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[Rhapsody]

I'm trying to port some models from World of Warcraft to Garry's Mod. A program called WoW Model Viewer can export WoW models as .fbx files, animations intact. I've saved each desired animation as it's own FBX, and used WWMT to convert each sequence into an SMD, which I compiled with Crowbar. The model and animation appear to work just fine in 3ds Max (and Blender, actually), but go a bit screwy when ported into Source. The below video is the process I took, which demonstrates this issue;

After showing that model in particular, I loaded another model with a similar issue, also ported from the same game.

I'm unsure of what to actually do here since the issue doesn't actually manifest until after the model is exported as an SMD (or compiled?), leading me to believe it's an issue with the exporter. Any help with this would be appreciated.

[wallworm]

This likely means that some of the vertices are either weighted to more than 3 bones or that some of the vertices are not fully weighted to bones. The exporter makes no assumptions about the intent of the weighting--it just takes the weighting as they exist in the scene and export. I'd check the skin weights for the problem verts.

[Rhapsody]

I'm a bit new to modeling in general and I'm not qute sure how to do that. That is, I know how to modify the weights (sort of?), but I don't know how to identify which vertex is which, or which vertex is responsible when viewing in HLMV. I also don't really have any idea of what would actually fix this; I'd basically be making a shot in the dark.

[wallworm]

Send me the FBX file you are testing and I will quickly check.

Also, I noticed that you are using an inefficient way of exporting. If you send me a few files (the reference as well as a few sequence files) in FBX I will demonstrate a better/faster way of getting your model into Source.

[wallworm]

So there are a couple things.

The problem with that scene was that it had an OpenSubdiv modifier on the model. There is a bug that an OpenSubdiv can mess up skin weights even if it's set to 0 iterations. That means that removing the opensubdiv modifier will solve your issue.

However, here is what you should really do.

Update to WW 3.31 (I just loaded it).

After you install this version and open any WW floater, the menus will update and you find a new menu: Wall Worm > Wall Worm Importers > FBX to WWMT

• Launch FBX to WWMT  (Wall Worm > Wall Worm Importers > FBX to WWMT)
• Enter a name for your model in game (like "wolf")
• Set a default sequence name (or leave blank)
• Press the Import FBX to WWMT button and choose the folder with all the FBX files
• Wait for the process to finish (it can take a minute)
• When done, open WWMT (click Wall Worm > Wall Worm Model Tools > Wall Worm Model Tools)
• Click the Pick Model button and choose the WWMT Helper (the text object in scene)
• Click the Export QC+Model button
• Now your model is in source with all the sequences

Note that you should learn about the settings in the WWMT floater, like the model path, folder path, etc. And if your textures were not TGA and you are not using WW Pro, you'll have to export the textures the old fashioned way. But if they are TGA or if you have WW Pro, you can click the Export VTFs button and your materials will go to game too.

Enjoy.