[REL] S3D - Silent 3ditor

[skwasjer]

For those that have the automatic update notification disabled, or work with an older version of S3D:

Version v0.7 - Download link in main post (or follow link in footer to my site)

I strongly recommend everyone to update to this release!

This release replaces any previous v0.5.x/v0.6.x release!

New

• Added a label to each chunk editor, indicating whether a chunk is fully supported or not. If not, clicking the label will open a dialog that can be used to analyze the unknown data, using an integrated hex editor. Note: the data is read-only.
• Added option to import a DAT-file into another. Very useful to load a group of chunks, instead of exporting/importing each chunk seperately. The feature however is lacking a progress indicator and background thread loading (due to time constraints) so be prepared for the UI to become a bit unresponsive while it is loading a large file, and don't assume S3D has locked up... Maybe at a later date I will add background loading (like the normal File > Open procedure). Also note, that this feature has NOT been heavily tested and may contain bugs.

Changed

• Due to significant new features, and to avoid confusion over the earlier warnings regarding the buggy uninstaller I labeled this release as v0.7.
• Revised the uninstall procedure.

Now I just hope this case of longam was a one timer!

[kriller2]

You are working fast Skwasjer! You should get money from UBI for making this tool :hmm: if it werent for your skills we would all still be using Hex editing and mess up the files one by one and get jiggly water and falling birds from the sky... :rotfl:

[longam]

After installing the final release of SP1 for window Vista I had positive results on installation and uninstall of version 0.70. Man that was a long weekend for me and no fault of Skwasjer, just the nature of beta testing including service packs.

[skwasjer]

Originally Posted by kriller2

You are working fast Skwasjer! You should get money from UBI for making this tool :hmm: if it werent for your skills we would all still be using Hex editing and mess up the files one by one and get jiggly water and falling birds from the sky... :rotfl:

Yea, it's hard to remember the alternatives isn't it? I'm happy I am nearing 1.0 though. I am close to the point where I don't wan't to see that project in my dev studio anymore

[SquareSteelBar]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

I am close to the point where I don't wan't to see that project in my dev studio anymore

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

[*][I]Added option to import a DAT-file into another. Very useful to load a group of chunks, instead of exporting/importing each chunk seperately. !

YES! Thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! :p

[THE_MASK]

When i have 2 instances of silent 3ditor open i need to know which is which . It would be helpful if up the top it says silent hunter 4/data/mods/etc . Do you know what i mean .

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by sober

When i have 2 instances of silent 3ditor open i need to know which is which . It would be helpful if up the top it says silent hunter 4/data/mods/etc . Do you know what i mean .

If you click "Window" in the menu bar a list of open file paths will appear. The checked one is the one you are working on in the current window.

[THE_MASK]

Support for animations on demand would be terrific in a future release .

[Anvart]

Hi, Skwasjer.
I use 3DS Max 9 SP2 and Collada import plug-in ver. 3.05b ...
Now (S3D ver. 0.7b) mesh import is ОК (without "dust") ...
But now object has coordinates from dat-file ...
It is not conveniently ...
May be to make feature (on/off) of reseting all coordinates (pivot point in 0,0,0) ...
And what about materials ...?
Now it's nothing ...

[skwasjer]

Thx Anvart for trying and reporting.

I was planning on an export dialog with some options (like export normals, float precision (nr. of decimals), etc...), and I will make the matrix rotation/translation optional as well. I was more or less planning to support multiple model export to one file as well (optional) which is why I had to get the translation/rotation to work in the first place, but I see your point that it isn't always useful.

Yes, materials are a bit screwed. I still haven't found the best way to export it correctly. The uv's get exported ok, but assigning them to the correct texture seems to be problematic with the FeelingSoftware plugin. I probably am doing something wrong though, so I am still trying to work that out...

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

...
I was planning ...
, but I see your point that it isn't always useful.

Yes, materials are a bit screwed.
...

Good luck Skwasjer in your hard work ...
...
Yes, for single export more convenient to have the "reseted" coordinates (offsetX,Y,Z = 0 and rotX,Y,Z = 0) ...
...
Materials ... m...m...oho-ho ... :hmm:
1) In this case (Balao propeller etc.) NS_Balao_N01.dds is absent ... but in your interpret. it's present ... Formal action ... ?
2) I think specular takes from a-channel of NSS_Balao_O01.dds file ... or (if in UnifiedRenderControler is cheked) from diffuse map (*.T01.dds) ...
3) You do not use UV coordinates for occl. map (indexed in TMAP section) ...
4) All material param's are default (3DS Max) param's and all material parts have channel 1 ...
... and etc. etc. ...
After rendering i see occl. map (*.O01.dds) with diffuse UV coordinates ...
...
Yes, materials it's hard work (without Help or SDK) for programming ...
Easier to make all manually ... ???

[skwasjer]

1) In this case (Balao propeller etc.) NS_Balao_N01.dds is absent ... but in your interpret. it's present ... Formal action ... ?
2) I think specular takes from a-channel of NSS_Balao_O01.dds file ... or (if in UnifiedRenderControler is cheked) from diffuse map (*.T01.dds) ...

Correct, the current implementation assumes alot. I know it shouldn't but I haven't really had time to implement it better (like you suggest, use the params from the UnifiedRenderController, or even ask the user). So I chose the easy way and basically assume all maps are available. I will have to improve this as we move along...

3) You do not use UV coordinates for occl. map (indexed in TMAP section) ...
4) All material param's are default (3DS Max) param's and all material parts have channel 1 ...
... and etc. etc. ...

I have had alot of difficulties with the DAE-materials (not with the DAT-file or geometry). It just seems the FeelingSoftware doesn't pick up the info I provide in the DAE-file. I actually DO assign the proper UV-channels in most cases (you can check by looking at the file in notepad), but it resets the channels to 1 on import. I'm still not convinced the problem is with my export or with their Max-plugin. You can just change the channel index to 2, and then it renders ok...

I try to focus on importing the geometry now though, and not so much exporting the correct materials. As long as they are 'just a bit' right, I think we just have to settle with it (for now). I mean, it's not so hard to manually fix the materials in Max for rendering previews (assign the correct textures, and assign the correct UV-channels).
If we can get at least the geometry imported back into the dat-files, we can always fix up materials using other means (S3D/hex etc.). I only need material assignment info for that (which face, what material index), not actual correct materials. For all I care it's painted orange and green in Max, I just drop that info upon import in S3D. As long as materials in dat are ok (and in same order), it should be fine

Later, when this works, I can always improve the material part...

[DeepIron]

I try to focus on importing the geometry now though...

!

[skwasjer]

Oh, and plus UV-channels of course