Scenery Tools available! [Old / For FC2]

[spooks2k1]

3DS Max flawed program. Errors occur (especially after a boolean).

+1, Especially this prehistoric version , slightly better in more modern versions of max....ahem.

 

Just to correct errors. or use the plugin (I recommend) - http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/MaxRoadnRiver_eng. It seems a video tutorial I did it.

Cool I was going to give it a go, but wasn't sure if it was still supported. That should make things easier.

 

 

additional objects to export in superficial files (*.sup). In lsa export only land mesh.

I am such a dumbass :doh: maybe I should take a break :D

 

спасибо

[spooks2k1]

Ok, fixing errors is not a problem now, but I have a little issue with the Editor, when I ran It the first time it came up with 16 errors, and gave me a little triangle to highlight each one.

But now it only gives me one error, even though there are more errors.

 

I export, it reports the error, I fix it, export again, and it reports another error, so I have to export 16 times to fix 16 errors.

 

That's my only issue with errors now. I know the Editor UI is a bit temperamental , maybe it will go away.

 

I've made good progress today thanks for all the help, I'm rendering out a video of my progress, I'll you tube it later.

 

EDIT:

 

Not much to see but it's progress, I was impatient so I only did the right hand side of the lake, the shoreline goes in tomorrow.

 

Kajaki Lake Dam

 

спасибо

 

spooks

Edited June 25, 2011 by spooks2k1

[aaron886]

Dang it, I replied to your post on page 47 accidently! I'll leave it in case any confused learners might find it useful.

 

spooks-

 

These are a righteous pain! I believe they're caused by unmatched vertices on the edges between your land and sea. If you imagine the game trying to join the land and sea, but having a gap between the two, it would cause problems! Make sure every vertex on the edges of the land meet a vertex on the edge of the sea, and make sure there are no duplicate vertexes. (Weld them if there are.) Make sure each vertex on the edge of the sea where it connects to the land, connects to a vertex on the outer edge of that sea tile. Do you have the short tutorial video entitled "CreateLand_TestVideo.avi?"

[spooks2k1]

These are a righteous pain! I believe they're caused by unmatched vertices on the edges between your land and sea. If you imagine the game trying to join the land and sea, but having a gap between the two, it would cause problems! Make sure every vertex on the edges of the land meet a vertex on the edge of the sea, and make sure there are no duplicate vertexes. (Weld them if there are.) Make sure each vertex on the edge of the sea where it connects to the land, connects to a vertex on the outer edge of that sea tile. Do you have the short tutorial video entitled "CreateLand_TestVideo.avi?"

 

Yeah thanks, I got my head round it all, very good explanation of the problem tho', I could have done with that 6 hours ago lol :D

 

I suffer from impatience, and always looking for ways to speed up work-flow, now i understand the problem, maybe it could be fixed with maxscript? dunno, I'll ask around.

 

I posted a link to a test vid in my post above, it seems to work ok.

 

onwards and upwards :pilotfly:

[aaron886]

One thing that would be absolutely awesome to have would be a maxscript for is fixing the "seams" you'll get in between tiles due to the way Max does the optimization. If we could make/find a script that could match up vertices between two different objects (weld can only match vertices within an object,) we would be so much better off.

[spooks2k1]

One thing that would be absolutely awesome to have would be a maxscript for is fixing the "seams" you'll get in between tiles due to the way Max does the optimization. If we could make/find a script that could match up vertices between two different objects (weld can only match vertices within an object,) we would be so much better off.

 

Ummm check this out dude. I'd totally forgot about this one, I came across it when modding for another game but my paypal account was frozen so I couldn't get it.

 

Ant Stitcher

 

Payware and no demo

 

Maybe the ED guys use it already ;)

[aaron886]

Holy cow, need to drum up 25 bucks! :shocking:

[spooks2k1]

Yup , it's on the top of my shopping list again, awesome script.

[luckybob9]

If anyone gets that, let me know how it works

[spooks2k1]

If anyone gets that, let me know how it works

 

Yup, The example video works on all quads, could be a problem with tri's.

I'll ask the author, even if it was a problem I'm sure he'd fix it.

 

 

• One click selection tool for vertices on open edges
  
• Automatic Command Pannel switching for fast work flow
  
• Works with both Editable Polys and Editable Meshes
  
• Optional welding for the vertices found in the set threshold
  
• Optional Relax modifier to help reduce distortions on the geometry
  
• Optional Smooth modifier to solve any smoothing issues
  
• Progress bar for a visual representation of the progress
  
• All operations are reverseable by using the UNDO button
  
• Works on high poly count objects
  

Tailor made for terrains :D

Edited June 25, 2011 by spooks2k1

[spooks2k1]

Don't know your workflow is but here's a few handy scripts I'm using

 

Vertex Cleaner

 

Cleans verts after boolean.

 

CleanBool

 

Removes vertices that are only connected to two splines after boolean.

 

STLCheck Max Error checking.

