Wall Worm Forums

Well I don't have the textures yet... just the AO. Nonetheless... here is another update. Rebuilt the skull to look less like a crocodile and more like a plesiosaur.

New shot... rebuilt the vertebrae and ribs to match more realistically the reference material. Working on flippers. Added some AO to various pieces.

I have a Beta of Sky Writer 1.0 for anyone who wants to test it. (That is now included in the WWMT download--but still read on...)

Previously, Sky Writer has not actually exported true HDR skies because it was saving all files as TGAs... and even the 32bit TGA exporter isn't saving actual HDR bitmaps.

To get the skies into true HDR, you have to send PFM bitmaps to VTEX. Unfortunately, 3ds Max does not save PFM files. But Max will export other HDR formats... so I have built a new way for the tool to work.

Installing the Beta

• Download the latest version of Wall Worm Model Tools
• Install WWMT

Here is the Beta 0.4+ workflow:

• Create a Sky Writer Helper
• Give a sky name
• Set Various Parameters (gamma)
• If you want true HDR, check the PFM button
• Click the Render button
• After the render is done, click the Open folder
• Open the EXR* files that are saved alongside the TGA files in Photoshop
• In Photoshop... Flip the image Vertically
• In Photoshop, save the file as a PFM file
• Back in Sky Writer (in Max) click the Compile button
• After the compile is done... open the VMT for each HDR sky texture and delete the first $basetexture line if you want to have the LDR fallback that is listed in the second $basetexture line; if you do not want to use the LDR fallback, remove the second $basetexture line.
• Test the sky in a map

*OpenEXR (.EXR) files are only supported in MAXScript in 3ds Max 2011+. If you are using an older version of Max, the exporter will try to create a DDS file (another HDR Format). Unfortunately, DDS formats cannot be controlled by MAXScript... so to make the correct settings, you may need to create manual DDS presets by saving a DDS file in Max prior to rendering your sky. (The same may also be true of some OpenEXR properties--the EXR type and format cannot be controlled by MAXScript... so if the EXR files are not working as expected in your version of Max... save an EXR file to create a new default with the type as Full Float and a format of RGB--since you do not want any alpha in the sky.)

If you want to test this version, simply contact me. Please provide your feedback in using this beta.


Other notes... in the current beta, I've activated the Half-Height Sides button. That button will add a command into the VMT to scale the texture... but you will need to crop and recompile the VTF manually after Sky Writer has made the VTFs since VTEX won't allow the compilation of non-square sky textures. If you do not do that, your sides will be stretched horribly when using that option.

So I've been working a little more with skies and am now beginning to flesh out Sky Writer. There are several flaws with SW at the moment... one is that the skies are inverted in the current public implementation. I've fixed this in my dev version.

Another problem is a lack of LDR fallbacks. I'm working on that right now.

I've also found that the Sky Writer code is making masks in the TGA for the skies that it shouldn't. This did not happen in the past... so I do not know if it is a problem in Max 2012 SP2 (which is what I'm currently using) or something else--but I don't remember this problem in my original release of Sky Writer.

Also... I think that I will be able to make Sky Writer cubemaps be compatible with not only Source cubemaps but also the normal Max reflect/refract maps soon.

So, as everyone probably realizes... Sky Writer is still a beta. But I'm focused on ending the beta stage soon.

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Only Mildly Related Rant...

I mentioned that I've been using Vue lately. I have. But the more I have used it, the more my excitement over its tools is waning.

I do like Vue at a certain level... but more and more I am dropping many of its tools. At this point, I'm really only using Vue for clouds and atmospherics. I've ditched making landscapes in Vue... as I really think it's just easier to make them with standard Max tools.

One thing that has started to really piss me off about Vue is that it won't work with the Render Preview in the Exposure Control rollout. Vue skies and objects aren't available in that window... so basically the whole purpose of being able to use the exposure control preview is ignored--and you waste time doing extra renderings for each change to the exposure.

I've mentioned my frustration in the Vue forums and in a tech support ticket... but e-on software has passed the buck and blamed it on the developers of Mental Ray. I'm not sold on that argument... but I don't know the technical backend of it; my gut tells me that e-on software just doesn't want to spend time on it since it is a feature specific to Max users... and they develop for a bunch of apps. But now it makes me a little irritated that I forked over a couple thousand dollars on something that was marketed as a tool that works seamlessly in Max.

That being said... I'm still using Vue and getting some beautiful results with atmospheric effects and clouds. I'm just not as satisfied with the app as I'd expected to be after using it for close to a year.

Grumble, grumble... :)

I'm in the middle of updating some of the features in WWMT and integrating the soon-to-be released Wunderboy SMD Exporter 1.7. At the moment, there are a few things I've done to clean up the flow and alleviate problems that some users have:

One long-time quandry users fall into is using Grouped geometry. WWMT has never handled Grouped geometry because I never got around to including support for it. For some reason, Max handles grouped geometry significantly differently than other collections... and to deal with that you have to make all kinds of extra IF THIS ELSE THAT blocks in your code to accomodate. Except for a rare donation here and there... I don't get paid for this... and I've always ignored that problem--I've documented it and simply don't use Group for models I'm exporting to Source.

But I've troubleshooted enough problems to know that people aren't seeing that in the docs. One thing I plan on doing is revamping the docs soon... but in reality I'm sure that many people will still miss that.

So I started adding Group support this week and learned that the SMD Exporter also doesn't work with Grouped geometry. I haven't heard from Wunderboy about his intention to add it or not. As he also does it all for free... I'm not sure it's going to be worth the effort.

