MarbleClay documentation

garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

I've fixed up a few little things in v2.2:
MarbleClay-RSD-OBJ-Batch-Script-v2.2.zip
(3.29 MiB) Downloaded 79 times
The workflow is a lot better for it, I think now it's time to do something with it :)
Added the English translated docs in the help folder as html files, just incase the help launcher isn't working for you.

A 30min video talk through of the plugins, not so much how to use MC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLy36A94jo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLy36A94jo[/youtube2]


--- update.
Note: A material is required before exporting to RSD (fixed in next release).
Optimize your final export by removing unused verts: Menu -> select -> single edges, if not, your TMD will be alot bigger then it needs to be.
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

May 2023 v3
  • fixed exports with no material,
  • added !quit and !exit to batch commands, which quits execution,
  • now export whole image assigned to tri/quad (not UV mapped),
  • reuse existing images from "select image" for RSD exports
  • added a little bit more to English help

The major improvement is the use of a whole image used as the polygon face texture, without any UV mapping.
This is similar to old FPS games editors like Doom/Quake etc, texture brush or texture paint walls/floors etc.
Screenshot_2023-05-26_2.jpg
You can also apply an RGB value (enabled with shinniness >0) on the textures, sometimes called tinting, often used to reuses textures and optimize rendering etc.
Screenshot_2023-05-26_1.jpg
Works for both RSD and OBJ exports via the NY batch export.
The PlayStation tinting colouring is a bit off, I'll look into it next time.
Attachments
MarbleClay-RSD-OBJ-Batch-Script-v3.zip
(3.29 MiB) Downloaded 63 times
User avatar
Krowbarh
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Posts: 174
Joined: 24 Jun 2017, 21:20
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by Krowbarh »

Great going garcia...I liked the texture tutorial, You are quite the 'Brainiac' to figure that out like you did...

At any rate the MarbleClay from Flat2D did not work for me in XP...I got the version from this page then it would work-

https://web.archive.org/web/20090221075 ... dList.html


Also Serpentinite worked as well...But Alas I kept getting stumped maybe the translated help will...HELP!...

You would probably ROCK in Albatross3D & it has 3D Paint in it & you can paint with procedurals & filters as well & even Dark Trees (It doesn't like them all)...

I think I have a post on here somewhere...OK found it-

viewtopic.php?t=6370

Anywayz thanks for your efforts on MarbleClay, I will in near future give it another go!....
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

Krowbarh wrote: 16 Jul 2023, 20:33 Great going garcia...I liked the texture tutorial, You are quite the 'Brainiac' to figure that out like you did...

At any rate the MarbleClay from Flat2D did not work for me in XP...I got the version from this page then it would work-

https://web.archive.org/web/20090221075 ... dList.html


Also Serpentinite worked as well...But Alas I kept getting stumped maybe the translated help will...HELP!...

You would probably ROCK in Albatross3D & it has 3D Paint in it & you can paint with procedurals & filters as well & even Dark Trees (It doesn't like them all)...

I think I have a post on here somewhere...OK found it-

viewtopic.php?t=6370

Anywayz thanks for your efforts on MarbleClay, I will in near future give it another go!....
hahaha thanks :)
I'm not that smart, I just keep hacking away at it, and it seems to work out pretty well.


Yes, Cellulo and I talked about it a few posts ago, I think he fixed it, not sure. But the MC developer has open a new page for MC, so I changed the download link on the first post to:
http://escargot.la.coocan.jp/MCLFrm.html

The archive page has an old version, the good version is from the link above: beta 6.4 v 0.2.48 build

I'm still translating now and then, it's very big documentation... I recently just figured out how to use the bones for morph target animation. :bananaclaus:

MC auto skinning bones
Image

old school, single frame animation:
Image

morph/interpolating animation WIP
Image

I've been very distracted... but I will update this little project soon (few weeks or so) with the animation stuff! :)

Thanks for suggesting Albatross3D, looks very impressive, I will check it out! :) :bananacool2:

For another project, I still want to use TS, for skeleton animation, as it works great with the horde3d engine that I want to use.
And MC is great for simple low poly/PlayStation development stuff.
User avatar
Krowbarh
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Posts: 174
Joined: 24 Jun 2017, 21:20
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by Krowbarh »

OK thanks garcia...I will try that link for the newest beta...I don't have MarbleClay on this machine yet...

I just assumed Cellulo's version didn't work because i was on XP...Didn't know that it may have been 'broken'...

