Making female characters wear heels

So I'm trying to make some of the female characters (esp. the dignitaries) look a little more professional by wearing heels. Funny how some like Linda Foreman wear heels in the wrong setting (in the house? Seriously?)

I tried taking Linda's model and made the other female hostages use it with mixed results. It's mostly alright, the problem is their faces. Their skin get imprinted on the hair mesh, making it look weird.

I heard the only way to make such modifications is to use 3D Studio Max (but we all know that's impossible). But I looked on furrycat's gsmhacking program and it talks about copying materials from a GSM model. You think that can help me with what I'm trying to achieve? At least lemme take the other hostages' heads and placing it on Linda's model.

Thanks for your future help!

What program are you currently using to export the models?
Just realized you are not currently using a 3d program to export.

Things to consider.
1. HighPoly shoes on a low poly model is not ideal
2. updating the mission characters, and mission skins for each map to point to new models. Overwriting the Gsm's is not ideal because there are different maps that might fit the setting of the current model.
3. any other modifications to the model should not exceed 4,000 polygons total, if you are just bind the meshing and not properly applying paint weights to areas that need it.

It can be done in 3d studio max, if you can find it and get it to run, and run the plugins.

The Face problem could be related to the Facial Expressions. Are you modifying the face UV;s or mesh in any way?

There is a learning curve. Luckly you have folks here that are experienced in character models for swat 3.
Here are some preliminary steps.
1. choose a 3d modeling program, Either 3ds Max, or Maya 6.0.  I use Maya.
2. Familiarize yourself with the missioncharacters.dat and missionskins.dat by reviewing the FAQs pages included in the 2.1 version of the game.
3. Import the model into Maya.
4. Unbind the model
5. Make the changes.
6  Combine Meshes based on Swat3 naming convetion, ie: l_leg, r_leg, face, etc.
7. Merg Verts, and Sow UV's to remove duplicate vertices and UV's on meshes,
5. Bind the model
6. Fix weights
7. Apply Hit Detection Vertex color.
8, Export

I can get away with 3 versions of the above process to save my previous work and have a back up, you might want to consider using more.
I know the export plugins are availabe on furrycat's website for swat 3, but the import plugin he has not made it public.

Things to consider.
1. HighPoly shoes on a low poly model is not ideal
2. updating the mission characters, and mission skins for each map to point to new models. Overwriting the Gsm's is not ideal because there are different maps that might fit the setting of the current model.

Doesn't matter. SWAT 3's graphics scream 1999 everyday. That being said, it is possible with just gsmhacking? I still don't understand how to use the copy material function.

It can be done in 3d studio max, if you can find it and get it to run, and run the plugins.

Yeah...unless I have Win 98, and an original copy (has anti-piracy protection). And 2.5. So...yeah...

The Face problem could be related to the Facial Expressions.

That's why I disabled expressions altogether. Too much work. If you want I can show you some of my what I did. But it just annoys me that most women now have Linda's hairstyle.

There is a learning curve. Luckly you have folks here that are experienced in character models for swat 3.
Here are some preliminary steps.
1. choose a 3d modeling program, Either 3ds Max, or Maya 6.0.  I use Maya.
2. Familiarize yourself with the missioncharacters.dat and missionskins.dat by reviewing the FAQs pages included in the 2.1 version of the game.
3. Import the model into Maya.
4. Unbind the model
5. Make the changes.
6  Combine Meshes based on Swat3 naming convetion, ie: l_leg, r_leg, face, etc.
7. Merg Verts, and Sow UV's to remove duplicate vertices and UV's on meshes,
5. Bind the model
6. Fix weights
7. Apply Hit Detection Vertex color.
8, Export

I understand Maya requires a $200 subsciption a month so I guess this isn't happening either.

Thanks for your answer, and I love your work (notably the Athlete Training Center where you got models from Hitman in SWAT 3!).

I used GSM hacking with the NightB4Christmas map to make some not so great elves.

Hilarious mod btw

If I recall I modified some kid models by using GSM hacking to add conical hats to the tops of their heads. I seem to remember making the hats also in 3D Studio Max and then exporting them and then using GSM hacking to add them to the models.

I want to do something like that. Like put Cindy Karr's head on Linda Foreman's body.

Thanks for answering!

I wish I could help you, but right now my modding rig is plagued with a ntdll.dll problem that microsoft refuses to acknowledge exists and they brush off all support tickets blaming the applications themselves.

Once I get my mod rig running again(All Programs). I will check back, meanwhile, if ya need my help on this project, it doesnt take very long for me to quickly add meshes and export them. We can worry about hit detection and paint weights later after all models are done and naming convention has been established.

Maybe get a shoe with a heel mesh, a layout of characters needed to be modified, and a naming convention going. So there is little back and forth communication and stuff actually gets done.

Remember overwriting character gsm's is not the way to go about doing it. Because then you will have Linda walking around barefoot in all maps that use that character.

I was talking to beckett and was thinking of maybe a live stream of the character models being modified. What do you think of that idea?

I wish I could help you, but right now my modding rig is plagued with a ntdll.dll problem that microsoft refuses to acknowledge exists and they brush off all support tickets blaming the applications themselves.

Microsuck lol

meanwhile, if ya need my help on this project, it doesnt take very long for me to quickly add meshes and export them.

Well that's much appreciated.

Remember overwriting character gsm's is not the way to go about doing it. Because then you will have Linda walking around barefoot in all maps that use that character.

Well, I really don't want Linda to be barefoot in as much as I want all the other women to be heeled. The reason why I used Linda's model is because her body model, when you replace it with one of the attires in the game, gives a sexy but professional look. In other words, those female dignitaries? Yeah they are wearing skirts and heels now. I also used Brit Hogue's model to achieve the same thing for others.

Now that I mentioned it, that's what I was aiming for: I ideally wanted all the women to be wearing skirts and heels.

I managed to use gsmhacking to make her head transparent, then try use to the Copy function to transfer, like, say, Cindy Karr's head. (I also wanted to replace the heads of those two female suspects in lingerie as their hairstyle is so 1970's). But everytime I try to do that, I get an error. I'll try it again when I get the time and share what the error message is.

Maybe get a shoe with a heel mesh

How do we get that? We can use those in the game, can't we?

a layout of characters needed to be modified

All the women to be wearing skirts and heels but keeping their unique heads

I was talking to beckett and was thinking of maybe a live stream of the character models being modified. What do you think of that idea?

I'd love to, but we seem to live in different time zones. Also, I'm currently in final year dental school so spare time is limited. The time I'm posting these is within my spare time which is 1 hour at most (2 if I'm lucky). And it's always around this time after which I go to sleep. So this is sadly may not be possible. I wished I posted this last year when we had to stay home altogether with nothing to do (only around Nov. did we started to see patients again).

Thanks again for your willingness to help.