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Topics - wallworm

#801
Model WIPs / Cthulhu
May 15, 2011, 12:31:34 AM
I'm working on Mr. Cthulhu. Loving the new Unwrap UVW tools in Max 2012... now that they work right with the Hot Fix. These screen shots are in Max > Mudbox > Max.





He's being used in an animation I'm doing for someone. I'll also use him in a Source map as well.
#802
General Discussion / Server Outage
May 12, 2011, 01:03:04 AM
The server was offline for several hours overnight. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Anyone who may have emailed me last night will need to resend...
#803
Wall Worm News / WWMT 1.41 Released
May 09, 2011, 06:00:28 PM
Version 1.41 released 05-09-2011


  • Added more settings to the Quick WWMT tools in the Utilities Tab. You can now pre-assign most of the checkboxes from the Basic Model & QC and Collision Model & Physics rollouts to the Quick WWMT Selections.
  • Added Clear From Sel button in Utilities Rollout that will remove all WWMT data and helpers from the selection.
  • Updated the Pick Model function to properly clear every possible setting in the UI to the defaults if there is already a WWMT object filling the UI when a new WWMT helper is selected. The 1.4 addition of this feature sometimes left values in the UI if the first model had a property assigned that is, by default, undefined in the WWMT Struct and the second model did not have a value set.
  • Caught some more possible exceptions (fringe cases that have been reported and due to pressing some buttons after scene objects have been deleted).
#804
After using WWMT, some people find that they cannot export an SMD manually through File > Export. This problem happens because an INI file that tells the Wunderboy SMD Exporter to run in batch mode doesn't get deleted after export in some occasions (either because of file-lock or an uncaught exception).

You can alleviate this problem completely by updating your SMD Exporter to Version 1.6 or later at www.wunderboy.org .

You can also read the relevant entry on the WWMT FAQ page on how to manually fix the problem (just delete the INI file).

Of course, just updating the SMD Exporter to 1.6+ is the best solution.
#805
Wall Worm News / Version 1.4 Released
April 26, 2011, 12:53:05 AM
Version 1.4 was released today with various new features. Among them are enhanced $bodygroup tools and expanded utilties rollout that has buttons to let you convert all selected scene objects into their own WWMT objects, as well as exporting/compiling all selected WWMT objects, as well as export all textures.

Here's the new video demonstrating the $bodygroups usage:

#806
Using WWMT / Bodygroups Video Loaded
April 26, 2011, 12:50:40 AM
#807
Wall Worm Sky Writer / Sky Writer 0.3 released
April 23, 2011, 11:33:02 PM
This version fixes a bug when exporting textures using 3ds Max 2012. You only need this update if you are using 2012...
#808
Wall Worm News / WWMT 1.31 Released
April 23, 2011, 11:27:54 PM
I had planned on holding off until I've added some more $bodygroups features... but when I saw that Cannonfodder had officially released his SMD Exporter for 2012, I decided to load the 2012 fix.

This update only fixes a bug that wouldn't let the compilers work upon export inside 3ds Max 2012. If you are using an older version of Max, you don't need this update.

I'll release an update next week that does add functionality.
#809
Version 1.3 adds support for $bodygroup . I'll add a video next week... here are the basic docs.
#810
So I've gotten to use 3ds Max 2012 for over a week now and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this release. I shared some on the Area forums... but I didn't feel like going into a lot of detail there for a couple of reasons: namely, I didn't want to fall into the crowd of people that seem hysterical.

I am going to start with the disappointing things about this release.

1) CAT is still broken
2) MAXScript is broken in a way that also makes WWMT nearly unusable (at the initial release of 2012)
3) Viewport performance is not as awesome as advertised
4) Unwrap UVW is unusably laggy

Just reviewing the Area forums will expose other problems. These are the issues that are near-and-dear to me personally, though.

I know that software development is not always pretty. Bugs happen. I'm personally familiar with releasing new versions of WWMT only to find that I broke something... so I understand how it happens.

But there is one glaring difference between small fries like me releasing a program with bugs and a company like Autodesk... I have extremely limited resources (in time, equipment, personnel and money) and Autodesk has, relatively speaking, no limit. The other extremely obvious difference is that I am not getting paid to build WWMT... but Autodesk is selling their software at a hefty price!

So it is more than a little unsettling to have a major version release that has so many broken features.

Enough of the new features are good enough that I expect 3ds Max 2012 to be one of the best versions ever. But the problem is that it was released in a state where it is essentially unusable (kind of like the initial release of WWMT :) )... and again, I need to point out that no one pays for WWMT!

Because of the flaws in 2012's release, many people clamor for a longer development cycle. I disagree... I think it should be faster, more dynamic. The problems may be that there are not enough people in the current development team... Having too few people trying to do too much in the timeframe is likely a cause... so add more people.

I think that Autodesk should release more regular updates... even weekly ones. They may simply be minor updates (like "This week we made the Blobmesh tool window for Selecting Particle Flow events work again.") When each new fix has been made, we should be able to access it and use it right away... instead of waiting for weeks/months for batches of updates.

An argument against that is that weekly releases of little updates doesn't give anyone time to test the updates. But my immediate reaction is that the long, drawn-out release cycles obviously doesn't provide enough in-house testing either, as it is (or else we wouldn't have the problems that are in this release). Since the release of 2012 makes all the users feel like Beta testers anyway, why not release regular, weekly updates that we can choose to run the minute they fix a problem we want to fix?

