Battlezone Universe

Battlezone Universe => Battlezone 2 => Maps and Modding => Topic started by: BNG Da BZ Fool on November 26, 2008, 07:52:43 PM

Title: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: BNG Da BZ Fool on November 26, 2008, 07:52:43 PM
Just wondered as several free 3d modelers like Blender 3d and XSI Mod Tool support more recent versions of SI XSI model fomat. Would that ba a major headache for anyone attemting to adapt things to work with BZII? Has anyone ever tried to load a model that uses the newer XSI format? Tanks, BNG.
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: lucky_foot on November 26, 2008, 08:10:58 PM
I believe I tried (though quite awhile ago) and it doesn't work well as XSI added more things inside it's format that BZ just doesn't understand so it gets confused and either crashes or puts together something you couldn't recognize.

Haven't tried this lately, but that's what I get when I think about it.
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: anomaly on November 26, 2008, 08:27:44 PM
Is it stuff that could be easily removed through through a text editor?
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: lucky_foot on November 26, 2008, 11:14:31 PM
That I don't know. I never knew XSI that well back then...maybe in my spare time I just may export out in the newest XSI just to see what happens. :D

Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: BNG Da BZ Fool on November 27, 2008, 04:53:07 PM
From what I've seen SI XSI has far less variants then the X format. Blender, appears to export version 3.0. The XSI Mod Tool exports in versions 3.0, 3.5, and 3.6. OM's version I'm not sure of as the SI coordinate system is like 1,0,1,0,0,5 unlike the standard of 1,0,1,0,2,5 that I've seen on most other XSI versions. I'm going to check out the XSI version exported by another conversion application called, Bit Turn.

I've had some success using Notepad to move stuff between the Threed version and the X2XSI version. Threed, does well with the texture information while X2XSI does well on the animation side with some slight editing by adding the SI_ to the AnimationKey entries after moving it to the right place in the Threed version; at least as far as 3Dex 1.5 is concerned.

Does anybody know where I might obtain a reg. key for 3DEX 1.5.5? It supports converting files to XSI, but the 30 day trial thingy has expired and um doesn't work anymore other then as a file viewing application; if not no biggy just thought that I'd ask. BNG.
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: mrtwosheds on November 27, 2008, 08:16:11 PM
Yes I do.
But, the xsi format it saves as is not the one bz2 uses.  :cry:
I use it to save as .x  :?
then convert that with x2xsi.  :-)
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: OvermindDL1 on November 27, 2008, 09:01:47 PM
XSI 3.0 and higher is vastly more powerful, and it not in any way backwards compatible with the older versions.  You cannot just strip stuff out, there are whole new coordinate systems in it, it would have to be reparsed... in a not so fun way since some of the things in the older version are represented way too differently in the new...
(http://www.overminddl1.com/image_scripts/image_sig.php?type=ODL1signitures&image/sig.gif)
Generated by OvermindDL1's Signature Auto-Add Script (http://overminddl1.com) that OvermindDL1 did manually since Greasemonkey does not work in Firefox 3.1 yet...

Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: BNG Da BZ Fool on November 28, 2008, 11:15:14 PM
Does anyone know of any other 3d modelers that can export an XSI file? I know about MAX and Blender, but are there any others that are still available?  I'm not sure why, but the XSI format seems more of an oddity when compared to other more common 3d formats. Is it a propriety thing with Softimage? 
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: bigbadbogie on November 28, 2008, 11:58:46 PM
Quote from: BNG Da BZ Fool on November 28, 2008, 11:15:14 PM
Does anyone know of any other 3d modelers that can export an XSI file?

I seriously doubt it.
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: OvermindDL1 on November 30, 2008, 03:27:05 AM
It is not that it is an oddity, that style of model format was very common like 15 years ago, hence why the .x format is also similar, but both are rather horrible overall...
(http://www.overminddl1.com/image_scripts/image_sig.php?type=ODL1signitures&image/sig.gif)
Generated by OvermindDL1's Signature Auto-Add Script (http://overminddl1.com) that OvermindDL1 did manually since Greasemonkey does not work in Firefox 3.1 yet...

Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: BNG Da BZ Fool on December 02, 2008, 04:55:31 PM
Total bummer. I've been searching for info on both X and XSI, but most of the current info revolves around the newer versions of both formats. MSDN's, XNA forum doesn't really touch much on older versions of X.

I read one article on writing a custom X format based around the templates used by the X format, but got lost when the article got into the details required to write a custom exporter say using a TSX script with TS 7.6. I have the SDK for Truespace 7.6 so I may try writing some super simple scripts to get basic understanding of how they work.

Does anyone know is the XSI exporter in Milkshape can convert X animated files to BZII animation stuff? Tanks...BNG.
Title: Re: Can the current SI XSI format be adapted to work with BZII?
Post by: lucky_foot on December 03, 2008, 03:24:37 PM
I don't know about the standard XSI exporter in Milkshape 3d (as it's my primary tool), I do know that OM's XSI exporter for Milkshape 3D does not support animations as no one helped me test to make the animations and so he just dropped it.