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Maybe it has something to do with this: I were asked if I would publish a cat extractor for the locked cat files. I declined. I think TK locked the lod's on purpose so that it is harder to "steal" them. I don't like his decision but I will respect it. In my opinion the LOD Viewer is a good compromise: for the community it helps to reskin stock lods and for TK it keeps the lods locked. Yes, I also remember a conversation where TK allows us to modify/patch the executables. But I don't think that it includes a permission to extract the lods.

Thanks for the confirmation that y-trees don't work. Yes, to write a converter for creating tod files should be possible. But currently I'm busy with another project. What do you mean with "engine on the fly creates the meshes from TOD files". Can you explain it in more detail?

The uv mapping window only shows meshes those texture uv coordinates lie inside the "normal" interval between 0 and 1. Maybe the model uses texture coordinates that lie outside this interval. You can deselect a node: 1.) in the node list view with ctrl + left click on the node entry or 2.) in the 3d view with ctrl + left click in an empty area. A "hide node" option is on my todo list. Yes I can add support for the older formats. Before I looked at the cat files myself I searched this forum for some infos about the cat file format and I found your posting that described the old format. It helped me a lot. The new formats are not that different. Although the locked cat format added some obfuscation / scrambling. The reload button only reloads the textures.

Thank you, but actually, I don't see me as a modder since I haven't created and published any mods yet. I'm more of a tool developer. No, you only need the first package (since this contains all needed qt libraries) and the latest update. The "update process" is only copying the two files from the update zip package into the lodviewer directory.

Thank you all. You, the community, create fantastic mods for this series and I'm glad that I could give something back to the community. With right click in the material list window all nodes that use the selected material are shown on the texture. Maybe that helps you?

Update Version 0.3 -reads expansion pack 1 / 2 and sf2na cat files (maybe it also reads the objectdata002.cat files that are different from mine file, but I couldn't test it) -reads "pre locked" unicode lod files LODViewerUpdateV0.3.zip

The name/location of the install directory path doesn't matter. You have to select the install directory eg. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Thirdwire\Strike Fighters 2" and NOT the Objects directory or any cat files. But since you are on patch level jul2012 and not jul2013 I doubt that it will work anyway. For those who can not see the stock lods: Can you send me the following informations please (preferably as pm, as to not clutter this thread): -Exact size of your ObjectData002.cat -your version.ini Thank you!

LODViewer expects patch level jul2013. In "Extras->Settings->Strike Fighters 2 Installation Directory" you have to set your sf2 install directory not the mod directory. E.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\ThirdWire\Strike Fighters 2. LODViewer scans for all cat files in the Objects and Terrains directories. Currently cat files from both expansion packs and SF2NA can not be opened. But I'm working on it. I've made a test already and merged installs don't seems to alter ObjectData002.cat. But I don't have any DLC.

Your file size is different from my file. So you have a different cat file. No need to check the checksums. Probably your file is a bit different encoded/scrambled than my file. And thats the reason my program crashes on your file. But I don't understand why your file is different? Because you also have patch level jul2013, right?

Strange. What error message do you get? I can load both aircraft. Its in ObjectData009.cat. Do you have it?

Yes lodviewer can open the locked objectdata002.cat. For me it works. I don't know why the application crashes for you. Maybe your objectdata002.cat is different from mine although we have the same patch level jul2013. I don't understand the locked cat format fully, but I could it reengineer enough to open my exemplar of objectdata002.cat. My objectdata002.cat has the following properties: Size: 355.175.658 Bytes Checksums/Hashes: CRC-32: 26deb66a MD4: fc9ad4a71a0ad5bc33666d364e219b69 MD5: 6b8d2c47c201cf97acb8d798d69d2f9c SHA-1: 9c35aeaaa7ba9a5ed0a611cf08cd048f47567e02 Can you compare it with your objectdata002.cat please? Btw: Can anyone else read locked lods with lodviewer?

I have also a fully merged installation, but no DLC. And it works here besides that lodviewer can still not read the cat files from SF2NA and the expansion packs, but it does not crashes. I'm curious what cat files do you have in your Objects and Terrains directories. Probably DLC cats are saved there? What you can try to do is to create a "fake" SF2 installation directory. In the fake directory create the subfolders Objects and Terrains and copy one cat file after the other into those directories. Test the lodviewer after each cat file copy with that fake directory and see with what cat file the program crashes.

Have you tested the latest version with windows xp? I changed a compiler setting for compiling the exe. Now the programm starts on my windows xp system, but then the graphic card driver crashes. I'm curious, probably it works for you?

It's update time again. Version 0.2.2 -bugfix: texture files with extensions different from the one referenced in the lod file were not loaded correctly LODViewerUpdateV0.2.2.zip If I load the ini files (VautourA_IDFcamo.ini or VautourA_IDFSilver.ini) I can see the textures. What patch level do you run. Which sims (SF2, SF2V, SF2E,..) have you installed? Does it really crash or is the program "hanging"?

Those who see only black textures, please try this update version 0.2.1: LODViewerUpdateV0.2.1.zip

I could reproduce the black texture bug on an ati graphic card. Do you have an ati card? At home I only have nvidia cards, therefore I didn't notice this bug. I will fix it asap. But selection with the mouse should still work. Also right click in the node list window and material list window should work.

Probably you downloaded only the update zip file. You still need the version 0.1 zip file. It contains all libraries. Then you copy the content of the update zip file into the LODViewer directory of the version 0.1 zip file.

