CMP to SUR Conversion Tests
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When exporting from Milkshape you can make it multi-part mesh, up to 18 parts. If it’s exported as a single part it will simply cover the entire model as a single sur map. I have not delved into Delaney triangulation yet which would yield per face triangulation.
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Reason i ask is there a loads of custom models saved as having only 1 group. Would those now have to be resaved as an 18 part group models? If that’s the case, this utility won’t work with nearly all custom ships as they are all saved as 1 group. Or am i missing something?
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Commonly I save all of my models as multi-part meshes based on the textures. Send me one of the single mesh models and I will let ya know if it will work properly…
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Well my models are all multi-part, the smallest are at least 3 groups (hull, left wing, right wing) and many are 4+ groups.
We just need surs that register hits and collisions and don’t crash FL, especially when the factions are all using only custom ships and only custom surs, which is when sur crashes are most likely to happen as is happening in my mod at present.
Lancer as you know the way to test your utility is to make it produce a sur for a plain FL ship that is as near to identical to the original sur as possible.
That gets complex, with the duplicate sur parts we have seen and yet more duplicates to cover wing+weapon for each side.
And that will delay your project too long for me, my virtual sur beard is already 3 feet long, white and VERY wispy!
I want your sur generator as soon as possible!
I want it, I want it, I WANT IT! TRUST ME, I WANT IT!
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**Hehe, gonna take a bit more time. I have already started to project up today and I’m making it a separate utility. It is going to take a bit of work to yank the relevant code out of my test program and the cmp editor to put into it. So don’t get your beard stuck in your keyboard, hopefully it should be soon
Thanks for the test model Gibbon.
By the way, I got a pair of scissors if you need 'em hehe**
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My beard is a bit cold-and-flu-ridden at the moment, 3rd week of sniffles and dribbles.
Duhhhh… going for more headache remedy…
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Sniffles and nasal drips in the background…
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**[wmp=640,480]http://www.digitalbrilliance.org/Videos/SUR_Export02.wmv[/wmp]
Zipped up below so you can see it in another player…
http://www.digitalbrilliance.org/Videos/SUR_Export02.zipI am working on the sur file builder part atm. For the first test I will only be using the final hull (the rotating one) then I will start on the sub-parts that were drawn first.**
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If you pull this off you’ll be the lancer of the year man
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Oh, this would be an amazing achievement. I cannot wait
GO LS!
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Quick question from a SUR newb:
Would the creation of a utility for triangle-by-triangle conversion create too memory intensive a SUR for practical use?
I only ask because of how vanilla SURs possess just as many polygons as the actual ship model, creating a 100% seamless fit for hit and collision detection.
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**@ Arvis - that actually is not a good idea. For one is the concavity issue, another is the poly count. When I was working on the original version in 2008 i did exactly that. It killed my frame rate and if I shot the ship the server and client CTD…
As it is being built now, it generates a convex mesh for each sub-mesh in the model. Each mesh is actually based on the texture. Multiple textures, multiple meshes. As far as others have discovered, only the root sur has to be convex. This means that once I get the initial test version of the program going I will start working on Delaney triangulation. As it stands now a convex hull can’t be used for a tradelane since it has holes in it. That is what Delaney triangulation would solve since it would help build a form fitting sur hull.**
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When I said “triangle-by-triangle” I was speaking of Delaney triangulation.
Essentially I was asking if having the converter split each triangle into it’s own surface (meaning NONE of the verticies are acutally shared between triangles, essentially tripling the number of verticies in the model but the polycount remains the same) would cause haneous lag when hits and collisions are detected.
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I only ask because of how vanilla SURs possess just as many polygons as the actual ship model, creating a 100% seamless fit for hit and collision detection.
As far as I’m aware, this isn’t true for vanilla SURs; vanilla SURs are much, much simpler than the ship models.
On a more practical note, will this utility directly create working SURs that, in theory, should work indentically to vanilla SURs, or will it simply be a model that we export from Milkshape?
MK
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**@ Arvis - that is possible but undesirable, too many sur polys for most ships
@ mknote - it creates a sur**
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Then I guess my second question/assumption/issue would be:
If we follow identical naming conventions, would it be possible to build a sur from a “dumbed-down” model of our ship (built from simple geometry with no concavities) and have the SUR function given that all model objects have identical names?
OR
Following the same idea, would all the objects be compressed down to the “ROOT” with only that single object in both the SUR and the CMP?
(If that confuses anyone, I apologize in advance. I’m a veteran FL modder but VERY new to the SUR arena.)
