[Darkhill]

I'm not quite sure why this model was crashing, but it was crashing the other Modelview as well.  Tracked down the problem and mostly fixed it.  But it still crops up when I try and load in this model with four LODs and a bit over 11,000 polys.  It still crashes when trying to load up this 16,000 poly model but then PCS chokes on it too.  Though even 100,000 is well within the range of a float.  One thing I've noticed is it doesn't calcuate the same radius as PCS does, this also happens to be where the crash is happening.

For them glows I was just going to read the data in and write it back out for the mean time.  Never thought of any kind of rendering scheme for it.  Might be possible to render the ani for the glow and make it work.

[StratComm]

The glows are just bitmaps, usually TGA so I doubt they'd work anyway.  There's no animation defined for them usually, and I'm honestly not sure that anis even work for glowpoints.  Ideally they would be given the same sort of wireframe inidicator that engine glows are, but that's a pipe-dream.  I'd just be happy if the data stuck around and wasn't modifiable.

[Col. Fishguts]

Good news

If you manage to fix the glowpoint-eating-bug and maybe even add a edit box for the ship_radius value, Modelview will be useful again.

Any further features would be the icing on the cake, but awesome nonetheless.

[Darkhill]

Should no longer eat glow point data, can't edit anything at this point but it does read and write it back out.  Should support models upto at least 11,000 polys now.

I just randomly set it to 32 glow points and 32 slots in each point.  If people want to use more then that I can up it.  Download it from the link in the first post if you want to try it out.  Would be very helpful to me if you did.

[taylor]

@Darkhill:  If you want, you can copy me on your current code and I'll have at look at the limit and memory issues.  And if you haven't already gotten a DDS loader in there I can easily take care of that as well.  If you get back to me before the end of Friday then I can work on it while I'm out of town this weekend, since I won't have much else interesting to entertain me.

[Darkhill]

I'll send it your way.  It has no problem loading in a cob of a bit over 16,000 polys but when converting it to pof format to display it crashes.  Think its writing to memory not in its address space, or something along those lines.  I can comment out a couple of pieces and it will import a model with more polys.

[Hellbender]

I'm curious: So far most of our tools have been constrained to inport/export of the cob format. I've been wondering if it would be possible to make an additional import export format type available such as 3ds without a monumental ammount of work or slowing the good momentum that you folks have started here? Just a thought. It's great to see somebody doing something to update this program. Good darts folks!

[Getter Robo G]

Yes please stick with this DH. When community members step up and give us more options (or revisions) it can only benefit everyone. Thanks for showing initiative!

[Goober5000]

I'm curious: So far most of our tools have been constrained to inport/export of the cob format. I've been wondering if it would be possible to make an additional import export format type available such as 3ds without a monumental ammount of work or slowing the good momentum that you folks have started here?

Observant much?

[StratComm]

It should be noted that, while everyone seems to love it out of necessity, the actual 3ds format is a real dog to work with.  It takes far longer to fix the nastyness caused by 3ds export in max than it does to set up the conversion heirarchy for a ship, and I can't imagine trying to make that automated.  Asking for 3ds support is like asking for Geomod; no one in their right mind wants to code that up.

[Kazan]

there is a reason why i use DevIL

[Unknown Target]

I agree, please do continue working at this Modelview is a great tool, and DDS/TGA support would be a great benefit. If you get the time, could you maybe work on the cob2pof code to make it more efficient/work?

[Getter Robo G]

That's a good one, you should put that in your siggy Stratcomm..

[aldo_14]

It should be noted that, while everyone seems to love it out of necessity, the actual 3ds format is a real dog to work with.  It takes far longer to fix the nastyness caused by 3ds export in max than it does to set up the conversion heirarchy for a ship, and I can't imagine trying to make that automated.  Asking for 3ds support is like asking for Geomod; no one in their right mind wants to code that up.

I'm left wondering myself how many proper (i.e. by developers, from scratch and custom built to fit their game/tool as internal or external devices) use 3ds rather than .max format.  I suspect the answer would be very close to none.

[Hellbender]

I was using 3ds as an example. It could just as easily been dxf or obj I used. As usual the question was ignored for the details. The question was: Could support for another format than cob be used without a major problem? The reason I ask is because it would increase the flexibility of the tool for modelers. I see lots of negative commentary about 3ds but little to no information about the actual question.

As a matter of fact I don't care what format might be chosen. I have max 6, and for the most part the recently released plug-in works for me.

[Darkhill]

Should be able to add and delete thrusters at will now.

Giving talyor what I got so far in hopes maybe he can track down crash on import.  If he doesn't add in DDS support I'm sure I can figure out whats going on with FS2 code to add it in.

[Kazan]

Hellbender support for additional formats is one of the scheduled features of PCS2.0

Only POF and COB are on the roadmap for 2.0, however 3ds format is on the roadmap for 2.1 (And is the primary feature of 2.1)

[Pilot Of The US]

YAY Modelview is the best and finally theres someone working on it. excellent work DarkHill
I'd better add this revelation to my ModelView FAQ. (see siggy)

[Darkhill]

Finally got a chance to do some more work.

-Better radius size on import
-Edit the main radius of a ship (but not subobject radii)
-Calcuates mass on import
-Dock points are fully editable now

Probably see what I can get done with paths next.

[Kazan]

i use Modelview as often as I use PCS2 actually.. however

darkhill send me an instant message - it's probably time we combine our efforts into one tool