[Spicious]

It should be something like

Code: [Select]

+detailX
   +turretX
      +turretX-arm
      +helpers
         +firepoints
            +firepoint
            +firepoint
            +etc.
   +turretX-destroyed


[Scooby_Doo]

Does each firepoint needs to be numbered?

[Spicious]

No.

Incidentally, the normals issue with Maya should be fixed.

[Scooby_Doo]

BTW, you know you can grab the turret-arm value from the

Code: [Select]

<node id="turret0X-arm" name="turret0X-arm">
      <instance_geometry url="#turret0X-arm-mesh">


The URL contains the proper lookup value in <geometry_instance>.

if you just use "arm" for the turret-arm name and have more than one turret it'll still work.  it'll look like this:
<instance_geometry url="#arm-mesh">
<instance_geometry url="#arm-mesh1">

those are the proper id's in <library_geometries><geometry>

[Spicious]

You can call the turret and its arms whatever you want, but all naming comes from the node id/name. I'm not sure what might happen if FS sees two subobjects with the same name though.

[Scooby_Doo]

I was refering to the hierarchy setup.  That's what I'm doing with my own modifier program. 

Instead of having in your case:

Code: [Select]

turret01
      +turret01-arm
            +firepoints
                   +firepoint


have:

Code: [Select]

turret01
      +arm
            +firepoints
                   +firepoint

no need for duplicate turret0X entries (this will allow making clones of the turrets fast and easy)

[Akalabeth Angel]

No.

Incidentally, the normals issue with Maya should be fixed.

      Yeah it works beautifully now.
      Though having more troubles of perhaps a different nature . . . I made a shield mesh, but when I open the .dae export in PSC2 the shield is translated backward a little, exposing part of the fighter. Despite the fact that in Maya I have the shield and fighter in the same place, with all translates and rotates at zero?? This may be a different sort of error, I don't know. I'm only trying to get my first ship into the game. Of course I could also just adjust the shield, such that when it goes to POF it's in the right place despite starting off in Maya in the wrong place


     Also, I noticed that if I export to dae from PCS with the helpers + locators (gunpoints), and then if I re-export that stuff from maya to .dae, the PCS2 will crash when I try to load up that same .dae again. Instead I have to global import the values. I don't know if this is because of the helpers or what. Maybe if I just did locators for firepoints it would work just fine???


     EDIT - despite the shield seemingly appearing in the wrong place, it doesnt seem to work as such in the game (the nose of the ship is not sticking through the shield?). Though using a a weapon with 0.0 shield factor, I found a bunch of holes in the shield for my ship. Probably some error on my part, and I intend to run it past another modeller to see what I've all done wrong.

[Spicious]

     Also, I noticed that if I export to dae from PCS with the helpers + locators (gunpoints), and then if I re-export that stuff from maya to .dae, the PCS2 will crash when I try to load up that same .dae again. Instead I have to global import the values. I don't know if this is because of the helpers or what. Maybe if I just did locators for firepoints it would work just fine???

Can you try importing and exporting something with Maya and upload it?

[Akalabeth Angel]

     Also, I noticed that if I export to dae from PCS with the helpers + locators (gunpoints), and then if I re-export that stuff from maya to .dae, the PCS2 will crash when I try to load up that same .dae again. Instead I have to global import the values. I don't know if this is because of the helpers or what. Maybe if I just did locators for firepoints it would work just fine???

Can you try importing and exporting something with Maya and upload it?

         Hmmn, I gave it another go and it seemed to work fine this time around. Tried with both a custom fighter and the mediavps Serapis. Not sure what the problem was before but will let you know if it happens again. May have been a lack of memory since sometimes I have way too many things open.

[Scooby_Doo]

Is there a diagram view of the all the entries with proper naming?  Also what's the exquivalant of EngGlow01-01 and EngGlow02-01?

[Akalabeth Angel]

     Wait, no I got some wierdness going on.
     Ok first of all, I figured out why it was crashing PCS2. For some reason I had a node called "shield" that seemed to be the cause of the crashes. I don't know why this was there, it doesn't seem to be necessary. (note, it was a node shield, not the geo shield or shield0 whatever).

