SneaksieDave on 14/3/2005 at 17:29
Shadowspawn, Krypt, you guys rock. No other way to put it. To think, this will put static mesh creation (pretty much the basis for the look of all maps) into the hands of anyone who can download any of several free modelling tools supporting 3DS format output, is amazing. Kudos all around. I don't know how you're doing it, but it's great stuff. Almost time to get a T3 version amateur modelling thread going. Where is (
http://ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83285&highlight=anim8or) sluggs!?
Edit: What does this mean for the texturing? I don't know much about this at all, so I'm clueless here - is the texture info simply linked from the TIM to a DDS? IIRC there is a way to edit DDS files, but I know nothing about it. Will that all be handled somehow by the modelling package, or is there some third party tool needed to skin things? Hm.
Krypt on 14/3/2005 at 18:43
Quote Posted by Shadowspawn
Krypt, or another dev? How were those specified in the original 3DS Max files? Were the other objects placed in the correct spot, and marked or named specially, and then filtered out when making the object? Or was some kind of template used.
The reason for that question is so that we can specify this when making new objects. I imagine that if someone were to make a new door in 3DS Max, just producing a rectangular door object, that the engine wouldn't know where to attach the handle and locks with the hardpoint specified. And since it's a translation matrix, it would be alot easier to get it out of the raw 3DS (or whatever) than to have the designer specify it via parameters.
If you're wondering where the locks and doorknobs you see in the game came from, those are actually seperate meshes. There are a series of meshes for different lock types and a generic doorhandle mesh that are connected via RigidAttachment link to the various hardpoints on the door mesh. As long as your exporter allows people to create a door mesh with the hp_handle and hp_lockA/B hardpoints, they will be able to set it up with a lock and handle themselves in the editor.
OrbWeaver on 14/3/2005 at 19:45
Quote Posted by Krypt
If you're wondering where the locks and doorknobs you see in the game came from, those are actually seperate meshes. There are a series of meshes for different lock types and a generic doorhandle mesh that are connected via RigidAttachment link to the various hardpoints on the door mesh. As long as your exporter allows people to create a door mesh with the hp_handle and hp_lockA/B hardpoints, they will be able to set it up with a lock and handle themselves in the editor.
I think the question was more along the lines of "how do you specify the location of the hardpoints in 3DS Max?".
Krypt on 14/3/2005 at 20:21
Quote Posted by OrbWeaver
I think the question was more along the lines of "how do you specify the location of the hardpoints in 3DS Max?".
If that was the question then I have no idea. The artists created all the meshes and the hardpoints, I just placed the meshes in maps :p Isn't hardpoint creation a standard function in max? I don't think our artists used any special methods to create them, I'm pretty sure it was something standard to max. I could be wrong though.
Shadowspawn on 14/3/2005 at 22:05
We'll need someone who knows 3DS Max to tell us about the hardpoints. If not, I can think of several easy ways to get it done. But I did see them in the Static Mesh Browser, so it all starts to make sense.
Are the different "skins" a standard in 3DS Max? It seems that a group of textures, using the same UV mapping, are defined in the .TIM file itself, which are then displayed in the Static Mesh Browser as possible ways to display the object. I don't think the simpler 3D modelling programs have this (TrueSpace, Animator, Milkshape). So I'll have to come up with a way to emulate this for those programs.
I'm thinking, as an intermediate format, I'll come up with something like .E2 (based on the old LGS .E file format). That way designers can add "skins" even if their 3d program doesn't support it.
I'll look at some of the standard ASCII formats before I jump into having to write two more programs.
rujuro on 14/3/2005 at 22:09
The editor came with a "Hardpoint" Maxscript, which seems to just make a dummy object (special kind of object in Max that has no geometry, is represented as a wireframe box) called "Hardpoint". I haven't gotten it to come out with the model yet, but I'm going to try using the hp_ naming convention to see if the exporter will recognize it then.
Krypt on 14/3/2005 at 23:10
Quote Posted by Shadowspawn
Are the different "skins" a standard in 3DS Max? It seems that a group of textures, using the same UV mapping, are defined in the .TIM file itself, which are then displayed in the Static Mesh Browser as possible ways to display the object. I don't think the simpler 3D modelling programs have this (TrueSpace, Animator, Milkshape). So I'll have to come up with a way to emulate this for those programs.
I'm thinking, as an intermediate format, I'll come up with something like .E2 (based on the old LGS .E file format). That way designers can add "skins" even if their 3d program doesn't support it.
I wouldn't invest time in programming something like that, because skins are already created in the editor. You can pick a texture and ALT+click on a mesh to add it (it keeps the same UV mapping so it sometimes looks weird), then add the skin under the static mesh right click menu. I don't know if the skins are something you can look at in max currently, so maybe that aspect would be worth looking into.
SneaksieDave on 15/3/2005 at 01:22
Quote Posted by Krypt
You can pick a texture and ALT+click on a mesh to add it (it keeps the same UV mapping so it sometimes looks weird), then add the skin under the static mesh right click menu.
Another gem of info! Thank you. :) I've been using the one archway that can be used with tall arched doors (the one in the Rutherford's) and the skin is all wrong for my theme, figuring I'd change it later. A simple ALT-click later, and wham, newly textured arch! :thumb:
rujuro on 15/3/2005 at 17:10
Figured out the hardpoints. You have to make them (the dummy created by the hardpoint script, although I have a suspicion that any dummy will do, since when I looked at the script itself, it just creates a dummy called "hardpoint") a child of the object you are exporting, and I used the hp_[whatever] naming convention. Worked like a charm.
Sorry for the garbled grammar.
OrbWeaver on 15/3/2005 at 19:02
Quote Posted by rujuro
Figured out the hardpoints. You have to make them (the dummy created by the hardpoint script, although I have a suspicion that any dummy will do, since when I looked at the script itself, it just creates a dummy called "hardpoint") a child of the object you are exporting, and I used the hp_[whatever] naming convention. Worked like a charm.
Sorry for the garbled grammar.
That all sounds wonderfully Blender-like (except they are called Empties, rather than Dummies). Parenting Empties to ordinary objects is a common technique for animation etc.
I don't think the multiple skins thing would work in Blender though, unless you used a single large image map and saved a number of them in the file.