You are makin' MarbleClay really sing, nice to see...Top-Shelf there!
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

I assumed the same about Cellulo's MC version, i got it to work with Cellulo's version and the old one. :lol:
Cool :)

I tried installing Albatross 3D in my winXP, it's a hard fail: http://www.ppmodeler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=384
I think it's a DLL issue, like it's not finding the correct version, not sure if I can fix it :/
I installed it in win10 and it runs fine.

I found the newest ppmodeler (2005) on archive.org, that works fine in XP, i'll play with it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20051217232 ... p_beta.exe

:bananacheers:
User avatar
Krowbarh
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Posts: 174
Joined: 24 Jun 2017, 21:20
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by Krowbarh »

That's unfortunate!...Yeah I saw little solace at the Albatross3D Forums...So far on 3 machines with XP no problem but I got so much garbage installed already that I'm sure whatever dependency has already been installed...I am gonna be soon reformatting a Dell D820 I got off ebay that came CRAMMED with windows 11...Just idling it uses 60% of the 4GB RAM and that's without hooking to the web which it yearns for in typical spyware OS fashion I'm sure the second I snap broadband in it would be completely unusable...

Anyways first thing I'll do is try installing Albatross on that when it's fresh...

BTW...Speaking of spyware OS I gave my Wife my Dell 5555 for Xmas last year I had NEVER allowed it to connect to internet (windows 10) it was always snappy & responsive but NO LONGER!...Wife uses it online most everyday & commonly it 'updates' which really means it's spying/copying...Slow & lumbering with it's 8 GB RAM you'd think we are back in the 90's with the fabled hourglass tumbling around with 32-64 MB RAM...Seems no different except for the fancy round 'throbber'...
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

MarbleClay translations v4 with RSD-OBJ-Batch-Script & TMDanim
MarbleClay-RSD-OBJ-Batch-Script-TMDANIM-v4.7z
MarbleClay-RSD-OBJ-Batch-Script-TMDANIM-v4.7z
(4.09 MiB) Downloaded 56 times
See first post on info and installing etc.
If your only interested in the translations files just overwrite the contents of resource, help, helpimg and tutorial.
Make a backup first etc.

I've finished up to 2. Reference -> Layout, after that it's google translated from the Japanese documentation, which is still better then the English documentation.

Aug 2023 v4
More translations and fixes.
Added tmdanim (creates animation from static TMD (PlayStation 3D file format), as shown in images previously.

Added, MarbleClay images by: DarkScythe :worship: :bananalove:
search.php?author_id=478&sr=posts


DarkScythe images
DarkScythe images

--- Some fixes regarding v4 and TMDANIM ---
Issues fixed in tmdanim-v1b
Added camera follow holding down L1

A video walk through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebVt0TJPeSc[/youtube2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebVt0TJPeSc

In the video @10:46 There was a missing line in the MarbleClay script.
At the end of the file, before yarexe is called, the siocons script needs to be recalculated with correct asset RAM addresses.
Adding this line before the yarexe line will fix it:
dataman /v
Last edited by garcia on 13 Sep 2023, 22:17, edited 1 time in total.
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

I followed along a Blender tutorial using MarbleClay.
The rotate and scale features depend on the workplane, which I sometimes forget. I tend to avoid those tools in favor of pulling verts and lines.
Not a great video, but thought I would share something.
Moved to rumble, because managing multiple channels on youtube is a PITA.

https://rumble.com/v3gz51q-4-marbleclay ... oorly.html

---------
Update of 24th Sep.
Set an empty (or not exported) Object name (not a sub object) with:
#SCRIPT# DIR
It will run that batch file. IE:
#SCRIPT# C:\Program Files\MarbleCLAY\Plugin\RunBatchScript.txt
When entering the #SCRIPT# path\file.txt into the object name field, hit enter to update the name change after changing the name.
The default assetpath will be the path this file is located.

If #SCRIPT# is not set, the default will be this file:
C:\MarbleCLAY\Plugin\RunBatchScript.txt

Also:
Added relative path changing to !assetpath - only two options, .. (back one folder) or folder_name (create or cd into folder_name).

TMDANIM - better netyaroze preview program
RunBatchTool TMDANIM Sept update.zip
(1.14 MiB) Downloaded 47 times

-------------------------------

28th September
Bone and Posing help

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Parts/Bone



Note: Bones support is still buggy and you will see errors, but these typically aren't critical errors. Re-select items and try the operation again. This section only effects bones and objects attached to bones.


