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.dif to .dea exporter for Torque Constructor?

by Dennis Lamers · in Torque 3D Beginner · 09/26/2012 (11:31 am) · 5 replies

When ever I port my .dif models from Blockland maps to my new game Peekarica in Torque 3D a lot of faces on the model are missing. Even the collision does not work. This is for EVERY .dif model I try to place into the map and convert them to .dea models.

Here is the Artanic, with a lot of face glitches and has no collision.
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5185/screenshot00100000.png

Anyone who can help me out with this? I really appreciate your help.
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Associate Michael Hall
Distracted...
#1
09/26/2012 (11:41 am)
Chances are that the Interior object format used in something as old as Blockland has changed a lot over the years. Some old DIFs work fine, some don't. Once you've used T3D to turn old DIFs into DAEs, it's still good practice to use a modelling application to clean things up and tweak geometry.

For collision: place the new DAE as a TSStatic, and enable Visible Mesh Collision. Or you can use a modelling application to add collision meshes.

Torque 3D Owner Kenneth Eves
XAP GAMES
#2
09/26/2012 (12:05 pm)
I don't know blockland. Can it save out as a .map file? From that you might be able to use one of the map2dif converters to reach .dif for import. It might be that the exporter isn't producing a valid dif (they've changed a few times since TGE) that T3D understands.

Personally, what I'm doing is rather than converting DIF to DAE, I'm using the interiorInstance functionality in T3D and the DIFs directly. Other than bugs in basic lighting (which is pretty much broken), they seem to work fairly well. I haven't tested it thoroughly, still new to all this T3D stuff :-)

Torque Owner Dennis Lamers
#3
09/26/2012 (12:06 pm)
The Artanic model has 900 brushes (pieces like cubes, sliced cylinders, etc). Is this the problem why some of the faces of the model are gone? I've now re-exported the model as a normal .dif model (not legacy .dif model). Some of the faces has been fixed but still new glitches are discovered.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3006/screenshot00200000.png

Do I need to cut the ship in three pieces to fix those face glitches?

Torque 3D Owner Kenneth Eves
XAP GAMES
#4
09/26/2012 (1:03 pm)
No, 900 brushes is large but not excessive in my experience.

One idea, can you change your brushes to detail brush? Intersecting geometry can cause brushes to split each other, part of how the BSP format works. Since your end target is DAE for T3D, you don't need the BSP as the model will end up polymesh. In addition, it would lower the polycount which is good for performance.

Another thought, there is a pipeline that can be used for DIF to DTS conversion. Generate a .map, use Deled [1] with it's map importer to pull the mesh in, then export out into a format where another converter can get you into something that Torque can either use directly (DTS or DIF) or import (not sure what it can). Also, in Deled you would be able to see your model and check if the faces are intact.

1. http://www.delgine.com/

Torque Owner Dennis Lamers
#5
09/27/2012 (7:41 am)
Delgine failed to import the .map file... it says that "[" is not a valid floating point value.