I need an explanation of some file formats that Crowbar produces, and how to use them together in Bl - Developers

Okay so here is what I need help with: I get these files after using crowbar .qc - From what I understand it is like a collective file of all the .smd files. .smd - The individual parts of the model. .vta - No idea what this is. I used the SourceTools addon to import the .qc file and everything (I think) imported. So I got all the parts at this point with an object called "VTA vertices". I don't know what VTA vertices do. As for textures as far as I understand I just need to use VTFEdit to convert them. So at this point I don't know what to do with VTA vertices, and I don't know how to add in the animations. Any help would be greatly appreciated along with a better explanation of the various file formats I did and did not list that I should be aware of and how to use them, and how they work.

The QC is basically useless if you're just importing the file into blender. That just tells the source compiler how to make it into a source MDL file. The SMDs are what you want. They can either be the actual model files or they can be bone animations. VTAs are vertex animations, they're mainly used for face flexes and things like that.

[QUOTE=PolytizeMeCPT;49142061]The QC is basically useless if you're just importing the file into blender. That just tells the source compiler how to make it into a source MDL file. The SMDs are what you want. They can either be the actual model files or they can be bone animations. VTAs are vertex animations, they're mainly used for face flexes and things like that.[/QUOTE] >So for importing .qc is not needed, but for exporting it would be useful? >Okay so I guess importing each .smd part individually that encomposses the object is the best approach? >I'm unfamiliar with facial animation so I still don't understand how I could use the VTA verts. Could you link me to a resource or tutorial? >About the .smd files. Not 100% how to import animations into Blender. I'm trying to figure that out right now.

you need the qc for compiling the model. importing parts is probably good enough. but you get no facial expression. so... you need the vta. if the model was well made you don't need the vta verts. they're computed into the shapekeys. you gotta check them tho. the unmatched vertex group. indicator. those are the ones that don't deform the mesh. you gotta fix those manually. and ofc you gotta fix that others that are not included in the vta. that works too. if you don't change the face you can skip that, but you might export to smd and reuse that vta file for the face. the compiler should bake it all back together. it uses proximity. it even works on totally different mesh. as long as the face verts are close enough to the vta verts. about animation. some older models don't decompile correct. you could run into trouble there. if not it just imports. usually.

[QUOTE=episoder;49143836]you need the qc for compiling the model. importing parts is probably good enough. but you get no facial expression. so... you need the vta. if the model was well made you don't need the vta verts. they're computed into the shapekeys. you gotta check them tho. the unmatched vertex group. indicator. those are the ones that don't deform the mesh. you gotta fix those manually. and ofc you gotta fix that others that are not included in the vta. that works too. if you don't change the face you can skip that, but you might export to smd and reuse that vta file for the face. the compiler should bake it all back together. it uses proximity. it even works on totally different mesh. as long as the face verts are close enough to the vta verts. about animation. some older models don't decompile correct. you could run into trouble there. if not it just imports. usually.[/QUOTE] So based on what you said. I suppose THIS is considered a good import? I literally just used the Blender source tools and imported the .qc file. All the dots are from the .vta file. At this point I guess I'm just trying to make sure I know what a good import /rip is and what a bad one is. As far as I can tell everything decompiled great I'm just trying to figure out how to work the animation. [img]http://i.imgur.com/35WBp4y.png[/img] Did a render just for the heck of it. Looked cool. [img]http://i.imgur.com/xJcdxcj.png[/img]

qc - compile information (what to do with the meshes when converting them back to source) smd - actual model and animation data. Generally includes the reference, any bodygroups, a phymodel and possible one or more animations. (each as a seperate file) vta - vertex animation data - usually for faceposing.

Importing a .qc is a giod way to let Blender automatically fetch all the referenced SMDs for you the SMD files are the raw sources you want to work with.