Exporting 3D Models from Plasma Games

[Asteralium]

Hi! Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask this, but I wasn't really sure where else to go. I'm a fan of MagiQuest and I was looking to try and 3D print some of the models from MagiQuest Online. I'm not really familiar with this engine at all, so I'm a bit stumped. I did manage to download PrpShop and export some objects from the ages (in the Draw Interface folder) into plasma objects files (.po). From there I'm not really sure where to take this. Is there a way I can convert those files into more standard 3d model file types?

Thanks.

[Sirius]

Ignore PO files, they won't be of much use to you.
Instead, you want the ZLZ importer, which lets you import whole .AGE files (and the linked PRPs) into Blender.
As you can read in the installation section, you will also need "Korman", which is a plugin to export PRPs which the importer relies on. The Korman installer ships its own version of Blender 2.79 (which is identical to Blender 2.79 with a few bugfixes).
You can safely ignore the part about "MOUL source textures" in the ZLZ article, since it doesn't apply to MQO.

I never tested the importer on MQO data though, but if it doesn't work let me know and I'll see if it can be fixed.

[Paradox]

ZLZ is great for pulling an entire Age or section of an Age into Blender and retaining textures and materials.

If you just want to extract a single object and aren't too worried about textures, there's a command-line Prp2Obj tool as part of libHSPlasma that can pull a single object out of the game data as a Wavefront OBJ model.

[Asteralium]

Hi! It took my friend and I a while to get around to doing this but we finally did. Our main mission was a success! We managed (with very, very little experience with Blender) to import the Portal Well and export the 3d model for one of the portal frames. Here's the result:




They have these things in real life. Here's one of them at Pigeon Forge TN:


We thought that we wouldn't be able to manage at first because we got stuck at the beginning of the guides, but it turns out that they just didn't mention how to install a plugin. Whoops. Probably should've looked into that in hindsight. But once we got the importer functioning here are some of the results we got:



Here is the Portal Well. It uhh... well all the important models seem to be there? I am not totally sure how this importer is supposed to work but it only managed to grab one of the many portals seen in the well. The inner portal frame has also spawned in the middle for some reason. The tree looks to be in the right spot. We decided to just delete everything except for the portal we wanted, and then export it. Defintely not the most efficient way to do that, I'm sure. But like I said before, we kinda had no idea what we were doing.



Here's a view of the Clan Courtyard imported. The general shape of the area is all there but there are definitely elements of the building missing and misplaced objects like lamps. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't manage to import the secret platform at the bottom of the area. All of the special MQO interactive objects (that you would use for quests and such) do not load into the main area when the ages are imported into Uru. But there are weird copies of most of them on a secret platform under the main area. So I wasn't able to get treasure chests, the fairy rings, etc.



The Twisted Woods (also known as forest.age) uhh... well, you can see for yourself. I got a black square, one thing of quest stones, and a weird orange thing. There's supposed to be like, a whole forest here.



I did mess around with some of the .prp files. I did find a single quest object, and the basement of the windmill. But for some reason Blender won't let me zoom in on them enough to get a better look. The scroll to zoom and pan got so low and just stops working at some point. Again, blender noob. That's probably my fault. I also couldn't load any textures, but it's not a big deal because if I wanted to see them textured I'd just go into Uru and look at them.

So yeah, that's that! Thank you guys for linking me to those guides. I really appreciate it.

[Sirius]

We thought that we wouldn't be able to manage at first because we got stuck at the beginning of the guides, but it turns out that they just didn't mention how to install a plugin. Whoops. Probably should've looked into that in hindsight.

Where ? The Wiki pages for ZLZ and Korman seem fairly accurate I would say, unless you were looking at another guide. Feel free to suggest improvements.

It uhh... well all the important models seem to be there? I am not totally sure how this importer is supposed to work but it only managed to grab one of the many portals seen in the well. The inner portal frame has also spawned in the middle for some reason. The tree looks to be in the right spot.

This is the first time anyone ever used this plugin to import MQO content, so if the importer could import anything at all that's a fairly good start I would say But regarding misplaced objects and various oddities you mentioned in your post: it seems the importer is crashing halfway through the import process. This is why most of the Twisted Woods are missing, and why objects are incorrectly positioned (the importer can only position objects once all of them have been correctly imported).
MQO was never the focus of ZLZ so I never really bothered to check if it imported correctly until now. But I'll see if I can fix it

I was a bit disappointed that it didn't manage to import the secret platform at the bottom of the area. All of the special MQO interactive objects (that you would use for quests and such) do not load into the main area when the ages are imported into Uru. But there are weird copies of most of them on a secret platform under the main area. So I wasn't able to get treasure chests, the fairy rings, etc.

