Bejaymac, the easiest way that i know of to add wireframes to subparts is export the wire-model as .3db or .cmp, rip the vmesh as instructed, and then place the vmesh in the host CMP along with the wireframe, which goes under whatever part it's associated with. i do have a tutorial covering this, if you have any questions about it please feel free to post them there

just followed you instructions and it appeared to work fine until I got into the game and tried to view it in hard CMP

ScreenShots
Hard CMP
In game

any ideas on how I balls'd this up?

Edited by - chriskenobi on 10/6/2007 5:26:22 PM

Edited by - chriskenobi on 10/6/2007 7:07:33 PM

make sure you check that your UTF structure conforms perfectly to what i laid out

1. object name / internal .3db filenames different? a common problem when making a multipart ship is that these are not different on export except for a .3db name on the end of the internal .3db file. this is -wrong- and SURs won't work properly. this has nothing to do with the root disappearing, but it's always worth mentioning i think since its the most common problem people have with the SURs and the consfix generated by sursplice

2. make sure you named the new wireframe nodes correctly and placed them correctly and used the -exact- .vms names when using the wireframe maker. if you -dont- your wireframes will not show up, and depending on where they're messed up the ship may crash or fail to appear

3. more info would be great or post your work if you'd like and i can get a much better look at it, post-export & post-wiring would be best for finding your mistakes

a screenshot of the UTF interior nodes would be more helpful(the whole ship disappearing is a common problem when using a generated consfix or editing UTF internals) , i need to know what everything is named and where it is to tell you what's wrong with it with any certainty :/

Edited by - Cold_Void on 10/6/2007 5:40:39 PM

Right then, here are nodes of the two files on UTF edit

cmp export node
Main model node

This is what the ship looked like before I tried to add the wireframe

viper

well i see one thing thats wrong here immediately catching my eye: vmeshwire is supposed to have a VWireData node inside it, and -that- holds the generated mesh-vertex-to-wireframe chain references. other than that it -looks- ok, but if fixing this does not solve the problem i would go back and do the .vms->wire conversion again and triple check my spelling.

the way i like to make my wireframes is export the vms data as the parent node's name "Ship_wire.lod0/or/0-112.vms" which i copy + paste in the save dialog, this way when i process the .vms file to make a wireframe chunk i just type the same name twice, once for file name and the second for VMESH name, then i'm sure that if it worked i spelled it correctly both times

CV I've tried it various ways bud, including yours, I either end up with a heavy weight CMP or a wireframe where the components are a mess or missing, or as in my last try a CTD as I used my lod2 vmesh straight out of the main CMP, the app made the wire but FL didn't like it. Guess I'll just have to do without wireframes for now.

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1. object name / internal .3db filenames different? a common problem when making a multipart ship is that these are not different on export except for a .3db name on the end of the internal .3db file. this is -wrong- and SURs won't work properly. this has nothing to do with the root disappearing, but it's always worth mentioning i think since its the most common problem people have with the SURs and the consfix generated by sursplice

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Must be something to do with the SUR-Splicer as I don't change the names of the components in my CMPs and my SURs work beautifully.

@ ChrisKenobi, is that your model or someone elses, you could be getting yourself into a whole heap of trouble if it's some one elses and you don't have permission to alter it.

**shuffles off with a new headache**

i don't consider "heavy weight ship" a valid complaint. explain..... i have 1gb of kingston ram here btw.......512 mb DDR memory *whistling* several gigahertz of processing speed.... 350kb is NOTHING. a TRIFLE.. a Farcry leaf texture is bigger!

if you don't like a ship with a bunch of ugly vmeshes inside, do without because using the host model meshes for vwires is not my area of expertise. YES its a bit of work just to get wires from exported subparts, but compared to all the menial drudgery of INI sifting for non-modeling related modding it's fun

nothing wrong with sursplicer, bud, it's fine - i was just saying that in my experience with ships that lose parts you need to conform almost exactly to original FL standards - if you don't and it works, thats great and i'd love to see any labor shaving ideas you've got that produce consistently good results

Its not so much to do with memory usage, but more to do with the size of them. Try adding 20/30 400kb fighters to some of the big mods we have, on top of MAT files full of TGAs, and you end up with a massive mod that takes for ever to download for some people.

Here's something for you to play with CV, these are my files for the 'Sai' from starlancer, the freebie I uploaded to the "texture and model exchange" thread at the end of August was built using them, milkshape and the the four exporter plugins and HardCMP are all you need to make the game files, ini coding I'll leave to you. HardCMP is used to orientate the hardpoints as they are all over the place, why they had to use a polygon for hardpoints is beyond me, every other space game uses joints. You will also have to attach the "Dp" hardpoints to the "ROOT" as the CMP exporter always attaches them to the wrong component.

**EDIT**
Forgot to mention that when exporting the SUR use the CES to set the orientation, scale and mesh numbers, you will then have to change the Group Quantities to 1 for each of the five components, then check the "Disable DirectX" box as you don't want to lose any of the vertices and polygons.

**shuffles off with a new headache**

Edited by - Bejaymac on 10/9/2007 5:13:19 AM

it does use joints for animated doors - im glad its not set up that way, or we stiill wouldn't have it figured out

i might check this out later... truthfully i cannot find the zeitgeist to install ms3d again and get it all set to work, jog my memory by screwing up a few times, etc heh - but if i do get an irresistable urge to do so again I'll check it out