More model questions

[anomaly]

Yeah, I tried blender for a few moments once.  It had a very different feel to it compared to Gmax or Cinema 4D.  I guess I'll look into it but I'm not sure how well I can bug test OM's exporter as I don't have a known working method of exporting animations that I could compare it to.

Unfortunately, GSL is not well suited for converting X animations to a usable XSI animation sequence for BZ2. Still, I continue to tinker with B3d from time to time in an effort to eventually decode it's well kept secrets.

Don't you just need to open the .x up in wordpad, switch a few sections around, rename a few frames, and post it in a .xsi?  So far I've tried that with non-animated files but, looking at some animated .x files, the animation section looks almost identical to how it is in .xsi files.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

The 2 formats seem to share quite a few similarities especially the X version that GSL saves in. The differences are quite substantial in that it requires changes that the average modeler would have some difficulties doing. Ironically, BZII does support one X format directly,  but I've never gotten a knowledgeable explanation on the version number or model making application that supports the compatible X format. At this point it remains a mystery that hopefully will reveal itself for all to know.

One notable positive about 3DEX 1.5.5 is that it actually supports converting X files to XSI format which the previous version I have (version 1.5.0) did not. I now have another way of directly converting X to XSI using 1.5.5. I still use BZ2ME for adding hp_points and making sure the texture files are linked to my models, and to edit out the extra 0's that I guess GSL adds to the X files I save in. I just downloaded 3DEX 1.5.5, and have yet to do anything with it at present, but I'll begin some conversions to see how they fare when loaded into the BZII game map editor. If your looking for a good simple to use 3d modeler then add GSL to your other modeling tools. It's easier to master then GMAX and the UV map editor it uses is pretty simple to master as well. You can make high poly models with it but the free version has a 650 face limit for saving scene and objects.

One useful feature I've found is that of making a high poly model and rendering it to a BMP file using the Print-Screen button and then pasting it into my paint program for enhancement. I try not alter too many things from the rendered object, but do touch up the image somewhat before saving it to file. Then I open the map editor in GSL and then apply a simple planar mapping to my model which at this point needs poly reduction to get the poly count down to savable size, and then apply the texture skin to give the model greater detail. For example, I made a tracked tank complete with road wheels, track blocks, etc., the poly count was like 1124 faces. A bit too high to save as a single file, but this was mainly for the purpose of getting a rendered image to skin my tank afterwords. GSL, supports a cool feature called object libraries where individual models and parts can be saved for later reuse. After that I reedit my model and reduce excessive geometry into flat planes and then apply my render saved image to the now flat surfaces giving the model greater visual depth without a lot of polyies. And because the rendered image also contains the lighting effects of the original screen rendering the model looks a bit more 3d.

[OvermindDL1]

BZ2 supports the .Xdx6 file format, there is basically a new .x with each new DirectX version (well, up till 8 or so, then they finally started to try dropping that crap format, mainly only used in demo's now, no where else).
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[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Tanks OM, now I have something to search for more info on about the BZ compatible X format. There must be an older modeler still available out there that directly supports that version. Never really liked having to convert models files just to try to get them to work for the game. Seems like the more a model file is converted the more screwed up stuff gets in the translation.