does anyone have any experience of setting up the Half life 2 export plug-in for maya 2008?

I was going to export my files from maya to xsi, and then export as an smd from there, which worked once, but now i get an unspecified failure when i try exactly the same procedure again. I thought it would be easier if i could just export straight out of maya. Im not very hot though when it comes to knowing where to place things in path destinations and editing command lines and such, which it seems there is a bit of with the hl2 maya plug-in. was hoping someone on here might of done it in the past and be able to help me through it. It took me about 2 weeks to get the studio compiler for source open, and alot of brain frazzling...

oh no, steam and source issues!
nightmares for all!

heheh,

i never used the plug-in for maya, i just learnt xsi
but i assume plug-ins for maya work like the ones for xsi
just find the plug-ins folder and paste the smd exporter there

i remember seeing something about this on the source wiki somewhere... being a wiki i probably won't be able to find it again because i don't know what i searched for when i found it

but, if things are still as they were 6 months ago there are two wikis, one kinda professionally kept, the other kept by typical teen nerds with their oh-i'm-so-cool-i-can-act-like-my-school-bullies-and-speak-in-geek attitude

if you have trouble finding what i'm thinking of i'll see if i can find it again

i remember seeing how the models would be imported with the z and y axis switched... because max and xsi have to have their coordinates the wrong way

as for your unspecified failure error.. that's a bizzare error... you were using crosswalk to talk between the two apps?

---

that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

hi chirone.

i know where your moans and groans come from over valve now! yeah i was using crosswalk. dont know what was goin on there. but in the end i just exported as obj from maya to xsi.


i found a plug in for maya, but the install instructions made my head buzz and my soul frown, so im just goin via xsi instead. after the studiomdl, the guistudioapp, and the vtf edit ive had my fill of downloads that dont seem to get me further than i am already at. had a couple of half success attempts at compiling. got my weapon in the model viewer but with no arm, and no textures. have to make a fresh attempt this week,

just reread your post, maybe it was easier than i thought to install the plug-in,...i do have a nasty habit of making out that things are harder than they actually are... i quite liked the idea of getting some insight into a second 3d package though, so i will stick with the xsi route.

and thanks for offering to look for the plug-in for me, but yeah, i will go xsi. you could fly to england and compile my models for me if its not too much to ask?

sure, are you willing to pay for the tickets? and all the other things i'd have to pay for? :p

i could try to do it for you over the net, but for some reason my mod tool is broken and doesn't realize the smd exporter is there. Haven't bothered to fix this though

since you're going the xsi route last time i checked you could download the trial version of xsi 7 and you get to download the free artists guide to xsi 7 from digital tutors. quite useful. not sure if this changed when they switched from Softimage to Autodesk though

---

that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

yeah ive got the mod tool and the xsi 7 download with the digital tutors. its got a little bit more in there than the noesis videos which i didnt really find helpful in any way. thinking of going back to digital tutors for some more of their stuff. there wasnt as much information in the artists guide to xsi as i would have hoped, but what is their is put across in a very concise, learnable way.


id like to learn how to do the compiling. i have 3 models to put in, and will prob make more but dont want to until i know they will get used. i think once ive compiled correctly a couple of times i'll be confident to know what i make i can add to the 'mod'. and i am getting halfway there, its just getting the texture side of things to work.

as an aside chirone, im often curious, the 'computer skills i should have' bit at the bottom of your posts, is that skills you should have as in supposedly thats the stuff you do know, or, thats all the stuff u want to know?

well, i found the noesis tutorial that told you how to export the model as an smd quite helpful
although i often forgot the procedure because there are so freken many folders and files to fool around with and at times i just went to trial and error for the textures

its like.. export smds of these types, then go ahead make a qc file, use that to compile, hope like hell that it compiles, then try to find where the output mdl file is, shove it to where it's meant to go (unless it's there in the right directory by default, i don't remember)
then convert your tga texture file, find where it's output went, make some text file for it, and then trial and error the placements of these files until the texture shows up on the model in model viewer

the best part was when i got a compile error when trying to convert a texture... "BOGUS TGA FILE" or something like that
something totally unhelpful, but i think it referred to the tga file being in the wrong dimensions or something... maybe... it's unknown, no one on the internet knew either

if you're making animated models then... good luck (i don't often say that too)
and.. be glad you aren't doing the programming
it's such a pain when you're doing things that all the teen nerds haven't done before and they get all agro at you for it...



as for my sig... that's all the stuff i do know and have been exposed to at some point
some of those things i was meant to use for a project of some sort, but never actually did, but i did learn a little bit of it
such as Clips, SOAR and FXScript, mainly because those things failed to do what i wanted to do in the short amount of time i had to learn and master it
some of those things i've actually forgotten
(Clips, SOAR, XSLT, CSS, and SQL), the best part is is that all of those things other than CSS and SQL i learnt last year....

none of those things i've actually gotten to the point where i've mastered it to the point where i can produce awesome work that you'd see done by a pro who's been doing it for 5 years. But then i've only had between at least 5 months and 2 years with all that... all stuffed into the past 4 years. What i was doing before that is beyond me...


a side note:
i only got to use Maya for about 3 months between last year and last last year, then uni started with honours and that was too intense to continue with anything like Maya or AE, and during that time i had to learn all those things i've forgotten, but during the year i did manage to sneak it into a few assigments, then had 3 weeks and made the Shinou Gundam's gun, and a week to make the cactuar thread


in all, i've remembered the concepts of each thing, which makes picking up new things quite easy.

---

that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

in short "should" meaning "i've known it at some point, i might still know it"
most of those on the list i still know

---

that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D