[Grey Wolf]

I have a slight problem with one of the models I'm creating for my campaign.  I created it in blender, saved it as DXF, and ran it from Rhino 3D.  It still worked then.  But when I looked at it in 3D Explorer, it suddenly was missing 4 faces.  I ran it again from Rhino, and it showed that all the faces were there.  But in 3D Explorer, it was still messed up! (And to prove this wasn't a freak error, when I converted it to POF, it was still missing faces.)

[Nico]

maybe the faces are still there, but the normals have been flipped?

------------------
venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2
http://robotechlan.com/freespace2/

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

My own page:
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

[Grey Wolf]

The faces are still there, but backwards. I tried using the FLIP command in Rhino, but then more faces were backward than before. Is there any way to only flip certain faces?

[Nico]

Well, sorry, I can't answer, I don't know Rhino

------------------
venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2
http://robotechlan.com/freespace2/

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

My own page:
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

[Grey Wolf]

If you can get Warlock to reply it will really help.  I know that he has Rhino.

[Warlock]

Yes you can flip faces one by one ,..just select the face and try the flip command.

Starting to sound like the model MIGHT have a few holes in it also  
If you still need help I might be able to get my editter to peek at it

------------------
Warlock
DeathAngel Squadron
CO

Do or Do Not,..There Is No Spoon
Ghosts of the Past Forum
Ghosts of the Past WebSite
To Fly Exotic Ships, Meet Exotic People, and Kill Them.


We may rise and fall, but in the end
 We meet our fate together

[Setekh]

Flipping faces one by one? Faces, as in polys? Like, hundreds of them?  

[Grey Wolf]

No, faces as in surfaces, Setekh.  Hey, Warlock, here's the model.  http://www.geocities.com/jdd1617/xcab1.zip  I zipped t up because I'm lazy and didn't want to wait for it to upload.

[This message has been edited by Grey Wolf 2009 (edited 03-23-2001).]

[Nico]

hehe: faces=surfaces=polys (I always found the name poly weird for a face, but it's the way it is), so Setekh is right, greywolf  

------------------
venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2
http://robotechlan.com/freespace2/

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

My own page:
http://shivancampaign.homestead.com/index.html

[Grey Wolf]

Oh yeah, I recounted the surfaces.  There are 10 you can't see, and I can tell now they're definitely flipped because I can see the surfaces from the inside but not the outside.  I would have flipped them myself, but I'm still a rookie and the program was fighting with me.

Meesed up, there's 12 you can't see.  I missed the two on the back of the wings.

[This message has been edited by Grey Wolf 2009 (edited 03-23-2001).]

[Grey Wolf]

Well, I was confused.  He was saying hundreds of faces, but my model only has 35.  You understand?  And as I said before, even though I may not be a rookie to playing user-made campaigns and mods, I am a rookie at making them.

[This message has been edited by Grey Wolf 2009 (edited 03-23-2001).]

[Setekh]

Sorry, I was thinking of most finished models. Even the Pegasus has 238 polys, and the Herc 2 has 494. And those are just fighters.  

[Martinus]

Ok Here's the problem, rhino won't flip the faces in this model because it's a polygon mesh, you need to convert it to a nurbs object first, select the model and press "direction" it will show you what faces point in which direction. Got it?

You might have some probs with polys that are back to back as well. (not completely sure about that one though).

Ummm, on closer inspection the mesh has holes in it and some "inside" faces, that is it has faces that are partially covered by other faces and might create problems.

[This message has been edited by Maeglamor (edited 03-23-2001).]

[Warlock]

*points up*

yuuuup

Another thing I noticed,..the "wings" for lack of a better term,...as thin as they are,.FS2 will boot it right out. I learned the same thing on my Alexandra class with the Conning tower's sensor array, too thin and FS2 crashes almost instantly in Tech or missions using the model.

------------------
Warlock
DeathAngel Squadron
CO

Do or Do Not,..There Is No Spoon
Ghosts of the Past Forum
Ghosts of the Past WebSite
To Fly Exotic Ships, Meet Exotic People, and Kill Them.


We may rise and fall, but in the end
 We meet our fate together

[Martinus]

*Points up*

The thing that Warlock said about the wings being too thin, he's right, they're not only too thin, they're 2D (not good!!) Also whatever way you built the model it will not "join" together, I can get a minimum of four parts unless I edit it.

Actually, here: Fixed

It's in rhino format and the wings are a little thin but you might get away with it. Convert it using 3D explorer and I wouldn't worry about the poly count, it's going to be very low.

[This message has been edited by Maeglamor (edited 03-24-2001).]

[Grey Wolf]

Hey thanks!  Originally, the wings were about what you edited them to, Maeglamor. I guess when I used the smooth command in Rhino it flattened them.  Oh yeah, for future reference, how do you convert a mesh to a NURBBS?  This way, if I mess up again I can fix it easier.

[Starwing]

Select the mesh and type the command "meshtonurb".

But using NURBS for game models is probably not the best idea. It's hard to keep the face count to an acceptable level while preserving the shape of the model. The transformation back to polygon mesh can do ugly things to your model.

[Martinus]

Yeah nurbs don't equal low face counts, rhino doesn't have the best mesh converter anyway. I convert all of my models to 3DSmax format and simplify them.

I'm pretty sure 3D exploration has problems converting nurbs models as well.

[Grey Wolf]

Then what did you do when fixing the Excalibur?

[Martinus]

I basically rebuilt it from scratch  
It wasn't too complicated a model and it saved a lot of time.