3dsmax to Constructor to TGEA DIF Part II - Player Falling
by Surge · 09/11/2008 (12:09 pm) · 5 comments
3dsmax to Constructor to TGEA DIF Part II
Example of the Player falling through
After Showing my first small example of a 3dsmax Made object,
Brought into constructor and exported to a DIF. Using a sweet
Tool by Ryan Mounts
I wanted to review a strange problem I have from time to time.
Although I can See and Export all faces from Constructor.
Sometimes the Player falls through and hits the ground.
Shot 1 - Convex Structure Designed in 3ds Max
Shot 2 - Shows 3ds Max Structure Exported to Constructor- No Red Lines!
You would think seeing it like this in Constructor means its fine in game.
Shot 3 - Exported DIF, In Game. All Faces show up. My Door openings and
Trim are all Dif Objects and they all show up nicley in game.
Shot 4 - In Game, Player running on Balcony and starts to slip through the surface.
You can take a look at a small video Ive included. I hope its enough to
show what is going on. Player.dts falls through at the end of the video.
This is a Flash Video!
After having little anomalies like falling through the floor happen.
I decided to mix DIf style geometry with Polysoup. And I think
I have come up with a better performing solution.
I will show that off in my next Blog.
Example of the Player falling through
After Showing my first small example of a 3dsmax Made object,
Brought into constructor and exported to a DIF. Using a sweet
Tool by Ryan Mounts
I wanted to review a strange problem I have from time to time.
Although I can See and Export all faces from Constructor.
Sometimes the Player falls through and hits the ground.
Shot 1 - Convex Structure Designed in 3ds Max
Shot 2 - Shows 3ds Max Structure Exported to Constructor- No Red Lines!
You would think seeing it like this in Constructor means its fine in game.Shot 3 - Exported DIF, In Game. All Faces show up. My Door openings and
Trim are all Dif Objects and they all show up nicley in game.
Shot 4 - In Game, Player running on Balcony and starts to slip through the surface.
You can take a look at a small video Ive included. I hope its enough to
show what is going on. Player.dts falls through at the end of the video.
This is a Flash Video!
After having little anomalies like falling through the floor happen.
I decided to mix DIf style geometry with Polysoup. And I think
I have come up with a better performing solution.
I will show that off in my next Blog.
About the author
Love 3d Game Design -
#2
09/11/2008 (1:45 pm)
Oh and to followup have you run in debug mode and looked at the collision volumes? Its very odd that a BSP structure would allow something like you are describing to happen unless something odd was happening. 
#3
Also, I have a new version of max2ctor which fixes a texture coordinate bug that shows up if you happen to tile or offset the texture in the Material Editor rather than from the UVWmap modifier. I probably post that soon.
It's good to be getting some feedback on the tool!
09/11/2008 (2:05 pm)
Hey Surge, glad to see you're still being productive with max2ctor! I have run into the falling through the floor issue too. I've never had it occur in any of my own work, but I can recall at least one instance of this when helping someone else with their DIF. It was on a very large structure, similar to yours, and you would fall through the floor at a spot where the floor was circular, similar to the bend you fell through in the vid. I remember playing around with changing brushes between detail and structural, but I think that just moved the problem to different areas of the DIF. If I recall correctly, I think exporting with map2dif_plus may have fixed the problem for that particular interior. If you continue to have issues, feel free to email me your max file, and I would be glad to look into it.Also, I have a new version of max2ctor which fixes a texture coordinate bug that shows up if you happen to tile or offset the texture in the Material Editor rather than from the UVWmap modifier. I probably post that soon.
It's good to be getting some feedback on the tool!
#4
Actually now that you mentioned falling through seems to be always where things are cornering or turning.
I cant seem to get any of the other exporters to work except the straight EXPORT to DIF out of Constructor.
Every other one seems to crash out on me. Its really frustrating sometimes. I have so many piece Ive been working
on that I plan on posting. I plan on emailing you my files, I just didn't get around to it earlier. You'll see something
by next week for sure.
I actually have a couple of ideas I wanted to pitch your way. Just want to get all my thoughts laid out prior to
emailing you.
-
Logan -
I didn't try to send that data to Hammer Ive only every used QuArk. Ill grab a copy and test it out.
and no to the Debug mode. Im actually still getting my bearings trying to "debug" my artwork.
Its actually been a very long learning process for me, that I finally think I got somewhat down.
So I will try out what you've suggested...Thanks
09/11/2008 (2:33 pm)
Hey Ryan,Actually now that you mentioned falling through seems to be always where things are cornering or turning.
I cant seem to get any of the other exporters to work except the straight EXPORT to DIF out of Constructor.
Every other one seems to crash out on me. Its really frustrating sometimes. I have so many piece Ive been working
on that I plan on posting. I plan on emailing you my files, I just didn't get around to it earlier. You'll see something
by next week for sure.
I actually have a couple of ideas I wanted to pitch your way. Just want to get all my thoughts laid out prior to
emailing you.
-
Logan -
I didn't try to send that data to Hammer Ive only every used QuArk. Ill grab a copy and test it out.
and no to the Debug mode. Im actually still getting my bearings trying to "debug" my artwork.
Its actually been a very long learning process for me, that I finally think I got somewhat down.
So I will try out what you've suggested...Thanks
#5
First thing - great work with this blog. After so much struggle with the export of the DIF models, this pipeline turned out to be some kind of a salvation for me. I finally get nice DIF models in TGEA, correctly exported from Constructor (no red lines, etc.).
But of course, as always, there must be a catch. I get nice models, but I have similar problems with collisions. My vehicle (like your player) is slipping through the DIF models, which of course makes the game impossible to play. And I wasn't able to get them to work so far.
You wrote "I decided to mix DIf style geometry with Polysoup" which sounds pretty interesting for me. DTS models with their polysoup work perfectly fine (I mean collision-fine), but without lightmaps they are quite useless. Combining DIF outlook with DTS collisions would be a perfect match. Do you have any hint, how did you manage to solve the problem with collisions?
02/01/2009 (5:26 pm)
Hi Surge,First thing - great work with this blog. After so much struggle with the export of the DIF models, this pipeline turned out to be some kind of a salvation for me. I finally get nice DIF models in TGEA, correctly exported from Constructor (no red lines, etc.).
But of course, as always, there must be a catch. I get nice models, but I have similar problems with collisions. My vehicle (like your player) is slipping through the DIF models, which of course makes the game impossible to play. And I wasn't able to get them to work so far.
You wrote "I decided to mix DIf style geometry with Polysoup" which sounds pretty interesting for me. DTS models with their polysoup work perfectly fine (I mean collision-fine), but without lightmaps they are quite useless. Combining DIF outlook with DTS collisions would be a perfect match. Do you have any hint, how did you manage to solve the problem with collisions?
Associate Logan Foster
perPixel Studios