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Use this bit of code on a spline to flatten all verts on the Z axis

 

$.scale = [1,1,0];

 

resetxform $;

 

macros.run "Modifier Stack" "Convert_to_Spline"

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Soulburn Scripts

 

Absolute must have, I use:

 

attachSelectedObjects: attaches all selected objects, much faster than max attach function.

 

edgeDivider: divide edge into 2, 3 or 4 in one click, then drops to vertex sub-object mode, ready to snap or target weld.

 

surfaceSnapper: object placing on terrain.

 

thinFaceSelector: (good for finding error's)

vertPlacer: Like Max align to Z, but many more options.

 

I hate unnecessary mouse clicks :D hope these can help you.

 

spooks

Edited June 25, 2011 by spooks2k1

[spooks2k1]

additional objects to export in superficial files (*.sup). In lsa export only land mesh.

 

I have a town and shoreline I need to export, and I'm a little confused here, there's no information about this on the wiki.

I'm not sure where to put them after exporting to make sure assemble scenes see's the files, or does it just inject them like the lsa2 process ?

 

There are two folders terrain, and terrain_2, full of .sup files, which ones do I replace, or can I create unique names for my map?

 

Do you have example code for the assemble scenes cfg ? for assembling .sup files? The one from the wiki only has examples of .rn and .sc files

 

Or better still a step by step of what I need to do, there's no info i can find.

 

Apologies if this info already exists somewhere, i just can't find it.

 

thanks

[aaron886]

Do I need to Center the Pivot after applying the Displace and Optimize before exporting?

Can someone confirm?

 

thanks

 

Spooks were you able to move the terrain to its correct elevation? If so, how?

 

Having the same problem myself. Gotta love stumbling around in the dark without documentation... :doh:

[spooks2k1]

Gotta love stumbling around in the dark without documentation...

 

Yup getting very tired of it.

 

 

I kept trying to fix the pivot thing but gave up, I moved the mesh and pivot down, the altimeter was right, but then you could fly through the ground.

 

Impact point was about -200m underground, vehicles were driving 200m under the mesh.

The Hi-res template from the wiki is wrong, not a very good starting point really.

 

All I discovered today was where the F10 map overlay files go, and where the lake edge's and towns should go, but no clue how to set up assemblescenes.cfg to get them there.

 

I really need examples of the .cfg's

 

sigh....I'm on the verge of giving up on this, it's not fun anymore.

[aaron886]

It's really not fun. There's no good source of help to make modding this game and trying to help build a community worth the time.

 

I can't even get all the errors fixed to a point where I can export with water.

 

 

Shows up every time. No idea how to fix it or why the hell it needs to be fixed... it's just a triangle. There's no explanation anywhere of what the errors actually are, why they're a problem, or how to fix them. I've tried checking for duplicate vertices, slivers, non-triangular faces, and nothing fixes these errors. This and things like this are so incredibly exasperating and tedious it's unbelievable. It's almost as if it's intentionally arbitrary to try to drive away potential content creators.

 

Why can it not just take the damn object and project the sea bump map on it? What the hell does it care about the particular arrangement of its polygons for?

Edited June 26, 2011 by aaron886

[spooks2k1]

Well dude I've decided whilst typing this not to continue, I've had enough, I'm good at modeling and texturing, but spending all this time reverse engineering a game is soul destroying. I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

 

I enjoy it and don't mind the hard work, but when I can see no end result, there's no point continuing.

 

Maybe someday ED will release decent documentation that people can actually understand, but I seriously doubt it,they don't want people modding the game there are too many gaps, far too many.

All info will be passed via msn and private messages, probably an unwritten rule enforced by ED.

It's a shame I was enjoying it, I'm taking my modding talents elsewhere, this is just too frustrating.

 

I'm going back to enjoying the sim :pilotfly:

 

Hope you sort out your problems, when I got those errors out of frustration I deleted all triangles in the vicinity of the error triangle and rebuilt the mesh, and re-applied UVW mapping. Crazy method but it worked for me.

 

spooks

 

out

[aaron886]

I may end up at the same place, unless someone can give some clear answers.

[SilentEagle]

Well besides for Nevada, there have been no other terrains released, and I believe this is the reason for that. The process is a lot of hard work, but nothing this community isn't willing to put into it. The problem is with the exact approach to this work that nobody seems to know. Sure we have tutorials, but they all have gaps that get us into trouble. Even if you happen to figure the method out, unforeseen errors knock you right back down. Besides from the developers of the tools (ED), nobody really knows why some of these errors appear or how to fix them. I was very motivated to finish my terrain, but while my methods were consistent, the results never were. I had numerous issues with LODs and airports and I sought help, but was unable to fix them. Luckily I never cut out my water only to figure out I had no idea what I was doing there, either. I, too, cannot waste my brain power on this type of modding at the moment.

[spooks2k1]

DAMN!, I've figured out the .sup problem, I woke up this morning and realized I'd stopped experimenting. I thought I'd give it one last shot.