I never played MQO so I don't know a lot about the gameplay... But if I had to guess, what you're seeing under the Age are "templates" that the game duplicates and places randomly across the Age while you're playing. So this is an accurate representation of how those objects are stored in the PRP files (well, as accurate as can be considering the importer crashed halfway through.)
Quite sad that MQO didn't last longer, it would have been interesting to see it evolve beyond that small demo.

Defintely not the most efficient way to do that, I'm sure. But like I said before, we kinda had no idea what we were doing.

If you look into the export options from Blender, there is often a checkbox named "Selection Only" or something similar that allows you to export only the objects that are highlighted in orange/red. This is easier than deleting the other objects.
But as long as it works fast and the result is usable that should be efficient enough.

So yeah, that's that! Thank you guys for linking me to those guides. I really appreciate it.

Glad this could be of help And thanks for reporting your findings.

[EDIT]

Oh, and I forgot to mention - most of those locations import correctly once they have been converted to work on Uru using the Drizzle utility. But I'll see about fixing ZLZ anyway.

But for some reason Blender won't let me zoom in on them enough to get a better look. The scroll to zoom and pan got so low and just stops working at some point. Again, blender noob.

Blender has a notion of screen "depth", so it won't zoom further than that. It's a bit confusing at first. Use Alt-F to refocus under the cursor and you should be good.

I also couldn't load any textures

N → Shading → select "GLSL", then Alt-Z should show textures

[Asteralium]

Where ? The Wiki pages for ZLZ and Korman seem fairly accurate I would say, unless you were looking at another guide. Feel free to suggest improvements.

https://guildofwriters.org/wiki/Korman:Installation This page could use an extra step. In order to get Korman to show up as an option where by default it says "Blender Renderer" my friends and I had to go into user preferences and then to add-ons and install Korman as an extra step.

This is the first time anyone ever used this plugin to import MQO content, so if the importer could import anything at all that's a fairly good start I would say But regarding misplaced objects and various oddities you mentioned in your post: it seems the importer is crashing halfway through the import process.

Ah, yeah. That makes sense. In your edit you mentioned that they all import correctly after being converted through Drizzle. I tried that and it works great! It also fixes the other thing about the objects on the platform, so everything is here. Even the weird planes in the void.

If you look into the export options from Blender, there is often a checkbox named "Selection Only" or something similar that allows you to export only the objects that are highlighted in orange/red. This is easier than deleting the other objects.

This tip and the one about Alt-F was super helpful. Thank you! Getting around and exporting anything else should be much easier.

N → Shading → select "GLSL", then Alt-Z should show textures

I get a weird error message when trying to load the textures for some reason. I would post a picture of it but it's got like, directories of my computer that have my name. Where can I message you privately and I can show you the error?

[Maroonroon]

I get a weird error message when trying to load the textures for some reason. I would post a picture of it but it's got like, directories of my computer that have my name. Where can I message you privately and I can show you the error?

There's a "PM" (Private Message) icon under his avatar img (under "Location").
But you can also edit the screenshot in a PhotoEditor program and cover your name with a white rectangle, for example.

[Asteralium]

But you can also edit the screenshot in a PhotoEditor program and cover your name with a white rectangle, for example

You know, I'm feeling really dumb right now for not thinking of that. Anyways, here's the error message I get when I try and import textures:



Here's the error. Something to do with "validkey" and an unknown location. It's the first age on the list for it to grab textures from. It's worth noting I guess that I don't have the MOUL source textures thing set up, and I also have the URU dat folder open when I start this process.

[Sirius]

Ah, I see.
You don't need to use the import option "ZLZ texture extractor" - that's just to unpack all textures from the DAT folder into the TMP_Textures folder, but it won't import meshes. This is mostly useful to people who want to create new environments in Uru, and even then it seems it's bugged in the latest version. The name is confusing though, I'll rename it to avoid these issues.
You should just import the Age as usual with the "ZLZ Uru importer" option instead. Then, with the cursor hovering the 3D view, open the right panel using the "N" key, look for Shading, and ensure GLSL is selected (not "Multitexture"). Then, use Alt-Z to toggle shaded rendering, and you should see textures. It won't be perfect because Blender can't perfectly recreate the game's lighting and texturing, but it should be somewhat close.

EDIT: Been looking into the bug when importing MQO files. This is part of a deeper problem with HSPlasma which can't easily be circumvented for the time being.
So for now, converting the Ages with Drizzle first is the correct way to go. ZLZ will import as much data as it would normally, but without crashing or eating 20 gigs of RAM.