back.
     
  6. Endarire

    Endarire Ronald Rynnwrathi

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    How fluent are you in making ToEE-style backgrounds, like Hommlet?

    Thankee!
     
  7. Aleist3r

    Aleist3r Member

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    Shouldn't be too much of a problem, modelling assets at least - nailing overall style when comes to material/textures may take a bit more work since I didn't really figure out good workflow for that yet. Also, despite having a bit of experience in 3d modelling (as a hobby but I started way back in 2008 I think; as a side side note, you can see some of my 3d models in TES3 Morrowind mods like Tamriel Rebuild or Project: Cyrodiil), I'm not really much of a texture artist and struggle with that to this day ;]. Oh, and I still need to figure out proper light settings for scene so renders look ok.

    Ah yeah, I know it, just never really used it since it didn't seem to be useful in my case (I've returned to ToEE modding fairly recently, last time I've really dug in that stuff was probably 5 or so years ago and I didn't really think about making new models back then). Grabbed myself copy of 2.93 and addon to get human model imported to the template so I can approximate scale I need to use for that map template .blend and stuff. Theres a couple things that feel a bit clunky in that version or don't really work that well (or at all, like you can set forward and up axes but it only applies to model not armature, creating eldritch horrors when anims are playing; there's some more things but I think it's not really a thread for that ;]).

    ///Edit: pushed .SKM template for 010 Editor, a bit unfinished but functional. Next thing to do would probably be to make one for .SKA and update .SKM one ;].
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2025
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