Ahhh... So he should click the Check For Update Button in the Blender Source Tools panel and make sure he's using the most up to date plug in. (Which will install automatically after clicking the button)

Are you sure those were corrupted of did you do a new UnWrap.

nope, I said the Influences Over condition should abort and not produce SMDs, nothing about the things not compliant to the source engine at all. But, the tools currently does what you want it to and I said I'm happy with it the way it is. So, nothing to complain about. (LOL)

Originally posted by Zappy:

Absolutely not. Even outside of Source 2-related things, there are several cases where having a DMX file with more than 3 bone influences for a vertex is useful (e.g. for exporting... well, a DMX file with more than 3 bone influences per vertex).

Where? If you try to compile a DMX or a SMD where there are influences over 3, StudioMDL will belch and the model won't compile. I don't see your logic in that statement.

The model has to be fixed either by culling out the influences on a DMX export or limiting or deleting influences through weigh painting on SMD exports.

Over 3, No Compile, the SMDs created in the export are usless and you already have the model open in Blender for editing. So what's the point of creating bad SMDs/VTAs?

What I would like to see is a influence culling slider in BleST for SMD exports. That would be my only request on this matter.

Originally posted by Zappy:

For most of this thread, I've fought for the argument that the Blender Source Tools should import (and also export) SMDs even if they're not going to be compatible with Source as long as the SMD format itself is valid, and the very same definitely goes for DMX in my opinion.

I thought I just proved that it does.

Originally posted by Zappy:

No, it doesn't. (The Blender Source Tools will give you a warning on export, but still lets you export it. StudioMDL itself will prohibit you from compiling models using DMX meshes with more than 3 bone links for a vertex, however.)

Ok, now I understand what you're saying and you are correct. However, "as an experienced user", I know that if I get that "Warning" I have to fix it before the model will compile.

The "Influence Over" warning should actually be an error and BleST should punch out without exporting. But this would be a workflow process and would only save the amount of time that it takes to do the export the bad SMDs. I have no problem with it the way it is. The model is either going to compile or not and I'll get the "Error" from StudioMDL if it doesn't.

Originally posted by Zappy:

It doesn't stop you from importing or exporting DMX models with more than 3 bone links per vertex for Source 1 games, for example.

It doesn't?? Any time I have a model that has over 3 influences and I try to export it, BleST will throw a "Warning" and not do it until I either cull out the influences on a DMX export or fix the influences on a SMD export by limiting the number or deleting the overages. If I decompile a Valve model and import it, there aren't any influences over 3. At least not in any model I've worked with. So I'm not really getting what you're trying to say here.

Originally posted by Zappy:

Exactly. We don't have one, so we instead get DMX -> VTX(?) -> SMD,

DMX or (MDL/VTX/VVD) > SMD/VTA

Originally posted by Zappy:

and if the DMX has more than 128 bones, the Source engine model will too, and so will the
decompiled SMD, and then the Blender Source Tools can't import the SMD,
because it has over 128 bones and Source doesn't suppor that, despite there being no bone amount restriction in the SMD format itself. There's not really any reason to prohibit that (unless there are, like, over 2^32 bones or something like that, or something else that Blender itself doesn't support).

And i don't know what your're talking about here either.

I ported this Batman model that has 207 in it using the DMX export process culling out the over 3 bone influences. The resulting Valve model ended up with 171 bones because StudioMDL culled out the bones that were not directly connected to another bone or had no mesh attached to it in the optimization process.

I used Crowbar to decompiled the MDL/VTX/VVD combination (which it did happily and with warnings or errors) and reimported the decompiled SMD files back into Blender using BleST.

I used the QC as the import option and here's the result...

https://i.imgur.com/HY4SYvT.png

The only "non"- problem I had was BleST "warning" me that SMD Format does not support over 128 bones, but the model imported correctly, all 171 bones are there and weightpainted correctly.

Originally posted by Zappy:

The SMD mesh format itself isn't technically restricted in such a way, so putting such a restriction on a SMD importer/exporter seems fairly silly to me.

You have to remember that the SMD format has been around forever with Valve models growing in size and version (TitanFall I believe is a Vers 53 type model) and we saw the breakdown in the model decompilers as the versions changed (cannonfodder's and the hexed version of cannonfodders, etc.) Rather than edit StudioMDL to have the SMD type grow with the models versions, Valve went to the new model type that was less restrictive and hence the DMX model was born and was added to the StudioMDL compiler. I think we're lucky they didn't come out with a brand new compiler or we'd still be stuck.

We need a decompiler that will actually create a DMX source model, but I don't think that is going to happen any time soon. Crowbar is currently the best decompiler out there and Blender Source Tools is the best modeling tool we have for editing models.

Zeq and Artfunkle are dedicated coders and keep their tools up to date with the changing technology AND they keep their work free to us users. I don't think there is any we can complain about with these tools and they require our deepest thanks for their efforts.

By the way, for those that don't know, Artfunkle has updated BleST to 2.10 and it now works withthe newest version of Blender 2.79a .

256 with DMX files

Excellent, Thanks Artfunkle!

<< stands back and takes his other foot out of mouth... YET AGAIN! The taste of leather still fresh in his mouth from the last time..>>

I could have sworn the last time I tried 2.10 in 2.79a the custom normals were there AND there were doubles. I must have grabbed it (or his master) as he was still testing and installed that one instead of this one.

Thanks Zappy... One thing though, I'm not use to seeing Valve SMD model import this sharp. Guess it's something I'll have to get use to. But, there must be some reason why he hasn't released 2.10 to the public yet. Both the official Blender Source Tools website and the Check for Update Button still reveal 2.9.1 as the official release.