Fun with Wings 3d

[stljeffbb1]

Hi everyone.....OK, I've been messing around with Wings 3d, easily the best 3d model program I have come across....I've been trying to shrink the "bulges" that are on the hull of the BB Revenge so it looks much more like the BB Sao Paulo (which I am trying to mod).....here are my working results:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/SharktoothSaoPaulo1.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/SharktoothSaoPaulo2.jpg

Not acceptable! :rotfl: Looks like shark teeth!

Here is what I tried....I cut out the bulges and extruded the beams at the top of the holes and stretched them over the holes:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/CrappySaoPauloSkin1.jpg

...and the wire frame

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/CrappySaoPauloWire1.jpg

The DAT likes this enough to allow it, but it obviously does not look like what is in Wings 3D......

I did a "smooth" version that looks very good in Wings 3d, but the DAT file using the Sansal tool would not accept it...I tried to imitate the design, which generally looks like a rectangle with a diagonal line that crosses its plane:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/wireframe.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/SmoothSaoPauloSkin.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/stljeffbb/SmoothSaoPauloWire.jpg

....but for whatever reason, the DAT file just doesn't like it. Apparently, the game translates a little differently what is shown in the Wings 3D program.....now its a matter of finding out what those differences are, and how what appears in Wings 3D is shown in SH3.

Of course, any help will be appreciated! :)

-Jeff

[Jace11]

Probably completely wrong, but if the textures are not mapped then would a surface appear transparent like in your first shot? Maybe the model is correct?

Who knows, this is beyond me

[Seeadler]

It looks like Wings3D inverted the face orientation or flipped the normals for some faces. That normal vector points for this faces inward to the model and and concomitantly the uvw mapping.

[Sansal]

Has you the last version?

http://rapidshare.de/files/5416649/pack3d_220105.zip.html

If it don't work send me the obj make by Wings 3D

Cheers,

[stljeffbb1]

Hello Sansal....I've downloaded the latest version of your tool, and I still have the problem.....

Check your email :D

Thanks,

-Jeff

[sergbuto]

I do not know about Wings3D but I think that Pack3d also has a problem. I tried to import entirely new models using OBJ files both from Wings3D and Maya and they did not work correctly in terms of getting textures right on the model. The textures are almost there but somehow they are not fully "sealed/closed up" so the model does not appear as "solid". Something is wrong with faces.

[AG124]

Did the new models appear in the game at all? Maybe there is a bug here that can be fixed.

[Canaris]

I think this problem exists due to the fact, that a vertex in indexlist can get more than one texcoordpair. I know that you have to sort and supplement the vertexlist when you try to covert Sh3-geometry to 3ds- or x-format because their are vertex and texcoordpairs not assigned to each other by an indexlist.
Example:

vertex tex mat
0 1 2 0 1 2 0
2 3 4 1 3 2 0

What means the vertex represented in indexlist by the number 2 gets in that first face the texcoordpair represented by 2 but in second face that texcoordpair represented by 1.
Hope that helps a little bit.

[stljeffbb1]

Hi everyone.....I'm going to have to dig into this stuff to understand it!

vertex in indexlist can get more than one texcoordpair

It's like a whole new language!

:up: :rotfl:

-Jeff

PS....If Sansal's XIV Milkcow is any indicator, it at least appears that he can import OBJ files into DAT files.

EDIT: I know Sansal is working on the latest version of his tool, this time for Windows..... :)

[martes86]

It's like a whole new language!

Indeed! :lol: I would have liked to make some nice things, but the terms here used for those hex thingies are a bit complicated for me. I think I'll wait till every tool is in its final version. :ping:

[lurbz]

Even if it gets fixed, keep that model around for when the ship gets actually torpedoed.... :)

[Canaris]

Hm, i have something to add.
That in my previous post said may be only an explanation for those streched textures.
But Seeadler said, what seems to be wrong to cause the culled triangles.
The difference between rendered or not is if the points of triangles are listed clockwise or the other direction.

[Seeadler]

I don't know much about Wings3D, because I am a 3DSMax user, but take a look if Wings3D provide a function to "normalize vertex/face/all" or "invert face". If I remember the OBJ files of the first version of the DatConvert tool also inverted all faces in the OBJ output. Just as the mesh exporter for the game Mafia, there you had to invert also the OBJ files before you could use them in 3DMax or Maya.

[stljeffbb1]

Even if it gets fixed, keep that model around for when the ship gets actually torpedoed....

:rotfl: :rotfl:

I hope that we will have the opportunity to torpedo the BB Sao Paulo, along with its older sister ship BB Minas Gerais.....if this works, we might as well make the entire Brasilian Navy....they weren't too large in size! :D

Thanks for all the responses.....I'll try these suggestions when I have time....probably not until next weekend :(

-Jeff

[Sansal]

Hi all:

This obj have vn (normals) and .dat haven't place for this, then the tool don't read this lines. The dat only works with v (vertex), vt (2d texture) and f (faces, triangles in the game).