So I've been adding a bunch of checks in the UI... so if you try to add grouped geometry it will alert a message and tell you not to use grouped geometry. Nothing will stop you from grouping after you've added geometry to a WWMT helper... and I am not going to un-optimize the export code by adding more checks. So at some point I have to take a stance on it... and expect the users to actually read the docs from start to finish when learning to use it! I cannot let myself stress about users not being able to figure things out when I have already tried to make things as straightforward as I can and documented a lot of the tools.

A couple of the big changes deal with updates Wunderboy has included in the SMD Exporter 1.7 update:

• All Material Types now supported. This means you can use things like the Shell Material--which can further speed your process when using RTT.
• Any Mapping Channel now available for exporting. Previously, only channel 1 was supported. Now there will be a channel spinner in WWMT that lets you choose what channel to use for exporting your SMD's UVW mapping. This will speed the process of getting your models into Source since you will be able to work in arbitrary mapping channels.

There will be an incomplete addition to the Displacement tool. I've been working on adding UVW controls into the Displacements... but it will be less-than-fully tested by the time that the next WWMT comes out. Hopefully within a month or two you will be able to control the displacement mapping arbitrarily. Unfortunately, I already predict a lot of support emails regarding this because people will expect to be able to use any type of UVW mapping... but Source displacements can only have Planar mapping (Unless there is something I've missed during my time scouring the VMF/Displacement documentation). Still... when I've added that support fully... it will finally make the displacement a WYSIWYG displacement editor.

The other big-ticket item on the top of my TODO list is adding an animated texture exporter. It will be nice to just animate a texture and export it straight into Source as a collection of VTFs and the associated animated VMT. It won't be in this next update, but will be coming soon.

Last, but not least, I want to give a shout-out and warm Thank You to Rick_D from the Polycount forums. He gave a very generous donation to me this last week.... which is greatly appreciated. A few more of those, and I will be able to pay for another year of Autodesk Subscription for another year :)

Were you able to get everything squared away?

This problem happens if:

The Material Root in the Settings floater is not set or is set to a path that is not writable
The Material Folder Path in the WWMT UI does not exist inside the material path listed above

The first option is in the main settings floater, and the second is in the WWMT UI.

The instructions here should give you a better understanding.

Ahh... the age-old-question... :)

I'm not truly qualified to give any concrete answer. But I'll give my my own guidelines.

• Don't worry about it too much to begin with.
• Make Models
• Make Textures
• Repeat above steps an arbitrary number of times
• Test model in game
• Test model in live multiplayer server
• Apply a MultiRes or ProOptimizer modifier... reduce tris... restest in game and see how it looks... if looks the same use lower poly...
• Tweak if need be, repeat, etc
• Don't worry about it too much*

*Unless, of course, you are doing it professionally and your paycheck depends on it :)

Anyway, I don't think there is a magic number. Some models can look high detail with exceptionally low-poly because of texturing. Some need more geometry because of what they are. So really it's all about getting some experience making models and finding the right balance. I think you just develop a "feel" for how much detail you need over time.

Because you can add LODs to models, you don't have to worry too much as long as you make it such that when the model is tiny in the screen... that tiny model doesn't have a lot of geometry. Also, for static props utilize the max viewable distance in Hammer's entity properties... and you can make sure that models don't even render ... so there are more things to consider than simply tri-count.

In the end, it is often making the balance between how much time you have to devote to this specific prop and how prominent it is in the scene.

Again, this is just my observation and opinion. I'm very confident you'll get a much different array of answers each time you ask the question :)

Quote from: techbot on January 06, 2012, 01:11:18 PM
Hello,

for some reason it's still not working for me, and yes, I have the latest Version of WWMT.

If I try to open it while Max running it just says "Another program is currently using this file."

If I close Max completely I'm able to run the .bat file fine.

Sorry about the bad info above (which I have updated). Simply close Max, install Service Pack 2... and the problem will go away.

I've added a new Feature Request: Alternative scaling/skewing gizmo like in CorelDRAW, other 2D apps


Edit by AndraX2000: Fixed link.

Pier Janssen (developer of the popular Outliner script) recently released a new MAXScript called Edge Smooth that lets you control face smoothing by the edges. Since I don't use Maya, I can't speak from experience... but this seems to be a technique brought in from the Maya world.

Although I like the Max way of using Smoothing Groups... this "new" method is pretty convenient in many circumstances. I've found it convenient enough to add it as a set of keyboard shortcuts to Smooth and Harden the edges.

If you don't have it, you should. And for you Maya users... it may make Max feel a little more comfortable for you :)

As some of you may know, Autodesk now launched a site in the last year or two for users to voice their opinions about new features in 3ds Max. I would like to ask any WWMT users to go vote for some of the features that Wunderboy and myself have suggested; these features would directly help the development of WWMT/Wunderboy tools... and/or simply add general benefit tools.

Shawn's Request: Render To Texture onto Multiple Objects at Once into one single output image (or multiple respective images if using different target maps). This would make it easier to Unwrap multiple objects at once and output into a single image without having to composite the bitmaps later in Photoshop. This is good if you want to pack the textures for multiple objects into a single image. I primarily want this for level design.

Wunderboy's Request: Allow Bones to be drawn along any axis rather than just the X axis. This will improve the quality of the SMD Importer... which is something I know that a lot of you use.

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I do know that there is a function that does my request in the RTT Assist plugin that Miauu wrote (one of my favorite 3ds Scripters)... but honestly I think this is a feature that should be readily available inside a vanilla install of Max.

So I've had this game for years but never really played it. We played it over the last week... and it's actually great fun. Here's how much fun on my second night playing in the attached screen shot. (Until I got used to the layout of that map, I think I was something like 8-35).

Of course, I'm still lost in most of the maps.

I've loaded a new video on getting materials into Source as brush materials (LightmapGeneric).

This topic has been moved to WWMT Questions.

http://www.wallworm.net/index.php?topic=179.0