It's accessable in the hierarchy tree after selecting an object and right clicking it. Does it do something useful for editing the frame/object?
My second question would be does anybody out there have an old Softimage copy that supports BZII for sale. What version is it? Where would be a good place to search for information about buying older software titles like the SI modeler used to create the original BZ models. I know there's an old copy laying around somewhere just collecting dust on some dark shelf...come out come out where ever you are.
i think that bz2 animated is for treads and stuff like that - not too sure
lizard made the fleshstorm models in SI so ask him
I looked on ebay and everywhere else, even tge taboo illegal sites.
I can't find Softimage 3d v3.9.1 or lower (within reason, so mabye v3.8 or 3.7)
bad nielk1 bad!! go to your room
i looked for SI 3.7 and 8, even on the softimage site there is no trace of it. spooky - maybe it never existed and the original bz2 models were created in a later version. ooooOOOOOOOOOOO
WWWW
Na, Lizard has one of em.
or.......so........he........claims - na he probably does
I don't think versions of Softimage3D older than 3.8 will work on windows, the software was originally developed for use with silicon graphics workstations .
I'm not sure but I think it's against the license agreement to sell copies of Softimage second hand, so even if you could find a copy on Ebay or somewhere it would be no more legal than a pirated copy - or so I understand it .
it seems odd to me that Avid don't support older versions of their own file format, I think the oldest version of the format supported by Softimage|XSI is 3.0 or something like that whereas for BZ2 models you need 1.1 - 1.3 ( I believe). I've not even been able to find a 3rd party plugin or anything like that which is not surprising really this community is probably the only one with a need for such an old version of DotXSI .
Tanks for the heads up on the version info about the compatible SI version for BZII. Back to my first question about the BZ2 animated thingy in BZ2ME. Does it serve any useful purpose? Does it work with the animated textures on tank tracks and such? Used on work stations huh. I wonder if that SI version dates back to the 95 OS. Strangely enough I've heard that legally the CD really should be destroyed to avoid it falling into unsavory hands like mine or some other lucky BZ modeler.
Does anybody have a clue if any other video games of the time that also use the same XSI version? OM, you may be our only last hope with your B3D exporter. Remember, the fate of the entire civilized world hangs in the balance now OM. Happy holidays everyone. PS: Do anti piracy laws cover such obsolete software too? You'd think by now it would have become available through public domain by now. Bummer.
Um...Thinks...maybe...it does things like thrusters animation?
that funny blue stuff drawn on a mesh that always goes backwards, despite the fact that I would like it to go down....
Any chance we can just make BZ2's 1.3 use a higher version of the XSI format aswell?
I would go in the private beta thing and sugest this, but I don't like being laughed at. There would also be the whole licensing issue.
The old 1.1/1.3 format really sucks though compared to the 3.0+ format; I can see why they dropped it.
And we could make BZ2 use the new format, but the new format is vastly more capable and all of the new capabilities would be worthless.
I found something interesting trying to get my 3DS Max to export animations for the XSIs (my version just makes blank animation frames). The .x format I export is very similar to the xsi (as we already know). The animations were easy to convert to the XSI, but then, when I tried to play it, all the pivots were off and in strange directions. It was a complicated animation so I got very confused.
Anyone think they can look into making some sort of converter for just the animation portion of the .x to .xsi? It seems the points might not be in teh right order, might be inverted, or worse, might be based on a difernt pivot angle, so If anyone can figure this out, say so.
Wow, this thread has deviated from the topic hasn't it.
lol -- thats what forums are all about
can 3dsmax export .x files??? are they a newer version though?
QuoteThe .x format I export is very similar to the xsi (as we already know). The animations were easy to convert to the XSI, but then, when I tried to play it, all the pivots were off and in strange directions. It was a complicated animation so I got very confused.
Anyone think they can look into making some sort of converter for just the animation portion of the .x to .xsi? It seems the points might not be in teh right order, might be inverted, or worse, might be based on a difernt pivot angle, so If anyone can figure this out, say so.
There is no pivot data in the animations as such, just the position of the data columns in the animation data matrix.
When I make (.3ds)units in lithunwrap I make the front of the vehicle the +y axis and the top is -z. this is clearly not what is intended for .3ds models, but they work fine after conversion to .xsi and animate correctly.
Before exporting the finished model from lith I must place any component that will use a pivot centered where the pivot will be, a tanks turret for example winds up inside the tank body. In the xsi the pivot will always be at coordinate 0,0,0, so you must make the component in exactly the right place and at the right orientation (which does differ between formats)
What i ment by pivot is I fear I may have to turn [a, b, c, d] into [b+43, d-21, a+54, c+90].
Math AND reordering.
The horror!
No, just rotate your model before you convert it to .x
.xsi/bz2 uses different rotation from the .3ds format, but not for everything.
hmm, but I suppose you animated it in max and if you rotate it the animation will rotate too and still be wrong....
cut n paste the anim from un-rotated model to rotated model. :mrgreen:
If you really did need to alter the animation rotation orientation for some reason, you would just move the columns of data about.
I will do some tests with a cube with ABCDEF on it. I will export as xsi and an animated x file and then find what the differnce is to make an export process. You are probably right. I should be able to just rotate the model. Actuly, I will just rotate the pivots.
