[Aardwolf]

How about a file chooser for selecting textures, with thumbnail view?

It would have to also allow you to just enter in a name (in case the file isn't yet where it will need to be, etc.)

[chief1983]

W00t!  I was wondering if there was a decent XML based open 3d format.  Maybe Collada could be it.

[Aardwolf]

XML was not originally meant for many of the uses it gets nowadays. I find it comical that people think it is so great how much stuff can be stored with it.

I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug, but please make it so that the z-buffer is big enough to hold whatever ship is being viewed. Currently, for example, a 3 km warship (at least for me) shows up as a few polygons protruding from a sea of black (the z-buffer max depth)

[Kazan]

XML was not originally meant for many of the uses it gets nowadays. I find it comical that people think it is so great how much stuff can be stored with it.

I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug, but please make it so that the z-buffer is big enough to hold whatever ship is being viewed. Currently, for example, a 3 km warship (at least for me) shows up as a few polygons protruding from a sea of black (the z-buffer max depth)

ooh good call on the cause of that i was trying to track it down

[Aardwolf]

I've used OpenGL before

[chief1983]

XML was not originally meant for many of the uses it gets nowadays. I find it comical that people think it is so great how much stuff can be stored with it.

True, but I think it lends itself to 3d modeling quite well, a model is just a collection of a list of points, and heirarchy, etc, and XML lends itself to that quite handily doesn't it?

[Kazan]

increasing far clip did nothing.. they're not actually out of place... just unlit

[Aardwolf]

Are you sure you're doing it right?

If you are using OpenGL:

glFrustum(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax, zmin, farclip);

don't make the mistake of doing this, like I did, it doesn't do squat for you:

glClearDepth(farclip);

glClearDepth should almost always be 1.0, so you can generally ignore it.

[Kazan]

we're using gluPerspective

[Water]

I don't know if it's related or not, but had an issue with one model where the main part was small and all the sub-objects were very large. PCS focused on the small part - so you couldn't really see anything.

[Kazan]

hrm weird

[Kazan]

i'm looking into adding support for Collada now using the Collada DOM library from sf.net

if that works then MAya and 3DS users can rejoice as there are plugins for both to export/import collada

[edit]
format appears to be viable

[chief1983]

Not for Blender, or you just didn't look?  Either way I'm doublechecking now.

Edit:  Found it.  http://colladablender.illusoft.com/cms/

Seems to have a good backing, as it's being made by a game studio for their own use, and they've decided to open it up to the public as well.

[Water]

It's already part of Blender 2.45.  Also Sketchup could potentially be used.

[Getter Robo G]

Strange... I am still having that can't find texture problem with .cobs. Also this model I've wanted in game for years finally converted with PCS1 while it freezes halfway through smoothing operation in PSC2.

Gets damaged and blows up fine in game so it appears stable.

1 welded object 5500 polys.

Atra's Yamato.

 

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Water]

Strange... I am still having that can't find texture problem with .cobs. Also this model I've wanted in game for years finally converted with PCS1 while it freezes halfway through smoothing operation in PSC2.

Gets damaged and blows up fine in game so it appears stable.

1 welded object 5500 polys.

Atra's Yamato.

Converted in PCS2 without problems. 27 turrets - just add firepoints. (and engines etc)
http://files.filefront.com/yamato2zip/;9641421;/fileinfo.html

[Getter Robo G]

You've had it all this time?  I remember when Swamp thing converted it and never sent it to me after I first posted it like in 2003/04.

I was mainly curious as to what was causing the problem because this is a NEW computer and new video card

3gh dual core
1gb ddr2 mem
8500 gts Nvidia (my first NON-ati card)
****ing VISTA Home Premium (Slap the monkey who did this please!)


I just got SCP back over this weekend but broke my machine in with NWN2 2 weeks before that.

The thing is it did display the name in the upper left corner but no ship data on the right as if no model was actually loaded. If I opened the pof made it shows up no problem, this is only an issue with the .cob

Was the 2.0 "stable build" pointing the dir to the cob in the texture path in configuration was ineffective.

So I guess it can't be explained and is just one of those things with computers. IF this was more of an annoyance than a help about an issue then I won't mention them anymore (if it's just me having it).


BTW the rear turrets, shouldn't they be facing 180 degress rearward instead of forward? That was never addressed in any tut I've read and I didn't notice any problems when I did it that way first time (at least with the base part, I TOTALLY screwed barrel axel and placement though, that's why I am multi-shy now) 

[Vasudan Admiral]

What you describe there sounds like you had some object that was not a part of an object group present somewhere in the scene. Remember the old 'you forgot to group those objects!' message? Well PCS2 doesn't give that message and just pretends to have loaded the cob (ie, the "model.cob" thing in the title bar), and displays nothing - exactly the problem you describe. As Water has demonstrated it converts just fine, so you can rest assured that it's not a model problem and just faulty hierarchy or something.

As for multiparts, AFAIK yeah - topside bases face forwards, underside face backwards. This does not apply to off-axis multi-part turrets since you specify where their front is yourself, but I think all barrels need to be pointing stright up relative to the base. You can rotate anything to point in any direction you like using the initial animation type. (Check the animation code in the Wiki for more detailed instructions there)

For the turret base you place the base axis at the centre of the point around which you want the base to rotate vertically, and make sure you're specifying the axis for the object GROUP rather than just the MESH of the base. For the turret barrels, you place the axis at the pivot point of the arms - typically this is inside the base model. Again be sure you're placing the axis for the object GROUP of the arms rather than the mesh, because PCS2 (or 1) pays no attention to the mesh centres.

[Water]

and make sure you're specifying the axis for the object GROUP rather than just the MESH of the base.

Ooops, was in a rush and tried to preserve the group names in Truespace. Time to look at that export script again.

@Getter Robo G
It is possible your original cob file may be acceptable to PCS2 now. I did return a link to the fixed cob file, but hadn't named the turrets at that stage.  I'll see if I can find a way to get the turrets up to pof standard - I just don't want to do it in Truespace.

[Getter Robo G]

No problem I was intending on eventually replacing the AA guns (like 11 turrets on each side) with better ones.
I noticed you didn;t start the rear side torpedo tubes , the 6 frontal ones, or teh main gun itself.

I FP'ed the main turrets for testing but even beam freed it jsut went in a circle non-firing with an orion table.

Enough of this.  I did add a light and try in pcs2 again, it hangs up in smoothing operation halfway through and I have to use task manager to end the process lockup I waited once for over a half hour to make sure it wasn't just processing.

The main thing is it is in game regardless, I can go back later and worry about the rest in the future.