Over the past several months I've been writing a new Maya tool in my spare time to handle editing Paradox assets. Right now it will import .MESH and .ANIM files and setup all the content correctly in Maya. You can also export .MESH files to create models for the Clausewitz engine.
Aside from being able to save and load meshes/animations straight from the game files, the other advantage to re-writing this tool myself rather than using the official Paradox one is that it will work in any modern version of Maya (including Maya LT) as it's not a compiled plugin. So it should also be cross platform... though I'm completely unable to test this!
It's simple to use, download the attached zip and extract it into your Maya scripts directory.
(so on Windows you should have the folder unzipped to create the directory "C:\Users\user.name\Documents\maya\scripts\io_pdx_mesh" with an "__init__.py" file inside it)
Then to run the tool execute the Python command below from Mayas script editor or save it to a shelf button.
Once the tool opens, just go to File > Import mesh... and pick a file, then select a few options for what you want to import.
You can import animations the same way, using File > Import animation... (but note: you must have at least a skeleton in the Maya scene already before importing an animation).
To export files you need to have a mesh in the scene with a valid material on it (use the tool to create any materials you need). Set any export settings you want then use File > Export mesh... to save the scene as a file.
So if you're curious what work goes into the 3D assets or want to tweak an existing animation ... you can take a look.
(Yamana daimyo and Dyson sphere models in Maya)
Note: I only have UE4, HoI4 and Stellaris to test this with, if anyone gets some bad results trying to load meshes or animations feel free to post here so I can take a look into the problem.
Now that mesh export is working in Maya I am going to ignore animation export for now and focus on finishing the Blender version of this tool. Happily much of the code I've written is not Maya specific, so it will progress fairly quickly.
UPDATE 2020:
Both Blender and Maya are now fully supported (export & import of mesh and animations)
Click here to download the latest version.
Click here to view the wiki docs.
Aside from being able to save and load meshes/animations straight from the game files, the other advantage to re-writing this tool myself rather than using the official Paradox one is that it will work in any modern version of Maya (including Maya LT) as it's not a compiled plugin. So it should also be cross platform... though I'm completely unable to test this!
It's simple to use, download the attached zip and extract it into your Maya scripts directory.
(so on Windows you should have the folder unzipped to create the directory "C:\Users\user.name\Documents\maya\scripts\io_pdx_mesh" with an "__init__.py" file inside it)
Then to run the tool execute the Python command below from Mayas script editor or save it to a shelf button.
Code:
import io_pdx_mesh;reload(io_pdx_mesh)
Once the tool opens, just go to File > Import mesh... and pick a file, then select a few options for what you want to import.
You can import animations the same way, using File > Import animation... (but note: you must have at least a skeleton in the Maya scene already before importing an animation).
To export files you need to have a mesh in the scene with a valid material on it (use the tool to create any materials you need). Set any export settings you want then use File > Export mesh... to save the scene as a file.
So if you're curious what work goes into the 3D assets or want to tweak an existing animation ... you can take a look.
(Yamana daimyo and Dyson sphere models in Maya)
Note: I only have UE4, HoI4 and Stellaris to test this with, if anyone gets some bad results trying to load meshes or animations feel free to post here so I can take a look into the problem.
Now that mesh export is working in Maya I am going to ignore animation export for now and focus on finishing the Blender version of this tool. Happily much of the code I've written is not Maya specific, so it will progress fairly quickly.
UPDATE 2020:
Both Blender and Maya are now fully supported (export & import of mesh and animations)
Click here to download the latest version.
Click here to view the wiki docs.
Last edited:
- 4