| Listed in: | 3D Studio MAX, .ase converters, Track building |
| Date: | 2000-06-02 |
| Author: | ali |
| 12:03 | Magne: | if I have understood it right, I can make the whole level in 3dmax 3.0 and map it as i want, apply all the surface proporties I want and make it a w file |
| 12:04 | Antimorph: | yup |
| 12:04 | Cybinary: | dont you have to export it to a ase first? |
| 12:04 | Magne: | so, about the smoothing groups |
| 12:04 | Cybinary: | then convert it to the .w file? |
| 12:04 | Antimorph: | yeah thats right |
| 12:04 | Magne: | I understood that in order to set tranparency i needed to use smoothing groups right? |
| 12:05 | Antimorph: | what about smoothing groups |
| 12:05 | Antimorph: | depends if you want to use the -morph or -ali switch |
| 12:05 | Antimorph: | did you decide on which one you want to use yet? |
| 12:05 | Magne: | yeah, what'sa that all about?? |
| 12:05 | Magne: | what's the difference, what is the ali or morph switch? |
| 12:05 | Antimorph: | Hard to explain |
| 12:06 | Antimorph: | -morph is quicker, more streamlined |
| 12:06 | Antimorph: | -ali allows you do do everything, albeit more slowly |
| 12:06 | Magne: | I'll probably do some reading soon, on the docs that followed, but I can't just set the ocopacity in the material editor? |
| 12:07 | Antimorph: | you can, if thats what you want to do best use the -ali switch |
| 12:07 | Antimorph: | remember though that if you make a submaterial transparent |
| 12:08 | Antimorph: | then everything you use that material on |
| 12:08 | Antimorph: | will be transparent |
| 12:08 | Magne: | just one question more, I understood it like I can apply several smoothing groups to an object, but then I read if i applied more than one smoothing groups, it would automaticly use the highest number |
| 12:09 | Antimorph: | it will take the highest number for a particular set |
| 12:09 | Magne: | ?? |
| 12:09 | Antimorph: | so you've got 25 for surfact properties, 5-6 for transparency, 32 is no collision |
| 12:09 | Magne: | yeah |
| 12:09 | Antimorph: | if you try to make something slippy |
| 12:09 | Antimorph: | by applying surface type 10 |
| 12:10 | Antimorph: | and you apply another surface type as well, say 14 |
| 12:10 | Antimorph: | the tools will choose 14, because 14 is another surface type |
| 12:10 | Magne: | yeah, but what about the tranparency? |
| 12:10 | Antimorph: | you can mix |
| 12:10 | Antimorph: | say 10 and 26 |
| 12:10 | Magne: | what do you mean? |
| 12:11 | Antimorph: | the tools will chose 10 for the surface type and 26 for the transparency |
| 12:11 | Magne: | i can apply 10 and 26 then, and it will not just choose 26 cause 26 is the highest number? |
| 12:11 | Magne: | aha |
| 12:11 | Antimorph: | no, it won't because 26 is not a surface type |
| 12:12 | Antimorph: | its not in the same "class" |
| 12:12 | Antimorph: | I've gotta go, be right back |
| 12:13 | Magne: | anybody who can tell me what a point surcae is, and what's the difference between a point surface, a plane and a quad patch??? |
| 12:13 | Magne: | surae=surface |
| 12:14 | Cybinary: | point is were plane meets, a plane is a flat surfact, quad patch is a surface made for tiling |
| 12:14 | Magne: | (and a cv-surface for that matter) |
| 12:15 | Magne: | so, i still don't understand the difference , I I make a point surface in max and a quad patch next to it, what is the difference between the two? |
| 12:17 | Antimorph: | There is no difference magne |
| 12:17 | Antimorph: | at least as far as RV is concerned |
| 12:18 | Antimorph: | Quads are made from 4 vertices |
| 12:18 | Magne: | oh ok |
| 12:18 | Antimorph: | Quad is short for Quadrangle |
| 12:18 | Antimorph: | tri is short for triangle |
| 12:19 | Magne: | in the wild west levels, the ground looks like could be sort of a plane, how many segs do you think they have, cause it looks smooth |
| 12:19 | Antimorph: | Game engines can often manipulate quads and tris, however, the ASE export function seems only to export tri's |
| 12:19 | Antimorph: | I imagine it doesn't have that many |
| 12:20 | Antimorph: | Maggy just got home |
| 12:20 | Antimorph: | be right back |
| 12:20 | Magne: | I'm thinking of making a dirt track level, like a rc-car race level outside, but I don't know yet how I will make the ground |
| 12:22 | Cybinary: | yea, make a landscape in max |
| 12:22 | Magne: | how? |
| 12:22 | Cybinary: | flat plane with bumps and stuff |
| 12:23 | Antimorph: | One very simple way to make ground, is just use a quad patch |
| 12:23 | Antimorph: | and drag the vertices wherever you want them |
| 12:23 | Magne: | yeah, but I figured that I only need the track, not a square landscape, and besides, some of it can be very few polys, like a flat area, and the bumpy section needs more polys |
| 12:23 | Antimorph: | use the noise modifier, ripple, wave, relax |
| 12:23 | Magne: | oh cool, I'll try those |
| 12:23 | Antimorph: | if you manipulate things in relatively high poly |
| 12:24 | Antimorph: | you can optiise later, I think |
| 12:24 | Antimorph: | its best not to tile |
| 12:24 | Magne: | got any ideas on the dirt track, i need some cool elements, what does a cool outside dirt rc-car track have? |
| 12:24 | Antimorph: | you textures, if you want nice ground |
| 12:24 | Antimorph: | better to use 4 or 5 256x256 bitmaps stretched |
| 12:24 | Magne: | what do you mean not tile my textures? |
| 12:25 | Antimorph: | If you want complex ground features |
| 12:25 | Magne: | yeah |
| 12:25 | Antimorph: | it is insane to try and tile them |
| 12:25 | Magne: | what should I do then? |
| 12:25 | Antimorph: | work in high poly, optimise when your happy |
| 12:25 | Antimorph: | mesh smooth the areas you want |
| 12:25 | Magne: | but when I optimize the polys get all weird and the texturing look like shit |
| 12:25 | Antimorph: | you'll get irregularly shaped poly's |
| 12:26 | Antimorph: | thats not a problem if you stretch 4 or 5 bitmaps to fit the whole area, it reduces your capacity |
| 12:26 | Antimorph: | for "objects" to decorate the track |
| 12:26 | Antimorph: | but it still looks pretty good |
| 12:26 | Magne: | I don't understand what you mean, stretching 4 or 5 bmp's to fit the entire area |
| 12:26 | Antimorph: | I dunno, its swings and roundabouts |
| 12:27 | ali: | Keep in mind how it will look like. An open space like my garden is pretty near the limit. There are good reasons why there are no wide open areas in the original levels. :) |
| 12:27 | Magne: | I'm not having any wide op+en areas, except for a little area, but it will not be big |
| 12:28 | Magne: | it will be a little narow (not that narrow) track, with orange racing nets on the side |
| 12:28 | Antimorph: | What do you mean by "limit" ali? |
| 12:29 | ali: | framerate. |
| 12:29 | Antimorph: | ok dokey |
| 12:29 | ali: | A open space looks like shit if you can't see the borders, so you need an incredibly large fog distance (50k in my track) |
| 12:32 | Magne: | I have a lot of thinking to do, I don't know yet how I will make my idea work, i have several problems in my head now, but I need some hours withg a pen and paper and see just how i want it beofre I can concentrate on the problems |
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