Mdb cloner issue

1

In the old times, I used mdb cloner to make race variant from heads (there were some works after that in 3DS max, but it gave the basic mdb)

So I opened a head, which mdb was done with NWn utilities, in mdb cloner

mdbcloneroldmdb
mdbcloneroldmdb747×523 52.7 KB

I renamed the mdb and it gave this head in mdbconfig

mdbcloneroldmdb_cloned
mdbcloneroldmdb_cloned622×585 52.4 KB

I have no more a 3DS MAx version compatible with NWN utilities and so I use the new tool from Freshlook (NWN2FBX and FBX2NWN)

Here I “mdbclone” a mdb created with NWN2fbx utility

mdbclonernewmdb
mdbclonernewmdb751×526 49.3 KB

I rename it to and elven variant. The variant appear in NWN2 character creation screen, but it is too “glowing”. Then I go to mdbconfig to correct the problem and here is what I have

mdbclonernewmdb_cloned

I wonder what I can do to correct this problem ?

2

Let’s see if I understand:

  1. You generate a mdb with fbx2nw.
  2. You clone the mdb with MDB Clone.
  3. You open the cloned mdb with MDBConfig and then the last screenshot happens?
3

Yes it’s exactly that.

After many tries I suspect a problem with how max fbx handles textures :

Max has many shader https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-62990DBE-928E-401C-BDF3-DF725B6332E2-htm.html

For organic model I use “Blinn” or “Oren-Nayar-Blinn”. With these two shaders the material editor don’t use normal map, and replace it with bump map. Other shaders use “bump-normal” . If I export to fbx with a model that has a bump map, the map seems lost during the exportation and I must reassign it with mdbconfig.

4

So it’s from step 2 to 3 that somethings fails. if you go directly from step 1 to 3 it works, right? I can’t say if the problem is with fbx2nw or MDB Cloner, I would had to investigate.

An alternative way to clone the MDB is this:

  1. Rename objects in 3ds Max.
  2. Export to FBX.
  3. Convert FBX to MDB.

This way you don’t need to use MDB Cloner, although it may be more tedious.

5

That’s what I do now, but like you said it’s more tedious because during the fbx export I lose all textures except the diffuse one, and so, I have to reassign the textures with mdb config, and for a head there are 3 parts.

For me, the problem is not in your fbx2nw, but rather in Autodesk fbx plugin. I am curious to know if people who use Blender encounter problem with head models.

6

I can make fbx2nw to assume that the bump map of the FBX is the normal map of the MDB. For the tint map what material property in 3ds Max are you using? “Filter Color”?

7

Here is what I have when I import a fbx created with NWN2fbx :

The normal map is in the bump slot, and is called normalbump
The tint map is in the displacement slot, while when I created heads with the nwnutilities, I used the filter color slot.

materials
materials1343×778 132 KB

8

I have released version 0.6 of my tools that I think will resolve the texture issues. You can download it here:
https://github.com/Arbos/nwn2mdk/releases

Now fbx2nw accepts the FBX Bump material slot as the normal map. For the tint map you must define the user property TINT_MAP for a node and put the tint map name. I don’t see any FBX material slot suitable for tint maps.

1 Like
9

Thanks, I will try it.

Normal map in the bump map slot are now exported correctly.