Triumvirate Lords Of The Third Dimension

[Quanon]

Never seen that come up with my version TG.

Did you have a driver update for your VideoCard ( GForce/ ATI)

 

After again, messing around I have some emitter fun in one of my areas.

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[TriggerGod]

Oooh, its bright, its blue, and its awesome.

 

Wait, does atton have a full beard?

 

Did you have a driver update for your VideoCard ( GForce/ ATI)

I have a shared computer, and I'm not the one who is 'in charge of updating drivers'. That duty goes to the tech geek in my family who tries to keep from seeing porn online. (but somehow fails every week. )

 

I can check, but I don't usually roam into the part of the computer. I sure hope I don't break my computer some how

 

edit: I can't seem to find it. sad panda.

[disbeliever]

Ok thanks Q. I am going to dissapear for awhile and work on my modeling skills and exporting skills.

 

Can you think of any other steps or processes I need to know before starting over? Anything in the wrong order or left out?

 

thanks

[Quanon]

You got it pretty much nailed down Dis

 

If you still got a gray model of your city; you can restart from there.

 

Detaching/ breaking it up and then do the centering thing

 

If you keep multiple saves of a model not all is lost when it doesn't work out in the game.

 

@Trig: Awh, that sucks....

 

I see you've posted about it in your wip thread, did you mention your specs and such on the autodesk boards. As I can't think most people will now the anwser to that rather cryptic message.

 

Any idea if your key had a time limit, my first version of Max 9 only latested 2 years: then I had to get creative

 

I do know that Max 9 (not 2009) had 2 service packs, to lesson its habbit in crashing and braking down in certain.. euh stuff it does

 

Not a tech guy myself.

[TriggerGod]

I'm not a tech guy either, but I can try and post my specs on their boards. Once I find out how to... >_>

 

AFAIK, my key doesn't have an expiration date. Than again, it is one of them creative methods I used to keep my max.

 

I guess I'll try to re-install max. On my second install, I never got bugged by the 'This program will stop working after [insert number of days left] days. Register yadda yadda yadda.' So hopefully, luck will bless me again.

[Quanon]

Hope you find a way out of it soon

[disbeliever]

Dont know what the hell I did in 3d max, but in my perspective window, I cannot find my models. Its like i zoomed out and now I cannot find them. How do i zoom back in?

[Quanon]

Go to select by name, pick any object.

 

Then activate your the perspective view and hit Z.

That should focus the camera on the object.

 

Or just hit Z: IIRC that just focusesesessesesesese the camera back to the small starting grid (0, 0, 0).

[disbeliever]

Here is a question. I have all objects converted to mesh and all pieces detached. I have not yet done anything with the pivots. I have one support column for the main platform detached and ready for texturizing. Would it be best to copy it now since I need about 20 of em, affect pivots n then texture each one? Or can I affect pivots, resetxform , texture it then copy it? Will copying something after affecting pivots, resetform n texturizing throw off orientation?

[disbeliever]

Hey Q,

 

I got my entire city block and buildings in game, all oriented correctly and textured.

 

However I am stil having issues with the walkmesh, and I dont get it. When I warp to my module, I cannot move in any direction. In Max, i made sure the walkmesh was x=0y=0z=0. I notice in your video tutorials, you can see both the floor and walkmesh bluring together, as you comment that it is not a big deal. My floor of the walkmesh is below my platform floor. You cannot see the walkmesh floor in max. Should the platform and walkmesh be on the same level?

 

Can I send you my wok or mdl file to look at to see if you can figure out my walkmesh issues?

 

I created the walkmesh using the line tool. I converted to poly from mesh, flipped all walls and floor and deleted the ceiling. I applied the walkmesh modifier, and set the appropriate ids for the floor and walls. The walls turned purple and the floor turned black, all went well.

 

I then imported my ascii mdl into KA, and it read the walkmesh and model fine, got all green lights. The render even showed it right. So whats the deal?

 

Can i send you my ascii files?

[disbeliever]

Oh and in the ascii file, the position is 0,0,0 and the orientation is 1.0.0 etc

 

Which seems to be right and as it should be. So im confused whI I still cant walk I sent you my ascii mdl file

[Quanon]

I can tell you the walkmesh is an odd beasty.

 

Its one of those things that even I need to redo, a lot sometimes -_-

 

Sometimes you can walk untill you near a certain edge that seems to work like wall.

I can't really point out and say its because of this or that.

 

The ASCII doesn't doesn't give me any clues on such faults

All I can say is to make a new mesh...

[disbeliever]

:

 

So, when i warp to my level, my players feet are about a foot beneath the visible platform. What is that about? I set the walkmesh to 0,0,0 so what does it mean when i warp in my feet cannot be seen, they are "inside" the platform?

 

[Quanon]

Heavy feet

 

Erh: okay, lets see... Its not because the PivotPoint is on 0,0,0 that the actual walkmesh

will be level with your floor model.

 

Ofcourse I got the feeling, that in your 3Ds Max it looks perfect

 

I think I got another tip that perhaps might get it to work.

Though thats not for sure it will. I get mixed results with it myself.

 

I'll post it later on

[disbeliever]

post it now!

 

I cant get a walkmesh to freakin work!

 

Once you have everything in game and working, can you go back and change textures without breaking anything?

[disbeliever]

I cant this players feet to be on the platform, what the hell?

 

I tried to fix it in the code, specifically in the module.ifo file. There is a section called Mod_entry_X,Mod_entry_X and Mod_entry_Z.

