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Devs / Re: Exit: Passing between worlds
« on: May 29, 2022, 01:34:54 PM »
SVN Update
I've updated the hard animation type MM3D models to remove the last frame and remove redundant key frames. The latter point is nice because it makes it practical to edit the animations or reuse them as a starting point for making new or customized models.
I had to leave most of the SFX models alone apart from the final frame because they weren't coming out right. Probably because they turn a full 360 degrees. I have to look into it but I'm burnt out on this for now. I couldn't bring myself to go through and check every animation for correctness, and I know there are still some redundant key frames in there that could probably be verified/removed manually. I figure if there are any problems (I saw none) they'll just have to be stumbled over over time as usual.
In order to do this I had to recalculate the lighting surface normals, and I'm not sure what the MM3D software generates is an improvement. It has to use its normals if the file is saved. If it had occurred to me before I'd done most of the data entry I may have had set up a new "utility" that could have preserved the original normals. But I don't think it's that big of deal, and really the models need manual work to add smoothing groups to them. Low-poly models are hard to use any kind of automatic normal generation system with. I'd even like to add facilities for hand tweaking normals, to make this editor a beast for low-poly work.
The MM3D software is becoming pretty mature. I've been sitting on what would be a new release for a while. I also found a bug in x2mdl.exe for making MM3D files that overwrites existing textures with a 1x1 image. I have to publish a patch ASAP but I don't believe anyone is using it for this. Mostly this is for converting SOM's proprietary file formats into MM3D files.
I've updated the hard animation type MM3D models to remove the last frame and remove redundant key frames. The latter point is nice because it makes it practical to edit the animations or reuse them as a starting point for making new or customized models.
I had to leave most of the SFX models alone apart from the final frame because they weren't coming out right. Probably because they turn a full 360 degrees. I have to look into it but I'm burnt out on this for now. I couldn't bring myself to go through and check every animation for correctness, and I know there are still some redundant key frames in there that could probably be verified/removed manually. I figure if there are any problems (I saw none) they'll just have to be stumbled over over time as usual.
In order to do this I had to recalculate the lighting surface normals, and I'm not sure what the MM3D software generates is an improvement. It has to use its normals if the file is saved. If it had occurred to me before I'd done most of the data entry I may have had set up a new "utility" that could have preserved the original normals. But I don't think it's that big of deal, and really the models need manual work to add smoothing groups to them. Low-poly models are hard to use any kind of automatic normal generation system with. I'd even like to add facilities for hand tweaking normals, to make this editor a beast for low-poly work.
The MM3D software is becoming pretty mature. I've been sitting on what would be a new release for a while. I also found a bug in x2mdl.exe for making MM3D files that overwrites existing textures with a 1x1 image. I have to publish a patch ASAP but I don't believe anyone is using it for this. Mostly this is for converting SOM's proprietary file formats into MM3D files.