Static Models, Maya, & Valve Modeling, Exporting, and Compiling Feb 8 th 2006

Static Models Scene geometry in the Valve system is usually modeled as brushes inside of Hammer However, static geometry can also be designed in a separate modeling program, such as Maya or XSI and brought into your game Valve used XSI to create all the models and animations in the game Half-Life 2 Lets create & import a static Maya model We will model in Maya, export to the.smd file format, then compile into a.mdl

Materials In the Valve system, we do not work with.bmp or.jpg image files, but rather a proprietary Valve file format called.vtf –VMT = Valve Material Defines a shader & its parameters –VTF = Valve Texture Format Stores textures (a lot more on this later!) You can download VTFEdit to take.bmp and.jpg image files to the proprietary.vmt and.vtf Can also use vtex.exe utility (material compiler) –vtex.exe –mkdir –shader VertexLitGeneric image.bmp

SMD File Types SMD file types at your disposal –model_reference.smd Model geometry –model_phy.smd Physics geometry –model_animation_name.smd Bones, skinning id’s, skinning weights, blending matrices … –model_break.smd For breakable models –model_lod.smd For different level of details

Valve & Static Models For a static model we will need to create a reference model and a physics model First, compile the TGA image into a VMF & VTF Your image size needs to be a power of 2, and most typical sizes are 512x512 and 1024x1024 We will use a utility called studiomdl.exe to compile all of our SMD files into a single MDL file that the Valve engine can use When we import these static Maya models we can treat them as entities and interact with them within the IO system

Maya Exporter We need an exporter in order to take a Maya scene and generate the necessary SMD files Use the following helpful link for static model exporting – Download a Maya SMD exporter from – Extract files and copy under the Maya scripts directory You need to replace the existing FileMenu script, so I also copied these files (I am lazy) into the startup folder under the scripts directory When you go into Maya, you will now see a export to SMD menu tab under the File menu

Step 1: Project Settings Set the Maya Project Settings Go to File->Project->Set Select your mod folder For ‘Source Images’ –Type in ‘materialsrc’ For ‘Scenes’ –Type in ‘scenes’ Hit accept

Step 2: Maya Settings Set the Maya world settings Set the Z axis to up and use inches Go to Window->Settings/Preferences- >Preferences Click on Settings Change to Z axis up Change working units to inches

Step 3: Layers We need to make two layers to edit our geometry in: physics and reference Click on Persp/Outliner Go to Panels->Panel->Relationship Editor Pull down ‘Display Layers’ Click on Edit->Create Display Layer Double click on the ‘layer1’ and type ‘reference’ and hit enter Do the same and make a ‘physics’ layer

Step 4: Reference Model Create the geometry (our static model) Go to Create->Polygon Primitives->Cube Click on polyCube1 and make the width, height, and depth be (70, 70, 70) Select pCube, and change the ‘Transform Attributes’ to (0,0,35) The (x,y) plane is the ground, so moving the player up 35 puts its base on the floor

Step 5: Texture Set the texture on the static model Go to Window->Rendering Editors->Hypershade Click on Create->Materials->PhongE Click on Create->2D Textures->File Click on the 2D Texture File object Open your TGA texture under materialsrc folder Drag the 2D Texture File object onto the PhongE object (select ‘Default’) Drag the PhongE model onto the cube you placed in the scene

Step 6: Physics Layer Move the pCube1 and all of its objects to the reference layer Make another cube (no NURBS, or do a conversion from NURBS to polygonal data later) for the physics geometry Move the pCube2 physics object into the physics layer

Step 7: Additional Step Click on the pCube2, i.e. the physics object, and hold down select Click on Edit Polygons->Normals- >Soften/Harden Options Set the angle to 180 and hit apply

Step 8: Exporting Finally, its time to export Go to File->Export SMD Options Under ‘Path Settings’ set (first hit default) –smd/qc path …modelsrc/MyScene.smd –texture path …materialsrc/ Click on OK settings, and then Full Compile This will generate SMD files and your QC file

Step 9: QC File QC files are text files that hold the name of each SMD file and parameters for compiling to a MDL –Read more online about the.qc format Example QC file for us –$modelname "TestScene.mdl" –$scale 1 –$surfaceprop "default" –$keyvalues { "prop_data" { "base" "Wooden.Large" } } –$body "Body" "TestScene" –$sequence idle "TestScene_idle" loop fps 1 –$collisionmodel "TestScene_phy.smd" –{ – $mass 1 – $concave –}

Step 10: MDL Compilation Now, go into the directory that has your.qc file and run the studiomdl.exe program Example: –studiomdl.exe TestScene.qc If your mod was selected as the current mod and you followed the directory instructions, you should now have a.mdl file under your ‘content directory’ in the models folder When you build your textures, the Valve system should have copied the VMT and VTF files into the ‘content directory’ in the materials folder