vBF2/PR 3dsMax Tools - Import/Export/Lightmaps/Animation - Max 9 and newer!

[Harmonikater]

Update on LMing:

DestroyableObjects are now imported and should be lightmapped automatically as well (both geom0 and geom1). During Terrain rendering only geom0lod0 will be casting shadows
They are also recognized in the LM size file as having two geoms.
Multiple geoms are separated by a "|" in the size file like so:

Code: Select all

antitankwall_destroyable	 64 32 16 16 16 | 256 128 64 32

Additionally, getting sizes from Sample files should now work for all geoms/lods as well as custom resolutions.



For Terrain Rendering there are now the following steps (assuming Land, Lights, Statics, etc. are already set up.):

1. Set a terrain folder
2. Set the Patches and Patchsize (upon loading of terrain, suggested values are automatically set)
3. Click on Render Terrain.
4. Wait...
5. Check the created .tga file in the terrain folder. Now's the time to do touchups in PS for those inclined to do so.
6. Click on Split Terrain. This will split the .tga into the specified amount of .dds terrain patches. If an entire patch is within a cumulative error threshold, currently 10 (so if the first pixel is ARGB 0001 and some other is ARGB 0301 it will be treated as being uniform, this is ncecssary since I found that terrain patches may exhibit very small, barely discernible unless zoomed in very close, differences even if completely flat), it will be reduced to a 8x8 patch like described in Rhinos Tutorial.

More additions:
Added checkbox to import StaticObjects only as helpers,
Added Remduls MeshCheck and ObjExport to the Tools Menu



Regarding the 3p animation systems, there is no template folder in the tools.
I'll try to add a tutorial on how to create initial templates and an example template asap.

Link will be updated later today.

[Outlawz7]

Additionally, getting sizes from Sample files should now work for all geoms/lods as well as custom resolutions.

This is something I've been pestering [R-DEV]rPoXoTauJIo for a year with, trying to get a script to gather all statics and sizes instead of doing it by hand as per LM tutorial.

Does it also detect statics without samples and list them as such and also statics with lightmapping disabled ie. GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1

[Harmonikater]

Updated first post with new version 0.45b
Feel free to download and test extensively!

Does it also detect statics without samples and list them as such and also statics with lightmapping disabled ie. GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1

I've now included checking for GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1 (will result in "none" in the size file).
Though this is done in .con-file parsing, so only for those objects that are loaded onto the map.
Using the "Build Sizes File From:" would require parsing of ALL confiles, so that will check only sample files.

However sample files and confiles are now automatically checked upon StaticObjects.con import.

Only those with no sample files and no doNotGenerateLightmaps 1 will end up with undefined in the size file. I.e. if all required sample files are present, no further steps are required setting up the sizes, and one can (in theory) start rendering straightaway.
"Apply Lightmap Settings" is also automatically applied for those with samples. Of course it can still be used manually at any time, if lightmap sizes are manually changed.

EDIT:
Also included a template for the 3P Animation System to play around with.

[Rhino]

I've now included checking for GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1 (will result in "none" in the size file).
Though this is done in .con-file parsing, so only for those objects that are loaded onto the map.

"GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1" is kinda a missleading command.

It does not mean that the static will not have any shadows generated for it, but instead, it means that the object does not cast any shadows onto the terrain or other objects. This setting is normally used for things like railway tracks, pavements etc that are so low to the ground that they can't cast any shadows on anything, other than the terrain they are on which if they did, would only result in them casting a big black shadow on the terrain they are sitting on which results in more obvious zfighting with the terrain at distance.

It would, however, we worth checking this command and setting the object not to cast shadows in Max too

I believe the command you're looking for is called something along the lines of "NoLightmaps" or something like that but iirc, it is hardly ever used.

[Harmonikater]

Ah right, misunderstood that then.
So I'll change it to
GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1 -> no shadow casting
GeometryTemplate.noLighting 1 -> no lightmaps

If GeometryTemplate.noLighting is the correct command.
I wonder what geometryTemplate.lightmapOverride does?

[Rhino]

Ah right, misunderstood that then.
So I'll change it to
GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1 -> no shadow casting
GeometryTemplate.noLighting 1 -> no lightmaps

If GeometryTemplate.noLighting is the correct command.
I wonder what geometryTemplate.lightmapOverride does?