 

Export lake beaches/borders to Onlay_Coastline.sup

 

Add these lines to assemblescenes.cfg

 

ToDo

{

 

}

// Ground mesh

landfile2 = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Surface\\land.lsa2";

scene = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Scenes\\High\\Onlay_Coastline.sup";

 

 

ModelPaths

{

path = ".\\Bazar\\World\\Shapes\\";

path = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Structures\\High\\";

path = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Onlay\\";

}

Pretty obvious when you look at it, I should take more breaks then these things would be more apparent. :D

The shore is animated too, hopefully I just need to alter the TGA to match the surface, it looks like in game processing, rather than asequence of tga's

 

 

It must be the same for the rest of the additional objects, I've not tried them yet.

 

It looks like the Nevada terrain doesn't make use of .sup files, the shores and towns are all one mesh, it's all one LOD, except for the airports Onlay_VPP.sup

 

 

grrrrr, now to fix the pivot placing/altitude thang.

 

For the lakes, don't use the boolean it f**ks up the mesh, I flatten all the lake and edge of the lake verts, on the Z axis, then manipulate the existing verts to resemble the shape of the lake, you need to apply a UVW Map after every tweak, I set up a shortcut key for the UVW Map

 

subobjectLevel = 0

modPanel.addModToSelection (Uvwmap ()) ui:on

$.modifiers[#UVW_Mapping].maptype = 0

macros.run "Modifier Stack" "Convert_to_Poly"

toolMode.coordsys #local

subobjectLevel = 1

 

Drag that to a toolbar and run it after every tweakto fix the UV's or set up a keyboard shortcut to the macro.

 

Now use the cut tool to cut out the shape of your lake, take care not to make non triangular faces, don't get ahead of yourself, do a small section at a time then export to check for errors.

 

If there is one, finding it and fixing it shouldn't be a problem,just undo then export again, keep undoing until it exports ok, then you have a better chance of understand what the error was, which error message relates to it and how to fix it.

 

After a few tries you will see what mistakes you made and how to avoid them in future.

 

I recommend NOT to use the boolean, it kills the mesh. You spend more time fixing the errors than it would take to cut out the lake manually.

 

If you must use the boolean Detach the lake and surrounding poly's from the main mesh first. Then run the boolean, you will have much less errors to fix, as the boolean will only affect the detached mesh. Once fixed, just re-attach and weld.

 

Hope this helps you guys.

[spooks2k1]

Ok, the pivot altimeter problem,here's what we know

 

The mesh placement before displace:

 

 

And here it is after

 

 

Mesh is at -98m, pivot is at 0m

 

If you start flight at minimum height for the A10, 1072m.

In game the plane is barely above the ground, and the altimeter reads 3523m.

So we're 2451m out.

Vehicles behave correctly on the landscape, plane still impacts the ground mesh at around 3523m.

 

This could have something to do with the original placement of the Hi res template tiles?

 

I don't mean on the Z axis, I mean it's latitude longitude position, If these tiles are placed over an area that the game thinks is the sea, would this affect altitude readout?

 

Or do you re-align the mesh to the pivot or pivot to mesh ? (yet to test)

 

Something I've noticed on other example scenes the pivot and mesh are zeroed out.

 

Also is the naming of the pivots important ? L0R0420S01, L0R0420S00, etc

 

just some thought's and questions.

Edited June 27, 2011 by spooks2k1

[aaron886]

Spooks, great work and congratulations on the progress! I'm still hitting my head against the detached land/sea errors. I didn't use boolean, but I certainly had some non-triangular faces. I did the Editable Patch/Editable Poly flip flop to get rid of most of those problems, so I typically don't have any non-tris along the coast, although there may be some inland. I'm wondering if I'm allowed to have interior vertices on the sea, or not. The other thing I'm wondering about is moving all the coast vertices to the same height... did you just set them all to the same height in Local mode?

 

Until I can get a better idea of how the export errors occur, I think I'm well and truly stuck.

[spooks2k1]

I'm wondering if I'm allowed to have interior vertices on the sea, or not.

I'm not sure what you mean

 

I'm wondering about is moving all the coast vertices to the same height.

In my tests It didn't make any difference to the export, I flattened the verts after I had it working.

 

I'm getting runtime errors with assemble scenes now so testing has ground to a halt again until I can fix it. :joystick:

 

I was getting a parse error when compliling so i re-installed the asssemble scenes, now I'm getting runtime errors lol

 

this is nuts :crazy:

[spooks2k1]

Well I've tried centering pivots, re-aligning pivot to mesh, mesh to pivot, nothing seems to solve the altitude problem, the setting must be elsewhere in the game.

I moved the entire scene down -2451m, and I'm flying under the sea :D

 

 

The altitude issue goes to the bottom of the list of to-do's :crazy:

[aaron886]

Spooks can you post a screenshot of the area of your mesh containing the lake from overhead? Maybe I can figure out the difference between your mesh and mine...

[spooks2k1]

Sorry dude, I deleted everything and started again, I'm in the process of trying to develop a technique to avoid the errors as much as possible, a bit of forward thinking is what's needed, either way cutting out lakes is a real pita.

 

I'm thinking I might Ice mine over and export to a .sup file and just overlay it, Helmand in the winter lol :D, it would be much easier, just no water splashes or reflections.