Freeze 'Parts'/'Deform'
Move Parts/Bone to Workplane
Make mirror Parts/Bone
Attach and Activate bone (Simple)
Detach and Deactivate bone (Simple)
Reset Parts/Bone position

Bone tips
Bone Example

Not available:
Attach vertices to bone
Activate bone
Deactivate bone
Import .mcl file as 'Parts'




Freeze 'Parts'/'Deform'



To freeze means to create a new root model based on the current object as a polygon mesh.
This option will freeze the current object attached to bones to a new root model.
This new root object can be further manipulated, exported or rendered etc.
This feature only works in Attach and Activate bone (Simple) mode and freezes the complete model object.


Move Parts/Bone to Workplane



Bone and model must be Attach and Activate bone (Simple) first
. Moves the selected bone and it's lower attached hierarchy of bones to the currently selected workplane.
It's recommended to only use this with the root, top most bone, as it will also apply the move to the rest of the hierarchy.
This is useful to center the bone hierarchy to the front and right planes.
Currently, the individual bone part must be selected from the view port, not the object tree.



Make mirror Parts/Bone



This is not a mirror feature, it uses the currently used workplane as a mirror plane.
It duplicates the selected bone hierarchy using the mirror plane, to a new bone hierarchy.
The mirror can be a root bone node or a sub bone node, if it's a root node a new root will be created, if it's a sub node a new sub node will be created.
Currently, the individual bone part must be selected from the view port, not the object tree.
Note: As of this version (v1 beta 6.4), it will only traverse down a single hierarchy tree of bone nodes, so it will not do a full mirror if you have bones in multiple branching bones.



Attach and Activate bone (Simple)



First select the model's root object and then holding down shift key, select the bone's object(s).
If your bone hierarchy has multiple root bones, you will have to hold shift and select all root bone node hierarchies or the missing bones will not be available for posing.
Both the model's root object and the model's root bone(s) hierarchy must be selected and highlighted.
It's recommended to keep a single bone hierarchy. Then apply Attach and Activate bone (Simple).
Note: If the model's root model object and bone's root hierarchy are not both selected, it will not do anything.

Setting Attach and Activate bone (Simple) will apply the bone and position last applied, and allows you to position bones to pose the model.
You can accidentally edit the model while in this mode, it's best to use the Move(1) with vertices, lines and faces selecting disabled, only bone manipulation will work.
or the bones in this mode, all modification will only effect the position of the model for a pose.

This mode has a special Move(1) bone widget with all the manipulators in one (tip: disable the normal maniputlator with M Key), if you only need to rotate bones for posing, changing to the rotate tool is a lot easier. Note, currently the scale tool does not work on bones.
To edit the bones size (skinning), location etc, you must be in normal modelling editing mode and exit with Detach and Deactivate bone (Simple).

You can confirm you are in Attach and Activate bone (Simple) mode by clicking a bone and seeing all options available in the Parts/Bone menu.



Detach and Deactivate bone (Simple)



This turns off Attach and Activate bone (Simple) and reverts back to normal modeling mode.
You have to have either the Model, Bone or both selected first.

You will alternate between the two modes regularly to adjust the model if the pose doesn't look correct, not enough geometry etc. Note: You can not delete bones if they are in Attach and Activate bone (Simple) a warning will display "You can't delete active bones, use Parts/Bone -> Detach and Deactivate bone (Simple) and try again!" reminding you to exit first with Detach and Deactivate bone (Simple).



Reset Parts/Bone position



The current pose will be discarded and cleared with positioning information in bones.
The bones will be reset to the same information as the bones in the modeling mode.
Must be in Attach and Activate bone (Simple) mode with the bone hierarchy selected.
The bone hierarchy can be a root bone or a sub bone, which will only clear and reset the current bone hierarchy, and not he other bones.



Bone tips



The bone node icon in the object viewer panel means:
Diagnal line of two bones yellow bones - Not attached to model.
Bent knee looking bones - Attached to model.

While using the Bone Creation Tool when you click on another bone it will only select it, to continue the hierarchy. To create a new bone, click on empty space and drag, a new bone root node will be created. To move bone nodes up or down the hierarchy, click the icon with the two bones.
Always use centered views in the main single screen:
F key = Front (when using mirror mode, this is the side view)
E key = Top
D key = Right (when using mirror mode, this is the front view)
Or use the traditional 4 way split view.