     
     So anyway, few days ago, I have a custom model. PCS2 doesn't really work for me because it crashes when I try to add gunpoints because my video card is crap. So I use Modelview to add subsystems and gunpoints to my model. It works, though for some reason I export to .dae and into maya and back again. Later on, in model view, the gunpoints are all still there, but they're in the wrong place. (they're translated down and backwards of where I placed them) In Maya, they're in the right place. But in modelview or PCS1 they appear in the wrong place. In game, they originate from the proper place as well (ie they work despite how they look in modelview)
     
     So then, I want some more things on my fighter. Specifically a dockpoint and thrusters. I export the Anubis .pof to .dae, and take its dockpoint node. Then position it below my fighter. I export the Tauret .pof to .dae, take its thruster node, and duplicate the thruster locator a few times (for more thrusters) and position it in Maya. I also add an eyepoint named eyepoint01. So then I export this from maya to .dae, and then bring it into PCS2 and convert to pof. No crashes. Then I check out the model in modelview, now, all of the gun normals are both in the wrong place and facinng 90's downward instead of straight ahead. Also the Anubis dockpoints, which are on the bottom, now face both fore and aft (it had two for some reason?? or two lines anyway). I load FSOpen, and load my test mission. It loads fine, the guns and missiles still fire forward. The thrusters are there. But I forgot that the texture name gets buggered, so there's no texture. I open up ModelView (and later PCS2) to change the texture name to the proper one. I do so. But when I open up my test mission in FSOpen again it crashes again and again. (despite having played the game with textures earlier).


     I also pull the Serapis from the mediavps. Save from pcs2 to .dae, import into maya, export to .dae, load into PSC2 and save as pof. I load in ModelView, the gun and missile normals on this are also all facing straight down instead of straight ahead. I'm not sure what's going on.

     Anyway, attached is a zip with both the Serapis export from Maya. And the custom fighter export (with full thrusters, dockpoints and eyepoint -ie the one that crashes FSOpen).

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[KewlToyZ]

I had some issues where I had to split a mesh,
delete the side that kept getting wierd,
mirror the good side,
cull degenerete faces,
unify normals,
then join the two sides and repeat the unify normals and cull degenerate faces.
The mesh finally worked to actually get it to come up right.
Really strange because I had already built the mesh that way to begin with and it wasn't a complicated poly at all.
Only about 2000 faces in the total model.
Still trying to get the TrueView heirarchy into TrueSpace 7.6.
Is there a link telling me how to get that working you guys know of?
Also where do I get PCS with Collada support?

I'm having to go through a few extra steps though since I'm using Rhino 4 and then bringing the file into TrueSpace to make a dae file.
I tried the Autodesk fbx format converter also and had similiar missing faces results. I haven't tested the Autodesk fbx conversion since I fixed the mesh though. I'll get back to let you know the results.

[pecenipicek]

basically, you have to use the vrml 1.0 format for importing into TS. i'll make a post regarding that later tomorow

[KewlToyZ]

Thank you sir, I remembered some mention of vrml before,
but I wasn't sure if that was a diagnostic check or actual conversion considerations

[chief1983]

You can get PCS2-Collada from Spicious' sig, it's all over this thread.

[pecenipicek]

Thank you sir, I remembered some mention of vrml before,
but I wasn't sure if that was a diagnostic check or actual conversion considerations

that is my method of exporting while keeping the hierarchy setup intact.

its in this thread somewhere around the first few pages (my post with a bit more... elaborate explanation)

[chief1983]

Perhaps put that on the wiki for now.  Any tips, tricks, hierarchy setup, etc should go there for ease of reference.

[Spicious]

     So anyway, few days ago, I have a custom model. PCS2 doesn't really work for me because it crashes when I try to add gunpoints because my video card is crap. So I use Modelview to add subsystems and gunpoints to my model. It works, though for some reason I export to .dae and into maya and back again. Later on, in model view, the gunpoints are all still there, but they're in the wrong place. (they're translated down and backwards of where I placed them) In Maya, they're in the right place. But in modelview or PCS1 they appear in the wrong place. In game, they originate from the proper place as well (ie they work despite how they look in modelview)

I've fixed the gunpoints, dockpoints etc. facing the wrong way for the most part. Thrusters seem to have their rotations in the wrong order in the files for some reason. As for position, in your model detail0 is offset from 0,0,0 causing the weapon points to not line up correctly.

[Akalabeth Angel]

I've fixed the gunpoints, dockpoints etc. facing the wrong way for the most part. Thrusters seem to have their rotations in the wrong order in the files for some reason. As for position, in your model detail0 is offset from 0,0,0 causing the weapon points to not line up correctly.

     Sweet, thanks a bundle. I've got most everything working except for the dockpoints. I can't get the ships to dock to the underside of the craft, they keep crashing through and docking ontop. I don't get it. But I'll ask in the modding forum. The thrusters were wierd,  but I just grabbed new ones from the Seth and duplicated those instead. They seem to work now.

     I'll let you know if I have any more problems. Hopefully that's the last of 'em.

[pecenipicek]

okay, here is the whole tutorial on using the vrml technique.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,56047.0.html