Guys Guys Guys!

[Stridor]

As you may know I am undertaking a cleanup of the models of PCK to fix all their problems.

This is painstaking work!

I have noted that every single modder has models which need fixing (This inlcudes the K artists).

So in the future so that I don't have to fix everthing again can you please make sure that you:

1. Export model normals. If you don't model lighting won't work end of story. This problem affects at least 66% of you. This is difficult to fix in post processing as konvix has to make a guess at model normals which may not be what you intented.
2. Ensure your material defines are correct with respect to lighting. This problem affect ~ 100% of you. I defined a standard lighting scheme for PCK which I am getting konvix to apply to:

a. EMISSIVE should = 0,0,0 (unless you want your object to glow in the dark eg house lights)
b. SPECULAR should = 0,0,0 (unless you have a shiny metal object like a tank)
c. SPECULAR power should be 1.0 (see b)
d. DIFFUSE should = 1.0,1.0,1.0 (or rgb 255,255,255) so that all models are relatively equally lit.

At the moment I am seeing all sorts of crazy values for these. Values of emissive other than zero are a real problem now.

3. Export in compressed format (to save huge amount of space like 90%)

If you stick to these guides then your model will work first time and in different lighting conditions and be quick to load and process and be nice on HD space.

Regards

S.

EDIT: You can do all this very easily in fragMotion

[benpark]

Where do you set these values in MS3D?

How do you export in "compressed format"

Thanks for fixing them. Sorry it's such a pain to to do it, as it looked to be a lot to fix.

[Stridor]

Ben just use fragmotion even the demo will do. I wouldn't bother too much with MS3D any more.

I have finally fixed up as good as possible all the MODS\ hierarchy stuff.

These fixed up models will be in RC3 (which I intend to be a complete distro release if you get a chance to reorganize the thumbnails [;)])

Some other nice improvements in RC3 as well.

Regards


S.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Stridor

Some other nice improvements in RC3 as well.

You wouldn't want to drop a clue about new features RC3 would you? (So I can start looking where to put stuff in Guide -- good excuse anyway *g*).

Rick

[Dean J]

Stridor,

The Microsoft DirectX Mesh Viewer, under "MeshOps"  has a "Compute Normals" option.  I haven't had to use it, but I don't see why it would not work.  If I'm loading a mesh from a height map (in XNA, for example), I need to compute the normals, so I would imagine that the Mesh Viewer would do the same.  If it works as advertised, then that would make for a quick clean-up of the existing files, and model makers could use it to check any new models that they make.

Note that the Mesh Viewer is NOT the same as the DirectX Viewer that ships with the more recent versions of the DirectX SDK (the October 2005 SDK onwards).

If anyone doesn't have a copy, and wants to try it, let me know and I will e-mail a copy to you (it's only around 200 Kb).

-Dean

[Mobius]

Do you mean building and vegetation models or tank models?

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Dean J

Stridor,

The Microsoft DirectX Mesh Viewer, under "MeshOps"  has a "Compute Normals" option.  I haven't had to use it, but I don't see why it would not work.  If I'm loading a mesh from a height map (in XNA, for example), I need to compute the normals, so I would imagine that the Mesh Viewer would do the same.  If it works as advertised, then that would make for a quick clean-up of the existing files, and model makers could use it to check any new models that they make.

Note that the Mesh Viewer is NOT the same as the DirectX Viewer that ships with the more recent versions of the DirectX SDK (the October 2005 SDK onwards).

If anyone doesn't have a copy, and wants to try it, let me know and I will e-mail a copy to you (it's only around 200 Kb).

-Dean

Dean,

Thanks, but I have written my own DX fix up program called konvix http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1905309&mpage=1&key=konvix? which recomputes normals AND fixes all the color issues and then saves compressed. So doing it automatically is not the issue.

What the issue is that doing an auto normal compute is not the same as a human doing it correctly in the first place especially for things like buildings.

Here is an example, a wall connected at right angles to another wall (eg a corner). Auto compute will attempt to smooth these vertex normals together (as it should), but in reality you want these vertex normals pointin true normal to both surfaces. So it works only to a point.

Regards

S.

EDIT: The other problem with all the MS SDK utils is that they only work with flat meshes and DON'T respect bones or animation hierarchies so are useless for our purposes.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Mobius

Do you mean building and vegetation models or tank models?

Almost every model is effected. I haven't got around to offically looking at the vehicles yet but I do know that some of these are "broken" as well.

In general for the vehicles the normals are ok but the lighting is off and the save sizes are huge.

This is the problem with trying to fix over 1000 models. I have to look at almost every one as each model needs a different konvix setting to fix it, if I want to keep as much original (unbroken) info about it as possible.

I could just do a global Normal fix / Color fix / Optimize and Compress fix, but then all those nice smoothing groups you worked on will get broken. If you were clever enough to spec emiss for vehicle headlights they will get busted as well. So I have to be selective.

The reason why these glaring issues were never spotted before is because the lighting of the maps was always full daylight. Now with fixed models we will have a greater range of lighting available to us. This will be even better if Erik can get the new devs to fix the shadow bug.

Regards

S.