The Object viewer panel Object window in Panel tray can get very big with bone hierarchies. You can move it out to it's own panel by dragging the floating icon next to the collapse icon, at the top right.
The new window will default to pinned mode, which will always stay on top, if you click the pin icon, it will be unpinned and it will disappear.
To get it back, click Menu -> Windows -> Show windows -> Show object window.
Or you can add the Object panel and other panels to the floating tray (Menu -> Windows -> Show windows -> Open floating tray..) which can be positioned anywhere and will always be visible. Unfortunately, MarbClay can only have one instance of a panel.


Multiple bone hierarchies.


If you need multiple poses, it's recommended to only have a single pose in a file. MarbleClay can load multiple instances to compare each pose.
Multiple bone hierarchies in a single file, is experiemental!

Currently, there is no way to copy a complete bone hierarchy, and working with them is more buggy, but it can be done and managed.
Simply save a copy of your MarbleClay project with only the bone hierarchy finalized, save it something like Tee-Pose.
The object viewer panel has an import feature (folder icon at the bottom left of the panel) and import your saved file.
Delete the imported model and rename the imported bone hierarchy, save it out with a new name. Repeat to add more bone hierarchies or to add single ones just import the original model-single-frame one again.
This method works, always save your work incrementally and always test every imported bone hierarchy by Attach and Activate bone (Simple) each bone hierarchies with the model to test the new frame.

Warnings:

When working with multiple bone hierarchies, only have a single, active bone visible and do not click other bone hierarchies, just in case!
Sometimes while setting up multiple bone hierarchies, the bone icons can get confused as to which bone hierarchies is attached to a model, it can be ignored and it will work as expected. Also you will see the bone boundaries not aligning correctly with the mesh, again this doesn't matter so much, because it will apply the correct transformations.


Bone Example



Start by setting the correct workplane, typically (YZ workplane) and hitting D key (right view).
If you are not in the correct workplane you might not see the bone!
You want to pick the correct bone type for each part, the short (square) bone type for smaller parts and the long (rectangle) type for longer parts.
The more bones you use, the more control you will have over the auto skinning and posing, it's advised to completely skin your model with all of the mesh allocated to bones and no vertices unallocated.
Bones should be structured in a hierarchy based on limbs, ie bone root nodes should be center nodes, like:
Head start with: Neck, Head.
Left arm start with: left shoulder, left bicep, left forearm, left hand.
Left leg start with: left upper leg, left lower leg, left foot.

It's a good idea to set each bone's dimensions as you go, that way you can see where the next bone will start. The first root bone might require Move Parts/Bone to Workplane to move it to the center first.
Before moving on from the first bone hierarchy, test it first that the bones don't grab vertices which it should etc.
Next, we change the workplane to XZ, select the left shoulder root bone and click Make mirror Parts/Bone.
This will create a new root bone hierarchy, rename parts appropriately and the same for the right leg.


See: #5 MarbleClay Using Bones and Multiple Poses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r3dnpe ... qR&index=6
or
https://rumble.com/v3lr5n7-5-marbleclay ... poses.html
garcia
Petty Officer First Class
Posts: 65
Joined: 23 Jan 2023, 02:51
Type the number ten into the box: 10

Re: MarbleClay documentation

Post by garcia »

MarbleClay help files uses old HTML anchor links which new browsers don't support, which works fine in the old IE (winXP), but not on modern browsers.

If you are using marbleclay in winXP, it's strongly recommended to update your web browser to Mypal (http://mypal-browser.org/), there are links to youtube videos, which Mypal can play... unfortunately, I couldn't find where/how IE is launched from MekaHelp.exe, so ieplorer.exe has to be replaced. :bananadevil:
The new HTML is also compatible with the old winXP IE version.


Install Mypal:
Delete C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\iexplore.exe, You will be asked for the winXP cdrom, reject it.
Extract the Mypal zip files to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer then rename or delete iexplore.exe and lastly rename or copy mypal.exe to iexplore.exe.

If you use marbleclay in a modern windows, mypal isn't necessary, but you still need to patch the MekaHelp.exe for the anchor links to work.

Here is the new patched file and the original version:
MarbleCLAY-meka-update.zip
new and original HTML meka executable
(404.53 KiB) Downloaded 35 times

Or patch the MekaHelp.exe yourself:
The HTML generated is too old for a modern browsers, open MekaHelp.exe in a hex editor and search for:

<A_NAME="#%d">
To:
<A___ID="%d"_>

The underscores above only indicate space char, the total string length must remain the same.
The space char's are used to replace unused spaces.
There should be four strings that need to be replaced as above.
Replace MakeHelp.exe with the updated patched versions.



Below is vbindiff showing the first difference:
example
example
Post Reply