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tS 5.2 X format export question
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tS 5.2 X format export question // TS6 and Older
Post by 3dpdk // Jan 30, 2008, 6:16pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Hi all,
I know it's been a while since anyone here has used tS 5. anything but some of the guys in the forum I host want to try their hand at modeling and content contribution for the simulation program the forum is dedicated to. The offer from Caligari for tS5.2 at about 50 bucks is making some of them drule .
I jumped from 3.2 to 6.6 so I didn't have the answer to this important question and wonder if any experienced tS 5 users might remember.
Are there any problems with tS 5.2 exporting objects in *.X format required by DirectX
Secondly, if tS 5 can export in X format, are their any known problems with exporting animation frames in tS 5
I appreciate anyone that can drag this information up from the basement of their memory.
I've been encouraging them to look into trueSpace but if 5.2 won't sucessfully export the models we need, ... well you get the picture.
Paul |
Post by TomG // Jan 31, 2008, 3:11am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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X format comes in many different flavors, so there is no guarantee that it will work with any given package - it all depends on what "flavor" your package is using, and how that compares to what tS5.2 writes out.
Note that bones are not exported to X format. Also note that X format export and import was improved in the gamePak and in gameSpace, so those give more options when exporting (making it more likely to be able to write the right kind of X format).
Your best bet is to post here about what application you will be using the X format models in, and see if anyone has exported from tS to that format (and maybe find a tS5.2 owner to try the export for you, if you send them along a model in COB or OBJ, and you can then try working with the X format that is produced and see how it goes).
Of course gameSpace has a special on too just now, with the Group Buy - more expensive than the $40 tS5.2 offer, but you do get more for your money!
HTH!
Tom |
Post by 3dpdk // Jan 31, 2008, 3:01pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Hay Thomas
Thanks for the reply.
I don't have all the particulars about the application using the content but I've been doing models for it for the last few years. Both tS3.2 and tS6.6 x file export work (both X format versions 0303 and 0302, text, and both 32 and 64 bit data) This program is a model train simulator and written by two programmers in Germany as a “side-line” hobby sort of thing. They have been really encouraging about my content but the language barrier prevented any help on HOW to create or import that content into the program. I had to figure it all out on my own!
A slight edit of the produced X file's texture paths is necessary to accommodate the application because it uses it's own texture manager.
The tS frame animations can be sucessfully transported to FragMotion and exported from there. FM writes all the necessary keyframe and mesh transforms, frame rates, yada yada....
... but static models make 95% of the objects used in the simulator, and static models export directly to the program from trueSpace 6.6 and 3.2 with only the alteration to the texture paths.
The application apparently reads the x file before passing the data to DX and has no problems with the two different versions and/or the different header/template types.
My question was based on a memory of some complaints a few years ago by some tS 5 users about X format export problems. I spent a few hours last night browsing the archives (had to laugh at some of my early posts) and found out most of those complaints were from folks using tS 5 or 5.1 with service packs, but apparently those problems were solved with 5.2. Some of the complaints were mostly based on a missunderstanding on the nature of DirectX and the programs using it for their display.
I just didn't want to encourage everyone to get tS 5.2 only to find out it wouldn't export at least as well as tS 3.2. Several have already upgraded to 6.6 and one went with 7.5, but some of the folks in my forum are kids that $200 +/- dollars is better spent on klunker cars and girl friends and such. $40 for tS 5.2 is a little more reasonable for some of them as long as it can do all the above.
The fellow that went to tS 7.5 was a gameSpace user. His early export attempts from gS looked to me to be very simular to the tS3.2 export format and his work seems to have slowed down since up grading. (I think that's due to having to adjust from gameSpace to trueSpace. Learning curves and all that!)
I already posted what I found out yesterday.
The idea of getting a 5.2 user to do a test export is an excellent one. Any volunteers ???
Thanks again Tom
Paul
PS I'll pass along the info on gameSpace, too! =)
and by-the-way, my content is publicaly avialable so I keep the Caligari Tm "blurb" in the header of all my X file models. |
Post by TomG // Jan 31, 2008, 4:46pm
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Hi Paul,
Sounds cool! I would say that if tS3.2 and tS6.6 are doing the job, then it is a safe bet that tS5.2 will be too. An interesting little project there!
And yes, thats the plan with the Starter Kit - while gS and tS7.5 are reasonably priced, that can still be out of the reach of some, like the age group you mention who have "better things" to do with what money they have!
Moving from gS to tS7.5 is quite a change, there is a LOT to learn, easily more than any other version change (gS is equivalent to tS6.6 in many ways so its like tS6.6 to tS7.5, and even though they are "next" to each other in terms of the version, its a world of difference!). Can be easy to get involved just experimenting and trying all the new things!
Thanks for putting our name forward to folks too, and I hope they all end up happily making whatever kind of 3D it is they are interested in.
Thanks!
Tom |
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