.obj -> .sur converter

@mknote

what you show in that screen shot is not a true concave mesh. It is several convex meshes grouped together which does produce a valid collision mesh.

here is a couple examples of what i mean.

this mesh is a simple example of what you are showing. it is convex. Because, notice that it has several convex meshes grouped together. Yes they intersect, but each mesh is self contained and closed.

this next one is concave. because the two ‘pylons’ and the wing are a single mesh. the pylons are part of the wing now, which creates an invalid collision mesh.

In newer engines this is not a big deal, because newer engines are opting for using the actual model itself for collision detection and not a seperate collision mesh. But FL does not do that.

Interesting. I hadn’t considered that possibility. I assume that you’ve tested this and are not just assuming, correct?

Nevertheless, the SUR I have works fine for what I’ve tested; I haven’t put it through the ringer StarTrader does, as I don’t test in multiplayer, but it appears to detect hits as well as vanilla SUR files, and is nicely form-fitting.

i am not just assuming no, i am a game developer myself.

You can get a ‘concave’ feel very easily. lets take a standard Arch (like a roman arch) now this type of object if you try to use it as collision mesh will probably not work as it would turn out to be concave and either detect no collision in game or crash the game.

now if you take that arch and use several convex objects that are positioned and oriented correctly you get a really good collision mesh that will work, not crash the engine and allow players to flow through the arch opening.

you can group all those convex object into one so long as each individual object that makes up that collision mesh is properly convex.

This. This here tool? This will make the 4.86 hitboxing for Discovery a LOT easier. As one of the guys who primarily does this, I’ve found that this works infinitely more easy then sursplicing. There is just one feature missing:

Is it possible to include a feature to match certain pieces of a hitbox to a specific component name in the CMP? When using the SUR splicer I was previously using, this was possible. This is neccesary in order to support SUR components tied to animated parts, such as docking bay doors.

I’ve been yanking a few of our static models though this tool and so far, no problems. I -strongly- recommend anyone using this tool to create convex shapes around your ship and removing the original parts before exporting the shape to an OBJ for this tool. Especially if you use this for improving server performance. Reason being that you get a bloated SUR filesize, which I imagine is also more complex.

Aeternus - don’t you know it’s just being developed as we write? All will be revealed when it is completed.

Sweet. Let me know if you need someone to test that functionality - still got quite a bit of work to do on the SUR side. But for now the 228 preexisting models that need to be converted over will keep me busy for a while…

Another thing you may wish to include is an option to generate a shield bubble (using perhaps, a preset distance from model X, Y and Z radius, offset by the model center?). I unfortunately have no idea how you tag a group as shield.

For the shield bubble, the easiest way would just be to create an ellipsoid using the bounding box’s size. No need for user input other than a checkbox toggling between shrinkwrap and shield bubble.

Good luck with the conversions Aeternus.

It’s just taken me 6 hours to regroup a model to make a new sur for it, still not finished. Then I still have to break it into different chunks so the surs for the docking hangars will work.

Shield bubble - Yep a check box is fine for me, although others might want a “thickness” value (i.e. gap from the model surface at the extremities to the bubble) that they can set? It could be better for larger ships.

1 metre steps should be fine. The X, Y and Z bounds plus 1 metre in each direction for each axis (i.e. 2 metres diametrically) is good for most ships including medium sized? I don’t use one for huge warships but may be useful in future if someone cracks how to have collapsible dockable ship and base shields etc…

But let’s get multi-group / muliti-part surs working first.

Just wanted to say that we’ve nearly converted all of the FW:ToW using this tool and have noticed a difference in performance. Thanks again for working on this awesome tool, Schmack!! It’s revolutionary!

Cool, o encounter some errors when making SURs for one or two models, some “divide by zero” errors, when i put the HP names, and if i dont use the HPName functions, the soft just freeze. But i think the problem can come from the model itself, need to do more test, but good job for the tool

i have “disassembled” Port Franc 1 (large station) in some pieces of station, to make a “wreck” and use your software with hardpoints checkbox uncheck. The Sur seems to be good in HARDCMPViewer, InGame, Hit detection is OK, and collision detection work 3 or 4 secondes, then FL freeze when i try to pass in he "wreck, without make any collision.

I can upload the model if you want.

Here is a screenshot of the CMP to understand what i mean :

and a screenshot with the generated SUR:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Schmackbolzen wrote:
@Sushi: Did you encounter no bugs in collision etc? I have Mirkhas model here which does not work correctly. But it’s the only one so far. At least I have a proper testcase ^^

@Ezekiel: This sounds like the one known issue. Should be fixed in the next version which I should be able to finish in the next days.

Nope, haven’t had a problem with any collisions even with some of our bigger models

@Ezekiel: i had that problem, too, with lancer’s sur_builder. btw the sur you have there rather is built with the sur builder, at least it looks like it is. Schmackbolzen’s sur conversion software would not generate a sur geometry, it would convert a geometry you input to it to the format of freelancer hitboxes.

The sur you see in the picture is built with the schmack software.

this is the steps i have followed :

open the ms3d station model
regoup all meshe in 1 group
export as .obj
use the software with default values, without check any options and of course wthout naming the hardpoint.

Yes,
the CMP is in attachement.
Hope this can help you.

So, any news ?

OK, good news so, i will remove doule vertice myself for now.

And good luke for your exams