I'm not a 3d modeler and i can't explain how to work with the 2d textures in wings3d. I guess that somebody can do this...or give us a link to a good tutorial :)

EDIT: I know Sansal is working on the latest version of his tool, this time for Windows.....

I think this tool no have a end....now i'm working in a windowed version of the actual tool, after we need a editor of properties to change nodes and fisical properties of the units...and...and...and... i'm a little perfectionist :)

Working.....

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Great work Sansal... Keep it up! :up:

[Commander1980]

I am on the way, to modify the southampton/fiji-model for making the german k-class cruiser.

I was able to lower the superstructure with wings3D (hard work picking all superscruture-polygons) and get the ship working. Unfortunately, i have three problems:

- The objects stay on their former positions

- the deck-textures change their positions

- and what about the reflect- and shd model?

The game crashes when exiting - i think this is because of the shd and reflect files. Would it be enough to copy the changed model file and import it as SHD and reflect-file?

Here a screenshot as she looks like with the objects on their former positions. And below a photoedit as she should look like.


http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1081/kclass8pr.jpg

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9501/kclass21va.jpg

[sergbuto]

I don't know much about Wings3D, because I am a 3DSMax user, but take a look if Wings3D provide a function to "normalize vertex/face/all" or "invert face". If I remember the OBJ files of the first version of the DatConvert tool also inverted all faces in the OBJ output. Just as the mesh exporter for the game Mafia, there you had to invert also the OBJ files before you could use them in 3DMax or Maya.

Thanks for advise, Seeadler. It worked.

[stljeffbb1]

Heh heh

sergbuto wrote:

Seeadler wrote:
I don't know much about Wings3D, because I am a 3DSMax user, but take a look if Wings3D provide a function to "normalize vertex/face/all" or "invert face". If I remember the OBJ files of the first version of the DatConvert tool also inverted all faces in the OBJ output. Just as the mesh exporter for the game Mafia, there you had to invert also the OBJ files before you could use them in 3DMax or Maya.


Thanks for advise, Seeadler. It worked.

What worked? Are the 3d textures corrected now? In other words, if we "normalize," will our textures (generally) be correct using the Sansal tool? I'm at work and won't have a chance to try this at home until at least Friday, but I'm curious.... :hmm:

-Jeff

EDIT: I think the Vosper answers my question! :up:

[Sansal]

Would it be enough to copy the changed model file and import it as SHD and reflect-file?


Yes, this work for my testing type XIV.

The deck textures, by now, need to be reworked in a new tga because the tool only works with one texture, the first in the dat. You can do a new tga, based in the original, but more great.

I can't work in all at the same time :shifty:

[stljeffbb1]

Hi everyone.......exciting stuff going on!

I'm staying up late tonight to play with this stuff......I'll pay for it tomorrow!

OK, I looked for this:

...Wings3D provide a function to "normalize vertex/face/all" or "invert face".

in Wings 3d......it does have an invert function, and it did change my BB Sao Paulo....but it merely made it so that the "shark teeth" could be seen only on the opposite side.....

Is it because my models are just crappy? I am just starting out with all of this, so I don't know all the "ins and outs" yet, but I have learned a lot! I'll keep on plugging away!

:up:

-Jeff

[Commander1980]

Would it be enough to copy the changed model file and import it as SHD and reflect-file?


Yes, this work for my testing type XIV.


:up: Well, nice. I will give it a try!

Do you think it is possible to import an "empty" file as object to replace/delete objects?

[sergbuto]

Hi everyone.......exciting stuff going on!

I'm staying up late tonight to play with this stuff......I'll pay for it tomorrow!

OK, I looked for this:

...Wings3D provide a function to "normalize vertex/face/all" or "invert face".

in Wings 3d......it does have an invert function, and it did change my BB Sao Paulo....but it merely made it so that the "shark teeth" could be seen only on the opposite side.....

Is it because my models are just crappy? I am just starting out with all of this, so I don't know all the "ins and outs" yet, but I have learned a lot! I'll keep on plugging away!

:up:

-Jeff

You do not need face inversion when you are working with models from SH3. It is only for new, external models. There must be something else you are doing wrong.

[Seeadler]

In Wings3D under menu View select "Show Normals" and ensure that the small blue line on the faces you modified are shown to the outside of the model. If it's so than something else is going wrong during your editing session.

[Sansal]

http://rapidshare.de/files/5729597/Pack3D.jar.html

Copy in sh3 folder....tomorrow the manual :zzz: