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[vonOben]

Hi

I've modelled a new radiator for the Albatros D.I and need some advice now, since I'm completely stuck! 

What I've done so far:
1. The mesh is done, but no mapping. Export with Buggy Buggy Exporter works fine from here and it looks ok in IL-2. 

2. Then I have selected polygons and applied ID numbers to the selections, so I have ID no: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

When I try to Export with Buggy Buggy Exporter from here I get this error:

Code: [Select]

//Export from: IL2 Export V2.5 by Fatduck
//Filename: PRradiaM.msh

[Common]
NumBones 0
FramesType Single
NumFrames 1

[LOD]
500

[Materials]
244
-- Error occurred in mtl loop
--  Frame:
--   mtl: 2
--   called in expMaterials()
--  Frame:
--   msh: $Editable_Mesh:PRradiaM_GM @ [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000]
--   called in expIL2Text()
--  Frame:
--   warningFlag: false
--   COary: undefined
--   LODvalue: 500
--   msh: $Editable_Mesh:PRradiaM @ [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000]
--   GM: $Editable_Mesh:PRradiaM_GM @ [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000]
--   LODtext: "500,1000,2000"
--   sh: undefined
--   ss: StringStream:"500,1000,2000"
--   HPary: #()
--   LODary: #()
--   called in expIL2()
--  Frame:
--   Obj: $Editable_Mesh:PRradiaM @ [0.000000,0.000000,0.000000]

3. I continue adding UVW mapping for each ID no.

When I try to Export with Buggy Buggy Exporter from here I and open "Select by Name" the mesh I want to export is not showing (PRradiaM):

Normal "Select by Name" window:



"Select by Name" window when I've clicked on "Export IL2.msh":



4. I continue adding a material in the Material Editor adding a tga image file with the texture. Looks fine in Gmax, but I still can't select the

mesh in the "Select by Name" window:



I've redone the steps 2-3-4, but still the same result. 

Any ideas what went wrong and what I can test/try?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards

vonOben

[SAS~Ghost129er]

Your material names are probably jacked from what it seems. I used to have this error too. Can't remember how to replicate or resolve it, but if you see your listener, it shows it works fine and screws up at the materials section.

I am kinda certain it's a material thing, BUT could be a MATID or something else...

[vonOben]

Hi

Thanks for the reply! 

I figured out how to remove all materials in Gmax (with the $*.mat=null command).
Then I added the new material and changed the tga to a bmp if that might be a problem.



But it's still the same problem, and I still can't select the mesh in the "Select by Name" window when trying to export with Buggy Buggy. 



Any more ideas what I can try to solve my problem, please?

Best regards

vonOben

[Dreamk]

Try this:

select your mesh
Utilities/ resetXForm/ reset selected
Right click/ convert to editable mesh
Editable mesh/ element/ (select all) Flip
Now apply your buggy buggy exporter

[SAS~Ghost129er]

If you are exporting a mesh with buggy buggy and you have a problem, it is suggested (from experience I've had) to close your program and relaunch it.

For your issue of it not being found, maybe your object (somehow) has gone back to being a Editable Poly/Polygon? It must be Editable Mesh!


Or perhaps, you are trying to select the Ghost object, Buggy buggy creates a duplicate of your model (to prevent damaging/destroying/ruining your work) and when an error occurs, it creates an additional object clone, as seen here.


You may not see it, but there is Haus001 now instead of Haus. Where is my Haus??


It is there, but when you carefully select it, you will see that the backup (I made) as well as the original object is there, as well as the one made by buggy buggy.

Or maybe your objects are frozen or hidden, perhaps you have to unhide them? I am not sure, as I can't tell if there is a difference between Gmax and 3ds max, they are almost the same but your UI is quite different to mine...

If nothing else works (or as Dreamk's suggestion) - My best advice is to (if you have a backup) start again from a latest backup. I always work and save as at different stages where I need to roll back.

Backups will SAVE YOU!






Also another thing, I replicated your error you had earlier - this occurs when you have a multimaterial or simply put, an object with polygons on a different material ID number as here in the photo:


The error


You can see one part of the house is off color, this is because if you look at the second photo..


The poly ID is 64, when you have only 3 possible choices in the multi material.

I highly suggest modders use a single texture (Standard, then Diffuse Color) with the SAME NAMES to create less confusion and for the ease of naming conventions of textures.

If you are making a single object/part for an aircraft which does not need to be added to the skin texture, (or even a simple building like this for example) I highly recommend using Ctrl+A (Select all) and making all the polygons a single Material ID (Since to be honest, it only needs a single texture - more complicated objects like aircraft fuselages/buildings/high detail buildings may use many more than just one texture so this is where multimaterial ID comes in use).


Press Ctrl+A (if there are blanks in those fields, that means the materials are not uniform/more than one material ID which will cause the issue above)


Now all the polys are on Material ID 1 and now show and will not throw an error!

