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TriExporter

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AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#141 - 2012-08-11 11:31:38 UTC
Andares Sol wrote:
@AlleyKat:
Ah well bound to happen with only two people testing and both have tons of SDKs and debugging tools installed :D
I have it running fine on Win7 64bit with dll 2.8.12.0 - No need to run as administrator either.

So questions:
- Did the old version work?
- Which graphics card do you have?
- Do you have a d3d9.dll in your Windows\system32 folder and DirectX installed?
- If you single-click and just export the model does that work?

@All
Does it work / not work for anybody else?

Bests,
Andares Sol


fixed.

duplicated the dll, deleted original - computers are weird.

The PNG export is interesting, but I forgot I'd need to split the channels out, like the alpha of the diffuse.

thanks again.

This space for rent.
Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Inner Beard Society
Kvitravn.
#142 - 2012-08-12 14:37:56 UTC
Awesome, thanks for the replies - will wait for newer version.
And thanks for the new triexporter :)

@Guy saying to use Maya, stuff yourself.
Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Inner Beard Society
Kvitravn.
#143 - 2012-08-13 13:32:56 UTC  |  Edited by: Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Question to those more advanced:
I've started playing with exporter, started with good old cane model and came up with this so far:
Cane

My question is, anyone has any experience in making engine trails? I really dont like blender's particle system but I guess it must do, hopefuly someone will have some advice on how to approach that step.

@AlleyKat
Exporter works like a charm for me on 64bit w7
AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#144 - 2012-08-13 15:59:04 UTC
Fhtagnamus Wiggins wrote:
Question to those more advanced:
I've started playing with exporter, started with good old cane model and came up with this so far:
Cane

My question is, anyone has any experience in making engine trails? I really dont like blender's particle system but I guess it must do, hopefuly someone will have some advice on how to approach that step.

@AlleyKat
Exporter works like a charm for me on 64bit w7


Got it working on Friday, thanks.

As for light trails/engine trails - no idea how blender works, but I think it's two things.

1: engine lights
2: engine trails

I guess blender has volumetric directional lights, so use a series of those for each port/engine exhaust and build a light rig along those lines.

Trails themselves, use the particle system I guess, and link the emitter to the lights, aligning to the object/model orientation?

That's how it works in my head anyway, but I guess for stills it doesn't matter that much - animation, that's more an after effects thing for me.

AK

This space for rent.
Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Inner Beard Society
Kvitravn.
#145 - 2012-08-13 16:03:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Didn't thought of volumetric lighting, might work, thanks :)
I'm planning on animating, so I think I'll go for mixing of glow, volumetrics and particles wonder how it will end up like.

Edit.
Volumetric lighting in blender is simply awful, will look into something else :s
AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#146 - 2012-08-13 19:18:18 UTC
Fhtagnamus Wiggins wrote:
Didn't thought of volumetric lighting, might work, thanks :)
I'm planning on animating, so I think I'll go for mixing of glow, volumetrics and particles wonder how it will end up like.

Edit.
Volumetric lighting in blender is simply awful, will look into something else :s


This was about 5 minutes in C4D.

As you can see, there are two types of trails there which are essentially Square Parallel Spots (edges) and Parallel Spots (centre), which basically create a cylinder of light, with fall-off. Blender must have something same/similar.

Up to you whether you think the model needs square or regular, but the option is there.

I think you'll be looking into particle systems for sure, though, as you are gonna be animating - maybe a regular point light adding to it, so there is at least something with illumination to it, that can bounce light off other objects and models.

In after Effects, this type of particle is called a 'streaklet'

enjoy.

