HIVE

i guess the only way is to check? i don't own reforged (and technically didn't even own war3, but eh.. its past) so i took what i was told was a reforged crypt fiend.. i hope its the blender converter that broke all bones apart, but i doubt

I looked and the reforged crypt fiend had a fairly standard skeletal hierarchy with 2 roots, pelvis and chest.

can i have that somehow extracted correctly? i don't need it to have anims, just to be poseable in blender

sorry I forgot to reply to this. I think I was confused about what you're asking. I dont have experience using blender for wc3. Never have. So, are you asking me to send you an ingame model that you can just extract from the game using basic tools?

are you going to open it with a program that cant open 2020 reforged format, or cant open 2022 reforged format, or something? Do you want an MDX in a specific FormatVersion? Or are you asking me for some other kind of file that I dont have experience with?

well.. i assumed you used Blender, but its probably that a reforged model can only be properly opened in 3Ds max or something. i just want it to have a normal skeleton structure, instead of that broken mess of a crypt fiend i was given previously. i think that FBX format would be good, as i only want this model to pose it
edit: i guess that i could use old-school mdx too, but that still would require someone to convert it

The last time I used 3ds max was more than 5 years ago to make a game in unreal engine. FBX is not good for Warcraft 3. For this hobby, I use MDX instead.

Attached is a ported MDX of the reforged crypt fiend in the 2003 frozen throne game format. Be advised that this port process is lossy and the rig loses weights, but if you are primary interested in the bone skeleton structure it should be generally perfectly intact because the frozen throne bone skeleton structure system was reused on Reforged's MDX format design (so it's possible to express the same structure in 2003 format):

As a sidenote, although I fixed one or two crypt fiend specific things, I try to have this conversion process to port the file to the old format as an open-source free solution that does not require 3ds max or any special go-between. I was just clicking the button in Retera Model Studio to convert.

my old model editor can't even load it.. it spits out some tag error.. expected 'vrtx', got 'y'
but hm.. you say it looses weights? isn't that making it a static? i want a mesh that follows pose-able bones

What the heck kind of editor are you using? I imported it into Patch 1.22. That is a patch from pre ~2009 before the Activision merger, and before the Return Bug was removed, from the glory days. The model imported into my world editor fine, and was completely animated including event objects and sounds and footprints. I ran around a crypt fiend using this file and had it attack some ghouls and then it died and left a corpse. As far as I knew, this was a fully functioning model in the 2003 Frozen Throne format.

Hmm. Apparently although the model is valid, it has some needless formatting leftover from Reforged as far as I could tell, where the original file was using MDX features that have existed since 2003 but that are known to be not supported in Ye Old Unmaintained Magos War3ModelEditor Application. If people are going to continue to use that application, I should probably take a dunk on it by finally making a 100% full replacement application that is "finished" in the sense of fully supporting the MDX format.

well, the version is 1.07 .. i take its absolutely ancient? your initial reaction has made me laugh tho..
still, that was and kinda still is a very sturdy application, that has earned its keep, so to say..

that said, i do want everyone to be able to work with the format, so i support that new app idea. blizzard is certainly not going to give us any tools
but back to the issue, what the heck was it with formatting, and can it be fixed on this particular crypt fiend model? i mean.. what if i suddenly decide i want a reforged naga to play with?

Yea it honestly might only be this crypt fiend that has the problem. Basically it has a second TVertices chunk for some awful reason, just like the Firelord's Volcano from the Frozen Throne, or the Cliff Cave Doodad, which Magos always fails to open even though they are from back then.

Unlike those other models, which need that feature to appear visually correct, I have no earthly idea why this crypt fiend has the feature. I think it would not be difficult to try to remove it with a program that understands it, and most likely the resulting visual of the model would look the same.

i would appreciate it very much. this broken mess of bones in a blender file that i received previously, while working, is for my purposes completely unsalvageable Ouo

edit: oh and , i learned to expect the 'what the heck were they smoking' moments when it comes to blizz models. better to have a mostly redundant fix for something, just in case

how about this?

ooh, almost o3o various pieces of the mesh have lost weights
edit: hm.. this would be salvageable if it were minor, but we're talking entire segments with probably complex weights, have lost them Ouo

Wait so you really just actually want the original in the reforged format? Cant you just get it from Blizzard?

no, the other way around.. a reforged model in the old mdx format.

the old format can't express the weights. Is there a way that you foresee me making something in the old format that more closely represents the reforged model than what I already sent? If so, how? Maybe it would be possible through repeating data in the matrices block to simulate weights, but that would just be a giant pain and although the game would honor it a lot of our modding software might not

eh.. i only wanted a nerubian i could pose for drawing references .u.

ok there has to be a way for that working crypt fiend to be somehow fixed in notepad so the stupid old magos can open it.. what do i need to seek out and replace in a mdl? before i convert it back to mdx
edit: no.. seriously? o-0 the very act of converting the working, magos-un-openable crypt fiend, F-s it completely. i just checked the text-based mdl in magos

the second one I sent doesn't open in magos? why not?

I just tried it and for me it does open. Magos visually displays the model incorrectly but I was able to save the model and it still looked visually correct in some other program