[TEC] undersea.GR2

[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by Trevally.

Placing ships with the object editor will stop them being ships and make them objects instead

They will not be date related, so will be there at all dates

They will not belong to a country and thus will not update as the country war state changes - also no flags.

Z- ships are only in ports that lag when there are many objects (piers/houses/etc)

Exactly , they would be just a filler , the same as houses .

[Trevally.]

Originally Posted by sober

Exactly , they would be just a filler , the same as houses .

yes but more houses = more lag

[gap]

Do you recognize it?



This is my versions of one of the ligthouse models I have linked in this thread. New materials/textures, UV mapping redone, meshes heavily reworked.

Hopefully, the next render I will post will be from TDW's GR2 Editor.

[Trevally.]

Originally Posted by gap

Do you recognize it?

Looking good Gap

[oakdesign]

Originally Posted by gap

Hopefully, the next render I will post will be from TDW's GR2 Editor.

Hello gap
as I'm fddling about the 3D gr2 at the moment as well. Maybe you could share some experience.
I already collected as much information on handling gr2 as possible from to various threads here, but still encountering some issues so far.

What I did so far:
As far as I understand it's not possible to create a new gr2 file from the scratch but rather more use an existing one as base.

at the moment I'm using
TDW_GR2EditorViewer_v_1_1_265_1
TDW_GR2EditorViewer_v_1_1_272_1
as supposed in the TEC how to use TDW gr2 Editor Thread

1. I've exported the Object12 from wilhelmshaven.gr2 which is the included lighthouse model.
2. Took costal_guns_small.GR2 as base,because it's avery simple one only including only 3 subsets.
3. Imported the exported mesh from step 1 into the gr2 from step 2. the Object is importetd and I can succesfully save the changed gr2.
Now it comes to the issue I'm currently dealing with. As the imported Object is placed far away from the World center I'm really have problems to reposition it within the TDW GR2 Editor.

I could import the exported mesh into Blender and reposition it there but until now I can't import the changed *.obj file from blender back into TDW GR2 Editor. Still analysing the *.obj files exported from TDW GR2 Editor with the ones created by blender in order to find the correct blender export settings.

Maybe someone can point me into the right direction.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Trevally.

Looking good Gap

Thank you Trev. The next week I will be out, but I plan to rework similarly other beacon 3d meshes I have found on the web (variety is the salt of life ). Some of them are way to detailed, and have to find an easy way to simplify them. According to your experience, which is the maxing number of polygons/edeges/vertices that SH5 can handle safely?

Originally Posted by oakdesign

Hello gap
as I'm fddling about the 3D gr2 at the moment as well. Maybe you could share some experience.

No mutch to share at this moment: so far I used TDW's Editor for editing other stuff, and I am just moving my first steps into importing complex objects

Originally Posted by oakdesign

1. I've exported the Object12 from wilhelmshaven.gr2 which is the included lighthouse model.
2. Took costal_guns_small.GR2 as base,because it's avery simple one only including only 3 subsets.

Good choice but, take the following statement with a pinch of salt, the possible presence of deformable vertex data (due to gun animation) could be a source of problems...

Originally Posted by oakdesign

3. Imported the exported mesh from step 1 into the gr2 from step 2. the Object is importetd and I can succesfully save the changed gr2.

Now it comes to the issue I'm currently dealing with. As the imported Object is placed far away from the World center I'm really have problems to reposition it within the TDW GR2 Editor.

In theory you could reposition the imported object by moving its binding bone, but as the lighthouse is way off from the center of the scene, the method you have chosen is more advisable anyway

Originally Posted by oakdesign

I could import the exported mesh into Blender and reposition it there but until now I can't import the changed *.obj file from blender back into TDW GR2 Editor. Still analysing the *.obj files exported from TDW GR2 Editor with the ones created by blender in order to find the correct blender export settings.

Maybe someone can point me into the right direction.

I have just done what you are trying to do, without problems:

- exported the lighthouse model from wilhelmshaven.gr2;
- moved its vertex coordinates using Wings3d, which I know better than Blender;
- imported the edited lighthouse into costal_guns_small.GR2 (replacing Costal_Gun_Small_base's meshes)
- modified its material to use the correct texture.

Result:



In order to help you I need for the following information:

- what are your GR2 Editor import/export options? Are you trying to export re-import the AO map?

- does the GR2 Editor throw any error message when you try to import the modified mesh? If yes, can you report it here?

[oakdesign]

Originally Posted by gap

In order to help you I need for the following information:

- what are your GR2 Editor import/export options? Are you trying to export re-import the AO map?

- does the GR2 Editor throw any error message when you try to import the modified mesh? If yes, can you report it here?

