How to Convert WoW Meshes

[Bloo.]

Hello there, lovelies!! It's been a long time coming, but I've finally decided to work on creating this tutorial!

Objective: Learn how to convert models from World of Warcraft for use in Feral-Heart maps!

I'm hoping this tutorial will be detailed enough and provide you with all the necessary materials and visual aid you'll need to accomplish beginner converting! As always, if you have questions or need help, shoot me a PM and we can figure it out there or I can give you my Skype for quicker and easier communication!

Here we go, and I hope you can follow along!


Programs you will need:

• World of Warcraft Game [NOTE: The game costs $20 USD to download]
• WoW Model Viewer
• DeleD
  
  • OBJ Importer
    Ogre Exporter
  
  
  
  Step One
  
  Once you've downloaded the above programs, you'll want to open your WoW Model Viewer. You never have to open the World of Warcraft game once it's installed if you don't want to. The WoW model viewer will automatically sync up with the game and make almost all models available for you to view.
  
  You may get this popup upon startup, each time you run the model viewer. Not to worry, it's just because the model viewer is still in its alpha stages and can't load in every single model from the new Legion update. Due to this, some of the character models and armor models may crash the model viewer.
  
  
  
  
  
  Step Two
  
  Once you've got the models all loaded in (indicated by a list of drop down menus on the left hand side of the model viewer window), you can begin exploring them. The ones you'll most likely use will be the "Creature" drop down menu, and the "World" drop down menu.
  
  The Creature menu shows you all creatures, whether it be pets, mounts, or spawn.
  
  The World menu will show you all worlds and dungeons within the game. The main worlds can be found under the Expansion 1-6 drop down menus. There is also a search bar at the top if you know what it is you're looking for.
  
  For this tutorial I'll be showing you how to convert a simple object with one texture. I'll be converting a Tauren Canoe, found under Worlds>Expansion 6>Doodads>Tauren, if you'd like to follow along.
  
  *Once you have your object, click File, Export Model, OBJ.
  
  
  
  Name the model whatever you'd like and save it to its own folder, the .obj model, its material file, and the texture files will be saved there to whatever you name it.
  
  
  
  
  Step Three
  
  Now you'll need to open your DeleD program. Once it's opened, look to the top left and click "Plugins" > "Wavefront OBJ Importer".
  
  
  
  The following window should popup. The Red box indicates the button you should press to find your saved OBJ object. The Green box indicates the scale your object will load in as. I always have mine set to 10 so it doesn't load in too small.
  
  
  Controls
  Controls in DeleD are simple, first off, you'll ONLY focus on the bottom right mini window. The scroll wheel zooms in and out, while holding down your right mouse button turns the camera. There is no way to pan around, so zooming and turning is the only way to look at different angles of your object.
  
  
  
  Step Four
  
  There's not much to do within the program other than rename your material files. The reason for doing this is so the default names aren't too long and so that when the converted mesh is loaded into your Object Maker, the material files automatically load in rather than you having to manually type in each material name.
  
  
  
  **The Red box indicates the button you'll click to bring up the material window. The Green box indicates the tab you'll need to click in order to rename your materials. The tab will be named what you named the object. The Blue box indicates the field where you'll delete what's there and rename it something simple. For Example)) I would name it taurencanoeBL
  Once you're done renaming the material(s), click OK at the bottom. Simply pressing enter will erase everything you've done in the material window.
  
  
  
  Step Five
  
  Time to export your object! You'll want to click Plugins>Ogre Mesh Exporter.
  
  
  When you click the ogre mesh exporter, another window will pop up. Click the button with the 3 dots and save it in a folder within your original folder, this way you can tell the new files apart from the old ones if it's named the same. Make sure you have .mesh at the end of the file name or it will not export!!
  
  
  NOTE: If you want to convert another model, you HAVE to click "File>New" to clear the program. If not, the two models will fuse and it will mess your whole object up.
  
  
  Now you can find your new .mesh and .material files in your new folder. Open up your new material folder in notepad. Copy the name of the texture file that came with the model you downloaded and paste it where it says texture, making sure to add .png to the end. Make sure to save it!
  
  
  
  
  Step Six
  
  Once you're finally done with step 5, which can be very tedious depending on how many textures you have, you can place the .mesh, .material, and the texture file into your my_objects folder within your FH folder. All that's left to do is open it up in your Object Maker!
  
  
  
  

  Yay! You did it!! Make sure to provide proper credit to Blizzard Entertainment if you make these for public use

[Bloo.]

Here's a simple tutorial to fix any issues you may have with the materials once you bring the mesh in through FeralHeart's object maker!


Model is blocky in some parts!



This happens most often with foliage or models with small detail. Luckily this issue can be fixed with a simple line of coding placed within the material that's having the problem.

>Open up the material file for your object and find the material with the issue, for the above image I've used the Cascade Tree. The cascade tree has two textures, the first one is the one for the leaves. Just above where it says "texture unit" is where you'll paste the following code.

Code: [Select]

            alpha_rejection greater_equal 128
It should look like this when you're finished, don't forget to save!



Model is see-through on one side!



This can happen with any object at any time and can also be fixed with a short line of code.

>Open your material file and find the texture that's see-through. Right above the "texture unit line", paste the following two lines of code.

Code: [Select]

            cull_software none
                      cull_hardware none
It should look like this when you're finished, don't forget to save!!

[Bloo.]

Reserve

[Kuri]

While i may never use this, it's a good tutorial.

[Bloo.]

While i may never use this, it's a good tutorial.

Thank you c; Took quite awhile to do haha I'm hoping it will help current mesh converters/makers or those aspiring to do so <3

[Kynvuu]

Ahh thank you so much for putting this together, Bloo!! It's wonderful!<3 Definitely going to be referencing this a lot when I do my mesh work xD

[Morgra]

Thank you for this thorough tutorial Bloo! I know there will be lots of people curious about this. It's much appreciated <3

[Bawfle]

Really awesome and greatly detailed tutorial, Bloo

A lot of users will be thankful for this, when they want to get hold of Objects they must have.
Thank you very much for providing this and giving your time to creating such a nicely directed tutorial!

+Floof