Reverse Engineering Skeletal\Vertex Meshes
This tutorial will show you how to convert Unreal skeletal mesh files (.ukx) back into .PSK and .PSA files (or MD5MESH and MD5ANIM files). These can then be imported either directly into 3ds Max using either the ActorX Importer created by Gildor or an MD5 importer (Gildor has also created one of these). PSK and PSA files can also be imported into MilkShape and exported as an FBX file and/or an smd file which 3ds Max can import. The same technique that creates the PSK and PSA files can also be used to convert vertex meshes back into _d.3d and _a.3d files, which is especially useful if you want to add any animation notifies or change any other settings on the re-import via UnrealScript. Unfortunately only the _d.3d file can be opened in MilkShape, the _a.3d (animation file) cannot. I have not found a way to get the vertex animations back into 3ds Max but it might be possible to compile just 1 frame of animation a time and export it individually. This would be a very long and tiring process though. It would be faster to just rig/animate the mesh again.
You will Need:
UModel: This is needed in order to export the base files (PSK, PSA, _d.3ds and _a.3d). It is available directly here UModel direct download.
Umodel overview
After installation, in order to use UModel you need to open a new command window and navigate to your UT2004 base directory. Example C:\UT2004. Below is a list of all of the commands available in UModel. Most of the time you wont need to specify a file type, but if there are conflicting files such as MyModel.ukx and MyModel.usx then you may need to. And if you wanted to export a skeletal mesh called "MyMesh" from inside a package, but there is also an animation set called "MyMesh" you would put "SkeletalMesh" at the end of the line, like so "umodel -export MyPackage MyMesh SkeletalMesh". An further example is given below.Installation: Download and extract files into your UT2004 base directory.
Command lines:
umodel //Displays short command line help. umodel HumanMaleA //Lists all packaged objects inside HumanMaleA.ukx. umodel HumanMaleA MercMaleB //Displays the mesh MercMaleB from package HumanMaleA. umodel -export HumanMaleA MercMaleB //Exports SkeletalMesh MercMaleB from HumanMaleA package as a PSK. umodel -export -md5 HumanMaleA MercMaleB //Exports SkeletalMesh MercMaleB from HumanMaleA package as MD5MESH. umodel -export -all HumanMaleA MercMaleB //Exports the SkeletalMesh MercMaleB and all used resources (animation, textures etc). umodel -export HumanMaleA BipedMaleA //Exports animations (MeshAnimation) BipedMaleA from HumanMaleA package as a PSA. umodel -export -md5 HumanMaleA BipedMaleA //Exports animations (MeshAnimation) BipedMaleA from HumanMaleA package as MD5ANIM. umodel -export HumanMaleA //Exports all supported objects from HumanMaleA package. umodel -export HumanMaleA.ukx //Exports all supported objects from HumanMaleA package (file type specified). umodel -list HumanMaleA //Lists contents of HumanMaleA package (object and class names). umodel -export 2K4_NvidiaIntro Intro2k4Gorge MeshAnimation umodel -export 2K4_NvidiaIntro Intro2k4Gorge SkeletalMesh //Exports Gorge mesh and animations from package 2K4_NvidiaIntro (both the mesh and animation set have the same name, but different class names, so class name is specified). umodel -list Announcer.uax //Lists contents of the Announcer sound package.So lets say we wanted to export all of the meshes and animations from HumanFemaleA.ukx as PSK and PSA files. You would type (without the quotation marks):
"umodel -export HumanFemaleA"
This will create a new folder called "HumanFemaleA" in your UT2004 base directory containing the PSK and PSA files and any other resources.
These can now be imported into 3ds Max using the ActorX Importer (or MD5Importer if you exported them as MD5MESH and MD5ANIM). PSK and PSA files can now also be imported into MilkShape if you prefer, and exported as an FBX file you wish to get them into 3ds Max that way. For a quick guide on how to do both please go to this page - PSK and PSA into 3ds Max guide.