Have 3 DTSfiles - Different LODs - how to combine?

#21 ok had a quick fiddle with the datablock path.
Numerous errors about not being able to open the file whane I tried alternatives.
Errors dissapeared when I reverted to the original:

datablock StaticShapeData(CastleGate1Data)
{
   category = "Misc";
   shapeFile = "art/shapes/dexsoft/castle_gate_1.dts";
};

The system pre-pends C:TorqueTorque 3D 2009 Beta 5My ProjectsAlbagame to whatever path I put in the shapefile section

When I tried other alternatives (such as /game/art/shapes/dexsoft/castle_gate_1.dts) it complained about failing to open:

C:TorqueTorque 3D 2009 Beta 5My ProjectsAlbagamegameartshapesdexsoftcastle_gate_1.dts

So the datablock path seems ok as I don't get any complaints and it creates the object under misc when I put the original path as per above.

Once that is done I still get the cannot open mesh errors.

Current scripts:

datablock StaticShapeData(CastleGate1Data)
{
   category = "Misc";
   shapeFile = "art/shapes/dexsoft/castle_gate_1.dts";
};

In the dexsoft dir

singleton TSShapeConstructor(CastleGateTSSC1)
{
   baseShape = "./castle_gate_1.dts";
};

function CastleGateTSSC1::onLoad(%this)
{
   
   // print the names of all meshes in the shape
   %objCount = %this.getObjectCount();
   for (%i = 0; %i < %objCount; %i++)
   {
      %objName = %this.getObjectName(%i);
      %meshCount = %this.getMeshCount(%objName);
      for (%j = 0; %j < %meshCount; %j++)
         echo("'" @ %this.getMeshName(%objName, %j) @ "'");
   }
   %this.setMeshSize("Mesh Object", 1024);
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_lod1.dts", "Mesh Object", "CastleGate512");
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_lod2.dts", "Mesh Object", "CastleGate256");
   %this.dumpShape("./dump.txt");
}

#22 Yes, it has been quite some time since I looked at at 'T3D' Project Tree...


It seems to have changed a bit since my Alpha and Beta1 versions.

I now think it may be your constructor path that is bad. With new versions of T3D, the folder structure has changed. Is there a 'data' folder in your T3D project?? I 'think' that the newer versions of T3D no longer use that pathing.

I have in a 'newer' T3D tree, "art/shapes/blah", no "DATA/..." like in your TSShapeConstructor pathing. I was all assbackwards there, mea culpa. Wrong datablock...lol, with 'bad' pathing; and that would make sense; all the addMesh code is in that block of code.


Totally weird pathing in T3D....I guess.

#23 Yeah the actual tree is:

\game\art\shapes\....
\game\art\datablocks\.....

etc.
I removed the DATA dir from the path as per above

#24 # singleton TSShapeConstructor(CastleGateTSSC1)
# {
# baseShape = "./castle_gate_1.dts";
# };
#
# function CastleGateTSSC1::onLoad(%this)
# {
#
# // print the names of all meshes in the shape
# %objCount = %this.getObjectCount();
# for (%i = 0; %i < %objCount; %i++)
# {
# %objName = %this.getObjectName(%i);
# %meshCount = %this.getMeshCount(%objName);
# for (%j = 0; %j < %meshCount; %j++)
# echo("'" @ %this.getMeshName(%objName, %j) @ "'");
# }
# %this.setMeshSize("Mesh Object", 1024);
# %this.addMesh("castle_gate_lod1.dts", "Mesh Object", "CastleGate512");
# %this.addMesh("castle_gate_lod2.dts", "Mesh Object", "CastleGate256");
# %this.dumpShape("./dump.txt");
# }



what happens if you remove the 'pathing' from the string in addMesh,as above?

#25 ok now we get:

Exporting server prefs...
getMeshCount: Could not find object 'Mesh Object'
TSShape::setMeshSize: Could not find mesh 'Mesh Object'
Resource<TSShape>::create - Could not open 'castle_gate_lod1.dts'
Failed to create resource: [castle_gate_lod1.dts]
addMesh failed: Could not load source shape: 'castle_gate_lod1.dts'
Resource<TSShape>::create - Could not open 'castle_gate_lod2.dts'
Failed to create resource: [castle_gate_lod2.dts]
addMesh failed: Could not load source shape: 'castle_gate_lod2.dts'

Appears dropping the ./ off the paths doesn't help.

#26 I'm going to try a slightly different approach. I have Collada versions of the files as well and reading those I can see the names of the mesh as Mesh_Object.
I did try with the underscore previously and same errors of not finding the mesh appeared but I'll have a go with the collada files and using the cached DTS files after conversion.

watch this space :-)

#27 ok small success.

I'm getting a response now from the meshname interrogation
Mesh_Object2

However the addmesh commands are crashingthe app when I start it now so have commented them out and will check the mesh names ofthe LOD models to see if that's the hassle.