I believe that is correct yes, but not 100% sure, "noLighting 1" may also affect dynamic lights, just not sure.

And ye, dunno what LMOverride doses sorry

[Mats391]

Still getting errors on templates

Just gonna wait on the tutorial as I have no idea what I was doing

[B4rr3l]

Just think you guys should be focusing that energy on blender ... It's powerful, it's open source, has a lot of open source tools and plugins, and it's very complete for everything from modeling to animation and have an amazing rendering capacity with awesome lightmaps...

It should be easier to develop and implemnt this tools and improve them also, since you know all the software code.

[B4rr3l]

I h8 the idea to be prisoner of a $3.000 software..

[rPoXoTauJIo]

Just think you guys should be focusing that energy on blender ... It's powerful, it's open source, has a lot of open source tools and plugins, and it's very complete for everything from modeling to animation and have an amazing rendering capacity with awesome lightmaps...

It should be easier to develop and implemnt this tools and improve them also, since you know all the software code.

"Just think you guys should focusing that energy on UE4...
It's powerful, it's opensource, has a lot of open source tools and plugins...."

Thing is, everything possible in development. You can change engine, write new exporter, move dev repo to git and code new build tools, etc etc... But it takes HUGE amount of time. It's pretty interesting to do all new stuff which might be useful in future someday.. someday. While people await for content, finished product, not some tools.

On a sidenote, blender indeed quite easy for plugins stuff. Infact i'm already working on export tools for blender, as with zero experience in it i made PoC in just few hours.

Could always utilize some help as the free time ain't infinite

I h8 the idea to be prisoner of a $3.000 software..

As export tools been only for max 9 until latest time, you can only guess from where all modders around were getting their distributives

[B4rr3l]

rPoXoTauJIo;2171216']"Just think you guys should focusing that energy on UE4...
It's powerful, it's opensource, has a lot of open source tools and plugins...."

Thing is, everything possible in development. You can change engine, write new exporter, move dev repo to git and code new build tools, etc etc... But it takes HUGE amount of time. It's pretty interesting to do all new stuff which might be useful in future someday.. someday. While people await for content, finished product, not some tools.

On a sidenote, blender indeed quite easy for plugins stuff. Infact i'm already working on export tools for blender, as with zero experience in it i made PoC in just few hours.

Could always utilize some help as the free time ain't infinite


As export tools been only for max 9 until latest time, you can only guess from where all modders around were getting their distributives

Yeah m8 and that's valid for everything else out there, in less than 3 hours messing around I was making my own tree models, with material and UV map and having it rendered, something for me was supposed to be complicated in 3dMax.

UE4 sux, in every single way, almost 40GB just to have it installed, it's not efficient and is very slow. I still wainting Squad since PRe alpha to be playable and that's the same for every other game that uses that engine for open world purposes, Almost everything it's possible with Blender + Refractor + some nice z-buffer enabled post process technique.


and we already have most of the things ready to use in refractor, so I would love to have a blender alternative for working in BF2 and without the need to be on the hand of an $3.000+ software that could easily lacks our "support" tomorrow.

Best engine I would say Dagor and Outera...

[shahram]

Outerra is a beast for open world games. ( I didn't even know there is something like it ) why didn't squad use it? I am sure if they did, squad was a real game now. I hope someday it will be used for making a realistic and PR-like game.
I hate ARMA because of its ugly and super unrealistic engine and you know if ARMA was made with this engine I avoided other games in this category.

[Rhino]

Best engine I would say Dagor and Outera...

ehhhh I wouldn't say that and none of them are anything like as powerful as UE4.

Dargo while ye, its most recent version isn't too bad, isn't anything like as flexible as UE4, lacks a bunch of features UE4 and finally it isn't available as an indie dev engine as far as I know and you would have to pay big bucks just to get your hands on it.

Outerra, ye, umm, all the engine has is a pretty tech demo and no real games based off of it and if the engine has no games based off of it by now, you can pretty safely say it never will. Why might you ask? Well, there is a humongous gap between an engine that just has a pretty tech demo and one you can actually play a game on, let alone with 100 players on a server etc...

