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Full process for Stage Conversion (Project:M)

Seetoe

Seetoe

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Alamogordo, NM
Hey there, I've been trying for the last few months to put together some custom stages for Project:M, and would really appreciate any help people can give on the subject!
I'm really enthusiastic about creating quality custom content for the game, but I've been running into a lot of information walls when it comes to the process.





I have these stages fully built in blender and maya that are essentially done, skinned and mapped and ready to go through the importation process, but can't seem to find any information on how to get them into brawlbox, and from there, into the game. From what little I know, they seem to need conversion into mdl0 files, from there they can be recognized by brawlbox and manipulated.

Specific information I'm missing:

- Conversion of Maya/Blender scenes into .mdl0 files
- Importation and manipulation in brawlbox
- Creating custom collision info
- Exporting all of this data into the game

Any help or pointers to the right direction would be super appreciated! Thanks!
 
hotdogturtle

hotdogturtle

Smash Master
Joined
Feb 15, 2007
Messages
3,503
All you have to do is export them as a .dae (or I think I remember hearing that .obj works too), and you can import them into BrawlBox.
 
I Myself

I Myself

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
Messages
37
You will need to export your stages as COLLADA .dae files (there is a plugin for Maya that lets you do this). Once you have the .dae, you can replace the contents of the 3DModels folder in the ModelData[#] portion of a stage .pac file via BrawlBox.

However, I have run into issues when using multiple shaders on one piece of geometry wherein BrawlBox creates the model using only the first shader assigned to it. To get around this, I selected faces by shader in Maya, then Mesh->Combined the faces into one piece of geometry. As long as the geometry within your .dae is grouped by shader, you can export the entire stage as one .dae.

As for creating collision data, just use BrawlBox to preview the blue MiscData[2] file within the stage .pac you inserted your stage into. Once previewing your stage geometry, you can Alt+Click and drag to create new collision data or click and drag to manipulate existing collisions. You'll also have to set various flags for the collisions, such as if they are a left/right ledge, if they can be fallen through, and what kind of footstep sound they should play.

You should also be mindful of the amount of data your stage takes up. Ideally it should be no larger in filesize than the stage you're replacing, and it can be smaller. Larger filesizes may work, but they are not guaranteed. Brawl is very picky about how much space files take up.

At this point I should mention that even after having done all of this, P:M would freeze when I tried to play on the stage I created. I do not know the cause of the freeze, so you may encounter this bug yourself when trying to import your stages into the game.

In any case, I hope most of this is useful to you.
 
Seetoe

Seetoe

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 16, 2013
Messages
21
Location
Alamogordo, NM
Thanks for the help everybody, I'll get to trying some of these solutions out and let you guys know how it goes!

Once I get the entire process figured out, I was thinking about starting a free blog somewhere that shows the entire process so new people dont have to trudge through ancient forum posts and expired megaupload links.

Lakitwo said:
This. Also, what is that first stage from?
Click to expand...

Heckran Cave from Chrono Trigger, a little modified to make it cooler, and put the Masamune in it.

 
Lakitwo

Lakitwo

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jul 19, 2013
Messages
70
Location
Statesboro, GA
NNID
Lakitwo
Seetoe said:
Heckran Cave from Chrono Trigger, a little modified to make it cooler, and put the Masamune in it.
Click to expand...
Oh, nice! I still need to play Chrono Trigger. Anyway, I'll keep my eyes on these stages. I'd love to use them when they're done.
 
Mr.Jackpot

Mr.Jackpot

Smash Lord
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Messages
1,727
Location
WA
Hey, is that the Megaman X stage back from the Smashmods workshop? Welcome back dude!
 
Sixth-Sense

Sixth-Sense

Smash Ace
Joined
Mar 28, 2012
Messages
689
Location
San Francisco, Venezuela (not the famous one)
Seetoe said:
Once I get the entire process figured out, I was thinking about starting a free blog somewhere that shows the entire process so new people dont have to trudge through ancient forum posts and expired megaupload links.
Click to expand...
YES PLEASE, i've wanted to work on stuff like that but i have no idea how, and i'm just starting, now i'm REALLY hyped, oh and again, those stages are ****ing amazing dude
 
\Apples

\Apples

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
488
Location
Kirkland, Washington
Mr.Jackpot said:
Hey, is that the Megaman X stage back from the Smashmods workshop? Welcome back dude!
Click to expand...
Yep. That's the Central Highway stage I was working on forever ago. Seetoe is my roommate and we're working on these stages as a collaboration. :D

If someone can take a look at the most recent .pac for the Heckran Cave and let us know why it freezes the game, let us know please! Because we really don't know what we're looking at here. We've gotten all of the models and textures in there with collision, as well as lights, but we don't know what the problem is.
 
Mr.Jackpot

Mr.Jackpot

Smash Lord
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Messages
1,727
Location
WA
\Apples said:
Yep. That's the Central Highway stage I was working on forever ago. Seetoe is my roommate and we're working on these stages as a collaboration. :D

If someone can take a look at the most recent .pac for the Heckran Cave and let us know why it freezes the game, let us know please! Because we really don't know what we're looking at here. We've gotten all of the models and textures in there with collision, as well as lights, but we don't know what the problem is.
Click to expand...

Have you tried asking Mewtwo2000? I don't know much about stage hacking, but he's probably the most knowledgable stage hacker around.
 
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