granny engine .gr2 question

[Rheini]

ok Sorry for the third post in a row, but in this forum there's not the modify option.

You are wrong, you may use the edit button to edit your posts.

I thinlk I can solve this and release the plugin with the source. Do you think that the old scary Granny would sue me in a court of law for this? no, seriously, in your experence is that illegal?

To quote the hacker manifest:

We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek
after knowledge... and you call us criminals. [...]
You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us
and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is
that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like.
My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me
for.

Good work, looking forward to see your code

[federico]

Ok. I created a site with all the infos I got so far about the granny powered games and the related tools. There you can download my plugin compiled for 3dsmax 2008, and the source for all the max versions and gmax. I also updated the grnreader source & binary that now outputs skinnable meshes. In the Tips&Tricks section I suggest you a way to get the models in 3dsmax without pain.



The game list is huge but it isn't complete. They licensed quite all the game companies in the game industry.
So I encourage you to email me ([email protected]) if you discover some new gr2 game or if you successfully can import the content using my plugin.
As I said, I'm really excited about the large archive of animation that these games could provide to the indie developpers.

[federico]

sorry, I keep posting my progress as if this were my blog.

I combined the two tools. The plugin imports the skeleton and the animations, as usual but it also exports the skeleton in smd format.
the grnreader append to that file the mesh data with the vertex weighted to the bones (still in smd format). I also figured out the mesh group data so the result is a skinned mesh linked to the skeleton in SMD format. Yeah!
I tried in max and milkshape and the result is good. I'm adding the last two features and I'm ready to release the final version: extract the texture, and adding the other three vertex weight layer.

[Rheini]

Amazing work!
But still... we don't know any way to get something back into gr2 format

[federico]

Today I discovered that there's an exporter!.
The Obsidian Expotron utility (only for max 7/8) has a granny exporter.
Right now I'm still focused on the importer plugin (gave up on the textures side) but I tried an export from max 7 and something happened. The export isn't perfect but it's a start. The export plug it's highly customizable and I didn't included in my importer the unit scale and world axis (for example the oddworld models are upside down), so there are ways to improve the result.

(the little dots that you can see in the eyes are the MAX bone dummies. The granny format is great, if you hide them in max, the exporter hide them for you in the resulting gr2 file).

I think that the people more interested in a compatible import/export are the NWN2 modders. I don't have the game and actually I'm not so interested in it (my main end is gamedev, I made all this stuff to grab the animations). So if someone is willing to try the tools for that game I would be more than happy to see what I can do.

The expotron plugin seems to be not avaible anymore at the obsidian official site. I don't remember where I found it, but I still can include it in the new release of the importer...

[federico]

Ok that's it. Here are two shots of vertex weight in max and milkshape.




Tomorrow I will pack all the stuff (binary. source, tools) and I'll write a tutorial.

[federico]

Sorry for the delay.
Actually I finished updating the plugin and the converter and I wrote all the docs, but still there's something keeping me working on this. I'm trying to collect most of the games licensed for the grannny format, and my findings were unexpected.
For example: Anno 1701, which I know interested Rheini (your tools are great, man). The point is that some gr2 files contain only the meshes but not the skeleton, others only the animations. So I think I have to re-work some part of the code because I had to make some ad-hoc hack just to export those data.
You just have to wait two days... no more.

[federico]

OK. Here we go.

I updated the site with the new downloads for the MAX plugin, the Mesh converter, the exporter, and new step-by-step docs. I think there's all an indie developper needs to take a look at the work of the pros. Nonetheless, the willing modders should use those tools carefully, because they weren't created for that purpouse and I never tried it in this context. If someone wants to go that way, I could try try to help, but it's not something you should expect from me right now. I interested though in trying the tools on all the game licensed for granny3d, so if you discover new games supported by the gr2 format or if you own one of those games, please write me a line (gr2.decode AT gmail.com) and eventually send me a couple of gr2 models to try.

I added some new infos about the game "Settlers II - 10th Anniversary" (thanks to mrmocool for the info). I tried to use the tools on Anno1701 but I wasn't able to load the models in the converter for unknown reasons. Sorry about that, I may give it another try.
I will try to get some datas from Scarface, which probably use the gr2 format (I found the info in this forum).

[Rheini]

I added some new infos about the game "Settlers II - 10th Anniversary" (thanks to mrmocool for the info)

btw, that was me
good job mate.
keep going, your work is very appreciated!

[federico]

thanks a lot Rheini.
Today I downloaded the demo of Stronghold 2 for Windows. The gr2 files aren't archived nor compressed. The import/export worked like a charm. Info and screens in the

[federico]

Confirmed support for Dungeon Lords by Heuristic Park, distrubuted by dreamcatcher. Screens and infos in the Credits Jwatson.

[federico]

Thanks to the useful infos and tools provided by F. Fischer (aka SiENcE), I wrote a little tutorial to import .grn Granny1 files using the gr2 tools


Confirmed support for the game SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month by Awe Productions (.grn format).

[federico]

The Download link of the Gr2 Mesh Converter was broken, now has been fixed. I also added the SMD tools you could need. Check out the


Added a new game to the games list: Catz II by Ubisoft. Thanks Topper Carson for the info!

[Nirvana Jung]

first off, i'd say thanks all u guys making gr2 importer

im not a programer i just design 3d art and game modding which is graphics
so i came here to asking what i need for my work
i'm a korean and lack in english so some my gramer could be missunderstanding

OK, here is my deal

what im wondering is about Age of Empires3 GR2 files (include animations)
i attempted use a AoE3 *.gr2 files in units and Animations for my work
but 3dsmax2008 doesnt work for those gr2 files Also granny viewer doesnt load for those files
especially when i tried import mesh for unit gr2 files, 3dsmax was just crashed

i have read all documents of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and i figured out how can import and convert normaly
Fortunately, the building gr2 files was successed to import at 3dsmax 2008


however units and Animations are doesnt work

for searching problems,i linked sample files is here ( you may wait to see download button )

i really want to get Aoe3 units and animations in 3dsmax2008 for my work , thanks

[federico]

I attached to this post a version of the grnreader that correctly exports the model files you sent me. In the vertex struct there's another parameter: granny_real32 Tangent[3];

I'm not completely satisfied by this hack because it won't export the standard gr2 format. Probably it should work on the Settler II models too, but I can't try because I've just deleted the demo.

The samples you sent me are confusing, so I've really proceeded on trial and error. Anyway you should always load your models in the GrannyViewer to see the additional data. For example, my importer has not implemented any scaling using the unit's meter data contained in the gr2 format. That's a great limitation for a modding usage of the tools. The cavalery models have a scale ratio of 0.615157 while the animations of 39.857684
Naturally the result is a little model stretched by the big animation. I think you could solve this trouble in the modelerer. For the modding purpouse you should carefully play with the expotron plugin just to find the correct setting to overcome these issues, if they used those scale values there's probably a reason somewhere.
A note: animation import works correctly. You just have to import the model before the animations because the skeleton data aren't embedded in the animation files.