Army Men RTS Forums

I'm not much of a modder, nor much of a coder. However, I can certainly 3D model. Therefore, I am asking if anyone here has the models for the tank and halftrack in the game, preferably in .obj format. I'll give the reasons below. The two units I would want to see possibly modded in is a heavy tank and a troop transport.

The heavy tank I will model based off the Boley M60 Heavy Tank, produced during the 1990s. They were popularized by the stopmotion series Plastic Apocalypse as a heavy tank, being larger than a standard Timmee tank and sporting a secondary machine-gun turret. None are being produced nowadays and is now a collection item in army men collections.




Apperance next to a normal tank.

However, I want to know if any of you have the 3D model of the standard tank in the RTS, for two reasons: Scaling so I can accurately size the M60 to the original tank, and so I can mimic the topography so my model doesn't look too out-of-place compared to vanilla AM RTS.

As for general ideas on its unit cost and such, I don't have any ideas set in stone but it'll be a very hefty vehicle, costing much more than a standard tank and taking up to 2 times to build one while taking a lot of punishment to destroy. I have no idea if any of you can have a multiple-gunned tank, but if it is possible then the secondary machine gun will be able to give air cover at reduced damage to air units compared to the halftrack.

As for the second vehicle, a transport truck of some fashion, working on similar mechanics to the modded Chinook.





Cheap vehicles with no attacking capability, maybe 100 plastic + 50 electricity each. They'll carry up to around 8 to 10 soldiers each, and are vulnerable without escorts. I want the halftrack model so I can modify the halftrack into such a transport vehicle, since it'll be better than building something entirely from scratch.

As for textures, I had some experience in photoshop and UV texturing, but I'm no expert. With in-game animations and coding, I have no experience in that whatsoever but I'm willing to work with any of you here in hopefully bringing this mod to life.

Greetings, Traffic_Accident!

If you were currently possessing AMRTS, to change the tank & HT models, you will need these tools (please browse Download section for them, yet feel free to ask other forumers for resources) :

• 3DS Max to 3D model your heavy tank & troop transport; then save your 3D models as .xsi files;
  
  Dark Reign 2 meshviewer: import your .xsi into DR2 meshviewer and save them as .god files; also do not forget to save your 3D-models' textures files in .tga format
  
  Please note that due to engine's limitation; you may only code one weapon for your heavy tank so even if you put two firepoints onto the heavy tank's model, your heavy tank will only fire two projectiles of that weapon (albeit dealing double damage )
  
  Now that you have the .god files; you will need to install
  (a) NotePad++ so that you can convert the data archive base.x into base.zwp (note: please use Save a Copy Of As)
  (b) DrPack to extract all the files from base.zwp (just by double-clicking on base.zwp)
  
  After completing extraction, you will see a folder base; open it & find the art subfolder; in this order base > objects > army > art
  
  Put .god files (for models) & .tga files (textures) into art. Let's say: for your heavy tank, army_heavytank.god & army_heavytank.tga; for your transport, army_transport.god & army_transport.tga
  
  Now, find the configs subfolder; in this order base > objects > army > configs
  
  Find the file object_army_tank.cfg:
  
  Change

  Code: Select all

   
      GodFile("army_tank.god");
      

  to

  Code: Select all

   
      GodFile("army_heavytank.god");
      

  And the tank will appear as your heavy tank
  
  Find the file object_army_halftrack.cfg:
  
  Change

  Code: Select all

   
      GodFile("army_halftrack.god");
      

  to

  Code: Select all

   
      GodFile("army_transport.god");
      

  And your halftrack will appear as the transport. Make sure to delete ALL codes about the halftrack's weapon!
  
  I have not figured out how to make transports work yet; but other forumers here have, so feel free to ask them how to code the transport mechanics.
  
  As for name change I have not figured that out.
  
  Optional last steps:
  Please save backup copies of your original base.x and original base.zwp before cutting them out;
  Archive your modded base into base.zwp
  Use Notepad++ to save a copy of the modded base.zwp as base.x

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask me & other forumers.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Sat Jun 29, 2019 5:12 pm
However, I want to know if any of you have the 3D model of the standard tank in the RTS, for two reasons: Scaling so I can accurately size the M60 to the original tank, and so I can mimic the topography so my model doesn't look too out-of-place compared to vanilla AM RTS.

Oh, if you're currently possessing AMRTS, you can view the tank's & halftrack's models (in .god format) (or had rather must?) install and use

• NotePad++ to change the base.x to base.zwp (with Save a Cope As)
  DrPack to extract the files (by double-clicking on base.zwp) into the folder base

Find the subfolder art; in this order base > objects > army > art

Now you can use Dark Reign 2 meshviewer to view the army_tank.god and army_halftrack.god

Ah, thanks very much! The info was helpful in unpacking the files. Notepad+ was also helpful in viewing the various stats of the vehicles and objects, though I haven't done any modifications yet.

