LOD mesh problems (Max8, MultiRes, Max2DTS)
by James · in Artist Corner · 09/15/2007 (12:09 pm) · 2 replies
Alright, so I've spent what must be nearing 12 hours in total this week playing with settings and following about 5 or 6 differing ways of implementing LOD meshes for the Torque engine, all to no avail.
All of the documentation I've come across is outdated, vague or just plain confusing.
- It's a rigged model, so I'm using the MultiRes method of generating LODs.
- I'm using 3DS Max 8 SP3 to export.
- Using the Max2DTS plugins.
Any help would be appreciated here, before I go totally round the bend :P
Ideally, a step-by-step workflow of setting up the LOD generation would be best.
Currently I'm;
-Rigging my mesh, the object is named "boeing".
-Snapshotting my rigged mesh (Frame 0, Mesh).
-Naming it "MultiRes::boeing".
-Applying a MultiRes modifier to it.
-Hitting "Generate" in the MultiRes modifer.
-Going to the object properties of my "MultiRes::boeing" mesh and adding the details and sizes paramaters.
-Parenting it to the original mesh ("boeing").
-Creating the relevant detail## nodes for the details paramaters in my MultiRes and parenting them to the scene's root bone.
- Exporting to DTS.
I get varying errors depending on how the scene is set up, ranging from "Assertion error while welding verts" to there being no mesh at all in any of the LODs aside from -1 or there being the full mesh in each of the LODs.
Where am I going wrong?
All of the documentation I've come across is outdated, vague or just plain confusing.
- It's a rigged model, so I'm using the MultiRes method of generating LODs.
- I'm using 3DS Max 8 SP3 to export.
- Using the Max2DTS plugins.
Any help would be appreciated here, before I go totally round the bend :P
Ideally, a step-by-step workflow of setting up the LOD generation would be best.
Currently I'm;
-Rigging my mesh, the object is named "boeing".
-Snapshotting my rigged mesh (Frame 0, Mesh).
-Naming it "MultiRes::boeing".
-Applying a MultiRes modifier to it.
-Hitting "Generate" in the MultiRes modifer.
-Going to the object properties of my "MultiRes::boeing" mesh and adding the details and sizes paramaters.
-Parenting it to the original mesh ("boeing").
-Creating the relevant detail## nodes for the details paramaters in my MultiRes and parenting them to the scene's root bone.
- Exporting to DTS.
I get varying errors depending on how the scene is set up, ranging from "Assertion error while welding verts" to there being no mesh at all in any of the LODs aside from -1 or there being the full mesh in each of the LODs.
Where am I going wrong?
Torque Owner Thak
The step by step workflow you describe is correct.
However I usually name the meshes the lowest detail just to be sure:
So "boeing8" and "multires::boeing8"
then detail dummies for instance say 8, 64, 128
in the userdetails:
MULTIRES::DETAILS = 1.0,0.8,0.4
MULTIRES::SIZES = 128,64,8
apart from that your good.
The assertion error usually comes from meshes that have open faces.
Do an STL Check and fix all the errors of the main mesh and then rig it and snapshot the mesh for multiresing.
Thats all I can think of. If you need to have open faces, gotta do manual Lods - just snapshot the mesh 2 times polycrunch them with multires and name them boeing8 and boeing64 and skin them as well and name the original boeing128
Cheers