GMAX.

[PomBee]

Hi Guys,

Can someone tell me where I can get GMAX. I've downloaded the 1.2 version from Turbosquid and Brothersoft, but when I run the installation program it installs FRAPS!! Useful for screenshots, etc, but not what I wanted. I may just be being thick, but there seems to be no GMAX installer.

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Milton Shupe]

Try this one: http://files.turbosquid.com/Products...3US/gmax12.exe

YOu will ultimately need some plugins to get to Makemdl as well. That wouold be FSModelExp.dll which does the .x file export and Makemdl that compiles the code into a .mdl file, or .asm as you require.

[PomBee]

Thanks Milton. I tried that link again, and got the same result. I then tried running the installer instead of saving it, and it worked fine.

Could you point me in the right direction to get FSModelExp.dll and Makemdl?

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

Update: Found Makemdl, just need FSModelExp.dll.

[sc7500]

Here Ya Go !

Attachment 30188

SC

[gavinc]

Hi,
There is a CFS2 GMAX Gamepack available here
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...fo&FileID=6922
that apparently allows you to export directly into CFS2. Can't comment on how well it works as I can't even manage to build a brick in GMAX let alone export one to CFS2

Gavin

[PomBee]

Thanks for that, SC. I couldn't find it anywhere.

And thanks, Gavin for the link to the game pack. I'm sure that it's going to be a LONG time until I can do anything useful with it! I'll have to get the tutorials from Turbosquid, and have a go. Now that the snow has really arrived in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, I'll have some VERY long winter evenings to practice.

Cheers,

PomBee.:salute::salute::salute:

[tobob]

Pombee,

Do the basic tutorials included with GMAX. They help you get used to the layout of the program and the most useful tools. It will seem like a different language until you memorize the buttons and there functions. Once you're familiar with it try Milton's tutorial. It's easy to follow and gain more knowledge of the program. GMAX can be a bear but once you get it, there's no turning back. I'm no expert but if you have any questions feel free to fire at will.

p.s. 3ds Max tutorials are plentiful and helpful also.

Good luck!

tobob

[tony2]

There are some good tutorials on Youtube. Just put in GMAX tutorials - aircraft.
Hope this helps

[PomBee]

Thanks for all the help, Guys. That's what's so great about SOH. If you have a question, there's always folks who are more than willing to help you out.:salute::salute::salute:

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Pen32Win]

Howdy PomBee;

While you are a TurboSquid you might want to download some of the free .gmax and .3ds files that they have there. I've found seeing first hand what others have done very educational.

Right now I'm in the process of getting back into GMax and as a starter project I'm converting my old US 40mm flak gun crew members to German Soldiers. It has been a good way for me to get started again. Even after all I've done with GMax I felt like I got something accomplished last night after creating a new German Helmet for them. Tonight's re-lesson will be creating and applying new textures to them. By the time I get the 5 LOD's of Crew members completed I should be ready to once again start something completely new. the best advice I can offer you is, start small and simple, break complex thing down to simple elements and always remember the Little steps add up.

[PomBee]

Hi Pen,

Great to see you back at SOH. Thanks for the heads-up about the GMax goodies at Turbosquid. I'll take it steady (little steps, as you suggest), and try not to get too ahead of myself.

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Pen32Win]

It's good to be back, if only on a limited basis until the end of July. One the thing that used to get me frustrated was that there are sooooo many commands and trying to figure them all out. I'm finding that again....LOL I've taken my own advice on the road back and just try to concentrate on one thing each night I get a chance to work on it. Like I said in my last post tonight was just to get textures mapped on to an object and working with the two major commands involved with it.

This was the nights results, these AA Troops used to be the three US troops from my old 40mm Bofors... Now they're close to ready for the Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe. I also did a quick and dirty MG-42 just to see if I could....

Attachment 30324

For the three troops and the MG-42 it ended up about 1600 polys whicj isn't too bad for the LOD_100 model. That'll get cut down quite a bit by the LOD_10 model.

