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DarkRadiant 2.6.0 pre-release testing


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Ok, that's kind of good to hear that this was the same crash reason for all of you. I got this one fixed, I'll prepare a new pre-release build soon.

 

edit: a new build is available in the first post.

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That's good to hear, thanks for the confirmation.

 

I have another pre-release build ready in the first post (pre5). I don't have any more fixes planned (apart from those stabilising this release), so if you folks could give this another final run, I will wrap up 2.6.0 for release in the upcoming days.

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Thanks for the dumps, people, this is appreciated.

 

No Problem. :)

 

Ok, that's kind of good to hear that this was the same crash reason for all of you. I got this one fixed, I'll prepare a new pre-release build soon.

 

edit: a new build is available in the first post.

It works fine now, again thanks for your work. :)

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Btw. I didn't have time to check it yet, but does the new feature let us export AI models as well? It would be useful to put them as mannequins in modeling scenes for scale, especially for architectural stuff, but also for things like jewellery, weapons, etc.

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Looks like I got on this one a little late, I don't think I'll have any time to do any substantial testing before release. By no means wait for me or anything! FWIW thank you very much for fixing the bugs in this release in addition to the one or two feature requests I posted. I have a mounting collection of .ase-exported models, so the fixed .lwo model exporter will help me greatly in cutting down the size of my WIP.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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I'm planning to release it in the next few days, so if there are any showstoppers, let me know. Minor bug fixes will probably go into the next release anyway.

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Yes, MD5 models are exported

 

I tried to select the AI and export it as .obj, but the exported file is 0 kb. The same goes for my .ase models.

 

Edit: that was my fault, I used the Scrpit menu instead of File -> Export selected as a model.

 

Btw. options in Script menu, i.e. Export ASE, Export blended ASE, and Export OBJ are now kind of replaced by Export selected as a model, and it might be a good idea to remove them in order to avoid confusion.

Edited by Judith
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Export blended ASE allows mappers to create vertex blended models directly in DR. AFAIK the built-in exporter does not allow that (yet).

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FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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I request http://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4750 be reopened. I tried with pre4 and the now-released final of 2.6.0, it seems nothing has changed.

unknown.png

 

Left is .lwo exported with the new DR, right is .ase exported with the old version. I tried exporting both from .ase -> .lwo and brushwork/patches -> .lwo. Same result.

 

 

EDIT: For control, I have just tested the model greebo tested with, in the bug's notes -- bottle02.lwo. Same result, the exported .lwo (which in this case is .lwo -> .lwo) still has non-smoothed edges.

Edited by Spooks

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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I performed these steps to check the smoothing:

 

Open a testmap in DR with a light or two

Create Model models/darkmod/kitchen/bottle02.lwo

Duplicate the model and move it to the left

Select the duplicate, hit File > Export Selected as Model...

Output Format: LWO, path: C:\Games\darkmod\models\bottle_test.lwo

Center Objects around origin

Replace selection with exported Model

Click Export

I now have a func_static with bottle_test.lwo assigned in the "model" spawnarg

 

Open TDM, dmap the testmap and run it. The cloned bottle appears smoothed for me:

 

bottles.jpg

 

(The left one is the cloned one.)

 

There must be something we're doing differently?

 

edit: note that exporting brushwork or patchwork might not automatically give you smoothed results. If the source geometry consists of separated vertices the resulting surface is not smoothed, which is usually the case when exporting brush/patchwork. When exporting surfaces coming from existing LWO / ASE models (created in proper modeling software), these surfaces are preserved and thus the smoothing.

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No, both your screenshot and what I got in game are similar. You can see the models are not identical at the point where the bottle's neck joins the shoulder and the ring of polygons at top, representing the collar and lip. To me, that does not look smooth shaded.

 

I'm ignorant when it comes to automatic smoothing angles, but in my screenshot, the (single, continuous) patch curves up in increments of what can't be more than 30°, which IMO would be more than enough to get smoothed. Could this be the problem? Let me reiterate that exporting as .ase makes patchwork appear smooth as it should be.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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The models do have smoothing enabled, but the problem is that each face has its own vertices so that you end up with duplicate verts wherever one face meets another. The mesh splits at each face, so smoothing stops.

 

This affects everything I turn into an .lwo, whether it was a brush, a patch, an .lwo or an

.ase originally.

 

Removing duplicate verts in Blender is enough to get smoothing to show.

Edited by Dragofer
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What makes the .ase exporter different then? As it happens, .ase files exported through DR don't have the same problem. Is this fundamentally a format restriction?

 

In the end, all I ask for is parity between the two export options, if not a mandatory one, then through some checkbox ("remove duplicate verts" in the .lwo export dialogue).

 

That bug report was started by BD and I don't know if this current fix works for his mapping workflow either.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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Each face should have its own vertices. There is nothing wrong with that. If edges show up hard it's because the orientation of the vertices is wrong. A very old version od the DR ASE export script used to use the face normal as vertex normals, too, causing all edges to look hard, no matter whether that was intented or not. Maybe there is something similar going on here, that the code just uses the wrong normals?!

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Each face should have its own vertices.

I get what you mean, but in this case each face literally has its own set of vertices, which it doesn't share with its neighbours. So the 'remove duplicate verts' tool finds huge numbers of verts.

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Looking and investigating this a bit, I can see a few problems.

 

First, brushes and patches are saved as independent tris, each of them made up of 3 verts. Lots of duplicates, no smoothing. A probable solution for me would be to add an option to "Remove Duplicate Vertices" to the model exporter. Actually, I had this in one of the early implementations of the exporter code, but this caused problems as far as I recall, so I took it out again. As long as it is an option, I see the decision transferred to the mapper.

 

Second, the bottle problem Spooks is noticing. I ran a few tests, and the model exported by DarkRadiant is actually different to the bottle02.lwo source model. The vertices at the bottle neck (where the sharp edge is visible) are split up, so the polys below and above the bottle neck are using separate vertices. I tried to track down where this happens, and it appears that these vertices are already split up when DarkRadiant initially imports the source LWO. You can see it when switching to Lighting mode in DarkRadiant - the bottle02.lwo model also has this sharp edge around the neck.

 

bottles2.jpg

 

I can try to look into the original LWO importer code (which has been present in several Radiant variants for ages) and see why it's producing such duplicated verts. It's possible that the proposed "remove dupes" option mentioned above might actually fix this problem alongside, but fixing the importer might also be a worthwile goal (if it is broken in the first place).

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It's possible that the proposed "remove dupes" option mentioned above might actually fix this problem

It occurred to me that removing dupes isn't always a good thing. Sometimes mappers cover their creations in decals which overlap with the mesh of the original piece, so if overlapping verts are removed here you'd get a mix of decal and solid texture triangles. It'd be ideal if the exporter could be amended.

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