AT FIRST.... When I first starting thinking about importing this map into Swat3, I began thinking about ways to get the map into WorldCraft 3.3. At First, I was going to import the map similar to how I did the RS Ravenshield Island_Estate map; Open the WetWork map into the COD4 map editor "Radiant" then by using the open map as reference begin building the geometry, in WC. I finished about 50% of the map and took a break from it.
Currently I have recently discovered a neat program that allows me to capture all the geometry and create an OBJ file for me to open and view in Maya 6.0. The captured OBJ file comes complete with texture assignments, and every visible aspect of the map, including my hands and the gun I was using(for future GunMods). With this new file I began my redo of the Wetwork map for Swat3, to make an accurate depiction of the map geometry.
This Thread will take you thru the entire process of the "Making of Wetwork for Swat3"
I broke down the entire process into steps and sections that I am still tweeking along the way. Here they are in the roughest form.
Step 1. Import the map into Maya 6.0 Step 2. Begin Recreating geometry in Maya 6.0 Step 3. Export a New OBJ file to import into Blender, then export to MAP for WC Step 4. Open MAP into WC and prepare the map for a Swat 3 compile
Each step has alot of extra steps to prepare the file for the next step, that will be described in other posts to this thread, until the posts are somewhat finished and until I need some public assistance I will close this thread.
Join me thru this fun project, any contributions will definitely be credited in the readme.txt file for the map.
Want to Help? I am tossing this out in the open to see if anyone is interested in helping me out with the map, there are a lot of huge tasks that still need to be done. Here are a few of them. 1. Create scenario for the map, complete with storyline, characters, dialog, and entry points, and character start positions. 2. Lighting, what map doesn't need good lighting. 3. Texture alignment 4. LitActor Creation for some objects such as lights, cooling fans, and computer equipment that is too small or complicated to recreate in WC.
I hope you enjoy reading and following this project as much as I do creating it.
The process of capturing the geometry straight from COD4 is a rather contraversial one, because of the nature of the export. In order to create an accurate depiction several steps were needed.
Step 1. Capture Geometry Open 3dRipperDX, adjust settings, and start the WetWork map in multiplayer. Once the map is open, move to a spot in the map where most of the geometry will be captured, for me it was toward the front tip and another capture in the back tip of the boat and my gun was perpindicular to the floor. Hit your capture key and F12, wait till the capture is finished, and close COD4.
Step 2. Remove unecesary data from the newly created OBJ file by importing the file into blender, then exporting the OBJ file again with the options "sort geometry by Material", this will combine all geometry that uses the same texture, this came in handy later when sorting objects and removing large amounts of effects like the rain drops, that obscure almost the entire boat.
Step 3. Open the OBJ file in Maya 6.0, and begin the alignment and preparation, depending on the angle you captured the geometry in that angle will distort the geometry in that direction, before proceeding you must first, square the map and size to a Maya-friendly-and-usable-size. I spent about a few hours getting it just right. any fractional alignment problems here, will give you problems later.
Step 4. After the Alignment was done, I began sorting geometry into Layers like, Containers, floors, walls, objects, doors, etc. (even rain and splash effects) to help me hide objects, for my next step.
When I was satisfied with my import, I saved as a Maya .mb file.
DateStamp for this Step Date Started: December 24, 2010 Date Finished: Decmber 25, 2010
COD4 WetWork Progress Step 2. Recreating Geometry in Maya 6.0
Now....you've probably asked yourself,
Why not export like this to Swat3? There are problems with the geomtery that when exported to Swat3 will be nothing but a huge waste of HD space.
During the process of doing just that ^^ (hehe) I was trying to figure out if at least could I export some kind of geomtery from Maya 6.0 that WorldCraft would not complain about. After a few minutes I found that Maya 6.0 will export brushes or should I say? 6 sided geometry(boxes).
Now that I have a working import with sorted-by-layer geometry, I can begin to recreate New WorldCraft-Friendly Geometry right on top of the old. The Plan was to methodically recreate the geomtery starting from objects like floors, outside shell, and working my way up to walls, and to the different floors the front and back have, ultimately, any object large enough to create in Maya that WC will not complain about, and finally placement holders for things such as doors, windows, and the containers on deck, that I will create later in WC.
Recreating the geomtery took me about 11 days, more or less. In total was about 12 increment file saves. When I was satisfied with my file, I saved and exported to an OBJ file for my next step.
