[I_E_Maverick]

well, you did most that i needed by now, i just would like to have a more stable exporter, cause every 3rd or 4th export it crashes my max. (version 6 btw)

also i would like to have an eyepoint exporter.

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Styxx
The shield structure is absurdly simple, there shouldn't be any problem with it... No idea of what may be causing the crashes.

When I get a chance I'll look at a bad shield chunk and see if anything stands out as wrong.  IIRC, it's just pure geometry data, so unless something is out of order or verteices are getting duplicated or something, I can't see why there would be any kind of problem.

[Cobra]

hey, can you get one for Max7? thanks.

[Aquatayne]

ummm i doin a mod for a completly different game (Freelancer) so is it possible if u can make an importer for max 6?

[Styxx]

An importer is out of the question for now. To build a version of the exporter for MAX 7 I'd need the MAX 7 Plugin SDK, which I don't have.

[Aquatayne]

y is an importer out of the question?

i need 1 badly

[StratComm]

First, this forum doesn't tolerate much leetspeak in actual discussion.  Spell out your words and use capitalization, punctuation, and where necessary complete sentences.

As for an importer, it's not high on the priority list because, well, it's a bit redundant.  If you want geometry data, use PCS to go from POF to COB, convert the COB to a 3ds file, and import that into Max.  And most of us would much rather see Styxx use his limited time to make the exporter work better than to start a second tool from essentially scratch.

[Hippo]

That, and there are probably very few of us here that understand the freelancer model formats, so it would be very difficult to make an importer for something we haven't used for years.

[StratComm]

I think he wants a POF->Max converter, not to deal with Freelancer models but to take Freespace models to Freelancer formats in some roundabout way.  I won't say there haven't been times when I wanted such a converter, but I'd rather have the exporter working than worry about importing someone elses work.

[Styxx]

DONE:
- Changed turret generation format

TO DO:
- Export eye point data
- Check main object radius generation code
- Generate proper moment of inertia info
- Some problem with Shield chunk
- Stability issues

I'll post a new version once I have a few more bugs squashed or features added. Can someone check the Shield chunk being generated by the exporter and try to figure out what's being done wrong? Also, I can generate proper Moment of Inertia info if someone with experience on defining values for it can give me a rough formulae.

[Aquatayne]

Originally posted by StratComm
First, this forum doesn't tolerate much leetspeak in actual discussion.  Spell out your words and use capitalization, punctuation, and where necessary complete sentences.

As for an importer, it's not high on the priority list because, well, it's a bit redundant.  If you want geometry data, use PCS to go from POF to COB, convert the COB to a 3ds file, and import that into Max.  And most of us would much rather see Styxx use his limited time to make the exporter work better than to start a second tool from essentially scratch.

OK im sorry about the leetspeak.

What is PCS?

]Originally posted by StratComm

think he wants a POF->Max converter, not to deal with Freelancer models but to take Freespace models to Freelancer formats in some roundabout way. I won't say there haven't been times when I wanted such a converter, but I'd rather have the exporter working than worry about importing someone elses work.

I'm using 's models and convert them to CMP (thats the model file and u cand download it at lancersreactor.com)

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Aquatayne
What is PCS?

Pof contructor suite. You can find links in my FAQ.

[Aquatayne]

thx dude

[karajorma]

No problem. Just remember to actually load the pof before trying to export it as a .cob file. That one seems to catch out almost every user of PCS once

If you need something to convert from .cob to a format 3DS max can use check out my downloads section too.

[Omniscaper]

Great to see back in commision, Styx!!!


Issues list:

So far the only issue thats bugging me and others and I is that x-form reset thing. Is there anyway around it?

I've converted destroyed subsystems with no probs.

Shields still crashes the exporter.

Could u possibly add  turret FOV and  turret normal setup be  the same as dock implementation?

MOI (moment of inertia) would also be nice. I'm still using modelview32 to add those settings.

Thanks again for checking up on this thread.

[Styxx]

As I said, tell me how to generate the moment of inertia and I'll add the code to the exporter.

And I need more specifics on the Shield problem.

[StratComm]

I still don't have a good example of a known bad shield chunk, though I've been looking.  I've got a model around somewhere with a shield mesh that I have not yet converted but will have to try, but I haven't had time to work on it lately.  Give me a few more days, and hopefully I'll be able to give you something.

[Roanoke]

Hasthere been a tut done for setting up things such as heirachy, Max equivilant of lights etc. If somone who's familiar with the Max exporter could do a quick 'n' rough one I don't mind writing it up.

[Bobboau]

I can give you some ideas on how to aproximate the moment of inertia

the best way would probly be to subdivide the model's overall bounding box into thousands of smaller boxes, then checking each box to see if it is inside the model or not, and if so adding the point effects of that reagon to the total MOI tensor. the components of the MOI tensor are

[
[y^2+z^2,      -x*y,      -x*z]
[-x*y,      x^2+z^2,      -y*z]
[-x*z,      -y*z,      x^2+y^2]
]

if you sum that up for every particle in the object I think you'll get the MOI, or the inverse of it.
here is a bit of info

[Omniscaper]

I believe my issue with the shield is opening the pof in modelview to add MOI settings. Any high poly POF with a shield will not open in modelview. I havent tried it recently with current build of modelview.

The successfully converted shields from the 3dsmax pluggin had a wierd rendering issue. The shield effect would only render on the opposite side. I think there is still a glitch where it would also happen to the hull mesh when hit with lasers.