3ds model library update and demo

[WhatEver]

I'm still working on my model library. It now supports collision detection.

I was originaly planning to only let people use the library for commercial use if they gave me royalties for it, but I changed my mind and decided to sell 2 versions instead, and the third one is for free so you can mess with it before you decide if you want to buy it.

Here they are:
-Free
no textures
no weighted vertices
only point collision

-Standard($25)
no weighted vertices
only point collision

-Professional(Not sure yet...but pretty high)
everything

These packages might change.

I'll have a website sometime when I'm ready to advertise more. The web page will have all the information you need to use the library...including samples.

Here's a demo that I made that shows off point collision detection. It's not quite optomized yet; it checks all 1168 polygons for every frame and polygon grouping can fix that problem.

Bounce Demo
Screen Shot

Tell me what you think.

[This message has been edited by WhatEver (edited 04-11-2001).]

[clucches]

Please, Can you tell me where can I find info about Pivot, Hierchies, Animations and how they're exported in a 3ds File???

[HFAFiend]

Once it loads the models, how does a program use them?

[WhatEver]

clucches, I'll be working to find the pivot points this weekend. My buddy sent me a model with their pivot set to the centers, and now all I have to do is find some resources to get the pivot. I'm pretty sure I know where it is already though.

HFAFiend, here's a sample of what it looks like, but the prefix will change before release.

rm_model Model;
Model.Load3ds("boxes.3ds");
//smooth the normals first so it will optomize better
Model.MakeSmooth();
//this function will optomize the elements
Model.PackAlign();
//set up which elements are to be used
//normals are on by default
Model.Enable(RM_COLOR_ARRAY |  RM_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);
//Enable CVAs
rmEnableCVA();
//you need to do this step if you have textures aplied to the model
TextureNames=Model.CreateTextureNames(&nTextureNames);
//do some matrix stuff and then draw
Model.Draw(TextureNames);
//if you don't use any textures, then do this
Model.Draw(NULL);

That's basicly all you need to do.

[This message has been edited by WhatEver (edited 04-12-2001).]

[WhatEver]

clucches, for now you can go to wotsit.org for the 3ds file format. It has quite a bit of info in it. It contains the hierarchy information and key frames.

[Olive]

If you happen to find or understand in what frame the pivot point, the local matrix and the keyframes are written, I'd sure be glad to know. I got all my info from the 3DS FTK from Autodesk but nothing about these issues in there. I browsed through the docs at Wotsit but apart from stating that the local matrix is defined in the world frame, nothing. I've tried all sorts of combinations, from the most obvious to some very tortured computations but nothing works all the time. By the way, have you ever noticed with 3DS Max on some models you save in 3DS, when you load them back some positions and orientations are all wrong ? If even 3DS Max can read back some files, I'm not very optimistic...

[Sven Clauw]

Unfortunately, 3dsmax doensn't support 3ds files very well.
The format hasn't changed for many years, and lots of info is lost when saving to 3ds files (especially in 3dsmax 4).
The source-code of the plugin to export 3ds files in 3dsmax4 is provided with the sdk. If someone is interested, let me know.

It would be much better if we could use .MAX files, which contain all the info you could ever need, but if haven't found the spec yet.
Does anyone know how to use those files?

[This message has been edited by Sven Clauw (edited 04-13-2001).]

[WhatEver]

when you load them back some positions and orientations are all wrong?

I just found that out last night. It seems the mesh was saved in the wrong position, and the only way I could translate the vertices to their local origin was to subtract the pivot position twice from the vertices.

I can access the key frames, but I haven't the time to experiment with them. I'll try to post something here as soon as I can about where the kf data is. Basicly you read in the name of the object in the current kf, then all it's data will follow under the corisponding chunks.

Be aware that the key frames are only going to contain the positions at each changed frame. If you have a ball that moves from point a to point b, and you position the ball to point b at the 30th frame; frames 1-29 are not in the 3ds file, only frame 0 and 30.

[Michael Steinberg]

Sven Clauw!
Rather write a exporter plugin with your own format. The max format is not really good to be read...
There are tutorials out there how to create an export plugin.

[Eric]

Michael,

This thread actually dates back from April and has only been revived because ppinter1 is doing some advertisement !

Regards.

Eric

P.S.: well, perhaps Sven Clauw is still around anyway !