DateStamp For Step Date Started: December 25, 2010 Date Finished: January 8, 2011
COD4 WetWork Progress Step 3. Export New OBJ file and Import into Blender then Export to MAP for WorldCraft
Blender is a powerfull FREE program, it allows me to convert 3d files and clean up 3d files, in this step it will be used to convert the OBJ file to a MAP file so I can open it up with WC, the native mapping TOOL for Swat 3.
This step is a rather tricky one, for several reasons. 1. One reason is the textures. Now, we lost all the texture assingments when we recreated the Geomtery in the last step, and reassingning them in MAYA won't help in the initial final OBJ Export, to assign a texture to the geomtry so that WC can texture all geomtery for us, we need to select a texture benificial to the Swat3 map. The clip_invis texture is the best option here since any texture not visible by the player should not be rendered.
2. The second reasone is what ever version of the export I use here will have to remain the final MAP export used to prepare it for Swat 3. (With that said)
3. The size will have to be tested extensively to get the right size before prceeding. For these reasons I am stuck and need your help. Resizing in blender before exporting to MAP will set the overall size of the map, I will need to create a testmap just for testing the size of the map. I have generalized the amount to increase the size in percentage to 50%, I will post the testmap here for any of you following along that have played COD4 WetWork to test.
Very cool looking. I don't recall this map so I guess I have to google it. I assume the mission takes place at sea with water all around? If so that would help with polygon count, lol.
I have tested the map size, myself and with a little help from my brother, who plays and manages the DnC Cod4 server. The .MAP file is close to the original as it is going to get, if I need to resize any further it will have to be in WC.
Step 4. Open MAP into WC and prepare the map for a Swat 3 compile
At this phase I need to prepare the map for a Swat 3 build. The process I am going to use is similar to the MAYA build process in Step 1. There are some differences though. 1. WC is a bit easier when it comes to duplicating, rotating, and flipping the geomtery. 2. About 98% of the geomtery does NOT have to be recreated. 3. Grouping is done by creating Vis Groups, to allow for easy viewing of objects while working on the map. 4. I can test my progress by creating increment builds.
While the initial MAP export file Open looks good, there are initial problems that I needed to fix before the map is somewhat ready for textures objects and a scenario. I have generalized these steps in a rough draft of my process.(More like a ramble, lol)
Problem 1: Some Geomtery will not build because of a Brush error, the majority of the brush errors are caused by 1 unit geomtery is too small and or is not snapped to grid. Example: Stair Cases Solution: Fix all Brush errors by Grouping the objects by problematic geometry, and running consecutive builds to determine which geomtery is causing a problem and repair as needed.
Problem 2: During the rebuild and export it was expected that the geomtery will not all line up properly, Solution: As I am working on the map, I will need to work floor by floor and wall by wall until eventually it is a squared up and sealed. This task is very easy, but time consuming.
Problem 3: Also during the rebuild and export it was expected that the Textures will not be assigned. Solution: Remember that the initial Import of the COD4 map into MAYA, was fully textured, using that file open I can go thru and texture the mapin WC. This is the fun part and where I leave you in this post for now.
"Problem 1." in my last post has been done. I am now able to succesfully do a swat3 map build with all of the geomtery ported.
During the process I managed to Texture the majority of the remaining geomtery since my last pic.
The map plays beautifully despite I had WC and Maya open at the same time.
At this point in the whole process, the map looks pretty good, I might start to put together a public beta test, and add some lighting, sounds and effects,
Here are the next steps I am currently working on for my next post.
Step 1. Texture the Pipes and Sails, and test. Step 2. Align geometry and texture any missed faces. Step 3. Begin opening the floors by adding door openings and door trim. I decided to do this now because before it would have taken me a long time to find the brush errors, had I done them in the maya rebuild, also to save polygons. Step 4. Add geomtery for the railing along the roof tops, decks and center Islands. Adding these after the initial import into WC I can estimate how many polygons can be assigned to em. Step 5. Begin adding objects to deck and rooms, keeping an eye on the polygon count.
Polygon Count: The polygon count of the entire map is starting to get up there. I have created a list of objects, that may be candidates for a reduce session. Here they are. 1. Using reduced doors by adding a targa file with a negative alpha window. The doors that are open and/or CAN be opened will for now be fully detailed, but the doors that are not open, and can't be opened will be less detailed
2. remove unecessary polys on floors. Some floors for the purpose of keeping a symetrical shape were mirrored in MAYA, these floors now can be reduced to one brush.
3. Use 1 brush for the containers that are closed The small containers and the open large containers will be detailed, everything else one brush(box) maybe some detail.
I have finished Steps 1 - 4 in the previous post, and will be begining to add objects to the deck and rooms.
