SOH P-61 project

[N2056]

It's a great project, and a site that I have gone to frequently for reference pics.

[N2056]

Sorry about the lack of pics lately. I had to deal with another round of being unable to export the model. That took a week to get working again, and after that happened I decided to go back and re-work some parts to optimize the model some more. In doing so I managed to shave about 20k in ploys resulting in a current total of 317,741 polys as measured with the whole model as editable mesh in Gmax

It's been an interesting project for me in terms of learning about all the different ways you can have the exporter give you the digital finger!

I'll probably have some new stuff to show in a day or two.

[SkippyBing]

Sorry about the lack of pics lately. I had to deal with another round of being unable to export the model. That took a week to get working again, and after that happened I decided to go back and re-work some parts to optimize the model some more. In doing so I managed to shave about 20k in ploys resulting in a current total of 317,741 polys as measured with the whole model as editable mesh in Gmax

It's been an interesting project for me in terms of learning about all the different ways you can have the exporter give you the digital finger!

I'll probably have some new stuff to show in a day or two.

Randomly I've found hiding most of the model increases the chances of the exporter working properly, I normally have less than 1% of my current project visible. It does make finding parts a bit trickier when you want to change them though!

[N2056]

Yep. I have discovered a few tricks like that one. My routine when I want to export is to save the model in wireframe mode with a few parts visible. I re-start Gmax, open the file, and export.

I did a little experiment some time ago. I opened up the windows task manager and under the processes tab payed attention to the amount of memory Gmax was using. Then without changing a thing in the model I would export and watch the memory usage go up. What I noticed was that after the export the memory usage did not return to a lower value. In fact, if I did another export without closing the program the usage would ratchet up some more!

If I am lucky I can get two exports out of a given "session" of Gmax. After I get the error if I close it and start fresh the export will go. That is one of the ways I have had to deal with the "out of resources" error message. Usually the other problem ties to having too many texture vertices on a given material. I've become pretty good at cleaning up those as they happen.

[SkippyBing]

Yep. I have discovered a few tricks like that one. My routine when I want to export is to save the model in wireframe mode with a few parts visible. I re-start Gmax, open the file, and export.

I did a little experiment some time ago. I opened up the windows task manager and under the processes tab payed attention to the amount of memory Gmax was using. Then without changing a thing in the model I would export and watch the memory usage go up. What I noticed was that after the export the memory usage did not return to a lower value. In fact, if I did another export without closing the program the usage would ratchet up some more!

If I am lucky I can get two exports out of a given "session" of Gmax. After I get the error if I close it and start fresh the export will go. That is one of the ways I have had to deal with the "out of resources" error message. Usually the other problem ties to having too many texture vertices on a given material. I've become pretty good at cleaning up those as they happen.

That sounds about right, I've pretty much got to the stage where I close gMax once I've done an export and restart it! At one point last year when I only had my laptop available I was restarting it in safe mode, doing an export and then going back to normal mode to test the thing. That did kind of drag things out to be honest, fortunately redoing a lot of the mapping got round that little issue!

[N2056]

Well, I said I would try to cough up some actual forward progress. Here's the BC-1151a radar going in.

[Daube]

Wow, that looks really impressive.
It's not the detail inside the plane that strikes my attention, it's more the quality of the modelling of the shapes of the aircraft. When zooming so much on a untextured aircraft, usually the only thing that can be seen are the modelling problems, but here it's all the contrary. Congratulations

[N2056]

Thanks for the comment. Most of the credit on the external mesh should go to Michael Davies, as he did the original model I started with.

[michael davies]

Well, I said I would try to cough up some actual forward progress. Here's the BC-1151a radar going in.

I must confess, when I first saw this my first reaction was, I know that plane LOL, I didn't spare the horses on the exterior, smoothness was paramount, at a slight expense in polys I'm afraid, but the application of high rez textures really does add a new dimension to the shape and compliments it very well.

Sadly I cannot take any credit for the interior or the smaller details, thats all down to N2056 with his patience and skills.

Looking good chaps!.

Kindest

Michael

[N2056]

Hey Daube,

In all of these pics the model is fully textured. The trick to getting all those polys to shade well is a combination of something known to developers as "edge turning" and good use of "smoothing groups". Gibbage made a great set of video tutorials on the latter subject that are well worth watching for anybody using Max/Gmax.

[JMDooley]

Looking better & better each time I check this thread. Keep up the great work there N2056

[timghetta]

Hey November 2056,

She is looking great. From what I can see you are really working the modeling.
I too am at odds with xtomdl limits, and squeezing every little polygon and verticie off a texture.

I found the limit on the polys comes to a balance with the materials. you have more materials it will cause less polys and you get the "out of memory" exception error.

I would love to know what the X and MDL sizes are.

But I like the fact that you are pushing the detail factor up, to me a lot of people will bitch and moan that their FPS is low but not all cases, cause the serious simmer will a fast machine and by you making it detailed will ensure the longevity of the plane in future setups.

-Tim

[warchild]

The way he's engineering it, you shouldnt notice any frame rate hit. Since FSX pretty much ignores the poly count it comes down to a matter of textures and texture draw calls. Robert's been extremely careful of that since the beginning, and the number of draw calls being made is minimal.
Add to that the very unique way ive set up the flight model, and Tesons work on the engine failure profiles and you should have a flying experience that is unlike anything youve experienced yet. I dont mean to seem egotistical, but i'm extremely proud of the work we've accomplished so far, and Roberts modeling has been a major driving force for me, compelling me to go far beyond anything ive ever done before. I'm pretty sure your gonna like it ..
Pam

[timghetta]

Pam,

it's me Tim... Remember me on skype that one night? It sure looks great, I asked about the X and MDL size and see what limits he is running into with my own high poly modeling.

So other wise how is everything going? You doing good, keeping out of trouble?

[N2056]

Tim, here's what I have for project numbers currently...

Gmax file size=18.6MB
.mdl file size=12MB
316,552 polys
239 Drawcalls
3,438 Beers