Zenuel on 28/5/2021 at 16:23
Hey everyone, I recently made (
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=11721.0;wap2) a post over on SystemShock.org about this issue, and thankfully I've managed to solve most of the workflow problems but now all the models I export crash my copy of System Shock 2 and I can't pin down exactly why.
Hot-swapping the player meshes with random ones from SS2 and even Thief works fine, but nothing I export works, even if I only import one directly from the game- planes and all, and export it back without changing anything.
I'm baffled, I spent a few days trying to narrow it down but I can't tell if it's something in how I'm exporting/converting to .bin or what. I've been able to swap any other mesh though, it's just the AI and player meshes giving me a hard time.
Any ideas?
PinkDot on 28/5/2021 at 20:16
What do you use to convert? Mshbld.exe? From your post I was getting an impression that you might have used Blender plugin, that exports directly to .bin format. From what I recall, so far there's no plugin that exports directly to the 'mesh' .bin format - only 'object' .bin format - they're different.
If you want, you can send me the sources files - ideally all formats you have (.3ds, .e), since I don't do Blender much as well as the resulting .bin file. I can have a look inside it to see what's going on.
R Soul on 28/5/2021 at 22:11
Quote Posted by PinkDot
From what I recall, so far there's no plugin that exports directly to the 'mesh' .bin format - only 'object' .bin format - they're different.
Depends what you mean by "directly". If you mean 'without the user having to run any additional programs' then the NewDark-Toolkit does both types of bin file.
(
https://github.com/RSoul82/Blender-NewDark-Toolkit)
(this plugin uses MeshBld and MeshUp for meshes, or BSP for static objects, but saves the user having to use external tools manually)
Zenuel, you said in your SS2 thread that you had to install Thief2. It's hard to keep track of all the installation things out there, so I suggested a T2 installation tool because they tend to come with all sorts of additional files.
If your T2 installation includes this path Tools\3ds to bin\3ds\Workshop\ it'll have all the necessary files. If not, try this:
The DromedBasic toolkit seems to also have all the required supporting files:
(
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141708)
I've just noticed something, however, the NewDark toolkit exporter upgrades meshes to the T2 format (using Meshup), but I just looked in the readme for that and it says this:
"MeshUp will convert a Rev 1 Thief (or SS2) AI Mesh to Rev 2 format."
That suggests Meshup could be causing a problem, unless NewDark has given SS2 the ability to use rev 2 meshes.
The folder also contains a program called "Old-meshbldSS2". It would be worth using that instead of MeshBld if other conversion attempts continue fail.
Zenuel on 29/5/2021 at 04:27
Quote Posted by PinkDot
What do you use to convert? Mshbld.exe? From your post I was getting an impression that you might have used Blender plugin, that exports directly to .bin format. From what I recall, so far there's no plugin that exports directly to the 'mesh' .bin format - only 'object' .bin format - they're different.
If you want, you can send me the sources files - ideally all formats you have (.3ds, .e), since I don't do Blender much as well as the resulting .bin file. I can have a look inside it to see what's going on.
I use the Blender plugin for static objects but I had a feeling it was stripping the planes from AI meshes, so I've been trying to use the converters but those were giving me crashes as well.
Quote Posted by R Soul
I've just noticed something, however, the NewDark toolkit exporter upgrades meshes to the T2 format (using Meshup), but I just looked in the readme for that and it says this:
"MeshUp will convert a Rev 1 Thief (or SS2) AI Mesh to Rev 2 format."
That suggests Meshup could be causing a problem, unless NewDark has given SS2 the ability to use rev 2 meshes.
The folder also contains a program called "Old-meshbldSS2". It would be worth using that instead of MeshBld if other conversion attempts continue fail.
I'll give this a shot, it sounds like it might be the issue!
PinkDot on 29/5/2021 at 14:33
Quote Posted by R Soul
Depends what you mean by "directly". If you mean 'without the user having to run any additional programs' then the NewDark-Toolkit does both types.
No, I meant directly as in not relying on any external programs.