FINALY! I might be able to do animated models.
I kind of figured out some more info about the BZ2 animated check box in BZ2ME, and the animation box too. I made a simple cube in GSL saved as X and opened in BZ2ME. Then I made 3 XSI files. The first without adding anything to the cube frame. The second with the BZ2 animated box checked. And the third with both the BZ2 animated and animation boxes checked. Then I opened all 3 in notepad for a side by side file comparison. Here's a screen shot of the differences I noticed between the 3 XSI files.
(http://static3.filefront.com/images/personal/l/lppena/106799/gapnyjfnkr.jpg)
As you can see from the image the BZ2 animated XSI added _h to the cube frame. The BZ2 animated plus animated XSI have both the _h and Animation set entry in the XSI. Do these additions have special significance to he BZII engine?
I then open 3DEX to look at the 3 files and I noticed that 3DEX had a warning triangle on both the _h and Animation set XSI files. When I click on the triangle it reported the the animation set key was an unsupported version or something to that effect. Could this be one of the reasons why animation sets are not read correctly by BZII?
I still need to compare the files against a known good XSI animated file from the XSI data pack, but I suspect that part of the problem is that BZ2ME writes out a non standard animation set format that theoretically could be corrected in notepad using MTS's manual method of editing the XSI file in notepad and then resaving the corrected file and then trying it out in BZII. Any feedback would greatly be appreciated to help me try to make some kind of workaround to get animations workable using BZ2ME. Tanks, BNG.
That _h means 'hidden', so if you have anything (like treads) not showing up in the Vehicle display box in the game setup screen or in the Factory cosole or Recycler console, that's what does it.
There is nothing wrong with the animation set other than a total lack of animation data.
__h is hidden
__hc is hidden collision
__e is emissive lights
__2g is transparent 2 sided
I know of __2, but not __2g?
building console screens are__2g
I think __g is for glass stuff but I think it's nearly always paired with __2 so that it's visible from both sides.
Cool, I wondered how transparent objects like cockpit windows were done. In TS there's a setting in the material editor for adjusting the transparency level of a material applied to an object. Didn't really notice this in GSL but both TS 1.0 and 3.2 have the option listed in the material editor.
I'm still perplexed with the animation thingy in BZ2ME (BZ2 Animated and the Animation check boxes in the frame edit dialog, but don't really feel anything useful will result as I'm sure other modders have already explored the topic to it's full potential and concluded as OM has that BZ2ME will never be able to do animations.
For simple frame animations all that is needed is the data. The data for a rotation, for example is pretty much the same for any object. it is really very easy to just paste the ibpgen data in to create full rotation animations, you can change the frame numbers to slow it down or speed it up.
What would be usefull, is to find a program that does do animations and outputs them in a text format, you could possibly then create an animation in it and simply transfer the data to your xsi model.
For Vertex and bone animations, I suspect only the original xsi software would really do, as it looks a bit complicated in the xsi.
The thruster flames use __h, see the ivscout00.xsi,
flame__h will in the BZ2 engine create a thruster effect It does have to be called "flame", the shape of that poly will determine weather it looks any good or not. The __h just hides the poly, sadly the flames only go backwards, they will not go down.
flames go in whatever direction they are pointed - down, up, left, right, ANYWHERE!!!!!
Not talking about emits here, but the effect linked to throttle usage created by using flame__h, I tried to make it go down but it wont, it goes backwards, relative to the ship.
If you know how to make it go down please tell.
ive tried to emit electricity as a vertical beam, but it doesnt :@
just seems to emit a teeeeny bit in the wrogn direction no matter how much i plaey with it
and mrtwosheds, it can be done! look at the XSI for the isdf howitzer (ivartlcv) was its original xsi/odf i believe from the ULER mod but im not sure...
anyway, it has thrusters on its feet which thrust downwards when you go forward... check it out!
Maybe it has something to do with the way the pivot points are set. The game engine seems to read such things better then the 3d applications that created them; displaying them visually correct, but not necessarily with the true orientation as seen by the game engine itself. It's a enough to drive a modeler whacky trying to see things the way a computer application does.
hmm, yes the are rotated....and I think they need to be untriangulated, damn.
Ok, when rotated correctly they go down, so far they look bad, makes a Dalek look like a rocket powered pepper pot :-D
It seems to only want to thrust from 3 of the frames lines, stock thrusters are untriangulated 5 sided polys in the xsi so that's what I made(but triangulated) and it looks all wrong and bad, maybe I should just try 2 triangles. The Daleks from the latest series have a blue glow effect when they fly with their anti grav system, I will attempt to get it to look as much like that as I can.
The rotation, is normal eg build your tank on its end pointing up, but make the thrusters point were you really want them to go then rotate them in the .xsi after conversion.
Triangles look much better.
And so MrDalek stormed into the new year with his new thrusters blazing downwards at a jaunty angle, ready to hatefully exterminate all other lifeforms in the known Universe...
http://whomix.trilete.net/?wmid=subreadremixreviews&remixid=147
QuoteOk, when rotated correctly they go down, so far they look bad, makes a Dalek look like a rocket powered pepper pot
lmao! any pics of that?