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The best program for creating your own customised player model for Heretic II is called Gwynflex. This isn't a tutorial on how to use Gwynflex. There's already an in-depth tutorial at the old Heretic Fortress site, and an older one at the Shrine of the Ovum, both written by the creator of Gwynflex himself, the illustrious Gwynhala. Here I shall outline the most important part of creating your own Heretic II player model - getting the initial static model ready for animating. Once you've got a clean static model to work with, then I suggest studying the Gwynflex tutorial closely. The following tips will help make the task a lot easier. Firstly, choose a model that is vaguely human-looking. If it has two arms, two legs, and stands upright, then you shouldn't have too much trouble. If you want to play as something exotic like a spider or a dragon, then be prepared to have to create your own motion capture file for use in Gwynflex - that's over 1,400 frames of animation all created from scratch! How about we stick with something simple to begin with. So, you've got a humanoid model (either from another game, or something you created yourself). You'll save yourself a lot of grief if you make sure that all shared vertices are welded. What does this mean? A model is comprised of lots of triangular polygons, each with three vertices (the plural of vertex). If each polygon in a model is separate, then you'll have three times as many vertices as polygons. If you tried to animate this model with Gwynflex, then instead of deforming the model to change postures for each frame, the polygons would simply be pulled apart leaving gaps between body parts. By making sure that most (but not all - more on this later) of the shared vertices are welded together, you ensure that everytime a polygon is moved, the polygons it is welded to also move, allowing a model to deform as it is repositioned for each frame but not be pulled apart.
Most models from other games already have the vertices welded where they need to be. However, be careful about converting models from one format to another. I used to save Flex Models (FM) from the Heretic II PAK as Quake MDL models, using QuArK. Not only did this unweld all of the vertices (doubling the file size), but it also flipped the skin vertically. I then used the Quake Modeller to alter the model and save it as a Quake II MD2 model (which Gwynflex can import). Then I wondered why the animated model wound up with gaps in it. Now, when I want to convert an FM into an MD2, I use the FM2OBJ program that comes with Gwynflex, open the OBJ file in Gwynflex, bind the whole thing to the spine, and generate an MD2 with just one frame (export as 'Flex Model from...'). I then import that MD2 into the Quake Modeller for editing. It's a round-about way of doing things, but it ensures that the resulting MD2 still retains welded vertices. If anyone knows of a better way to convert a multi-frame FM into an MD2 directly, please let me know about it! There are certain parts of your static model that you want to keep separate; namely the two arms and the head/neck. These parts of the model can be cut off in a deathmatch game, so you want the torso and legs to be one continuous section so there are polygons beneath the arm and neck joins (otherwise you can see through the model when something is cut off). Keeping these parts separate from the bulk of the model also helps when it comes time to bind polygons to the Gwynflex skeleton, as the automatic groups that are generated when you open the model will keep the arms and head/neck separate from the torso. However, once you have bound all the polygons and tested the model, you will have to go back and weld the neck to the neck stump to prevent gaps appearing when you look up or down. In Quake Modeller you can weld vertices without changing the polygon numbers, so the new MD2 you generate will still work with the bindings you saved based on the old (head/neck separate) model. You may also want to remap the skin of the model. Heretic II model skins can be up to 256x256 pixels in size. I like to remap the skin of my new model so that it only uses 128x256 (ie. half of the skin), which leaves enough room to add in the skins for the weapons and armour later (known as props). For skins with a lot of detail, I sometimes increase the player portion of the skin to 140x256 (leaving 116x256 for props). So, you've edited the model, making sure it is in just three unconnected sections. Make sure to delete any additional polygon groups from the model that won't be needed in Heretic II, such as weapons or extra hands (there are often two sets of hands - open palms and closed fists). Use whatever model editor you are confortable with (I use the Quake Modeller, if you haven't guessed) - just make sure you can export the tidied model as something that Gwynflex can import (FM, MD2, OBJ, 3DS, DXF)