AK

This space for rent.
Fhtagnamus Wiggins
Inner Beard Society
Kvitravn.
#147 - 2012-08-14 17:25:57 UTC
Aye defo particles are what I'm going to do for the trail, will have to use some postprocessing for flare/glare behind the engines and sun though.
Qanthelas
Kockegg Industries
#148 - 2012-08-21 15:30:32 UTC
For what it's worth, I'm trying to start up a thread where we can all collaborate on ways to make these model exporting tools work in the face of changes to how CCP stores the data, etc. If you're reading this thread, please drop by my new thread and post with what you've found works, used to work, or flat out doesn't work :)
Wild Rho
The Riot Formation
#149 - 2012-08-22 18:04:23 UTC
Fhtagnamus Wiggins wrote:
Aye defo particles are what I'm going to do for the trail, will have to use some postprocessing for flare/glare behind the engines and sun though.


You can certainly produce a pretty nice trail effect in blender with particle effects and some composite nodes.

Simple Engine Trail
Roc Wieler
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#150 - 2012-09-05 20:14:20 UTC
So been using the .black to json executable a little bit, and while impressed with the results, not impressed with reading them. I swear I was going blind.

I had one of my team open up the source code and beautify the output. It makes the outputted file about 4x larger, but is very easy to read, which is of great value to me, and hopefully to you.

I've included the Visual Studio .sln file, as well as the code snippet, and the application executable at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9438804/Eve3D/Black2JsonCK.zip

Please let me know if you implement this into your ongoing build so I can stop hosting the file.

Thanks,
Roc

Never start a fight you can win.
Hoarr
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#151 - 2012-09-05 23:45:51 UTC
AlleyKat,
What's your opinion on Elements 3d? As someone who's never worked in blender or a 3d program for compositing, I just can't fathom that they would be as good as AE without some very expensive plugins. Am I totally mistaken here? Will blender be able to do a decent job compositing a shot?
Hoarr
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#152 - 2012-09-06 03:40:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Hoarr
Is anyone having any luck with the black 2json converter? I run one I have, it says conversion complete and then the window dissapears, but then I can't find the Json file. I'd appreciate any help you guys can give me. Thanks.

EDIT: Never mind. Avast was eating the .Json as soon as the converter generated it. It works now. Thanks Andares and Selvin.
AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#153 - 2012-09-06 10:57:27 UTC
Hoarr wrote:
AlleyKat,
What's your opinion on Elements 3d? As someone who's never worked in blender or a 3d program for compositing, I just can't fathom that they would be as good as AE without some very expensive plugins. Am I totally mistaken here? Will blender be able to do a decent job compositing a shot?


My experience with blender is minimal and outdated by several years, but there is forum at Kramers' site for blender so would suggest taking a looksee.

Element is mostly set up for when you have all textures and models ready for importing into AE. I have found it limiting in some regards, like compositing engine trails and blinking lights, as there are problems linking lights with models and hooking null objects in 3 dimensions which light sources can use with particles.

Basic compositing is fine, special fx are very difficult to hook up 3d planes.

As blender has particle systems and lights, I can only imagine it would be easier to create the entire scene via blender, and I think most people will end up using element in simple shots, not entire sequences involving multiple objects.

For example, a fly-by shot of a ship would be not-too-bad to do, but multiple ships, each with different vectors and types of ships, would be very difficult to pull off.

I might even say UDK would be easier, as I'm having more fun using element for text animation and 3d particle systems, because with OpenGL, the render speed is unsurpassed.

AK

This space for rent.
Hoarr
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#154 - 2012-09-07 23:19:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Hoarr
Let's pull out one of the nebulas in the game for use in a blender scene. As far as I can tell, the game pulls out a DDS file of the nebula map and lays it on the inside of a cube. It then uses a starfield as a the background behind the nebula map and knocks down the opacity of the nebula, to somewhere around 70-80 percent IMO. It also does something with a whole bunch of strange shapes to pull something through the starfield. The paths for these files are here:

Starfield:
res:/dx9/scene/starfield/Stars01_Tile2.dds
Strange star field modifying thing:
res:/dx9/scene/starfield/Baked_StarsSmall_A.dds
The Nebula Cubes:
res:/dx9/scene/universe/ (and then the name of the cube)

