Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

Custom Model Depot Yard

Trouble Shootings for Modeling

"OMG! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?"

I can not remember how often I have said the above words. Yes, still saying that. But the activity of the modeling for a half of year, I have earned some know-hows. If you are a new challanger of modeling, my knowledgements may help you. I hope so, hope so.

Troubles in ET:
Checking the console log first!
Black and yellow texture appears instead of your image file.
The model does not appear.
The XYZ orientations appear instead of your model.
ET crashes when the model you made should be rendered.
The player model looks floating or sinking!
WTF!? My player model is collapsed but it looked well before exporting to mds!!

Troubles in Exporting:
When you export skl from max, max says that error occured and closes.
In max, the model has several objects, but exported model has only 1 object.
Some md3 exporters of max have issue.

Troubles in ET

Checking the console log first!

Generally if errors occured while loading model data, console log displays those.

In this situation, ET failed to find the image file for accessory and body because of missing of skin file and path to non-existing files. The console log is extremely useful for us to shoot the bugs. If you have problems in game, check console log first.

Black and yellow texture appears instead of your image file.


This means that ET failed to find the shader to object(s). The model data holds its shader info in it, but almost models has nothing about it. So we need to define their shader by using the skin file. Check your definition file has proper path or name. The skin filename must be modelname_classname.skin if your player model name is modelname.mdm. For other models, like helmets or accesseries, the md3 also needs the skin files. If model name is modelname.md3, the skin file must be modelname.skin.

The model does not appear.


Looks like no errors but your model does not be seen, its reason can be that skin file exists correctly but defines the non-existing image file. Check the console log and the skin file descriptions. One more thing you must remember that the image width and height to be used as texture must be the numbers powered by 2. e.g. 512*512 or 128*256 are OK but 384*512 and 64*768 are NG.

The XYZ orientations appear instead of your model.


This will occur when the model file is not found. Check your definition files such as .char or .skin.

ET crashes when the model you made should be rendered.

This will occur when your model data has invalid value. e.g. too large bounding box otherwords too far vertices, negative value which must be positive( bone length, index number as well ). These invalid values are almost generated when the model data is converted, also may be done by my mdstool. There are a little ways to correct this. Preventing the models from converting will do but you can not use the model in wanted format.

The player model looks floating or sinking!

This is caused if the mdx information is not compatible for your player model. The default mdx is best for the models which are similar to the default models. Their height is 80 in max unit. You can correct this by modification of mdx. My mdstool supports mdx adjustment and rescaling. But other problem will happen with mdx modification. Using the different mdx costs more memory. Thus your player model can be hard to use for low power PC users.

WTF!? My player model is collapsed but it looked well before exporting to mds!!

Be easy first. This can be caused if you rescaled the models which had been already physiqued with the biped. I think this it the 3ds max bug or problem of the export-skelton plugin. So you should adjust your model size before physique. My mdstool supports to rescale mdm and mdx though I can not recommand this way because the rescaled model may look something weird...

Troubles in Exporting

When you export skl from max, max says that error occured and closes.

The indicator of progress goes for some point and but max closes... This can be caused if your player model has too many vertices. I do not know the precise number of max vertices, though models with over 2000 vertices always fails to be exported, a 1500 vertices model can be exported. So make sure that your model has lower vertex(or poly?) counts as possible as it can. Of course lower poly design tech required.

In max, the player model has several objects, but exported model has only 1 object.

This is caused if you forgot to assign the unique material number to each object. The sklout plugin regards the obejects which has the same material number as one united object. Thus although the objects has the same material, the material number must be different each other. e.g. u_body assigned 1, u_lfthand 2, u_rthand 3, l_legs 4.

Some md3 exporters of max have issue.

This is not a common problem, but for the some max plugins which enable to export md3. The plugins which do not require the setting of texture file path will implant the texture file path which is currently used in md3. If md3 is loaded in ET, the texture file must be in /etmain/ subdirectories, so path must be such as "models/players/temperate/somemodel/". Although if you work on the different folder structure, the texture file path will not point the correct path with those plugins. This can be corrected with using the skin file. However error message remains in console, but the texture applied by refering the skin file. For more info about the skin file, here.

How can I handle MDC?

MDC is a model data like md3 but compressed. Its benefit is saving some memory, however, not much memory. A man of SD said that you should not bother with mdc, just use md3. mdc is slightly difficult to use than md3 because not so popular. Rather than using mdc, md3 prefered clearly.