Continuing our PM conversation here:

With leaving out the AO map on export / import and using Wings3D I 'm now able to follow up in successfully importing the exported lighthouse with updated / changed origin into another *.gr2

Next steps I'm going to do is

• comparing Blender / Wings *.obj output's in order to find a workflow to be able to use blender as I want to get bit more into 3D modelling
• play around with Blender / Gimp / LithUnwrap creating UV Textures
• play around with Goblin concerning Controllers

[gap]

Originally Posted by oakdesign

With leaving out the AO map on export / import and using Wings3D I 'm now able to follow up in successfully importing the exported lighthouse with updated / changed origin into another *.gr2

Vertex coordinates of the diffuse and AO meshes need to be identical, therefore AO mapping should be done as last task, when you are sure that nothing is going to change into your model. If you are editing exported meshes, import both the diffuse and the AO meshes into a Wings3d/Blender project, edit them as a group, and export them back separately.

Originally Posted by oakdesign

Next steps I'm going to do is

• comparing Blender / Wings *.obj output's in order to find a workflow to be able to use blender as I want to get bit more into 3D modelling

GR2 editor is a bit picky regarding the format of the obj files that ca be inported. An example: yesterday I have noticed that Wings puts some 's 1', 's 2', etc. lines between face definitions of multi-material models, but the GR2 Editor didn't like them. I had to comment them out before I could import the model.

In any case, opening in notepad the obj/mtl files which are exported by TDW's utility or accepted by it, and comparing them with the ones you are trying to import, is a good way to spot differences and possible sources of problems

Originally Posted by oakdesign

• play around with Blender / Gimp / LithUnwrap creating UV Textures

I got to learn Blender myself as I know only some basic functions of it. Im especially interested in its mesh animation apabilities, but before I do it, I need to look for a program which can create/export quick and good AO maps.

As for UV mapping, I find the auto-UV mapping features of Wings3d quite a powerful and flexible tool. Try them

Originally Posted by oakdesign

• play around with Goblin concerning Controllers

Feel free to ask if you need for any help on this

[oakdesign]

@gap thanks for all your good advice

Originally Posted by gap

Feel free to ask if you need for any help on this

Gathering more information and trying to put my overall picture together I stumbled over the following while looking into possibilities to add lights / controllers.

As sober already stated back in 2011 if you try to merge the kiel.sim to kiel.gr2 as the GoblinEditorApp crashes or better to say any of the *.gr2 files from
\data\Terrain\Locations\CustomAreas
no matter if the stock *.sim file is used or any from TDW's FX update.

If opening the sim file first it's at least possible to open the *.sim files and as I know wich ones are the controllers assigned to the light house I could look at.

What is scratching my head if I look at the controllers of the stock *.sim files and compare with the modified ones from FX_Update they are identical.

So next step was to compare them with HEX Editor. Ok it's clear that the *.sim files from FX_Update are HEX edited and all have an addidional XXX_LH_Flare_1 part but still no clue how the "light effect" is achived.

Another idea of getting a "light effect" working is that I'm going to inspect the "lighting" of the imported OHII has been achived.
It's clear that the buoys have an a mesh consisting of a single face that has a controller attached. Maybe this might be the easier way to go on

[THE_MASK]

Where can I download the GR2 editor from ?

[oakdesign]

ok while I still not sure how the light effect through FX_Update was/is added to the lighthouses,
I made some progress in using the same settings as used with the imported buoys

here are some self illuminated small costal guns with flashing lights.



another finding with working with the bulid in GoblinEditorApp was that on Win7 with Aero design I could not change any controller values that are of type DropDownList. Has to change apperance to windows classic style in order to get those to work.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by oakdesign

ok while I still not sure how the light effect through FX_Update was/is added to the lighthouses

It's all right there in the files in FX_Update. Unless you are VERY familiar with the files and controllers of the SH series it probably doesn't make any sense to you. It was all done via hex editor also I use the method of 'cloning' the node so that the effect is used only once for every lighthouse (special node type for this).

[THE_MASK]

[Fifi]

^^^^ Very nice Sober!

[oakdesign]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

It's all right there in the files in FX_Update. Unless you are VERY familiar with the files and controllers of the SH series it probably doesn't make any sense to you. It was all done via hex editor also I use the method of 'cloning' the node so that the effect is used only once for every lighthouse (special node type for this).

TDW I already recognized your cloning if I just use a little offset on your modified files while comparing to the stock ones.

I was just wondering because in the Goblin Editor your changes won't show up.

Even so I have a master in computer science I'm a bit on war with Hex, and all the Low Level stuff. Being more in System architecture and managed code stuff.

Nevertheless I'll follow down the road getting more involved in the existing controller and their usage.

Is there any documentation on controllers available or have you all gone the hard way by either try and error or hooking into processes