Ok, version 0.2 is ready. Whats new? - Lod files can be opened via opening ini files - Needed files (textures, lods) are read from cat files (patch level jul2013). Enable this feature in Extras->Settings. You must also set the SF2 installation directoy path. - 3D coordinates are shown - Display and export of uv maps - Improved texture file lookup - Filename can be passed as commandline argument The update zip file: LODViewerUpdateV0.2.zip Copy the content of this zip file (LODViewer.exe and readme.txt) into the LODViewer directory of the previous version 0.1 (overwrite the two old files). Version 0.1 can be downloaded here: http://combatace.com/topic/85079-lod-viewer/?do=findComment&comment=684342 Have fun!

I have no plans to write a converter. The LODViewer is in fact a first step to a bigger project. For me it helped me to get familiar with the Qt-Toolkit and to see if I can display LOD objects with textures via OpenGL. The bigger project will be a target area editor. With this program it should be possible to place target objects interactive into the 3D scenery (inclusive displaying of TODs and tiles). But before I start with the target area editor I work on an update of the LODViewer. Unfortunately my free time is limited, so please be patient!

Ok, I need your help. To get the texture file handling in the next version of the LODViewer right I need information about how and in which order the game engine is looking up texture files. This is what I think to know: First the game searches in the texture directory specified by "Directory" under [TextureSetXXX] in <LOD>.ini. It searches for the texture file specified in the lod file (eg. fuselage.bmp). If it's not there then its looking for texture files with the same name but different extensions/types (eg. fuselage.jpg, fuselage.tga, ...). Does anybody knows which file formats the engine supports? If a matching file is still not found then the game searches the directory in which the *.lod and *.ini files reside. If there is also no matching file then the game is searching in the *.cat files. Can someone please confirm this or correct me otherwise? Thanks!

I don't know the rotation behaviour of 3dmax but I can descibe what my program does: In the default position the rotation center is the center of the objects bounding box. But this rotation/view center is changed by view translation (right click + move) along the current view axes. The rotation is always around the current view center either around the current horizontal view axis (left click + moving up down) or the vertical view axis (left click + moving left right). I don't know exactly what an UV viewer is. Is it drawing of the mesh on the bitmap like this: Then the answer is yes, it can be done. A texture reload button is on my todo list. As a workaround you can reselect the texture directory in the combo box (if the directory is shown there) for reloading the textures. I don't know yet. I will try to make the next version XP-compatible. Theoretically it should be possible. But I don't know if it's beneficial to the community. Not everybody wants that his 3D work is converted and used/altered by others. But I don't know how the community thinks about it. I'm only guessing here. I think more beneficial would be exporter for free/cheaper 3d designer applications like blender. But for writing an exporter one has to know the complete lod format. And I still don't understand parts of the header and the material description :-(

First, Sorry for the inconvenience regarding the file hoster. Because of the upload limit (1 MB) on combatace.com I couldn't upload the 7 MB zip file. So I used a random file hoster. Of course I tested the download link. And this is what I get: One simple button for download. No ads. I found that ok. So I couldn't believe that you guys get popups, malware warning and the likes..... Eventually I figured it out: I have an adblocker browser addon installed and you probably not. So I tested it with the adblocker disabled: Two more download buttons, that are actually ads and link to malware crap. Once again, sorry!! Regarding your problems: If texture folders are not selectable, that probably means the ini file couldn't be read. The program assumes the ini file of the same name as the lod file. But it seems thats not always the case. The feature "File->Open the ini file and then the program opens the referenced lod file" is on my todo list for the next version. Regarding problems with textures are not shown: Either... the program couldn't find the files: the programm is file extension/type sensitive. E.g. if the lod file references "texture.bmp" the file has to be "texture.bmp" and not "texture.jpg" or "texture.tga". Probably the game engine is file type insensitive, right? So its on my todo list. Or... the format couldn't be read. I know of problems with some tga files. How is the additional lod referenced? In the ini file? Can you give me more details, please.

For aircraft objects the maximum drawing distance is limited to 6.7 nm. See here: http://combatace.com/topic/82507-some-tests-regarding-aircraft-drawing-distances/ I don't know if ships fall into this category. But for target objects the maximum drawing distance can be increased. You have to change "MaxVisibleDist" in <terrain>_types.ini and (LOD) "Distance" in <targetobject>.ini . See here: http://combatace.com/topic/81464-increasing-the-view-distance-of-target-objects/

The only missing/unknown parts are the exact format of the shadow data and the 8 bytes after the object center position (These 8 bytes were alway zero btw.). I think with the current info it should be possible to write a tod editor (at least for non shadow casting objects). While I played with the terrain editor I found the following: If I placed y-trees on a tile the terrain editor created a tod file, whose format didn't matched my findings. So my question is: Has anyone created a tod file with y-trees? And does this tod file work in the game engine?

Some updated information about the tod file format: number variable type description of bytes 4 integer number of solid objects 4 integer number of alpha objects n objects data (see below) for each object: 4 integer chance in % (probability of appearance) 4 integer number of vertices 4 integer number of triangle vertices = 3 * number of triangles 4 integer number of triangles 32 * number of vertices vertex data (see below) 2 * number of triangle vertices triangle data (see below) 4 integer 0 = don't cast shadow and no shadow data follows, 1 = cast shadow and 292 bytes shadow data follows 0 or 292 73 floats ? shadow data (8 vertices + additional information) ? 4 float object width / 2 4 float object length / 2 4 float object height 4 float rotation angle around z axis (in radians) 4 float max. horizontal extension / 2 4 float object center position x 4 float object center position y 4 float/integer 0 ? 4 float/integer 0 ? for each vertex 4 float position x 4 float position y 4 float position z 4 float normal x 4 float normal y 4 float normal z 4 float texture coordinate u 4 float texture coordinate v for each triangle 2 short integer vertex index 2 short integer vertex index 2 short integer vertex index