If the goal is to have the Max users be the quality control testers after launch, you might as well integrate us more in real-time.

So that's my sour side of this launch.

There are a lot of bright spots, though. The conform additions to the Graphite Modeling tool are nice; the Unwrap UVW interface (despite being laggy) is long overdue; the viewport performance is generally better in Nitrous than pre-Nitrous (with exceptions). And, from what I've read on the Area forums by Ken Pimentel, many issues are being addressed at the moment (including, finally, some attention to CAT).

So despite my initial frustration with 3ds 2012, I do have hopes that 3ds Max 2012 will be the best Max yet when it is released (see, if you change your perspective... you can just say that the initial release was a pre-release and the the first patch is the actual release...) In a perfect world you might not have to do that... but this is the world we live in.

Fix 2012, and most Max users will be happy. But please be more careful in the future, Autodesk! For those of us who love Max, this episode gives us nightmares.
#811
There is a bug with MAXScript in 3ds Max 2012 at initial release of Max 2012. Older versions of Max do not have this bug. MAXScript locks files it creates and does not release them until 3ds closes.

The fix to this problem is to install the latest Service Pack.
#812
Wall Worm News / Wunderboy SMD Exporter 1.6 Released
April 14, 2011, 09:26:54 AM
Wunderboy released version 1.6 of his SMD Exporter today. Everyone who uses WWMT should thank him for some of the things he's done to help support the Source community. If you use his exporter and WWMT, you should go get this version as it is required for some of the new WWMT features (like using non-renderable meshes as bones, which you might need if you want to use CAT as your rig).

Please share with Wunderboy your appreciation by donating something to his Paypal Donate link on his site. If you can't maybe at least send him a thankful email.

PS. At the moment, it is only released for 3ds Max 9 thru 2011.
#813
Wall Worm News / WWMT 1.21 Released
April 13, 2011, 01:07:10 PM
I released WWMT 1.21 today to fix a bug where the Generate LODs function would fail if you had the Max Selection Lock turned on when you pressed the Generate LODs button.
#814
Wall Worm News / WWMT 1.2 Released
April 11, 2011, 07:38:26 PM
I neglected to mention yesterday that I loaded version 1.2 to fix a bug where the default material was using the default model path rather than the default material path in the Settings.
#815
Using WWMT / Video on Setting up WWMT
April 10, 2011, 06:53:13 PM
If you cannot figure out the installation and setup of WWMT, this video should help. Note that you should still refer to the docs as much as possible... but I tried to spell it all out here:

#816
I've updated the VMF exporter for this tool to include any Wall Worm Model Tool models in the scene. If there are any, the VMF will include them as prop_static be default (or prop_physics if they have any prop data).

Note that at the moment the prop_physics models are offset in the Z axis incorrectly and will have to be moved down in hammer.
#817
Wall Worm News / 3ds Max 2012 is Out
April 08, 2011, 12:09:54 PM
3ds Max 2012 is now out. Unfortunately, I can't yet test anything in 2012 since I'm waiting for an updated license from Autodesk for my server.

As such, I cannot test anything yet.

I'm posting this because I'm starting to get emails about WWMT and the exporters in the new version. Please do not email me directly as I will post here the minute I have any concrete information regarding WWMT and the SMD exporters in Max 2012.

I assume that WWMT itself is going to work fine since it is all MAXScript. But...

I assume that the current SMD exporters will not work yet because I have read that 2012 breaks the SDK. I know that Wunderboy is already looking into an update for his exporter... and I assume that Cannonfodder will soon as well.

I'' share info as I get it here.
#818
Wall Worm News / Version 1.1 Released
April 05, 2011, 12:12:16 PM
Today there is a significant release (Version 1.1) that fixes several features. Those are listed below:

Version 1.1 released 04-05-2011
• Fixed the Use Local Origin as Origin function.
• Moved Use Local Origin as Origin and Alt Origin checkboxes from Lighting & Miscellaneous rollout to Model & Basic QC rollout.
• Fixed the output of $illumposition to accurate position. Previous versions only worked if model's pivot point (local origin) was located at the world origin [0,0,0].
• Fixed $masscenter to output to correct position. Previous versions only worked if model's pivot point (local origin) was located at the world origin [0,0,0].
• Fixed MAXScript error that happened when you deleted a $illumposition helper and then tried to export the model and/or add another $illumposition helper.
• Fixed MAXScript error that happened when you deleted a $masscenter helper and then tried to export the model and/or add another $masscenter helper.
• Changed name of "Sky" scale button to "1/16" and added another one for "1/32" for L4D.
#819
Wall Worm News / WWMT 1.01 Released
April 04, 2011, 12:49:37 PM
I've released version 1.01 today. The main bug fix is catching errors when trying to run the VTF exporter and the materials contain non-TGA bitmaps.

I also added a button next to the scale spinner called "Sky" that sets the scale to 1/16; However, people using L4D may find that the models are still too big as I have read in the docs that L4D uses 1/32.

Full changelog: http://wallworm.com/projects/utilities/docs/resources/changelog.html

Note this does not include updates to the Origin Offset that I've been hoping to fix/finish. The bright ideas I had over the weekend to fix it weren't actually that bright... and I haven't figured it out yet.
#820
Wall Worm News / Origin Offset
April 03, 2011, 01:39:57 PM
For those of you who happen to use the origin offset (and want it to be less buggy)... rejoice! Or... at least hope to rejoice. I think I have a solution for it. I'll try to address that next week.
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