#28 OK, I'm beaten ;-(

1. Used the DAE files and renamed the cached.dts version to the above names.
2. I recieved the console report that the scene was not Toruw so it added a dummy node and detail level2 (Indicating a problem up front if the manufacturer of the model didn't structure the nodes right before exporting DTS versions)
3. Ran the system up and got the dump.txt to report the changed mesh size however if I have the addmessh commands uncommented then the game crashes before anything comes up.
4. Tried repeating the process with the LOD versions with no success.
5. Checked the LOD DAE files and all three DAE files use Mesh_Object

Final script which crashes:

singleton TSShapeConstructor(CastleGateTSSC1)
{
   baseShape = "./castle_gate_1.dts";
};

function CastleGateTSSC1::onLoad(%this)
{
   echo("Counting meshes");
   // print the names of all meshes in the shape
   %objCount = %this.getObjectCount();
   for (%i = 0; %i < %objCount; %i++)
   {
      %objName = %this.getObjectName(%i);
      %meshCount = %this.getMeshCount(%objName);
      for (%j = 0; %j < %meshCount; %j++)
         echo("'" @ %this.getMeshName(%objName, %j) @ "'");
   }
   %this.setMeshSize("Mesh_Object", 1024);
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD1.dts", "Mesh_Object", "CastleGate512");
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD2.dts", "Mesh_Object", "CastleGate256");
   %this.dumpShape("./dump.txt");
}

If I comment out the addmesh lines then the system runs up and I get a dump.txt showing the Mesh_Object resized to detail 1024

Uncomment the AddMesh lines and the system crashes before anything comes up. (I am assuming at the point the datablock loads this object up and therefore when this script is executed).

Last ditch suggestions anyone?
I'm expecting remodel time is rapidly approaching....

And Rex, Chris, et al, many thanks for helping with this one.

#29 And just for kicks in case the AddMesh wants the same mesh name used I tried this:

....
   %this.setMeshSize("Mesh_Object", 1024);
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD1.dts", "Mesh_Object", "Mesh_Object512");
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD2.dts", "Mesh_Object", "Mesh_Object256");
   %this.dumpShape("./dump.txt");
}

Still crashes. Windows error doesn't shed any light.

#30 @David - This was with beta5, right? There was a bug in the addMesh command with earlier versions that would crash if you added a skinned mesh, but I've tested that this was working in beta5 in the past.

Aside from that though, it seems like there is something odd going on with these models. 'getObjectName' returns "Mesh Object", but then this name does not work when trying to find a mesh.

Could you send me the 3 DTS files? I will have a poke into the code to see what is going wrong.

#31 Thanks Chris,
Mail sent.

#32 @David:

There were 2 separate issues here; the first I consider an error in the DTS export. The DTS format stores strings used by the shape in an array which indexed by the various shape elements. So for example, a node might have nameIndex=3, which means the node's name is at string index 3.

Torque takes advantage of this feature to speed up looking for a particular node or object by name. Say we're searching for the "Mesh Object" object. Torque looks through the string array for the index of the "Mesh Object" string. If found, Torque looks through all the objects for one with a matching nameIndex.

The problem with your DTS files is that the strings in the array are not unique. There are two instances of "Mesh Object"; one used by a node and one used by an object. So when Torque goes looking for the "Mesh Object" object, it finds the index of the node string (since that just happens to be first) and then it can't find an object with matching nameIndex! Doh!

One could argue that Torque should handle this, but I really think it is a bug in the export of the DTS files. It can be 'hacked' around by manually editing the DTS file and changing one of the "Mesh Object" strings. If you do this, make sure to keep the length of the string the same. Changing one of them to "MeshObjNode" for example would be ok, but "Mesh Object2" would not work (because of the way the DTS format stores strings).


Quite separately, there is a bug in beta5 that causes a crash when adding a mesh using TSShapeConstructor (this is the one you see when you tried to use Collada). I have fixed this in trunk and it will be available in the upcoming release.

#33 For reference, I changed the first instance of the "Mesh Object" string in each DTS file to "MeshObjNode", and used the following TSShapeConstructor script:

singleton TSShapeConstructor(CastleGateTSSC1)  
{  
   baseShape = "./castle_gate_1.dts";  
};  
  
function CastleGateTSSC1::onLoad(%this)  
{  
   %this.setMeshSize("Mesh Object32", 1024);  
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD1.dts", "Mesh Object32", "Mesh Object512");
   %this.addMesh("./castle_gate_LOD2.dts", "Mesh Object32", "Mesh Object256");
   %this.dumpShape("./dump.txt");
}

With the crash-bugfix in trunk, I get a single object with 3 LODs as expected. The dump.txt output is:

Shape Hierarchy:

   Details:
      detail1024, Subtree 0, objectDetail 0, size 1024
      detail512, Subtree 0, objectDetail 1, size 512
      detail256, Subtree 0, objectDetail 2, size 256

   Subtrees:
      Subtree 0
         MeshObjNode

   Skins:
      Skin Mesh Object with following details:  1024 512 256


   Sequences:
        0: Untitled

   Material list:
   material #0: 'STONE_2'.
   material #1: 'STONE_3'.
   material #2: 'WOOD_5'.
   material #3: 'stone_2'.
   material #4: 'stone_3'.
   material #5: 'wood_5'.
   material #6: 'LOD_castle_gate'.

#34 Excellent work thanks Chris.
Glad it wasn't just me then!
Rather than hack away at the DTS files though I think I'll just work on the original files in Max and export the LODs correctly.

This does have the added advantage that any other modifications we need to make won't fall foul of improperly exported DTS files as well..
Great work and thanks for the investigation

DM

#35 What program will open DTS files so that I can manually edit them, please?

#36

Quote:What program will open DTS files so that I can manually edit them, please?

Any text or hex editor. When I say manually edit, I mean it! :-)

#37 When I open a DTS in HxD hex editor, the hex codes come up fine, but the ascii is all garbled. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

#38 Unlike collada (which is just XML), DTS is a binary file format. The only section that is easily readable is the list of strings near the end of the file. In the very specific case of editing one of these strings, any text or hex editor is suitable.

Changing anything else in a DTS file by hand is not recommended!

#39 Ok, I see that now. I think I'll take your advice and stay away from this, however. Thanks for the info.