Lod Viewer

[+Jimbib 741]

Would anyone in the community have any interest or potential knowledge on how to go about creating a lod viewer for mainly the stock TW aircraft and also any 3rd party mods? This would cut down skinning and repainting times immensely. I know that this has been asked before however the discussions haven't ever come to much. Anyone interested?

[+Major Lee 18]

Would anyone in the community have any interest or potential knowledge on how to go about creating a lod viewer for mainly the stock TW aircraft and also any 3rd party mods? This would cut down skinning and repainting times immensely. I know that this has been asked before however the discussions haven't ever come to much. Anyone interested?

 

That would be cool... The ability to see and rotate an object in one little program... EAW had a nice object viewer... Please, some coder write one!

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

Personally, I think it would be a great addition. It'd save a lot of time with skinning since you wouldn't have to load the game everytime...

[+Jimbib 741]

In a nutshell MajorLee and SayWhat, a simple program with a few commands such as texture browser, zoom, pan and rotate I'm sure would suffice to make it a very handy tool indeed. I know nothing of coding or programming, perhaps there are others in the community that do. I guess it mind depend on the complexity of the coding of the .lod file, how easy it would be to interpret in a viewing mode of some sort.

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

I would personally like something like that since I can no longer run 3dms on my system anymore (for some unfathomable reason) so it would make editing and updating textures a whole lot quicker and since skinning takes a lot of time, I would cherish anything that allows me to view my skins as they would be in-game without the 5 mins loading everytime I want to check my changes. Plus something that shows XYZ co-ords would help with organising decals, hardpoint placements, chaff/flares dispensers and so on, but maybe that's a bit of an ask...

[Guest Saganuay82]

That is something that has been needed for a long time and every skinners wants it. Plus the ability to be able to put your cursor on a section of the plane it it tell you what location that is....decals .....too easy. I think it has been discussed before and the big problem is dealing with lods and 3DS Max cause there are freeware programs allowing you to view 3D objects.

 

I'm still hoping some programmer would make a target placement program. Kinda like the TE but in the dropdown is every target in the target list and you drag and drop them on a grid. Then it writes the offset position for you. If you look at the old waypoint generator before Kreelin made his, same kind of idea.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

If any are interested, its possible to ease the workload of starting the game. The Menu system can be changed to allow ZERO mouse movement until you are in the cockpit, and rapid click-click-click (mouse stationary) by reducing to almost zero the molasses slow "image fade" that PC computer game developers seem to enjoy frustrating customers with.

 

I can start SF and get into the cockpit without ever looking at the monitor. I set my most commonly used menu functions --- Single Mission/Accept/Fly -- at the center of the screen where the mouse position defaults at game startup. When I hear the grafix card reset the monitor, three extremely rapid clicks without moving the mouse and the mission starts loading. For exiting the game, all the Exit buttons are placed in the same spot on screen just below the above 3. Three rapid clicks and I'm out of there.

 

Having to test a million things, I quickly got tired of the SF menu that made you move the mouse all the way across the screen and back again for every step, and the slow image fades were irritating to wait for.

Edited June 5, 2007 by Lexx_Luthor

[FastCargo 412]

Digging up an old topic, I actually found a LOD viewer on Gulfknights USAF website. It's free, don't need a download pass.

 

It's not perfect...but it's a quick and dirty way to look at the simpler LOD files.

 

FastCargo

[Guest Saganuay82]

If that thing worked better and you could add the skin to it, oh boy, that would be it.

[FastCargo 412]

It works pretty good for the simpler LOD files. I used it when I was evaluating the F-16 CFTs. Works pretty good for simple shapes, weapons. Planes tend to come out wonky. Orbiter files look awesome though.

 

Hey, related question. I have been scouring SimHQ, here, and Thirdwire and haven't found a definitive answer to this yet. You modder types can help me I hope.

 

I know about the 3ds Max exporter to LOD...and that SFP1 has been able to use 3ds max (using the exporter) all the way back to 3ds max version 3.1.

 

1) Is there ANY other 3d program that can output to SFP1 LOD files?

 

2) If not, are there any reliable and effective converters out there to convert to SFP1 compatible LOD files?

 

I'm not looking to reverse engineer existing models, but create new ones and then import them into SFP1. What I'm looking for, if I can't find a 'native LOD output' program, is a 3d program/converter combo that effectively does the same thing. The wife's baulking at the $3000k+ price of 3ds max 9.. :) .

 

Finally, if neither of those are an option, I'm assuming older versions of 3ds Max are perfectly viable (3.1 and above) alternatives. Anyone know where I can buy a used copy?

 

FastCargo

[Guest capun]

I would not use Max 3.1, I think the exporter had problems with it. Also Max 3.1 uses a hardware key dongle and it is outdated and IMHO very buggy.

 

Max 4.2 is a superset of GMax. IMHO Max 5.1 and above is your better choice. There are only 3DS Max exporters available, you can use another program to create the 3D model but eventually you need someone with 3DS Max to export it.

 

I believe some devs use Anim8r to create 3D models and then convert them, but I am not sure.

 

If you (or one of your kids) is enrolled in a school or is a teacher you can get an educational version of 3DS Max in the US (I am not sure you can do that in other countries).

 

I am a bit surprised that the tool can view the LOD, we had the impression that you could not do that at all.

[Guest Saganuay82]

I was just trying it with more simple shapes, missiles and stuff, it even shows the bmp on the model. Cool. Make painting easier. Planes do come out some weird. Seems the more complex the item the weirder it comes out. It will view even 3DS according to its drop down.

[BUFF 8]

Do you guys mean http://www.gulfknight.net/forum/dload.php?...amp;file_id=551 ?

If so maybe we should ask if he would mind us hosting it in our editors/utilities section.

[FastCargo 412]

Not a bad idea, it might provide some publicity for his site. The USAF mods he hosts are pretty awesome.

 

FastCargo

[Guest Saganuay82]

Perhaps after that you should ask him if he is finished with it or if he can work on it more to make it more compatible with SFP1.

[eraser_tr 29]

Very spotty. Some models it will load, every one of them so far has been really screwed up looking. Most simply just crash the program.

[+whiteknight06604 934]

Very spotty. Some models it will load, every one of them so far has been really screwed up looking. Most simply just crash the program.

 

I think there is a size limitation to the lods.It seems to just be for simple models.It's a shame it would be very handy otherwise.

[FastCargo 412]

It's definitely got potential - here's a JDAM LOD file for SFP1:

 

 

And it can handle complex shapes...just not LODs (yet):

 

 

FastCargo

[payaso 0]

well, it might have potential of some sort... but as to giving the ability to point and click on any region of a WoV LOD file, either I haven't figured it out yet, or it is generally unwieldy. In addition for example, I can't get a LOD model to display right side up in proper flight attitude, and haven't found a way to do so.

 

All I really want to do is get a general indication of scale/coordinates so that I can do a decals.ini with a decent degree of accuracy. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.