[Styxx]

Er, you can talk to me.

And it won't be a converter, it'll be an export plugin for MAX. I think I'll be doing the first actual export tests tonight, by the way, so if you're online I can try it out with your model. My ICQ is on my profile. It should export smoothing groups correctly, by the way.

[Omniscaper]

YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!


I haven't used my ICQ account for over 4 years. I can provide you with the model via Yahoo messenger or AIM. I think Yahoo increased their email attachment limits too.

[Goober5000]

Heh... it seemed that everyone except Omniscaper noticed my previous post.

Originally posted by Goober5000
You may not have to redo this, Omniscaper... we may have a conversion option from 3dsmax directly to POF.  I'll ask around.

I talked to Styxx, who graciously gave me the inside track on this.

Styxx... will this import POFs, too?

[Styxx]

Er, it may. Not sure on that yet.

[Omniscaper]

I read that post dude. I was waiting for an update on that. Getting news from Styxx of another proggy was the context in which the inquiry was all about. Didn't know it was the same thing.


I noticed that performace took a larger hit with this version of the Galaxy. The older one got over 45 FPS as this goes below 10 at times. The way I got the smoothgroups in Max to work in Truespace involved creating unique material ID's for EACH smoothgroup. That means over 25 materials. I don't know if it matters that many of the materials utilize the same texture file, but does Freespace know this?


In any case this is EXCITING news. I'm already trying to make sense of 3dsmax Lightwave and after that Maya. Truespace is a toughy.


I'd rather not learn another 3d program in which Freespace is its only use. 3dsmax seems to be the top program used for videogame design to begin with. With the knowledge of a FOURTH 3d program, I sense a work hours riddled with confusion as I do a keystrokes of one program in another.

[StratComm]

The materials are the problem, and honestly I'm shocked that the HTL engine didn't crash on you.  You're only supposed to use something like 12 materials on any given ship

The max plugin should clear that up.  Hey Styxx, what version of Max is the plugin for?  I'd be happy to do a little beta testing for ya'

[Omniscaper]

Any updates on the 3dsmax pluggin, Styxx? I'm ready to give you this model for testing. In anticipation for this new tool, I've put all Truespace work on the Galaxy on hold for this.

I believe Stratcomm's assesment is correct reguarding the performance hit due to excessive number of materials which point to the same texture.

[Styxx]

PMed you. And StratComm, it's for MAX 5, I'll try to put up an open beta version soon.

[Omniscaper]

While I'm waiting for Styxx's potential miracle, I'm messing with PCS still.

Does anyone know if earlier builds of PCS used "smooth" instead of "auto-faceting"?

I've found that the limits modified Modelview does an excellent job smoothing out the saucer portion of the Galaxy model which I had set to "smooth" shading. The PCS-autofacet build doesn't smooth as well with autofacet set to maximum.

The Modelview's polygon limits keep me from converting all 11k polys. Unless there is an updated version of Modelview's increased limits build I'd like to know if PCS ever had a smooth build.

[KARMA]

yes there is a very old version which automatically smoothed everything. This was causing obviously shading problems which could probably be fixed by splitting the mesh in submodels.
Unfourtunately it was a very old build, not suitable for HTL models, and I think that nobody have it anymore.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Styxx
PMed you. And StratComm, it's for MAX 5, I'll try to put up an open beta version soon.

Dagnabbit.  Not backwards compatible, is it?  Stuck on v4, myself.

[Styxx]

I have version 4, so it should only be a matter of recompiling it with the oder SDK... I'm not using anything that's MAX5 specific. I'm still working on adjusting it for MAX6, though.

[Omniscaper]

Does anyone have any experience using Unwrap3d? I see that it is capable of exporting into POF, and I was able to use their 3dsmax 6 pluggin to convert the model into their format  (.u3d) with all the smooth groups intact.... i think.

Anywayz, I only have the demo version of Unwrap3d which cant save the file. I could provide the .u3d model to anyone who could convert it to POF for me.

[Styxx]

Ok, here's the thread about the plugin:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26260.0.html

Right now it'll only work on MAX 5, but I'm working to fix that.