Fragmotion Exodus

[benpark]

I'm going to try to make the change for modeling from MS3D to Fragmotion. So this can be the thread for anyone elso attempting to learn it. I want everything to conform to what Stridor mentioned in anther thread here about lighting, normals etc. for future models, so here goes.

First off, the directX export settings. These are the defaults:



What needs to be changed to get us what we want?

[JMass]

I learnt from my errors that the format is binary and probably "add root frame" must be checked.

[RyanCrierie]

I might pay for Fragmotion -- It's got a nice X Import feature, allowing me to make slight changes to existing 3d Models and then re-export them...I've got a crazy idea already, HE HE HE EH

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

I might pay for Fragmotion -- It's got a nice X Import feature, allowing me to make slight changes to existing 3d Models and then re-export them...I've got a crazy idea already, HE HE HE EH

Yes fragMotion is better than MS3D because the directX support retains heirarchies where MS3D did not.

It is looking like fragMotion may be the answer to alot of our problems.

Regards

S.

[JMass]

I imported the Tiger's turret, reassigned the material and exported but now I can't figure out what the problem is...

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: JMass

I imported the Tiger's turret, reassigned the material and exported but now I can't figure out what the problem is...

God those original models were ugly!

Jmass I will see what I can do

Regards

S.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: JMass

I imported the Tiger's turret, reassigned the material and exported but now I can't figure out what the problem is...

Jmass what settings did you use to get even that far! I find everything I try crashes PCK as usual. That god damn program is just so finiky about what it wants, and worst of all it doesn't even tell you whats wrong. Just "I am not happy - guess why?" And then of course it doesn't even have the decency to exit correctly, it just hangs and requires me to kill the process with taskmanager!

I went through all this before with the polytrans settings and then the MS3D settings. I really don't feel like doing it a 3rd time with fragmotion.

So please, for the love of god, what did you do to even get as far as you did?

[JMass]

I am not at my pc now so I cannot check fragmotion, I imported the summer turret and deleted the "material 1" and "material 2", then I reassigned the same material to the 3 groups, one at once, and the same for the texture. From my attemps I saw that PCK hangs loading tanks with errors on texture.
I am a 3d newbie but I think the multiturreted tanks are for a problem of vertex, the tiger had first 3 turrets and after some attempts (weld vertex etc.) I obtained just two. The .x file loads correctly in some viewers.

[JMass]

I done:
Model-> Materials, deleted Material1 and Material2
Select All (Ctrl+A), menu Texture -> assign Material To Selection -> click on Material, OK
Export: Format Binary; Options checked-> Add Root Frame, Hierarchical Mesh, Matrix Keys; FPS 40
Attached is my turret file and a savegame to load directly the Tiger and see 3 turrets.

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Jmass what settings did you use to get even that far! I find everything I try crashes PCK as usual. That god damn program is just so finiky about what it wants, and worst of all it doesn't even tell you whats wrong. Just "I am not happy - guess why?" And then of course it doesn't even have the decency to exit correctly, it just hangs and requires me to kill the process with taskmanager!

Becareful especially on a dual core Vista. I've exported the wrong jagdpanzer body.x to the proper folder so the game couldn't find the right mesh and the program hung - had to be killed with taskmanager. Then PCK would not run again. I had to uninstall PCK, use regedit to kill the PCK entry in the registry and re-install PCK to get the game to run again. Never had that problem when I messed up in a similar way with XP.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: JMass

I done:
Model-> Materials, deleted Material1 and Material2
Select All (Ctrl+A), menu Texture -> assign Material To Selection -> click on Material, OK
Export: Format Binary; Options checked-> Add Root Frame, Hierarchical Mesh, Matrix Keys; FPS 40
Attached is my turret file and a savegame to load directly the Tiger and see 3 turrets.

JMass I have good new and bad news.

Ok after spending hours looking at the directX output from FM and what PCK expects I have found the ideal settings which work and which will allow us the dream of importing the X files directly with animation and bones etc intact, making changes and then exporting again (with everything working).

That is the good news.

The bad news is that FM dosen't name the Mesh define which PCK expects! This means that it won't work without post processing! Now I have emailed the creator of FM to see if he can add this fix to a future FM build. If not I can write a little utility can fix up the problem after FM has resaved it.

