Sur splice tut

[RIP]Fusion

I need some help w/the sur splice tut. After following StarTrader’s tut located here, I was able to create a file which I thought was the final result, but after looking at it in HardCMP, only the root is visible. Help!

[Side note: I have posted this at the [url=http://digitalbrilliance.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=361]Digital Brilliance forums. I hope someone has some answers.]

Fus

Edit: I think I found my problem. my CMP was only one group, so it only saw the root. As soon as I re-exported giving it the same number of groups as my sur’s subsections, as was good.

Mini_Me

in the .ini file you create, the part names must match those of the part names in your cmp / 3db file. Basically, those are just say… hi_ftr2_frame_lod1.3db minus the .3db, with the only exception being Root (which will be your first .3db in the list).
so …
hi_ftr2_frame_lod1.3db = hi_ftr2_frame_lod1
If you have misspelled any, those will not show up. Also be sure that the SURs you are splicing together are ONE convex mesh, not a group of meshes exported from Milkshape.

StarTrader

Glad you got it sorted. Just to clarify…

… Every sur part you export must be convex completely.
… for each and every sur part there must be a MilkShape group in the model .cmp
… the name of the sur part must be the same as the name of the corresponding MilkShape group, and ending in _lod1; for example:-
cmp group name:-
…… excalibur_Hull
… excalibur_LeftWing
… excalibur_RightWing
… excalibur_LeftEngine
… excalibur_RightEngine sur part name
…… excalibur_Hull_lod1
… excalibur_LeftWing_lod1
… excalibur_RightWing_lod1
… excalibur_LeftEngine_lod1
… excalibur_RightEngine_lod1
And when you splice, here’s the sur_input.ini for the sur parts…
(your new sur file name)
(your new cons_fix.dat filename)
(your ship radius from FL Model Tool +1 for small ships, +5 for big ships)
(your ship inertia values)
excalibur_Hull_lod1.sur Root
excalibur_LeftWing_lod1.sur excalibur_LeftWing_lod1
excalibur_RightWing_lod1.sur excalibur_RightWing_lod1
excalibur_LeftEngine_lod1.sur excalibur_LeftEngine_lod1
excalibur_RightEngine_lod1.sur excalibur_RightEngine_lod1

Interesting note - During most of my early attempts, HardCMP would show some sur parts in bright white and others in dull grey, but they seemed to work. Recently since I have been much more careful about convexity, I found that HardCMP shows all sur parts in bright white. So this seems to be a clue that HardCMP may be able to detect concavity?

But, I have also been more careful to ensure the radius value I enter in sur-splicer is correct, to be just bigger than the model radius which FL Model Tool calculates when we load up the cmp into it. So on the other hand it could be something to do with this value.

More grey areas!

Chili

I think it must be the latter or somethng else startrader because I just tested this and still have a grey area on the cockpit of a model I’m working on. It definately has no concavity after me hacking out many triangles just to make sure! However, the size of the cockpit is maginally within the radius because I have deleted the weapon hardpoint boxes ( the slightly raised surface), so it could be that. Or it could just be to do with the textures or colours read from the mat file!