I tend to merge props (weapons & armour) one at a time, make the model posable, then generate the player model to check the weapon/armour is in the right place. Before merging each prop, however, I make sure it is selected and save the orientation as an ORI file. That way, if you want to change or add something later, it's just a matter of loading up props and putting them in their correct position using the ORI file for each one. This speeds up the process of adding new props or altering existing ones enormously, as you don't have to fiddle about trying to get the prop in the right place every time. When merging props, make sure you write down the skin information that pops up on the screen. Double check it before clicking OK. If you write down the wrong numbers, you'll have to quit Gwynflex and start merging props again from the beginning, or the skin won't fit onto them properly in the final model. Don't forget to clone the hands before adding any props, otherwise hands will disappear when using a weapon. I used to think adding armour was a pain, since I could never get it to animate properly without body parts passing right through it at times. That was until I discovered the 'Full Body Armor' option in Gwynflex. You can bind armour to any part of the body, providing you check the 'Full Body Armor' option in the 'Skeleton' menu. Then, simply add all of the polygons you want to be armour into a group and save it with the name ARMOR (in uppercase letters). Gwynflex will then automatically add those polygons to the armour mesh node, however they will still animate according to the bones they are bound to. Using this option it is possible to add helmets, or quite literally armour that covers the entire body. For player models with short weapons, you'll need a new vaulting animation (since the old animation used the bottom of the staff to vault with). You can download a modified Gwynflex motion capture file HERE (1.78 Mb). It turns the short weapon backwards to vault with, and includes improvements to other animation sequences. Got some more tips? Send them in and I might just include them here.
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The initial model. Both the male & female versions use the same model, so lots of additional polygons exist that don't belong in the male T'Checkrik (horns, wings, extra hand)
| The female polygons were deleted, as were the weapons & the extra left hand (males have a clenched fist, females an open hand).
| The model is ready to be animated. Arms on one side were deleted, the remaining ones mirrored so they were identicle on each side. Legs were moved to a neutral standing pose. The head & neck were separated, & polygons added to the neck stump. The arms were also separated prior to being copied and mirrored.
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| The skin was completely remapped to leave room for the weapons skins later in the Gwynflex process. It is still 256x256 in size, but only half of that is taken up by the skin of the model. Make sure that detailed areas (like the face) are as large as possible to retain a decent resolution. |
| Original skin | Remapped skin | |
| The finished product (see the Models page). The extra arms were bound to either side of the chest, and the left & right halves of the tail to respective sides of the pelvis. The original T'Checkrik spear was used in place of the blade-staff. You could also extract the T'Checkrik sounds from the PAK and create custom player sounds. | |
Welded vertices also considerably reduce the model size. Imagine a series of four triangles all put together to make a pyramid with a triangular base. If each vertex was unique, then you'd have four polygons and a total of 12 vertices in the model (three for each polygon). Even if the corner vertices were snapped to exactly the same spot, they'd still be separate entities (although you wouldn't know this just by looking at the model). By welding the shared vertices (where polygons meet at corners), you reduce the total number of vertices to just four (each one is shared by three polygons). In a model that has hundreds of polygons this can reduce the file size considerably. This is important, since Heretic II can only handle a player model with up to a certain number of vertices in it. If you want the model to have weapons and armour, then you'll want to reduce the number of vertices to the bare minimum, or the model will crash the game.
By ensuring that the bulk of the model is all welded together, that the model doesn't have any extra unneeded polygons, and that the model itself stands upright and is vaguely humanoid, then it's just a matter of following the Gwynflex tutorial to create your very own player model. If you choose an initial pose that closely matches one in the Corvus frames, then your job will be even easier. I use either the GRAB1 or JUMP1 frames as the initial pose (see right), as it is nice and neutral with the arms down and the legs side-by-side (instead of one slightly forward). With a clean model to begin with, hopefully it will make the task of using Gwynflex a lot more hastle-free.