Agh, I\'m screwed >.<

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:41 pm

Edit. From hell. I was originally going to call it the Swordfish but due to the way it looks in-game and a post or two below, it's officially the Diamond. I'm not much for names as you can see xD

I finished the model, tweaked most of it then smashed the rest and built over it. Manually tesselated and simplified from 1394 polygons to 671 or so. I actually built it twice as the first time i tried the tesselation module pushed the poly count near 1.9k, it was faster to just remake it since i had an early copy saved right after i had the basic shape.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oy1uznhqzok

^-- the download link.

[Edited on 3-22-2010 by Ian2454]

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:54 pm

I am not familiar with Wings (I use metaseq) but modelling programs often have ways of splitting the model into different "objects", "materials", "meshes" or what have you. Oftentimes, modelers will split up the model to make it easier to model specific sections. Vice may mean that you need to save the model as one "object" or "mesh" and not as separate pieces within one file.

-Accountant

Wasp89 · Post by **Wasp89** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:07 am

Accountant is right.

I've run into this problem with Sketchup before. I was able to fix it by selecting all of the different "components" or "groups" and making it a single group. I could still select that group and then select the original individual components (which had now become "subgroups," but when I exported it it still exported as a single object. Wings is likely different, but there should still be a way to combine or finish the model into a single object.

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Wasp89]

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:04 am

Hmm, I originally had the fuselage, 2 engines, a missile pod, and the outer part of the canopy all as seperate parts. Due to design problems I ended deleting the engines/missile pod and recreating them by directly manipulating the fuselage. I'll improvise a canopy out of the fus. as well until i can figure out how this works and do it right next time xD

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:14 am

I cannot imagine that having those pieces as separate parts is the problem. Some of my ships have several separate pieces. The problem may lie in whether or not those pieces are part of one object or many objects.

And that sounds confusing...

Modelling programs are designed to split the model into different "objects". Within each "object" there can be one or many different pieces. So having the canopy, missile pod, engines, and fuselage as different pieces is fine as long as they are all in the same "object". There should be an option somewhere in the program to view the different "objects". Again, the number of pieces the model is in should not matter (at least, it has never mattered to me).

If I am wrong, someone please correct me. In the meantime, I will try downloading Wings3D and messing around to see if I can find where the object list is hidden.

-Accountant

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:34 am

Sorry for the double post.

Ian2454, I seem to vaguely remember Wings3D exporting the .X format that is for some reason not compatible with Evochron Legends. I forgot about this before, but I think I tried Wings3D before and had no luck. What you might try doing is saving the file and converting it to .x with another program.

Has anyone else used Wings and can confirm this? Ian, have you gotten the file to work as one mesh with Wings?

-Accountant

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:44 am

Accountant... To download a program you've only barely used to try and help me... People like you are awesome.

If the .x files Wings exports don't work though, that poses a bit of a problem. I could try using another program, I'll make a note of it in my design process list (notebook with checklists xD)

In Wings it's in the right click menu, just select all the object you wish to combine and they become one object, though their poly's are still independant. I find a lot of other programs... convoluted to work with though. Hm...

I remember getting a custom shield generator model in once, if I could remember how this wouldn't be such a headache. Once i figure it all out this gets much nicer.

Edit: Gah, I've had it. Anyone know of a free program that can import 3ds/obj and export a working .x file? personal experience with said program is a plus.

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Ian2454]

Wasp89 · Post by **Wasp89** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:03 am

Ian,

Google Sketchup is free. You cannot initially import any .obj files without buying the premium version, but if you do a search online you can find a number of .obj importer plugins. Some might be better than others, I'm not sure. You will also have to find a .x exporter plugin, but there are a couple of good ones out there.

Others will suggest different modeling programs; I use sketchup because it's what I learned how to use first and because I think that it makes modeling pretty simple. There are also some tutorial vids online which will be helpful in learning how to use it.

Hope this helps. I'll see if I can post the plugin files somewhere if you decide to go with Sketchup; I would withhold making any decision quite yet until you get input from some of our other more experienced modelers.

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Wasp89]

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:15 am

The original idea was make the model in wings and export it over to a mediary program through a common file format, double check it that in mediary then re-export it for us in game. Sketchup seems simple enough to get used to, but I was turned away by it saying it needs to be bought before it'll export etc. if it takes plugins then it should be no problem. Thanks to everyone xD Other suggestions are welcome always.

Edit: Yup. That fixed it. I wonder why it gets tesselated though. 726 polies become 1.9k polies. I have to do my model over again anyways >.<

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Ian2454]

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:58 am

I use metaseq and absolutely love it

http://www.metaseq.net/english/

The shareware version can import .3ds files and the freeware version can export .x files. Both are free, the shareware version just has certain features blocked until you pay the $45 registration fee. This is the program I have used for all of my projects and never have any problem with the files loading in EL. What you can do is import the .3ds file in the shareware version, save it in the metaseq file format, load the metaseq format in the freeware version, and export it as a .x file.

I haven't had time to experiment with Wings3D yet. I will try to do that tomorrow, assuming you are still interested in using Wings3D.

-Accountant

shewter · Post by **shewter** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:15 am

Blender is free http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
and has a built in .x import export.

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 6:11 am

I actually use blender for that very reason, the .x files.

I tried using it to export but i have little idea what i was doing so even when it converted to a .x file EL still crashed with error 103. Sketchup either inherently or through the importer i chose combines everything into one group if i properly process the model in Wings first and the exporter i chose gets the job done,

There are mild problems with certain types of extrudes but that's something i can work with.

Good thing is now I can help later people who decide to try this themselves, and if they search the forums this topic seems rather informative. I was an idiot to begin with though xD Thank you guys for helping me.

shewter · Post by **shewter** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:14 am

In blender, select all meshes and hit CNTRL+J to join meshes, will make it one object.

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:55 am

And as a reward of my diligence (pffft.) I finally got the Swordfish model past those annoying mechanics and into space!

After some final tweaks I'll release it to the public. It currently doesn't quite fit into it's shield bubble. At the same time I dont want the quantum mk2 engine showing either soo..

For the time being however, I'll leave some screenshots. I have a bad computer, rather weak so I turned down basically everything. No antialiasing or filtering etc.

Kinda reminds me of a fighter plane crossed with a A-Wing.
Sort of like a couple of Nigel-Strange's but not really, Nigel's Evoch-C pretty much squashes anything I can do at the moment -.-

To be honest, i think it looks rather boring and the hard edges show through. I guess it get smoothed out but the poly count is dangerously close to 800... Looks kind of neat how it kaleidoscopes into a bunch of speckles.

and

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Ian2454]

[Edited on 3-21-2010 by Ian2454]

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:58 pm

Not bad, sort of a diamond faceted design. Looking forward to seeing more.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:29 pm

Possible "stealth technology" ?

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:21 pm

LOL...a diamond in the rough...has lot of potential....

Ian2454 · Post by **Ian2454** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 8:13 pm

I'll think about that stealth covering in the next model, or maybe a variant of it. the game texture maps the default texture pretty well though, better than i could anyways -.- I might make a capital ship next...