Other than UE4, the only real 1/2 decent engine out there for indie devs is Unity (5) which is by far the most flexible engine out there but doesn't have all the core features UE4 has, but some can be hacked in. And I didn't include CryEngine in there because under all the fancy gfx etc, it is a pretty big mess and there is so little support for it you wouldn't get a (normal) Indie Game off the ground with it, and just look at Star Citizen for even a full blown indie project struggling with that engine, which is basically just riding on its hype and not much else.


Anyways can we please get back on topic ppl.

[Harmonikater]

I haven't had the chance to check this out yet but did anyone try the OG lod tool mentioned in OP?

Made some updates to that and added tutorial in OP

[Outlawz7]

We'll have to manually adjust the planes so that they match with the texture, i.e. move the planes such that they intersect in the tree trunk.

No way to automate that part, make the script align planes properly?

Also we've had discussion about tree lods, especially the very jungle tree(s) used in tutorial after we released Rhino's Operation Soul Rebel map where he redid the LODs for those trees in order to try and increase performance. We think it's not just about the tri count but also alpha testing, it may be better to cut off transparent parts of the mesh ie. sth like this:



I found there's tools that create planar geometry shaped on texture, mainly for sprite based games so it's possible?

[worldlife]

Just think you guys should be focusing that energy on blender ... It's powerful, it's open source, has a lot of open source tools and plugins, and it's very complete for everything from modeling to animation and have an amazing rendering capacity with awesome lightmaps...

It should be easier to develop and implemnt this tools and improve them also, since you know all the software code.

I've been thinking of an idea -- working on a universal 3d model importer/exporter through a general-purpose 3d model library such as assimp. The only thing you should do is to implement a importer/exporter between bf2 and this library. Assimp already supports a wide range of 3d model files(including .3ds, .blend, .fbx, .dae, etc.).

[B4rr3l]

I've been thinking of an idea -- working on a universal 3d model importer/exporter through a general-purpose 3d model library such as assimp. The only thing you should do is to implement a importer/exporter between bf2 and this library. Assimp already supports a wide range of 3d model files(including .max, .mb, .blend, .fbx, .dae, etc.).

Please keep in touch, is there anything I can do to help? Would be awesome if you could use blender for lightmaps , lods and making new trees and objects.

That way I also can be sure I'm learning in a platform that is free and updated with cutting edge technology, but without the fear of doing illegal stuff of learning on a software that at some point might charge you US$4.000 if you want latest version of it and it's not a student anymore or even if you wanna sell your stuff for other engine/game projects...

It's not that I came here to criticize, it's just that it could be better for everyone if we had those tools for Blender also and it shouldn't be that hard for people who are used to create this scripts to adapt it, which is not my case lol...

And it should be easier for other people to improve and update the tools in the future also cause that all open.

Thanks for the exciting reply!

[worldlife]

Please keep in touch, is there anything I can do to help? Would be awesome if you could use blender for lightmaps , lods and making new trees and objects.

That way I also can be sure I'm learning in a platform that is free and updated with cutting edge technology, but without the fear of doing illegal stuff of learning on a software that at some point might charge you US$4.000 if you want latest version of it and it's not a student anymore or even if you wanna sell your stuff for other engine/game projects...

It's not that I came here to criticize, it's just that it could be better for everyone if we had those tools for Blender also and it shouldn't be that hard for people who are used to create this scripts to adapt it, which is not my case lol...

And it should be easier for other people to improve and update the tools in the future also cause that all open.

Thanks for the exciting reply!

All I can do with assimp is just import/export models between bf2 and Blender. I myself is not familiar with Blender, which means for now doing lightmapping in Blender is not possible for me.
And this guy https://github.com/rigred/BattlefieldRespawn said he will make "Blender Plugin (read/write) for all mesh and Animation Formats", but there's been no update for almost a year .

[B4rr3l]

All I can do with assimp is just import/export models between bf2 and Blender. I myself is not familiar with Blender, which means for now doing lightmapping in Blender is not possible for me.
And this guy https://github.com/rigred/BattlefieldRespawn said he will make "Blender Plugin (read/write) for all mesh and Animation Formats", but there's been no update for almost a year .

importing and exporting bundle and static mesh in Blender is great already! how can I do that? Do you mind telling me how to do it?

[AfterDune]

Keep all discussion that's -not- related to the actual topic (tools on max) out of this thread please. Make a new thread and discuss it there.