Using Blender for Doom 3 or Id Tech 4 Models

[Simon Riley]

I'm a little bit of a cheapskate, so I've been looking for ways to import MD5 models into blender.  I have a basic understanding of Blender, and I've figured out how to import Source Filmmaker models.  From what it looks like, it seems like the addons for Id Tech 4 are hard to come by, but I've eventually succeeded.

 

 

I first tried importing Doomguy into blender, and after attaching some image textures, it looks like this:

 

 

After removing some of the excess meshes, he looks like this.  I haven't been able to find the textures for eyes or anything else like that.

 

 

Unfortunately, he has the messiest skeleton I've ever seen in a blender file. 

 

 

I then tried importing the imp, but it came up with an error, and only the bones showed up.

 

 

 

The Hell Knight turned out fine, though, and I could import its animation and replay it.

 

 

But the skeleton also looks needlessly complex and messy as well:

 

 

So my question is, is there a better way to import models into blender?  And if I were to import a model from somewhere else like source filmmaker and port it to Doom 3, would it work?  I'm a beginner at both game modding and Blender, so bear with me.

[Arl]

Most of the time you won't have a neutral pose (or T-pose) importing the model. When this happens, I try to look for the AF (articulated figure) animation file, that's the pose developers used to make the AF on top of the model in order to have that model 'ragdolliced'. That's one of the reasons for the skeleton being a mess, not a coherent pose right from the start.

 

The other reason is simple: What you have is not a development file, you have the final result of someone who worked in that skeleton with inverse kinematics and left a lot of control bones for this, and also the relationship between bones got lost. Only original production files in their original modeling program would have a coherent data to work with.

[Simon Riley]

  On 4/18/2018 at 3:22 AM, Arl said:

Most of the time you won't have a neutral pose (or T-pose) importing the model. When this happens, I try to look for the AF (articulated figure) animation file, that's the pose developers used to make the AF on top of the model in order to have that model 'ragdolliced'. That's one of the reasons for the skeleton being a mess, not a coherent pose right from the start.

 

The other reason is simple: What you have is not a development file, you have the final result of someone who worked in that skeleton with inverse kinematics and left a lot of control bones for this, and also the relationship between bones got lost. Only original production files in their original modeling program would have a coherent data to work with.

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Ah, so if I were to make a model like I would normally do, make some animations, and export it to MD5, it would function just fine?

 

Kinda interesting that it works that way.  The Source engine models I've imported were far cleaner, with a few glitches now and then.  Maybe they created those models with the assumption that gamers would want to use them in animations?  Or to make it easier to animate trailers?

Edited April 18, 2018 by Mike Anderson

[Arl]

  On 4/18/2018 at 8:22 PM, Mike Anderson said:

 

Ah, so if I were to make a model like I would normally do, make some animations, and export it to MD5, it would function just fine?

 

Kinda interesting that it works that way.  The Source engine models I've imported were far cleaner, with a few glitches now and then.  Maybe they created those models with the assumption that gamers would want to use them in animations?  Or to make it easier to animate trailers?

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Yes, it would. Making something from scratch is easier than to work with the imported models.

 

Well, I don't know with Valve, but in Id the development of Doom 3 seemed a bit messy, and the leftovers in the game files tells it.

[Simon Riley]

And as mildly annoyed as I am that I couldn't find the eye textures, imported Doomguy does look like he just picked up an invincibility sphere  :3

[Arl]

  On 4/20/2018 at 3:43 AM, Mike Anderson said:

And as mildly annoyed as I am that I couldn't find the eye textures, imported Doomguy does look like he just picked up an invincibility sphere  :3

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"pak002.pk4\models\characters\common"

 

There you'll find the textures for eyes, tongue and teeth.