Hi everyone! Well, today is the 5th anniversary of HTTYD 2, so I want to celebrate it somehow. I think it’s the perfect time to reveal another big project, that I’m working on for quite a long time.
If you want to see, what could this „big project” be, click read more (or you already know, if you watched the video, but whatever be the case, just click read more… please?)
First of all, I’m not dead… I’m just busy as heck. I’m constantly working from around the beginning of this year and I only get home to sleep or have a bath basically. The worst was May, when I wasn’t able to turn on the computer for about a month, so you can imagine… I’m still pretty busy, but I have an hour to do this post, and probably I won’t be able to complete it in one go, so it will be updated later, when I'll have time to finish it.
Now, let’s talk about the project shall we?
This project was planned around 3 years ago. But, if I want to be precise, it started when a friend of mine showed me a game named ARK (Survival Evolved). A few of you might know, it’s a sandbox game like Minecraft merged with Jurassic Park. When I saw there are dinos that you can tame, you might figure out what came to my mind instantly… of course HTTYD (what else…)
So, it was just a though, but a year later the same friend got the „Scorched Earth” DLC and there were dragons in it. Yep, there are a few that you can (
So I did. I used the new model from 3ds max, and it was a great opportunity to max out it’s capabilities, (see the updated Toothless model post Link) but it wasn’t easy. First, I had to know is it compatible with Unreal Engine 4. If it's not, then mission failed, better luck next time… But it was. If it was just a static model (like a statue) no animations nothing, but I managed to get him into ARK Editor. I watched some tutorials, how to get started with a modded creature, but what I found didn’t really pleased me. First, this Toothless model is very unique. He has custom bone structure, textures, etc. Very unlikely to just swap it with a stock creature. And yep, it wasn’t. (I will post some pictures later in a future post when I go in detail about the WIP process). So, I had to do everything from scratch. The only ease from the ARK editor was, that the Griffin creature behaved and had the most similarity, to the Night Fury, so I could used it as a reference.
I looked what animations, I'll need for my precious Night Fury. It turned out I'll need around 80(!) custom animations. But I didn’t worry too much, now that I can animate this beautiful and amazing dragon! I worked on them around a month or two, and they turned out to be quite good I must say… (More on that in the WIP post)
Now, the really hard part had to take place, integrating the animations with the Unreal Engine… Yikes! It was a LOT of work, very very complicated, but at the end, I could mount him and took a little flight with him, in the editor! YAAAS! It was amazing, to see some interaction with him finally! So freaking cool!
But, it was just in the editor… I wanted to put him in an actual game server. Well, this is the part where I failed, and failed miserably. When I cooked the mod, (like the Cove map) I faced a huge problem. The Griffin and some other creatures databases didn’t want to compile into my mod. It will cook eventually, but it only makes a really small file, and it’s pretty much useless in this state.
So this is the point where I need some help. I saw a lot of videos, but it turned out, my model is so unique, that it needs a bit more work on the logic side, and that is where my knowledge of ARK Editor comes to a halt. I tried, a bunch of ways to make it cook, but nothing worked. So, it’s hard to say it, but yeah… I need help with this one. So, if it happens to be that YOU is a maestro in ARK Editor, and made several custom creatures that worked, and also a huge HTTYD fan (not a requirement, but a plus) oh, and have some free time, can you please contact me? I would be really, really grateful! I really want to make this mod happen, but I need some help. (There are no custom Night Fury mods exist to this day for ARK, and now you know why…)
You can reach me via e-mail: mr.nightfury87@gmail.com
You can see on the video above, how the mod is working in the editor.
Sadly, I haven’t got time to write more, shorty I have a commercial to shoot, and I only get home around 2 am (tomorrow). I wanted to see the second movie again for this occasion, but I have to delay it for a day or two… sigh…
The post will be updated in the future!
See ya all! Take care, have an awesome day and celebrate the 5th anniversary of HTTYD 2!
UPDATE:
So, after months apparently I did manage to get him in game and I found out it was a very hidden setting that prevented me to bake the mod and there was only one(!) comment that explained the solution for that problem on the whole internet! So yeah, I was VERY lucky!
Want some proof? Here check this out!
Me with my other half :)
But that doesn't mean, he is ready... I have still some very serious issues, that I don't want to annoy the players. Like, if you restart the server, he's gone for good! All the items you put into him, all the levels and skills he earned, puff it's gone. So yeah, this is a big nono!
The other big problem is he doesn't have an IK system. Which means, he can't adapt to the landscape and if you are running on a hill with him, he simply stays flat to the ground and half of his body is in the hill or mountain. That's a very annoying issue, and there are absolutely no tutorials or help with this one. If I just enable the whole IK system in the editor, he'll stuck 90 degrees half way into the ground. Very very not cool.
Another issue, when he shoots a plasma blast (which is a very strong attack) sometimes, it "stuck" in his mouth and explode killing everyone who's on him. Just imagine you're flying back to the base after a few hours of farming and you wanna shot some creature and you suddenly die (worst if you are above lava or water). Not very practical.
He also can't blink. This might be a very cosmetic detail, but that would make him much more interactive and lifelike. I added some extra bones to his eyelids in 3ds Max, and it's working there, but the ARK editor thinks otherwise. It can't merge the updated skeleton, and won't do anything...
Still no tutorials, no info so I have to figure it out myself. (As most of the time).
There are much more, but they are not immersion breaking and probably I can fix them with time.
So there you have it. He's doing pretty fine aside from these issues, but if someone would get him right now, not knowing about these problems, he/she would be quite annoyed, and that is what I really don't want to achieve! I want to make him as good as any other creature in ARK, and I don't want to release a half-assed rushed mod. (I don't believe in early access games, (or mods) it's just a bad trend nowadays.)
I've put around 250 work hours even to get to this state, (and it's was a lot of fun) so I don't want these issues diminish my efforts. If it would need a 100 more to make him perfect I would gladly do, but if I don't know where can I start, it's just trial and error.
That's it for now, I will still update this post, if I come to a breakthrough, but this post really getting long, so sometime I'll have to start a new one. As for the end of this post here's a video not long after I managed to get him in game. (The textures are the default ones, and they are low quality, but later I updated them from 512x512 to 2048x2048.)
Did I ever mentioned how much I LOVE this dragon? <3
(Well... probably a few times now...)
(Well... probably a few times now...)
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