BFMDT 2.76 www.bfmods.com Development Thread

[Senshi]

Oh right, should have written that I uploaded a new version. However, that version still did have some flaws that I noticed immediately after uploading and tried to fix em (like the horrible position interpretation in Max13 on importing level staticobjects.con. I fiddled quite a bit with it, but didn't get anywhere meaningful before RL struck this from my work table again.

Uploaded the same 2.762 version, with the rs plugin. No alterations have been made to that file (after all, all it does is define the Max material type Battlefield_RS), so it's not that important to redownload.

Thanks for the sticky, Apache.

Most noteable issue fixed in Max13: Materials now again get properly imported and exported. The older version failed to parse .rs files entirely, so there were no settings or texture names loaded in max or written to disk on export.
The fix I used should work just fine on older versions, as I took care to restrict myself to functions that are available in every version of 3ds Max. It probably still won't work on Max5-7, though.

[BotHunter]

I had a problem with Gmax SM export. It said:

__________________________________________________________
|``````` MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception```````````````` |X|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````|
|````` /\``````````````````````````````````````````````````|
|`` ` / ! \``` --No '''''Get''''' Function For Undefined````````````````|
|```/_____\``````````` _______`````````````````````````````|
|`````````````````````|__OK__|````````````````````````````|
|`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````|
|________________________________________________________ |

Any Ideas??

[Senshi]

@BotHunter: Gmax has probably an entirely different syntax than 3ds Max. Especially Max8-13. I seriously doubt my script set will work at all with GMax, so I can't help there, sorry :/ . You should use the original MDT plugin for GMax.

On to the main topic: I had a long talk with Red Hair yesterday, and he showed me some bugs with the toolset. Sadly, only two of those are reproducible on my end with Max13 whereas he used Max12.

Bugs found:
- Objects with many materials (probably 10+) get their IDs messed up. That means that triangles that should be ID 11 can get a new ID, say 8. This means the wrong textures will be applied to it, making the object fairly unusable. This will not be easy to solve, I fear, as it's a mix of an .rs issue, but more problematic, it also affects the mesh (.sm) directly. And that was a part that always worked flawlessly so far and I never really had to dabble with.
- After importing an object, hitting "show" on the Battlefield_RS shader diffuse material (disabling it) makes the mesh go blank (as it's supposed to). However, when reactivating "show", the texture does not get loaded again. Looks like a missing reference, probably easy to fix. On the other hand, this is low priority, because who the hell clicks on that stupid "show" button anyway .

- Cryptical MDT crash error message on importing special objects. Was yet unable to reproduce this on my end, so very difficult to solve.

Code: Select all

Compile error: Illegal input in readValue
In line: texture "tfactory_m1_Material11" 0 1.0;"factory_m1_Material12"  1.0;"factory_m1_Material2" texture "texture/facshi_b";"factory_ 

Call to all other users of my scriptset: Can you please try to import the vanilla "factory_m1.sm" into your Max version? Please reply with your Max version and if it succeeded or not!

[Apache Thunder]

Alright. Re-downloaded your scripts and installed them on all my Max versions (except Max 7 since as i recall yours won't work with the legacy versions of Max) just to make sure they are all the same.

I've tested the factory_M1 mesh on Max 9, 10, 12, and 13 and no problems have popped up. The mesh imported correctly with textures all in the right place. Though the material "numbers" in the material names didn't match the actual material ID's they are assigned to in certain spots, but I think this is normal. The mesh appears to be using the correct materials on the correct places so that's what counts. (as I recall it's only a few of the berlin citymeshes where there is actual issues with materials on the wrong polygons. I did import citymesh1 into Max 9 with your latest script and it still gets that mesh wrong like usual. )

As for the "show texture button" bug. I played with it in Max 9 and the texture vanished and reappeared as it should. In Max 13 it also works properly. BUT the behavior is a bit different. When you toggle the button, it won't update the view port until you back out of the material and back onto the multi-object page of the material editor. Then the view port will show the end result.

Typically for BF1942 stuff, I never have to mess with the show texture button since the textures just about always come in already visible. Typically I use it most often with BF2 related assets or things regarding my MMD projects, but even most of those seem to import with textures already visible. But it's the BF2 scripts where I have to use the show texture button the most since BF2 stuff will import with the textures not visible.

I discovered recently that the GTA:SA scripts I have have a neat little button that does this for me. I select a mesh in the viewport and use the GTA:SA Mapping section of the dialog box. That's where it has an object properties pane and there it has a "show textures" button. So even with the BF2 stuff, I can probably just use that from now on. It works even on non GTA related items. So now I won't have to go in all the materials and show the textures.

[BotHunter]

this error Only happens on a certian mesh :/

[fo0k]

main links dead in the tools section...

[Senshi]

Fixed

[Apache Thunder]

Hey would like to mention that in Max 13 it appears to sometimes use the incorrect material names when exporting. (thus RS files use incorrect material names for each shader which doesn't match what's in the SM file and thus brakes the shader ingame resulting in an all black mesh)

In older versions of max, the exported shaders in the RS file and the stored material names in the SM file always match the SM file name + "Material0" at the end. (with the 0 being the material number each shader is assigned to).

But in Max 13 it for some reason decides to sometimes use the material name(s) used for each material in the Material dialog box. I suppose you can either fix it so that it uses gives them the correct names that match the SM File, or alter how it outputs SM files to read the material names from the max scene and use that for the material names in the SM file, so that the RS materials it makes are both derived from the same method. The bug being that the scripts in Max 13 don't use the same method for generating material names for RS files as it does for the SM files.

This bug doesn't really become an issue for folks editing existing meshes, since when imported they are all assigned the correct material names in the material dialog box. But this can become an issue when making new objects or making whole new materials for existing objects. This bug can also present it self when one decides to merge two different meshes into one resulting in the material list having both the meshes's material names preserved and being outputted like that to the RS file despite the SM file using the SM file name + _Material0 for all the materials used on the mesh.

[Senshi]

I think the issue you detail is related to the one Red pointed me to and I explained earlier. I currently have no idea yet where it originates really, considering the scripts seem to work okay on that part on Max8-12. Didn't have time to check into it either the last week(s): finished my Bsc, moved 600km, started my Msc studies...lots of getting settled required now .

[BotHunter]

So why do half of these not work??

http://bfmods.com/mdt/Tutorials/index.html

There are some neat tutorials in there that don't exist any more