[Reforged] Bigger Void Disc

[Ugabunda]

Hi guys,

Can anyone please make this effect scale bigger? Maybe 2x as big as the original.

Or better yet: Can you please teach me how to do it? I tried to do it myself in War3ModelEditor, but the scaling adjustment didn't do anything in-game.

Void Disc

Cheers

 

[Hermit]

Here you go:

 

[Ugabunda]

Thank you Hermit. Could you please explain how you did it?

 

[Hermit]

Could you please explain how you did it?

War3 Model Editor has some bugs with saving and loading some parts of MDX files; ribbon emitters are often particularly troublesome. In this model two ribbon emitters have animated alpha, instead of having animated visibility like ribbons in most standard models.

The MDX file cannot be opened, as you probably noticed yourself, so you have to use MDLX Converter to convert it into an MDL file; then you can edit the MDL file with War3 Model Editor (or Notepad).

There is a helper at the top of the node hierarchy which applies a scaling transformation to the entire model.

Scaling is animated in lines of code that look like this:

v: { x, y, z }

v - animation keyframe
x - scaling along the x axis (front/back)
y - scaling along the y axis (right/left)
z - scaling along the z axis (up/down)

Values larger than 1 increase the size of an object along the chosen axis/axes, while values smaller then 1 reduce it. You just have to change the values for x and y; don't change z unless you also want to change the flying height of the disc.

When you're done save the model and don't forget to convert it back to MDX before importing it into a map.

 

[Ugabunda]

Yes, I also downloaded the converter (one comment in the original thread recommended this) and had a MDL file.

But 2 questions:
1) Do you mean in the Model Editor > Transformation > Scaling? (see image attached)
2) And is it normal that the model is completely black when opening it in Model Editor? (see also image)

 

[Hermit]

1) Do you mean in the Model Editor > Transformation > Scaling? (see image attached)

Windows > Node Manager; find the helper; right-click it > Edit Node > Scaling.

2) And is it normal that the model is completely black when opening it in Model Editor? (see also image)

Yes if your game version is more recent than patch 1.29 (or maybe it was 1.30, I can't remember) because the game data is no longer stored in MPQ archives; they have been replaced with the CASC archive system.

 

[Ugabunda]

Ah got it - and I guess you changed the X and Y values of Rib 1 and Rib 2?

- Rib 1: {0, 170, 32}
- Rib 2: {0, -170, 32}

Why is the X equal 0 though...?

 

[Hermit]

Ah got it - and I guess you changed the X and Y values of Rib 1 and Rib 2?

I didn't have to change anything else. The "Scales" helper is a parent node of all ribbons and particles, which means that every time it moves/rotates/scales, all of its children will also be moved/rotated/scaled.

- Rib 1: {0, 170, 32}
- Rib 2: {0, -170, 32}

Why is the X equal 0 though...?

Pivot point coordinates have nothing to do with changing the scaling values. The x is 0 because that's where the ribbon is positioned in 3D space.

 

[Ugabunda]

I didn't have to change anything else. The "Scales" helper is a parent node of all ribbons and particles, which means that every time the it moves/rotates/scales, all of its children will also be moved/rotated/scaled.

Ahh sorry I misread - now I found what you mean. Do I have to change the x and y across all "500", "700", "1000", the same? What are those even?

 

[Hermit]

Do I have to change the x and y across all "500", "700", "1000", the same? What are those even?

As I already said in my post above, those are animation keyframes. You can go to Windows > Sequence Manager to see what animation contains what keyframe.

Birth: 500-800
Stand: 1000-1900
Death: 4000-5000

So, yes; you have to change the values in each pair of curly brackets if you want to change the scale for all animations.

 

[Ugabunda]

Thanks a lot - I can guess I can do it myself from now on