Table Top Simulator - The Old West Town Journey

[ArizonaTank]

I have started a journey with Table Top Simulator (TTS) game module creation.

I am trying to build a 3d old west town for use with virtual 3d miniatures. It turns out there are several of these towns already available in the steam workshop.

But they aren't exactly what I need, since very few of the buildings in these modules have interiors. I want the little virtual gunfighters to be able to go onto the second story of the hotel and shoot out the window. Can't do that if there is no interior.

So I want to create some modified versions of those buildings to give them the missing interiors.

And this has been somewhat frustrating.

This is because, TTS is architected so that the actual OBJ and texture files may be sitting anywhere on internet...often in obscure dropbox locations. No need to go into here, but grabbing the actual obj and texture files from a workshop module can be rather byzantine and labor intensive. In a nutshell, it means opening each JSON file, to grab the file locations and then downloading them.

For example, here is a JSON file snippet for a Napoleonic French Fusilier (from a TTS Steam Workshop module):

"CustomMesh": {
        "MeshURL": "https://www.dropbox.com/s/05y65zpd8xoogba/NTW_unit_french_fusilier.obj?dl=1",
        "DiffuseURL": "https://www.dropbox.com/s/6c3no7kd5j9s1s5/NTW_unit_french_fusilier.png?dl=1",
        "NormalURL": "",
        "ColliderURL": "https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntrhlunakahphfm/NTW_infantry_collision_box1.obj?dl=1",
        "Convex": true,
        "MaterialIndex": 3,
        "TypeIndex": 1,
        "CastShadows": true

So to grab the little guy, you have to go into at least two of the links to bring down the actual files (the obj and png links).

I could do it for one or two buildings, but lets say I want to do a whole town? There is no good way in TTS to just grab all of the actual OBJ and texture files.

It turns out that earlier iterations of TTS used to make downloading and using someone else's model sets pretty easy. Users even created some tools for bulk download of models. But more recent updates to TTS have made this harder (not impossible...but very convoluted). The old user created tools don't seem to work anymore.

So the savior of the day for me was actually TTS' rival sibling program Table Top Playground (TTP). It turns out that TTP has a bulk TTS module copy utility that actually works. With a little manipulation, I have successfully used it to copy entire sets of TTP module objects.

So now that I have the OBJ and textures, I just need to open up each building object, and create an open interior version. Basically using Blender to slice off the roof and create an interior.

That is the next part of the journey.

[JasonPratt]

If you haven't done so already, you should contact our old buddy "Cyrano", now mostly at the estranged-brother site that must not be named: he has done a lot of table-modeling work for TTS on his twice-weekly live multiplayer wargaming matches (though recently he has been shifting to other programs), and I know he has had problems with buildings being unable to be entered, too. I don't know if he solved that yet, but if he hasn't then your discovery could really help his further modules!

I'll try to remember to drop you a line about that at our Crisis Grogs Messenger channel.