 

Well I changed the mod entry Z to 1000, thinking it would start my PC in the air at 1000, but alas, it made no difference.

 

Even if my 3d model was not at 0 z coord, couldnt I spawn my PC anywhere I choose? meaning if my models all sat at 500 z coord, why wouldnt that work and I could just spawn in at 500 z???

[Sithspecter]

The mod entry z actually does absolutely nothing. You Z coordinate is determined by th walkmesh.

 

I've got an idea for you, dis. Just create a plane that's as big as your area, and convert to mesh. Move it to the appropriate height, and hit trimesh and resetXform. Then add the walkmesh modifier and hit trimesh and resetXform again. Link to your aurora base, and export the whole thing again. When you open up KAurora, make sure you open the walkmesh and export it first. Save it as the same name as the model, and be sure to add the .wok extension. Now export the model as well. It ought to work.

[disbeliever]

Thanks for chiming in SS,

 

Not to sound dumb, but I want to clarify: When you say create a plane thats as big as my area, do you mean draw s shape with the line tool that is the same shape as the platform, then do the extrude? Or do you mean create a box that covers the area?

 

I did not ever hit "trimesh" prior to exporting my walkmesh. I did not see that in any tutorials. Does that effect the walkmesh working right?

 

and by appropriate height, the floor of the walkmesh should be the same height as the floor of the platform, yes? So if my platform is at z=15, the walkmesh should be positioned at z=15, and I set the pivot points of the walkmesh to 0,0,0, yes?

[disbeliever]

Oh that was a dumb first question for me to ask. I see "plane" is an object you can create. So I create a plane, then hit trimesh? I see no trimesh button in the NWN pallete under mesh, am i missing something?

 

So this walkmesh your suggesting I make would have no walls, it would only be a walkable floor? And with a plane, can you make custom shapes? I.e. not just a box shape. How would I do the building entrances, as well as the skinny platforms to the apartment complex?

 

UPDATE: SUCCESS!! I can walk around!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So my question above still stands. Right now its just a rectangle that lets me walk through my buildings. See image, inside the red lines is how i need the walkmesh to be.

 

 

Can I do that using a plane? SS, thank you so much for that tip/suggestion. Just being able to walk around makes me happy Now if you could tell me how to make the proper walkmesh shape, ill be all set The plane was muhc simpler too.

[Quanon]

Hmm, trimesh... looks like SS has a bit of a differant approach ( nargh spelling )

 

The plane is only a standard starting shape, you can't do much with untill you convert or put on an editable Poly/ Mesh modifier on it.

 

I myself prefer the "Line" method, though as you've experienced its not without risk

I can't show you right now my more "detailed" method, I'll see if I can find the time this weekend.

 

Sorry Dis, its a rather bussy and hectic moment

[disbeliever]

Hi Q,

 

I agree, the line tool method is problematic. I have not been able to get that to work at all, on many many trys.

 

I tried the plane method and it worked right away, so I am happy.

 

I converted my plane to mesh, and i increased the verts in it to have more than the default. I see you can drag verts around, and even deleted faces inside the plane.

 

SS, would you say this is a good way to make a plane into the shape I noted in my image above? I made one big plane that covers the entire area, and then started deleting faces, and moving verts. I put it in game, and could walk, however it seems it got re oriented to the wrong way (i.e. i can walk in the air, but stop half way in the platform, like its rotated).

 

Do you know of any other way to modify a plane to make the shape I need? maybe something simpler or less messy?

 

Q/SS - After you export areas out of max, set the aurora base etc, can you go back into the model and tweek textures without effecting the orientation/layout etc?

 

For example in game i see some of my textures got jacked up twisted. Can i go back into my max file, fix that, and re export the aurorbase without screwing things up? What must I do to avoid jacking things up?

 

Thanks guys.

[Sithspecter]

What I usually do is a little complex, I draw a line around the 'walkable' places, and then I convert straight to mesh (No extrude). You can still add verts if you convert to poly, but remember to go back to mesh, hit trimesh and resetXform, and add the auroraWalkmesh, and hit trimesh and resetXform again.

[disbeliever]

Interesting, I will try your technique and see if it works for me Thank you

 

So after you draw the line, and it asks if you want to close it, you say yes? And then select the line, and right click convert to mesh? Then add the walkmesh modifier right to the line mesh? So you do not need a floor face and to set it to id=10? How does it know what is walkable?

[disbeliever]

WOO HOO!

 

I am now able to get the entire area into KOTOR, AND walk around exactly like I need to Check it out:

 

 

And the best part is, I have it broken up into 5 areas

 

I still have ALOT of work to do on this. For one, my walkmesh is to low, see the feet inside the platform? And my textures are jacked up in alot of areas. And my sky box images are just crude place holders for now.

 

I have a quick question now. I have 5 files, all with their own aururobase, and all have already been resetxform'd to hell as Q would say. I need to go back into some of those files and create a few new buildings, and change textures etc. Is this possible without screwing up my orientations?

 

For example, if i opened the file with the side giant buildings, and wanted to copy or clone more, would I delete the Aururobase, create my new copies, resetxform them, resetxform everything, and then create the aururobase again and then export?

 

I guess i am asking how can i saftly modify the files i have created as faras textures and models, without screwing up my orientations or aururobase?

 

Thanks guys!

[disbeliever]

No love:(

 

Im about to ask for SS's and Q's cell numbers so I can start texting them questions