However, is there any other way in modifying and saving the .god model files other than 3DS Max 8 and/or Dark Reign 2 editor? I have much more experience modeling in other programs, such as Cinema 4D and I would much prefer to import into a program I am much more comfortable working with.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:20 pm However, is there any other way in modifying and saving the .god model files other than 3DS Max 8 and/or Dark Reign 2 editor?

Unfortunately, the .god files are the final products and may not be further modified, you can still view them with DarkReign2 meshviewer & I'm afraid you have to write down the lengths, widths, & heights as well as other topographic features of the army_tank.god & army_halftrack.god. Those numbers will give you an idea on how big you will want your new models (heavy tank & transport truck) to be (so you still have to make them from scratch )

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:20 pm I have much more experience modeling in other programs, such as Cinema 4D and I would much prefer to import into a program I am much more comfortable working with.

I'm not a 3D modeler. So I can't answer this question satisfactorily. I can only recommend these steps

• use Cinema 4D or other 3D modeling program to make your heavy tank & transport models; then
  use NotePad++ to re-format them into .xsi; then
  import those .xsi into DR2 meshviewer; then
  use DRmeshviewer to save them as .god files (this last step is irreversible)

Ah, I see. Unfortunate... But might as well work with what I have and build them from scratch. I've got plenty of reference images already so I might be set for now.

I have many other questions regarding stuff like rigging the vehicles to fire, rotate turret, alongside the textures and such, etc, but those will come later once I've reached them.

However, you speak of the Dark Reign 2 Meshviewer. I have downloaded the link provided here:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2423

Is the mesh viewer part of the Dark Reign 2 map editor, or is it an entirely new program entirely? And if it's the former, how do I access the meshviewer?

The meshveiwer is a separate program. I don't have a link for it, sorry.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 11:06 am However, you speak of the Dark Reign 2 Meshviewer. I have downloaded the link provided here:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2423

Is the mesh viewer part of the Dark Reign 2 map editor, or is it an entirely new program entirely? And if it's the former, how do I access the meshviewer?

This is the official Pandemic studio link to download DR2 Tools, including Meshviewer and XSI exporters, along with some Instructions.

Ah, thank you, both of you. The information has been really helpful so far.

I've been playing around with the meshviewer for a bit. The base units it comes with works fine, but when I brought over the entire Army Men RTS unit folder it only shows the pandemic logo.



Any issue to fix this?

I've also finished the mesh and textures for the heavy tank. It's under 1400 vertices, I made sure to emulate the rather low-poly texture style of the game.



But 3Ds Studios Max doesn't seem to want to import any files of the vehicle I've exported. I've turned it into the two most common and info-preserving formats, such as a .fbx and a .DAE file format, but neither seem to want to load up in 3Ds Studio while they work in my other modeling programs. You said that I can simply turn the model into an .xsi by using Notepad++, which I have. Is it as simple as changing the file's last few letters that signify the format?

Hello, Traffic_Accident.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:36 pm I've been playing around with the meshviewer for a bit. The base units it comes with works fine, but when I brought over the entire Army Men RTS unit folder it only shows the pandemic logo.



Any issue to fix this?

Unfortunately, no. Pandemic logo means that *.god file is locked. It can be unlocked only via HEX Editor, because *.god file is the final model product, but we need to understand its binary structure.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:36 pm I've also finished the mesh and textures for the heavy tank. It's under 1400 vertices, I made sure to emulate the rather low-poly texture style of the game.



But 3Ds Studios Max doesn't seem to want to import any files of the vehicle I've exported. I've turned it into the two most common and info-preserving formats, such as a .fbx and a .DAE file format, but neither seem to want to load up in 3Ds Studio while they work in my other modeling programs. You said that I can simply turn the model into an .xsi by using Notepad++, which I have. Is it as simple as changing the file's last few letters that signify the format?

Heavy tank model is gorgeous. Have you made it from scratch? Because it is very similiar to original game tank model.

Traffic_Accident wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:36 pm But 3Ds Studios Max doesn't seem to want to import any files of the vehicle I've exported. I've turned it into the two most common and info-preserving formats, such as a .fbx and a .DAE file format, but neither seem to want to load up in 3Ds Studio while they work in my other modeling programs. You said that I can simply turn the model into an .xsi by using Notepad++, which I have. Is it as simple as changing the file's last few letters that signify the format?

You must have *.XSI exporter plugin for 3Ds Max. It works correctly with 3Ds Max 8 only. I can try convert your model to *.XSI format if you need.