[Sobek]

I've found blender to be absolutely SHIT for modeling. The interface is great (once you get used to it) but when you export MD3's it ALWAYS seems to absolutely screw the model up and turn it into some blocky piece of crap. Every time. And I've tried every revision of the exporter.

As it stands I keep a few different installs of MilkShape3D (1.75, 1.84 and the new 1.85) for my MD3 work, as some versions crash on export with some models while others don't, but at least it actually exports a usable model... Blender has never once exported a model correctly for me :@

[Roma Loom]

The model corruption could be caused by its scale, at least it's true for 3ds max when exporting to md3. Try scaling it 1000 times larger or smaller and then export again.

[The Commander]

Roma Loom, on Feb 12 2010, 07:26 PM, said:

The model corruption could be caused by its scale, at least it's true for 3ds max when exporting to md3. Try scaling it 1000 times larger or smaller and then export again.

I never had that problem with 3DS max, odd
But ill keep it in mind.

[Sobek]

Roma Loom, on Feb 12 2010, 04:56 PM, said:

The model corruption could be caused by its scale, at least it's true for 3ds max when exporting to md3. Try scaling it 1000 times larger or smaller and then export again.

Hmm, you know I think that could just be it. Previously I used Gmax to do some editing of models and it informed me that some of the models I was using were exceeding the boundaries or whatnot. After resizing those to about 50% of standard size and trying again, it worked great, and it fixed this issue where a few randomly polygons would always stretch out in a bad way.

I guess Blender just responds differently... I might look into that.

[Tea Monster]

Sobek, on Feb 11 2010, 10:19 PM, said:

I've found blender to be absolutely SHIT for modeling. The interface is great (once you get used to it) but when you export MD3's it ALWAYS seems to absolutely screw the model up and turn it into some blocky piece of crap. Every time. And I've tried every revision of the exporter.

That is a problem with the exporter, not with Blender. As I said in another thread, they changed the version of Python, which is what language the exporter is written in, for the latest 2.49 release, which is probably causing the exporter to bab-up. With 2.48a and the Cube exporter it works.

The big problem is that MD3 is an old format. The gaming world has moved on since then and thus none of the tools are still under development. Then when all the soft moves on as well, the old tools don't work with the new soft.

If you want a good, free modelling app, try Wings 3D.

[RPD Guy]

yeah wings 3d is good, but i can't save in .md3 format!
maybe a plugin can made it?

[Jblade]

Sobek, on Feb 12 2010, 05:19 AM, said:

As it stands I keep a few different installs of MilkShape3D (1.75, 1.84 and the new 1.85) for my MD3 work, as some versions crash on export with some models while others don't, but at least it actually exports a usable model... Blender has never once exported a model correctly for me :@

I have it crash sometimes when I'm compiling MD3s as well - normally on high poly models and stuff. Do the models have animations or anything like that? If so, the way I got past the crashes is making several MD3 files, each with parts of the animation in it, and then joining them together with Npherno's MD3 compiler.

[Tea Monster]

I exported the Queen and the Cycloid and a few other models with animations from Blender so I have to say it can work.

There is a free app called Misfit Model 3D. Ive only used it to preview things occasionally but it does kick out MD3s.

[Master Fibbles]

Admittedly, I haven't used Blender to do anything with MD3 in a while but don't dis it. It is an incredibly powerful tool if you have the patience to learn how to use it. I've done 1000+ frame CGI videos with it and all of my desktop backgrounds and a lot of my art comes from working with Blender.
Exporting is hard because there isn't much support for MD3 anymore and sometimes you have to try a few different programs to make it work right. Imagine how hard it would be to do MD2 again...

This reminds me, what are the chances of the model support changing/upgrading to something else?

[Tea Monster]

I asked Plagman about this and he told me that support for some kind of modern, skeletal model format is on the cards, but its not going to happen soon as he has to do a lot of stuff to the code base of EDuke to get it to support skeletons in models. I was going to ask him if it would be possible to adopt a new format for static models such as ASE.

The other option is to ask Plagman to update his exporter. He wrote the original one we were using before.

Until then, try Blender 2.48 and make sure you have the correct version of Python (2.5).

Blender is pretty cool. I made this using it. Also, ALL the bosses were made in Blender.

[Spiker]

Hhmm I guess that Blender 2.49 with the more recent version of Python not only affects md3 exporter but also other scripts. For example I couldn't use nif import/export scripts beacuse it returned error message while it worked fine on 2.48. Before seeing your problems here I thought that it might be related to win7 but surely it can't be it. I wonder if in 2.5 this will be fixed but I doubt it. I guess that all custom scripts that are not included in Blender will need to be rewritten.

[Tea Monster]

With 2.5, they have completely re-written how Blender processes scripts and how they call to different functions within Blender. This is to make it much easier to write stuff like this in 2.5 than it was in 2.4x. So, It isn't just a case of there being a different version of Python to contend with. Someone is going to have to rewrite it pretty much from scratch.

The problem with taking this on at the moment is that the system is brand new. Blender 2.5 is Alpha, not even Beta, and stuff is being re-worked all the time. You could write an exporter and find it broken when they change something within Blender in a weeks time.

