[Kazan]

i read somewhere you can attach arbitrary comments to anything you want?

[edit]
oh DaB.. i'm trying to make it so that we don't need extra plugins or anything

straight from max to PCS2

[DaBrain]

Well, the comments that can be added are not in the "user defined" tab.

Those are just comments about the ASE version, the filename and the like. So nothing that is really useable for us.



So I don't really see any other way.

[Col. Fishguts]

Each object has a field for optional user defined properties. That's where Styxx's exporter got the additional submodel data for turrets and subsystems.

EDIT: @DaB: Are the user defined comments not exported to ASE ?

[Kazan]

Each object has a field for optional user defined properties. That's where Styxx's exporter got the additional submodel data for turrets and subsystems.

i read that any chunk in ASE can have a comment but the model you provided me didn't hve them

i have max 9 now so i can play around with stuff


*edit*
facepalm... max can export ASE but not import.. how stupid is that

[edit again]
there is a plugin to enable it on Max 4 - Max 8

http://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/index.php?go=downloads&release_id=117

[DaBrain]

EDIT: @DaB: Are the user defined comments not exported to ASE ?

No it can't. That's the problem.

The format supports comments, but it's not using the user defined settings as comments.
I didn't find any other comment-like option in MAX. I'm pretty sure we cannot use the comment function unless we rewrite the ASE exporter plugin to do what we need.

That's why I wrote the script.

i read that any chunk in ASE can have a comment but the model you provided me didn't hve them

The problem is, you cannot add comments that can be exported, unless I'm missing some kind of hidden funtion in MAX.

*edit*
facepalm... max can export ASE but not import.. how stupid is that

Just write some stuff into the User defined properties tab and export an ASE.
Open the file with Notepad or something similar and look for the "comments" you've added.

They're gone.


Edit: You can only add comments in particle views... which doesn't help one bit...

[Col. Fishguts]

I just tried to export something with user defined comments, but it seems they get ignored on export.

And yes, ASE import is not supported. I don't know whose idea that was.

[DaBrain]

Very old versions could still support importing ASE. (older than version 5)

[Kazan]

if anything thinks it's not redundant they can use http://www.martinreddy.net/gfx/3d/3DS.spec to write .3DS suppot for PCS2

[Kazan]

I can completely load Fishgut's Hierarchial Boxes (not translate to PMF yet, haven't written that, but my ASE reader can read it)

[DaBrain]

I can completely load Fishgut's Hierarchial Boxes (not translate to PMF yet, haven't written that, but my ASE reader can read it)

Wow, that was pretty fast. 

if anything thinks it's not redundant they can use http://www.martinreddy.net/gfx/3d/3DS.spec to write .3DS suppot for PCS2

I think ASE and/or OBJ support is better than 3ds support.


Btw, I know you don't like the idea of having an additional script for the extra information, but keep in mind that a similar script could easily be written for Maya and Blender (and maybe also Lightwave and Sketchup).

[Kazan]

Btw, I know you don't like the idea of having an additional script for the extra information, but keep in mind that a similar script could easily be written for Maya and Blender (and maybe also Lightwave and Sketchup).

well.. i was going to write in a feature for PMF metadata text format... so if you hold on until i write that you can just make your scripts export that.

[Scooby_Doo]

if anything thinks it's not redundant they can use http://www.martinreddy.net/gfx/3d/3DS.spec to write .3DS suppot for PCS2

I think ASE and/or OBJ support is better than 3ds support.

Also 3ds's Max creates is limited to 8.3 filenames.

[DaBrain]

Btw, I know you don't like the idea of having an additional script for the extra information, but keep in mind that a similar script could easily be written for Maya and Blender (and maybe also Lightwave and Sketchup).

well.. i was going to write in a feature for PMF metadata text format... so if you hold on until i write that you can just make your scripts export that.

Great.

I hope it won't be too complex. I don't think I can do much more complex scripts yet...

[Kazan]

takes 23 seconds in while debugging for my ASE loader to read the 19,731KB SoL_City_ASE.ASE into memory (not to do the translation)

20 seconds in debug build not debugging

8.75 seconds in release build

so... not bad at all

[DaBrain]

Nice, I would have thought the importing of that monster would take more time.


I wonder about the conversion. It took quite a while in the MAX exporter...

[Kazan]

conversion will probably take some time... right now i'm doing some stuff in the FS2 engine waiting for feedback on PCS2 Mantis #51

[Kazan]

well here is a pickle... Sol City has no normals.. no texture verts, no texture faces

in otherwords the model is useless as far as conversion is concerned

[edit]
i'm starting to loose confidence in the realiability of this format

[edit2]
yeah.. format is getting the can