I think it also pulls a cube from:
res:/model/global/cube.gr2

Here's the text of the black file for nebula cube a01:
{"__i":1,"__t":"EveSpaceScene","backgroundEffect":{"__i":2,"__t":"Tr2Effect","effectFilePath":"res:/Graphics/Effect/Managed/Space/SpecialFX/Background.fx","parameters":[{"__i":3,"__t":"TriFloatParameter","name":"Tiling1","value":4},{"__i":4,"__t":"TriFloatParameter","name":"Tiling2","value":8},{"__i":5,"__t":"TriFloatParameter","name":"Tiling3","value":14},{"__i":6,"__t":"TriFloatParameter","name":"StarLinearBrightness"},{"__i":7,"__t":"TriFloatParameter","name":"StarSquareBrightness","value":1.8}],"resources":[{"__i":8,"__t":"TriTextureCubeParameter","name":"StarUVMap","resourcePath":"res:/dx9/scene/starfield/Baked_StarsSmall_A.dds"},{"__i":9,"__t":"TriTexture2DParameter","name":"StarMap","resourcePath":"res:/dx9/scene/starfield/Stars01_Tile2.dds"},{"__i":10,"__t":"TriTextureCubeParameter","name":"NebulaMap","resourcePath":"res:/dx9/scene/universe/a01_cube.dds"}]},"backgroundRenderingEnabled":true,"envMap1ResPath":"res:/dx9/scene/universe/a01_cube.dds","envMap2ResPath":"res:/dx9/scene/universe/a01_cube_blur.dds","envMap3ResPath":"","ambientColor":[0.09411765,0.07058824,0.04313726,1]}

Here's the contents of the background.fx file (the forums didn't like me posting code directly):
http://pastebin.com/LXjDDFdY


Right, how do we do this?
AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#155 - 2012-09-08 09:14:54 UTC
Only thing I recognize there is the [0.09411765,0.07058824,0.04313726,1] for color values RGBA.

Everything else is written for Trinity, so I guess you need to be Trinity to understand it.

But I stand to be corrected.

This space for rent.
Dayfox
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#156 - 2012-10-08 01:33:28 UTC
Been a little while since I posted, I haven't managed to translate the .black files for the new Battlecrusiers or the new Ore frigate yet, maybe CCP are onto us and are mixing thing up again Ugh

So at the moment i just guestemated some colour levels and came out with this.

Ore Frigate

Also no running lights, and I'm not happy with the background, but I'll work on that. Just wondered what you guys thought. And see if anyone else had any luck with these.
AzAkiR NaLDa
Council of Exiles
Brave Collective
#157 - 2012-10-12 22:38:26 UTC  |  Edited by: AzAkiR NaLDa
i am working out last bits and pieces on my 3ds max tutorial on eve ships for most of the actual texture work.
Finally got the actual reflection masks to work propperly so they can now reflect the environment like they should do :)

Things still to do :
More detail work on the actual texture files (get as close to ingame as possible)
Engine trials and thrusters
Reflection amount
Turn lights to be emisive

here is a sneak peak on the arbitrator that i have been experimenting on

http://imageshack.us/a/img141/1345/arbitest21.jpg

here is a simple engine trial test

http://imageshack.us/a/img13/736/arbitratorshiptest01.jpg

dont pay to much attention to the texture work ont he engine test one though, it is a really rought test so simple diffuse texture and some colors given to the lights and engines to test with.

Engines are done with actual particals

Lone Star Warrior
Zirina Zarconic
Perkone
Caldari State
#158 - 2012-10-23 19:07:57 UTC
Can ANYONE help me extract the Amarr t3 legion subsystem models into 3ds format with the skins?

me love u long time?
AlleyKat
The Unwanted.
#159 - 2012-10-24 13:44:07 UTC
Zirina Zarconic wrote:
Can ANYONE help me extract the Amarr t3 legion subsystem models into 3ds format with the skins?

me love u long time?


Tell me the location of it in the folder and I'll see what I can rustle up for you.

This space for rent.
Zirina Zarconic
Perkone
Caldari State
#160 - 2012-10-25 03:11:52 UTC
eve/res/dx9/ships/amarr