[PomBee]

Looking very nice, Pen. I hope that I can produce something even half as good.

PomBee.:salute::salute::salute:

[Pen32Win]

Thanks and you will. Today was one of those day where bad turns out good. I was supposed to be at an event today but my truck battery took dump and it took me about 5 hours to get a jump. While I was waiting I decided I'd see if I could get through the whole process and actually produce a bgl. So I took the MG-42 and built an AA Tripod for it. I then Merged a couple of the rebuilt troops into the Scene and reconfigured their arms and legs to fit. Then I started whackin' polys for the other 4 LOD's. I got that done and then went and got a new battery... By the time I got back home it was too late to go to the event so I went back to work on it. Then the fun part!!! I did a DMG Model and then pulled out my old notes on creating the BLG. After a bit of trial and error I got the Merge and Link Routine figured out again.

The best part is I actually got a working Multi-LOD bgl!!! I can't do much with it until I get a new Power Supply and Flight Controller but it showed up in the MB... Now I'm ready to help other folks out too with the process. So it ended up being a pretty productive day after all...

[PomBee]

Superb! That's some fine work.

I probably won't get to do much with it for a while, but when I do, I know who to come to for help. I've got to replace my computer with something that actually works. At the moment, I'm trying to do everything on an old Dell Latitude laptop, and it isn't up to the job. It's also got problems of it's own, which doesn't help. We had to leave all of our PCs in the UK when we emigrated to Nova Scotia, as they probably wouldn't work over here, so we need to buy something soon.

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Pen32Win]

While the Computer hole I'm in is not as deep as yours I know the frustration. When I first fired my Flight Sim PC back up the 500W Power Supply kept cutting out every time it got warm. I still had the original 350W it came with but it's not enough to run my Video Card. So I had to reinstall all of my old stuff until I can get a new P/S. On the bright side the old stuff does fine with GMax and my computer isn't rebooting itself every 5 minutes. Gotta get that and a new Flight Controller too. Trying to slew around to eyeball new objects with a K/B only is a real pain.

Yesterday I saw a command I've never used before and am going to have to give it a try. Using a "Background Image". I think it might speed up the developement process. I'll let you know how it works out.

[Steve2112]

GMAX - Is FUN!
Truly is amazing when you export into CFS2 and see your first object that you created.
After two weeks this is my first well actually second creation.
It's all most complete, I am finally giving up on adding night maps. I spent two days trying to configure them. I give up. I don't think CFS2 supports them.
So moving on to completion very soon now.
Pen32Win - If you have time any tips you can throw my way as far as setting up LOD's and the process of adding them that would be awesome.
Also I’m going to need a beta tester or two to test out my new creation.
Attachment 30597Attachment 30598Attachment 30599

Steve2112

[PomBee]

Beautiful work, Steve2112. I'll definitely d/l that when it's available.

Cheers,

PomBee.:ernae:

[Pen32Win]

OK Steve;

We'll take this thing in phases....

Phase I. I keep each of my LOD's in a separate file. Each File is named something like this:

2112_Lighthouse_LOD_100.gmax
2112_Lighthouse_LOD_80.gmax
2112_Lighthouse_LOD_60.gmax
2112_Lighthouse_LOD_30.gmax
2112_Lighthouse_LOD_10.gmax

Copy each file and stick them in a safe place. Your emergency backups.

Now, Open Each file and do the following....

Select Everything in the file. Go to the Group menu and select Ungroup.
This ensures you don't end up with groups inside of groups in the final product.

Go to the Parts Listing (Part Hierarchy) menu and make sure you don't see anything in brackets like this "[Roof01]" it should just be "Roof01".

Now Select everything again and go to the Group Menu once again. Select Group and name the group something like this "Lighthouse_Lit_LOD_100". The name will corrispond to the file name and its LOD Level.

Save the File.... Then repeat for each of the other LOD Level Files...... and I'll be back later....

[Pen32Win]

Hi Steve;

From the other thread you have going am I to understand that you don't have the LOD_100 model completed right now?