Hope this helps.

[Mission_bug]

You seem to be using the method described by KevinP in the tutorial for making a house where he selects each face to apply a texture, useful for the damage object but something I think I only used for that test piece.  It is a good way but I find I have issues with doing it in gmax, guess I should go back and read up on it again.

Strange as it might seem gmax actually maps automatically but it picks the faces which is most likely why I have issues because I am then trying to replace what gmax did with what I want.  This allows you to actually extract the part and see it in game without your having mapped it to the specific texture you just give it a name of something already in game although you will either get just a single colour or what looks a real mess if you use the skin1o because it will use the whole texture.

As has been said, the part must be a edible mesh for extraction and do not use multiple textures unless actually necessary.

You should be able to map it to your existing aircraft texture which is normally a single one anyway, either find a vacant area and paint it or use the area that has the existing part.


I use a much simpler, for me anyway, method mostly although it took me some time to get my head around it originally.

If you send me the mesh and the texture for the aircraft I will go through the method I use, easier for me to do it and then make a series of images for you to follow than to try and guess what you already did wrong.



Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[SAS~Ghost129er]

You seem to be using the method described by KevinP in the tutorial for making a house where he selects each face to apply a texture, useful for the damage object but something I think I only used for that test piece.

Not quite. Just setting the model to use a uniform MaterialID number. He uses it for other reasons, as well as others, for example. If you were doing the interior of an aircraft (Consisting of chairs, floor, windows, doors, etc) you can not only set those parts for other texture files, but you can also use different UV Mapping ID's which makes it easier to UV map when you have too many/a messy UV Map Editor.

Then again, everyone to their own. I'm still yet to publish my first aircraft, so who am I to say.  

[SAS~Ghost129er]

Take for example these two chairs:


UV Mapping is generally easy when using the Normal mapping command, however, it can't always be used. Especially in situations where highly complex detail is there (eg, doing a highly detailed Engine_D0 model with heads, cylinders, sparkplugs, piping, fuel lines, all that stuff on SEPARATE textures). Now if that is all one mesh, it'd be a bitch to unwrap.

If you had one complex object (the chair isn't complex but it's an example) flattening your mesh would result in a messy heap of crap to unwrap/rearrange like this:


HOWEVER, when you give them all separate Material ID's like so, it can really help:


We can UV map the chair separately:


UV map the base separately:


UV Map the armrests separately:


And then, tada! We have a quick(shitty/crappy) but much neater UV mapping job that's less of a cluster fuck (get it? Clusters of UV maps? Messy? ... Bad joke ).

That's just my way around.

[vonOben]

Hi guys

Thank you very much for trying to help solve my Buggy Buggy problem! 

DreamK:
That worked, but the flip made some surfaces invisible!

So this was the solution to my problem:
select your mesh
Utilities/ resetXForm/ reset selected
Right click/ convert to editable mesh

Then the Buggy Bugge export worked perfectly! 

So what was the problem and what might be the cause?

Here's how the Modifier list looks from the start and the end of it before I did the fix above:
Start:



End:



First test flight with the new radiator skinned in IL-2:




Best Regards

vonOben

[Mission_bug]

You seem to be using the method described by KevinP in the tutorial for making a house where he selects each face to apply a texture, useful for the damage object but something I think I only used for that test piece.

Not quite. Just setting the model to use a uniform MaterialID number. He uses it for other reasons, as well as others, for example. If you were doing the interior of an aircraft (Consisting of chairs, floor, windows, doors, etc) you can not only set those parts for other texture files, but you can also use different UV Mapping ID's which makes it easier to UV map when you have too many/a messy UV Map Editor.

Then again, everyone to their own. I'm still yet to publish my first aircraft, so who am I to say.  

I was actually refering to what I thought vonOben had done, over complicated things maybe, tried to map each individual face when it might not need it.


Mapping can be a very complex issue as you point out and for each application there will be the most appropriate method, for
vonOben the part is relatively simple so it would not necessarily require all the faces to be mapped separately.

For instance, if the part was underneath the aircraft and would only ever need one colour then you can just select all the part and just do the map process once, maybe with that done you could then if need be select the face that might need a grill texture adding and that then could be selected and mapped separately.

Bear in mind here the radiator part might just have a hole through it and so need nothing more than to be able to pick up the appropriate part of the texture to blend it with the rest of the model.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Dreamk]

It seems that gmax/3dmax sometimes  "keeps in memory" some steps and only by applying "resetX" you make these steps final. This is especially true for resizing/ deforming modifiers.
Buggy buggy is at loss when this occurs as it does know what exactly to export - the last modification, the one before it, etc..

[vonOben]

Thanks for the information and for the helpful advise Dreamk!   

I feared I would never get the model into IL-2 and I thought I hade done something wrong with the mesh somewhere since it's my first try in Gmax.

Best regards

vonOben