Questorial: FLModelTool / Fl Sur Builder

Skotty. wrote:
The answer of the second question is easy:
Without working sur the game doesn’t know where to show the visual part of the object. If you got a working sur, you should see it everytime without seeing the origin.

Thanks! So, problem #2 is merely a sympton of problem #1…

It’s kinda odd that the sur doesn’t work. I remember this tool was not that hard to use… Maybe the original .sur file of the space_habitat_wide isn’t that good… Or maybe there is a maximum enlargement the tool can handle (unlikely, but I’m guessing)

Anyway, any ideas anyone?

Gibbon wrote:
When you resized the sur file, did you save it as the correct type? It should be

Equip/Ammo/Damage Section

It’s possible you saved it as something else which would definately cause issues

I found it. Actually i had seen that, but forgot And already changed it from “damage object” to “station” coz it didn’t work…

But I’ll try again.

Thanks!!

EDIT: It didn’t make any differences :(. I even tried to save it as a ‘scenery’ object, but that didn’t help either.

Well, gotta go now. I hope to continue my investigations this evening.

FriendlyFire wrote:
Seriously guys? You’re still recommending to resize vanilla SURs for custom models?

I’m sorry, but LS’s tool is already functional and is many steps above that. Whining that it only does convex SURs so far does not change the fact that it is much better than attempting to poorly fit vanilla SURs onto new models.

So stop right now and grab the utility there:
http://digitalbrilliance.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=3318#3318

The ONLY reason you wouldn’t want to use it is if you already have near-perfect custom SURs, and even then you most likely will still have errors on them. The SUR exporter is broken in too many ways to list, most importantly because the format was never completely cracked to make it.

I’m glad to catch that on my way out. Thanks very much, FF!

I’ll report later

I get an error message when I try to run the app ()

This application has failed to start because d3dx9_41.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

Now what?! How do I fix this?

I’ll google for that .dll, but if anyone here knows what or how, please inform me!

EDIT: Cool, I found it on the web, downloaded it (had to struggle thru a forest of advertisements prompting me to install their registry managing software) and put it in my system 32 folder. Now at least the app works

So, moving on to the next problem :roll:

Ehh :-? I indeed managed to create a .sur file, quite amazingly because the program didn’t let me know it did anyhting and I also couldn’t see anything (had expected some visualization). So I looked in the output folder, and there it was.

Put in my mod, but I still get the same result: no collision data, and disappearing when the center goes offscreen.

So, any suggestions? Maybe I didn’t use the app properly?

Meanwhile I’ll google the forum. I guess this kind of thing must have been discussed earlier.

FriendlyFire wrote:

LancerSolurus wrote:
You need the latest DX redistributable from Microsoft, 2009 version or higher.

That. It’s not because you added a single DLL that you have everything; there may be something missing that you need to add.

Otherwise, you’ll have to play with the settings. There WILL be a visualization of the SUR when it’s setup properly.

I completely missed LS’s post! I will go after it. Thanks guys!!

Okay, I installed DirectX End-User Runtimes (February 2010) and i guess it’s adequate, coz the app seems to work.

Yet the in-game issues with the model remain: no collision, and disappearing if the center is offscreen. Ergo, no properly working .sur file.

Btw, the visualization in FL sur builder only works, when I, under Min-Max Sort, chose “Disable Sorting”

I’ve also tried with, under Secondary Sorting, “Disable Sorting” both selected and unselected. It didn’t make a difference.

The only thing I can imagine (but as you may guess, I’m not very skilled in this field) is that the .3db file itself (space_habitat_wide.3db, enlarged with FLModelTool by a factor of 25) is not very suitable to create a .sur off… On the other hand, it’s a simple octagonal cylinder-like shape, and it looks fine in-game.

Anyway, as usual, I’ll be happy with suggestions, advice etc.

Thanks!

LancerSolurus wrote:
Only the one that created a visualization is going to be able to make a valid sur. Once it does that and animates it (unless you turned off animation). Simply click ‘Make Sur’ and copy the .sur file over the station’s sur file. Both the cmp and sur should be in the same folder.

That’s what I have done. I only got a visual with Disable Sorting.

Maybe I should try another value for Duplicate Radius? I’ve tried 1 and 10 (because in the readme you wrote that small ships and weapons work best with 0.1). I’m gonna try it with 0 now…

I tried it with any of the 3 Min-Max sort options, and Duplicate Radius 0. Without succes - the issue persists.

@ LancerSolurus - can I send you the 3db file so you can have a look? Email it or upload it thru rapidshare? (btw No Problem if you don’t want to.)

EDIT Again I miss a post! Just read your last one. Yeah my model is quite large. Not huge, but large indeed. So I guess I’ll best await your investigations on the matter.