[TEC]GR2 files and Granny Viewer

Originally Posted by Anvart

What do you think about intermediate file-format Collada (*.dae)?

I'm looking at the Collada format also.
The idea would be to get an exporter that retains the 3D model
as close to what was built in 3D Max.

By playing around I pretty much figured out how the Models are built.
How to set the 'hidden' value,
and how the cfg# nodes are done and such.

All this is done before exporting the Unit from 3D Max.


And I'd say it was done this way before switching to the Granny system.
But it went through thier exporter instead for conversion to dat files.

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by privateer

...
The idea would be to get an exporter that retains the 3D model
as close to what was built in 3D Max.
...

The format allowing as much as possible to realise features of game and 3ds Max...
But if you plan to use only 3ds Max, for what to you the intermediate format is necessary?

The .FBX format seems to be a viable export option for cross compatability.

The SDK is free also.

The .obj format is probably manditory for most people though.

So proposed formats could be:
.obj
.3DS
.FBX
.X
.dae

Multiple export options is a must as I see it.

After testing each format I believe the .3ds format would loose the least
amount of information on export from a GR2 file.

So that narrows it down to 2 formats I'd like to see.
.3DS
.OBJ

[Yosarian]

I would stop any attempt to decode the GR2 format, as with other games in the past RAD Game Tools the owner of Granny starts legal action against modders

[UberTorpedo]

privateer knows his way around the block. Just sit back and watch a genius at work.

[skwasjer]

Originally Posted by privateer

After testing each format I believe the .3ds format would loose the least
amount of information on export from a GR2 file.

So that narrows it down to 2 formats I'd like to see.
.3DS
.OBJ

Are you sure?

3DS is limited in that it's strings can only hold up 16 characters iirc (object names, material/texture names, etc) unless you use an extension, which makes it non-compatible to alot of 3D-programs/converters, something you'd want to prevent. It's why I dropped it for S3D.

OBJ is a big no as far as I am concerned because you have the same problems again with multiple uvw channels. What I built into S3D clearly is a hackjob and not a supported method of import by ANY 3D program. So you end up doing alot of handywork again to merge all channels.

Clearly, the only viable formats are those that support multiple uvw channels, and skeletal, mesh, matrix and texture animations (or at least a couple of these) and (VERY important!) meta data (stuff like visibility flag., matrix transforms, controller data or custom data)
The ones that come to mind are already mentioned:
- X (although I think it is officially dropped in favor for FBX)
- FBX
- Collada

[edit] But yea, in the end, you will hit a (legal) wall with regards to GR2. Unless we get an official 'endorsed' importer/exporter, best to forget about it, and hope full (legacy) DAT-support will be enabled in a future patch.

[Pintea]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

3DS is limited in that it's strings can only hold up 16 characters iirc (object names, material/texture names, etc) unless you use an extension, which makes it non-compatible to alot of 3D-programs/converters, something you'd want to prevent. It's why I dropped it for S3D.

Even more, it can't store objects with a higher vertex/poly count than 65536.

[thfeu58]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

[edit] But yea, in the end, you will hit a (legal) wall with regards to GR2. Unless we get an official 'endorsed' importer/exporter, best to forget about it, and hope full (legacy) DAT-support will be enabled in a future patch.

This will not happen. With which a big part of SH5 will not remain modifiable.

[kylania]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

[edit] But yea, in the end, you will hit a (legal) wall with regards to GR2. Unless we get an official 'endorsed' importer/exporter, best to forget about it, and hope full (legacy) DAT-support will be enabled in a future patch.

Over on the Ubisoft forums they asked for questions to ask the devs. My question was if such tools as you're talking about will be released to players. Lets hope they answer it!