I have tested it and it works just fine. I think this will be a huge boon to editing game objects as it makes it much easier than before. Example. Tiger I too small. Import tiger, resize, export (possibly run through a little fix up utility I will have to write), there you go!

Regards

S.

[JMass]

ORIGINAL: Stridor

The bad news is that FM dosen't name the Mesh define which PCK expects! This means that it won't work without post processing! Now I have emailed the creator of FM to see if he can add this fix to a future FM build. If not I can write a little utility can fix up the problem after FM has resaved it.

Thank you very much, I felt something was wrong [:(]... I hope we could have the fix and for now I'll learn the basics of FG, I was ready to buy one licence but I'll wait good news.
Regards

JM

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Mobius

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Jmass what settings did you use to get even that far! I find everything I try crashes PCK as usual. That god damn program is just so finiky about what it wants, and worst of all it doesn't even tell you whats wrong. Just "I am not happy - guess why?" And then of course it doesn't even have the decency to exit correctly, it just hangs and requires me to kill the process with taskmanager!

Becareful especially on a dual core Vista. I've exported the wrong jagdpanzer body.x to the proper folder so the game couldn't find the right mesh and the program hung - had to be killed with taskmanager. Then PCK would not run again. I had to uninstall PCK, use regedit to kill the PCK entry in the registry and re-install PCK to get the game to run again. Never had that problem when I messed up in a similar way with XP.

I have had the exact same problem occur to me tonight. I too feared I would need to reinstall, but in the end what I did was to delete every registry key found in (HKLM\Software\Matrix Games\Panzer Command Kharkov) except for the serial number key. Rerun PCK and it regenerates itself (you will need to reset your video and shadow settings etc)

If only PCK:
1. Reported exactly why it didn't like something
and
2. Terminated gracefully

It would be a step in the right direction.

Oh and accepting industry standard directX not just the stuff that comes out of polytrans, would be just neato as well.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: JMass

ORIGINAL: Stridor

The bad news is that FM dosen't name the Mesh define which PCK expects! This means that it won't work without post processing! Now I have emailed the creator of FM to see if he can add this fix to a future FM build. If not I can write a little utility can fix up the problem after FM has resaved it.

Thank you very much, I felt something was wrong [:(]... I hope we could have the fix and for now I'll learn the basics of FG, I was ready to buy one licence but I'll wait good news.
Regards

JM

JM here is a SS of the little program I wrote. Essentially you export to X in FM and then drag the saved X files onto my little app and it fixes them up ready for PCK.

Just a few more settings which need to be figured out and you will be good to go.

[JMass]

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Just a few more settings which need to be figured out and you will be good to go.

Thanks! I am waiting! [:)][&o]

[benpark]

Thanks, Stridor.

Anyone found a shortcut key list for Fragmotion yet?

Edit: I just found the answer to my question (there's a first time for everything...)

http://www.fragmosoft.com/fragMOTION/He ... index.html

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: JMass

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Just a few more settings which need to be figured out and you will be good to go.

Thanks! I am waiting! [:)][&o]

That's ok. There are a few more (hopefully little) things I need to work out first.

Essentially PCK expects the directX files *exactly* as polytrans outputs them. These other programs (MS3D, fM) output legal X which other directX programs and viewers read just fine, but PCK will not. So essentially I need to find the exact settings in fM which duplicate the X output that polytans would make. Turns out that is impossible which is why you need my little fixer upper proggy. I hope Erik can convice the developers to relax this strict polytrans requirement for the next PC3 (or at least have the program exit correctly), especially as PCK has the tendency to sometimes blow a gasket, needing a registry clean out if you get it wrong [X(]

So in the mean time I need to step through every single line of PT output and compare it to the fM output and then see what different export settings do. Big job you know [;)]

Regards

S.

[JMass]

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Big job you know [;)]

I can imagine! [;)]

[RyanCrierie]

So essentially, we're starting to lay the groundwork for the future of the Panzer Command series here. Awesome. [:D]

[spellir74]

Stridor thanks for all your work.

Seriously.