CMP Import/export dll

The 1.8.4 version is referring to Milkshape’s version (and SDK used to compile the plugin). Which means it may not work with an older version of Milkshape. If, however, you are using MS 1.8.4 you might try renaming the old import/exporter dll with a “.bak” extension to see if the newer dll shows up then -ie: perhaps the two versions are conflicting and MS only loads the first one it encounters.

I would just like to add my thanks P1p3r, for the plugins, after testing models that failed with previous plugin versions.

I’m using MilkShape 1.8.5 and I have only had the minor problems that you already know about:-
1. Importer missing the 1st letter of node names on first use.
2. Importer putting all HP’s after the meshes on 1st use even though “HP Last” is not checked.

I exported models that fit absolutely perfectly with the surs generated with Schmackbolzen’s obj-sur converter.

Fabulous tools, very many thanks for them P1p3r, and thanks to Schmackbolzen for the converter and to Skotty for testing too.

Just to keep things together I have presumed to add the latest importer and exporter in one new zip file below for everyone’s ease…

Hi P1p3r,

I had a problem with the exporter with the model attached below. After importing the model and working on it (broke it into more groups), MilkShape consistently crashed when trying to export the model.

I have isolated the cause to these hardpoints below, any one of them alone will cause the crash:

HpRunningLight05
HpDockLight01
HpRunningLight03
HpDockLight02
HpRunningLight04

They are just simple ordinary triangles, so I can’t understand the cause.

After I replaced all of them with new hardpoint triangles, the model exported fine.

I hope you might discover why these hardpoints cause the problem?

Thanks.

(EDIT: Having fixed the model by making new hardpoints and exporting it, I imported it again to make a couple of changes - and it has the same problem again with the same hardpoints. I used the importer plugin both times.

Has anyone else seen this problem?)

By the way, I discovered that the exporter also crashes MilkShape when there is no material defined, and also when I try to export only hardpoints and no meshes.

If you are going to release another exporter, would you please add a trap and message? It will save hunting for these problems.

Can anyone help?

I imported the bw_freighter and immediately tried to re-export it using the P1p3r plugins and MilkShape crashed like it did on my own model above.

But this import + immediate export works ok on the bw_fighter and bw_elite ships.

I installed MilkShape 1.8.5 on my other PC to double-check, but the plugins don’t show on that machine. It too has XP SP3.

Anyone know what is causing the plugins to not show?

@ST:

Check your C:\WINDOWS\system32\ d3dx9_xx.dlls on both machines and see if one or more dlls are missing from that one which doesn’t work with the plugin.

Thanks Davis.

They were all missing.

I used the Microsoft update utility and updated DirectX, but the plugins still don’t show.

Here’s the link to the DirectX webupdater:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=35&p=2154

P1p3r resolved this sort of thing before but now one of my PCs is OK but the other isn’t so it’s not the plugins, has to be my setup.

Any more help is appreciated?

And can anyone else verify the failure by importing and then exporting the vanilla bw_freighter CMP without changes please?

I can verify bw_freighter import/export works fine for me (including hardpoints as well) but I use ms3d 1.8.2 so I wouldn’t know if the problem refers to milkshape or not.
I had same problem when I bought a new vga card and the old sur exporter didn’t appear on the list and it was connected to directx.

Do you have same hardver setup on both pcs?

No, one is a laptop and the other a desktop.

OK I don’t think it’s a MilkShape problem, I’ll try installing the Milkshape 1.8.4 SDK tonight.

Thanks Davis.

Well, tried the SDKs, both 1.8.4 and 1.8.5, also tried MS 1.8.5 Beta 2, installed the mesa dll’s - plugins still don’t show whatever I do.

Is P1p3r still around?

No, it’s not ms3d problem rather hardver/driver issue.
I guess the plugins don’t work on the laptop, yes?

They do work on the laptop, but the exporter crashes on some hardpoints, so I was trying to test on my desktop PC, and that is where the plugins don’t show. So I can’t work on the desktop PC at all.

Have MS 1.8.0 - no exporter in list!
Installed MS 1.8.4 beside - exporter is there!

Its MS thing.
OS: Win7 32 bit

I have just installed MilkShape 1.8.5 beta 2 (http://www.milkshape3d.com) and got a repeated crash on startup.

I found it is caused by the old msCMPImporter101.dll plugin. I deleted it and all is well.

P1p3r’s CMP Importer and Exporter now work fine on my laptop with this release of MilkShape, I tested the Dromedary (bw_freighter) and all is well.

The other plugins seem to be compatible but I’ve not yet tested them fully.

I re-installed MilkShape 1.8.5 beta 1 and the crash with P1p3r’s CMP Exporter happened again.

I found out that this problem too is because I had msCMPImporter101.dll in the folder.

It is odd, because I didn’t change anything and this crash started happening.

