Sig 552 animation

I had very little free time lately ...
I made the animation of arms for the knife and I completed the idle, attack, drop, raise, reload1, reload2, reloadfast1 animations for sig552 that is the weapon which is my favorite weapon .
The scale I'm using for arms and weapons is 80% of the real (the unit I used are cm) and it seems very similar to the original.
I'm also experiencing a bit the use of additional tags to see if you can find new solutions.
I must admit that some things are not clear to me (for example some animations as "raise" and "drop" seem handled from cqb via code)
However, the objective of this first implementation is not to make a realistic animation, but check if the scale/point of view that I have chosen is correct, check if I can save polygons and solve potential export problems.
Unfortunately, in these early attempts to use the new arms in CQB I have the old VirtualAlloc problem when the map is changed ... :(

Anyway here is some not ingame animated gif.
The sig 552 model is not mine (coming from the CQB package, a great & clean mesh btw).

CQB arms

A long time without news ...
Right now I am working to create new arms for CQB using a greater number of polygons so that they look more attractive. The very first attempt produced an error when the maps change (ERROR: VirtualAlloc failed commit.) probably because I used too many polygons but after a quick optimization seems to work. I still have to fix the exact position and the materials but I am optimistic about the final result
It's only the initial stage and is yet to be optimized, but these are a couple of renderings just to give an idea.

arm-->  tris:687, verts:349
pad --> tris:326, verts:211
glove--> tris:1238, verts:621

Z_CQB_animations

I have released a very experimental package with some new animations optimized for cqb 0.224/cqb_dim
The animations are NOT yet ready to use.
I released in case someone wants to play around and experiment a little.The content needs a really serious tuning (even to identify the number of correct frames) because there is a lot of possible combinations.

The "cqb" prefix means that is new or made for CQB while the "etl" prefix is the remake of an original animation. For example, the file cqb_common contains two animations that can be used in the limbo menu (cqb_menu_idle, cqb_menu_lookweap).

It would be interesting try to add new impacts point or enemy positions that at the moment are:
impact_point -> head, gut, groin, chest, shoulder_right, shoulder_left, knee_right, knee_left
enemy_position -> infront, behind

For death animations I am a little in trouble because I don't understand how & where are used the animations with "dead" prefix and a single frame (I only realized that are played at the end of the death animations) --> dead_machinegun_1, dead_machinegun_2, dead_gut.
I also try to force the original name and don't use the etl prefix in the etl_death.aninc and comment lines in body.aninc but strange things happen...
Probably I'll also add some ostages/civilians/zombie animations in the future.

ETL & CQB files

CQB_players package update

I have released a new version of the CQB_players package that replaces the previous one although progress are few (improved rig model, recalculated the normals, added few accessories and some improved texture)
There are two versions of the model player (with and without tactical pouch) to allow some experimentation to attach the equipment via tags (there are also separate kneepads for the same reason)
I decided to append the release date to the name in order to manage future updates more easily .

ETL & CQB files

First animations

I spent very little time this months and I've had little progress although quite relevant. Finally, I exported and tested successfully an animation in CQB (a new knife set animation) and it seems that that the neck deformation area was much better. It's very positive because it means that all problems should be solved and I can start doing more bodys and start seriously with the animations (though I'll have to redo the rig). Now the only problem left is to find the time. This is a shot of the new idle knife animation ...

Since realizing animations without using a motion capture gives satisfaction but it is very complex & tedious (currently I'm redoing a "pain/death set" animations) I break a little trying to complete this old projet (this "bad guy" is from "Wargames" - 1983). Maybe it can be used as objective...
 

Finally...

Finally I should be able to share something with the ETL\CQB dev team. Nothing special, it's just my working copy, but it might be interesting for someone to give a look and maybe make some experiments. The content of the packages is still at an early stage and it's very rough. Nothing is completed and there is still much to do but it can be a starting point. I decided to work on ETL and CQB at the same time even if it was much more time expensive, hoping in this way to increase the opportunities of collaboration and feedback. I decided to release 2 packages (ETL/CQB) under Creative Common by-nc-nd license, which include all models, textures and future animations but the content cannot be distributed separately.
Any copyleft (or creative common licensed) contribution will be truly appreciated and will be added to the package giving all credits to the author (look at README file inside for details) otherwise if someone wants to use "non-approved materials", he/she must make a further separate pk3, to overwrite the mine for the parts of no interest.

Notes and bugs for the Z_ETL_player package:
- headset and accessories need to be completed
- the models maybe need to be scaled because they seem to be lightly smaller
- problem related to the neck deformation (even if I can minimize it with a better rig of the model, the definitive solution is to remake from scratch the animations)

Bugs for the Z_CQB_player package (tested with TCE):
- Sniper2 ignore the configuration and use same cap of Assault1
- md3_rank --> why use same md3_hat model in the .skin file? null.md3 --> works!

Bugs for the Z_CQB_player package (tested with CQB_DIM):
- lean left/right has different angle inclination (you can see it with cg_thirdperson 1, probably not related with the Z_CQB_player package)
- no blood when you damage a player (probably not related with the Z_CQB_player package)
- missing headset model or texture for all players
- all allied players use the same head (Assault1)
- all axis players use the same head (Assault1)

In the "source" directory you can find:
- reference of model texture
- ambient occlusion of the model
- .skl file (very useful to see how a correct skl file is made)
- .mds file
- .mdm file (with right tag orientation)
- .mdx file (just 10 frames of the animation that I use for rig the player model)

Maybe it would be interesting to give a modern look to the ETL mdm player and a WWII look to the CQB mdm player ...

WW2 allied airborne model

I have been very busy in the last period but I have made some progresses. The model of the allied paratrooper is finished and the textures are well under way although I'm not completely satisfied, because - for budget reasons - I had to delete the shoulder straps and paint them on the texture. I found a very low limit for all the polygons body models (I think due to export plugins) ... it's around 1600 verts or 3050 tris.

The specops model for CQB is also finished and the texture almost completed.

I'm putting what I did in order and soon I should be able to release two packages to be shared with the CQB\ETL dev team. The content of the packages is still at an early stage: it's very rough and there are still some problems (for example, the ones related to the neck deformation, which I previously written of). All the textures are hand painted and improvable, it is necessary to make more head models (also with face animations) and more body models, synchronize the arms models increasing the number of their polygons, make the tuning of the models rig, check the tag position and of course all the mdx animations from scratch. For the ETL package, headset and accessories are missing, and the models need to be scaled because they seem to be lightly smaller. I tried to maintain compatibility with the original asset, but it was not always possible. I decided to work on CQB and ETL at the same time even if it was much more time expensive, hoping in this way to increase the opportunities of collaboration and feedback. Nothing is completed and there is still much to be done but it can be a starting point.