It might be the best option to fix the exporter we have and get it to run with 2.49b and Python 2.6

[Spiker]

........ or stick to 2.48 for the time being and ask the Blender team to include md3 script in 2.5. Chances are they would agree. And if you managed to smuggle the script in then you wouldn't have to worry about it anymore because now this would be on their heads

[TerminX]

Are Blender 2.5x and beyond using Python 3 or something? I think there are some tools out there to handle > 90% of the conversion required to take Python 2.5/2.6 scripts into 3.0 compatibility, but that's just going off of vague memories of a random slashdot story ages ago.

[Tea Monster]

Tx - That would be cool if we could do that. I know bugger-all about coding though.

Blender 2.5 is using Python 3.1 last I checked. The problem with that is that they have actually written a new Python API that can directly control Blender via commands in a Python script. There is even a Render API so that people can plug MentalRay and V-Ray directly into Blender. I don't know that if you converted the old script, that there is enough of the old Blender to make any use of it!

Spiker - LOL, they have an MD2 script in there and it is kept up for exactly those reasons - its included with the package so they make sure it works. People have nagged for an MD3 exporter on the Blenderartists forum, but I think the general consensus is that MD3 is old news now so why bother. The other problem is that the guy who made the MD2 exporter for Blender never bothered finishing his MD3 exporter.

[TerminX]

Looks like conversion is indeed possible... http://docs.python.o...brary/2to3.html

[supergoofy]

r1598: kextract and the other tools in build folder cannot be compiled due to changes in nednalloc

[Jokke_r]

Bit of a question regarding the performance of the latest eDuke32. I'm running with polymer enabled 1280x960 windowed 32bit, no HRP installed, and my CPU usage stays at a constant 100% the whole time, the computer doesn't seem unresponsive and the game runs smooth. I found this weird. Also i noticed that about regularly like once per second the game kinda micro froze for a fraction of a second, highly noticable if you kept moving the mouse in a smooth pattern you'd notice that about exactly once a second the graphics would kinda freeze for a fraction of a second. Weird.

Specs are as following:
CPU: C2D E8400 @ 3,6GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR2
GPU: GF GTX275 GS
OS: Win7

eduke32 version 20091017, i reckon it's a bit old but it's the latest one available on the eduke site.

[supergoofy]

Wrong this is the latest official svn build r1594:
http://dukeworld.duke4.net/eduke32/synthes...100123-1594.zip

Always look at http://dukeworld.duk...ke32/synthesis/


The link http://dukeworld.duk...e32_current.zip
gives the latest "considered" stable build.

But I think that there is no stable build as the development continues. Anyway, r1594 is way better.

[RPD Guy]

what i do to make a flash light?

[MusicallyInspired]

I don't think it's possible yet. They're working on it, though.

[Danukem]

It is not only possible, it is relatively easy. And no one is working on it.

[Tea Monster]

 DeeperThought, on Feb 19 2010, 10:41 AM, said:

It is not only possible, it is relatively easy. And no one is working on it.

somebody was working on it, as I made them a flashlight model.

[Danukem]

 Tea Monster, on Feb 19 2010, 11:06 AM, said:

somebody was working on it, as I made them a flashlight model.

That was back when I thought that Polymer would actually run decently on my computer at some point in the near future. At any rate, there are no maps that are designed for flash lights, so it seems rather pointless right now. Why don't you go ahead and post the model publicly so anyone can use it?

[MusicallyInspired]

 DeeperThought, on Feb 19 2010, 11:41 AM, said:

It is not only possible, it is relatively easy. And no one is working on it.

Fine then. Be that way.

I thought it had something to do with not being able to cast light sources from HUD objects or something though?

[Danukem]

 MusicallyInspired, on Feb 19 2010, 06:51 PM, said:

Fine then. Be that way.

I thought it had something to do with not being able to cast light sources from HUD objects or something though?

"HUD objects" don't exist in the game world, but the light can be cast from the player sprite, so there is no problem. What I would do is make the player spawn a sprite with appropriate x/y/zvel etc when the flashlight is turned on, change it to an SE 50, then have it follow the player and point where he his pointing.

[Tea Monster]

You then may want to put an overlay graphic on the spotlight to get all those lens and reflector effects you can see - like this.

I'll need to reskin it as it got used in another project, but yeah, I'll release it.

[LeoD]

I would appreciate a menu option (or even better a key binding) to switch off polymer during gameplay if the framerate drops too low in certain areas of a map. Is that possible at all?

[The Commander]

Punching something like this into the console should work.

bind KPAD0 "setrendermode 3"

and

bind KPAD. "setrendermode 4"

That would make the "0" key set it to Polymost and the "." key set it back to Polymer.
I have not tested it, but it should work as you can just type in the console, "setrendermode #" at any time to change it.

[LeoD]

Thanks.
Changing from polymer to polymost works but trying to change back to polymer crashes the game (svn1598).

Last lines in logfile:

> Rendering method changed to polygonal OpenGL
> Rendering method changed to polygonal OpenGL
> Initializing Polymer subsystem...
> PR : Cannot initialize wall 11253 : Bmalloc failed.

After some more tries with other maps it always seems to be due to the wall initialization thing.