If that's true it's actually a good thing. One thing a lot of 3D Developers do not do is clean up their work. That is to eliminate all of the extra poly's on the bottom and inside of objects that will never be seen. Even though they're not seen CFS2 still renders them which slows down your FPS.

One thing I've got to warn you about this process of cleaning up... It's why I always wait until the very last to apply bmp textures to objects. Example, you have a box sitting on the ground, you apply a bmp texture to it, add the UVW Map Modifier and then Unwrap UVW. You then going into Unwrap UVW and get the polys aligned on the image just perfect and you save it.. Later, you come back to clean up and realize those two polys on the bottom of the box are not needed. You go in and delete the polys and close out of the object only to find your perfect image /poly alignment has gone out the window. Now you have to Delete the Unwrap UVW Modifier, then Re-Add it again to conform to the new shape of the object and then realign everything again.... Now I expect this when creating the lower LOD Models as just part of the process but; when you're working on your LOD_100 model it sure will save you time if you clean up first, then apply the bmp images.....

Time for me to go get a few things done around the house and with any luck I'll get to spend some time working on my Flak 38.

Let me know when you're ready to proceed.

[Pen32Win]

Well the German AA Project is starting to take shape. I had to pick the worst of them to start with!! LOL The Mount the Flak 38 is really something else. It's no wonder they could never produce enough of the things, they're over engineered to all beat Hades. Unlike the US Bofors this thing has got more twists and turns that a 40 ft. python. It's like some kind of sadistic erector set!!! LOL. I'm going to have to do some serious poly hacking on the lower LOD's. I'm at 1200 polys already and that doesn't include the gun carraige, gun, sights, seat, controls, magazines or the 2 man crew..... BTW, the tube in the middle is just a place holder for sizing.
Attachment 30663

[Steve2112]

Looking good Pen32Win.
So my system crashed and I am just now getting back up and running.
Few questions here before I move onto LOD's.
Flipping Poly's? Not sure what you are referring to here please define this step and or the process of preparing my object for LOD.

Thanks
Steve2112

[Robert John]

Pen32Win
I Still taking longer to clean up the
models,sometimes longer than to build them.lol.
as well as getting rid of all hidden polys I keep
some almost hidden polys just in case you get
up real close I also get rid of unneeded vertices.
In cfs2 the engine does count polys (actually
the graphic card reads triangles)
In fsx engine unlimited polys but counts
vertices.A good read about this over at the
fsdevelopers forum.
Steve2112
Flip a poly
To model the inside of a object we can just
name a texture ds_xxx that tells the game
engine to texture both sides of a poly so now
instead of having one poly we have two and
some of these are hidden, bad for fps.
There are tutorials on the net about this.
Select a poly in editable mesh or editable poly,
clone the poly, the poly you want to flip must be
editable mesh, select poly with polygon goto
surface properties and flip, then you can attach
both polys together and have a poly with two
sides, sounds a lot of work but that way you can
model just the inside you see. ie cockpits. open
hangers. buildings with roofs blownoff etc.
Hope this helps.
lods
Make a box name xx_lod_100, make a dummy,
name dummy xx
make sure xx is x,y=0,0 and link the box to the
dummy.
clone your box name it xx_lod_080 and link that
box to dummy.
move xx (dummy) and all the models will move
together. there you have it lods.
Robert John

[Pen32Win]

Howdy Steve;

Flipping Poly's? I didn't post anything about flipping them....????
But, Roberts post is a good take on it.

Howdy Robert,
I use "Poly" for the sake of continuity of discussion, two triangles in CFS2 = 1 Poly most everywhere else... Including GMax. Thanks for the link. I'll give it a read.

[Steve2112]

Looks to me like my understanding of prepping my object prior to creating LODS is on the money.
So now I will begin on my LOD's.

Thanks for the Link and Info Pen32Win and RJ.

By the way, just curious RJ what was the final Poly count on your last post of your sub pen?

Steve2112