Anyway I deleted msCMPImporter101.dll and all is well again with MilkShape v 1.8.5 beta 1.

But now I have 1.8.5 beta 2 I will try to stay with it. I don’t know what new features are in 1.8.5 beta 2, there is no description on the download site.

I have still not solved why I can’t see P1p3r’s plugins on my desktop though.

Could it be Lancer’s distributable dlls pack is needed? I installed that on the laptop but not on the desktop.

Has anyone else noticed that the CMPImporter imports rotated hardpoints in the wrong direction, i.e. rotated left instead of right (looking down at the hardpoint, on the Y axis), so that hardpoints turned to the right 90 degrees are imported turned to the left (-90 degrees), and vice-versa?

And the CMPExporter converts a hardpoint 90 degrees rotation to the right (on the Y axis, looking down) to -180, -180, -90 when read in HardCMP, and 90 degrees to the left becomes -180, -180, 90? They both end up correctly oriented, but…??

And often, hardpoints don’t show up in HardCMP until we re-enter the orientation values.

So what this means is that we have to fix the hardpoint orientations using HardCMP (or whatever you prefer) after every export.

??

Dunno for import, still just creating new.
But have question considering hardpoints, that now rly hard goes on my nerves.

Problem: Fully equiped Eagle (4x10 class & 2x9 class) when is sold/buyed (switched with) my new ship, the 9 class weapons are in class 10 slots! User must unmount them and mount class 10 and class 9 weapons on right slots.

Before when ship was fully hardpointed with HARD CMP and HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, … was inserted in number order it was good.
Now when its created with MilkShape I have this behaviour. I also deleted HPs in HARD CMP and placed new like before and still doesn’t helps.

Hardpoints are part of same wings, same side, same spot, and called same name (port/starboard wings).

Check it out!

Shiparch.ini part is same considering
hp_type = hp_gun_special_10, HpWeapon01, …
.
.
entries.

How to fix this?

Very strange.

Check in shiparch.ini that class 10 is top, then class 9, then class 8 etc.

I can’t see how it can be MilkShape or the exporter, because only the shiparch.ini class entries can affect this I think?

Also check in weapon_equip.ini that the weapons really are class 10?

And check the ship package in goods.ini in case the same weapons are being sold with the ship as default, and mounted on the wrong hardpoints?

As u can see, this only happens when from Eagle u switch to 3MAJ ship!

1. case - WRONG Eagle to 3MAJ (their own .cmp files)
2. case - GOOD 3MAJ to Sabre (their own .cmp files)
3. case - GOOD Sabre to Eagle (Eagle used 3MAJ.cmp renamed to cv_vheavy_fighter.cmp)
4. case - GOOD Eagle to 3MAJ (3MAJ used Eagle.cmp renamed to 3MAJ-VHF.cmp)

3MAJ shiparch entry + 3MAJ.cmp not work!
3MAJ shiparch entry + Eagle.cmp works!
Eagle shiparch entry + 3MAJ.cmp works!

Shiparch.ini

Goods.ini is without weapons!

P.S. This worked before when ship was still a single part!

Here is 3MAJ multipart CMP

I couldn’t see anything obviously wrong using HardCMP and UTF Editor.

But - OK, you have given me a clue - when the ship was exported as a single group, every mesh (MilkShape group) of the ship is named “Root”.

So every hardpoint is then related to Root and is “easy” to find because in “laymans terms” it is just "root\HpWeapon01 etc. to the FL engine (maybe guys who know the detail can explain better?)

I have a feeling that it may be caused by the ship name starting with a number, “3MAJ” and this may be causing conflict in the FL engine…

No standard ship name starts with any number.

And no standard ship name or folder has a hyphen (-) in it, they have underscores (_).

These things are normally done for a reason, soif it is not because of the “3” then it is possible the hyphen is causing a break when it is used by the FL engine.

So, since you have struggled for a very long time, please rename the ship to something like the standard format, without spaces, hyphens or numbers, and export a new.cmp, .mat, .3db, and .sur, (and cockpit.ini if you named it 3MAJ-VHF.ini) and fix the path and file names in the shiparch.ini, (loadout.ini?), goods.ini, market_ships.ini files and any other file where it’s used, such as the faction_prop.ini, mshipprops.ini, npcships.ini?

If you have given your ship a name, like “HyperDragon” for example, then I use the same name for the folder, so it becomes something like DATA\SHIPS\MyShips\HyperDragon\HyperDragon.cmp

Notice that I don’t use underscores either, I join the name parts instead, to be “more sure”!

Sorry it’s not a conclusive answer.

Let us know how you get on?

That was a problem - you spot it! Tnx.
To answer a question - asked here - NO LIMITS !
So than, was no need to rename them (every gun has own group).

So the problem was the hyphen (-) in the name?

And starting with “3” is OK, then?