Xycaleth

An interesting thing to ask is what versions of FBX will the converter support?

 

And what version do you want a test model in? I can supply Toshi's Luke in FBX format so you got a game-ready model with everything and I'll throw in a crappy LOD as well.

Toshi's Luke would be good, thanks Can you throw in a simple animation with that as well please?

 

Not sure what versions it would support just yet but if Archangel is right about converting between version, then it shouldn't matter which version I target

Awesome. Well I'll see when I can get started on this. If someone can provide me with a basic model (something like a map object) in FBX format then that would help me a lot

 

I'll keep this topic updated with my progress!

Yep, if enough people are interested then I'll try developing one

What is it?

The FBX to GLM converter will be able to convert the FBX model format to Raven's GLM and GLA formats. FBX is one of the most widely exportable formats from all major modeling programs, and it makes sense to be able to support this format to reach out to as many modelers as possible. In addition, FBX can be converted on the three major operating systems (Window, Linux and Mac), so this can further increase the number of people who can use it!

 

Download link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/874909/fbx2ghoul2.zip

 

Linux and Mac binaries can be created on request!

 

This is what it DOES do:

• Converts FBX file to GLM.

• Supports LODs.

• Supports static meshes.

• Animations using existing GLA files.

DOES NOT:

• Export custom skeletons

Road Map

Here's a rough outline of what I plan to do, and in which release/milestone it will be finished in.

1. Milestone 1 - Converts non-animated models to GLM.
2. Milestone 2 - Converts animated-models to GLM.
3. Milestone 3 - Converts animations to GLA.
4. Milestone 4+ - Experimental optimizations of vertex data to potentially improve rendering performance. Also look into reducing animation jitter.

 

Original Post:

Aloha. I wanted to gauge how many modellers would be interested in an FBX to GLM converter (and potentially back again)? FBX is one of the most widespread interchange formats for models so all modeling programs should be able to produce FBX files. Autodesk provides a software development kit for the 3 major operating systems and so it is ideal for making a cross platform converter. The dotXSI dev kit is only available for Windows which makes it much harder to make a cross platform solution.

Obviously this could (easily?) be extended to produce GLA files as well.

I just looked at the repository and the ModView project code files are under the tools folder. So it will need a tweak to allow you to choose an MD3 file to bolt onto a character.

ModView doesn't support loading of MD3 files as far as I know so you would need to add support for that first.

 

Regarding memory usage for vertex animations compared to skeletal, skeletal animation uses far less memory than vertex animations. With skeletal, only the vertices of the base/bind pose need to be in memory plus the skeletal key frames (and an added bonus is that multiple animations can be mixed and blended). With vertex animations, at least two sets of vertices need to be in memory so that the vertices can be interpolated.

It would indeed need code changes.

My vps costs me £2.99/month and would probably be able to host a 16 player server. Add a bit more (say, £6.99) and I'd probably be able to host a 32 player server. Most 12 slot servers I've seen are at least £10/month or more.

It's probably cheaper to buy your own virtual private server (vps) and set up a JKA server on that. I wouldn't be surprised if much of the costs associated with the usual JKA server hosting are usually to do with the hosting company managing the server itself (I.e. setting up the JKA server, adding mods, etc).

 

The downside of buying a vps is that then you have do to all the things the hosting company would have done, plus the general security and housekeeping of the server itself.

Dumbasses, but at least the code is out for anyone to use albeit with no future updates or support.

I doubt there would have been any updates anyway. It's not something that's usually done.

Are you running the server yourself, or is this on a hosted server?

For dismemberment to always happen I think you need to set g_dismember 100 and cg_dismember 3.

If I recall correctly, using the launcher (JediAcademy.exe) always launches the game in safe mode. Does the problem still exist if you load up MP or SP using jamp.exe or jasp.exe directly?

Ah right. You're using the provided .sln file. It's currently broken so to want to avoid it. Instead you should generate a working one using the .bat file in the root of the OpenJK directory. You'll need to install cmake. Once you've run that, use the .sln file in the build/ directory.

 

I also tried compiling the openjk_sp.x86.exe in FinalBuild this time, and that stopped the OpenJK Singleplayer console (the one which pops up upon starting the game) from crashing completely - now it actually gives a red, flashing error message: "Failed to load renderer."

Are you running SP through Visual Studio or are you copying the openjk_sp.x86.exe and rdsp-vanilla_x86.dll files into JKA's GameData folder and running it by double clicking the .exe?

There's some very basic support for JK2 if you build the codeJK2 folder and run SP with start up parameters +set com_jk2 1. However it's very unstable atm and there's a lot of problems.

I'd hazard a guess that your normals are inverted on those sides that are black.

I guess, that this project is a lot about practicing ?

What do you mean?

No, patches cannot be made detail brushes. As the name says, a detail brush is a *brush*. However patches don't create splits anyway. Adding the detail keyword to the shader doesn't make a surface a detail brush either - it simply adds detailed shading (you see more detail the closer you are to the surface).

The reason the loading screen is static is because the game is "locked up" - every time the screen changes is when the game updates the screen. Since there's no multitasking involved it happens sequentially: screen gets shown, load bsp, screen gets shown, load textures (which takes a while), screen gets shown, etc. This same problem prevents maps from being streamed in/out.

UE3 supports level streaming. From what I understand, the whole level is split up into a grid, and each grid cell is streamed in as you get near to it, and streamed out as you get further away. This happens in the background, so you don't notice the loading (at least in theory). It would take quite a lot of effort I think to get this kind of support in JKA, and the .bsp format isn't really suited to efficient level streaming either. There's probably ways to fake an open world (within reason), like making a REALLY huge map but then you run into problems with poor frame rate.

Have you updated your graphics drivers recently?

Would you mind posting your solution so other people with a similar problem can benefit?

Q3mp2 has always used all available cores and CPUs

There's a few small bugs lying around like when you try to connect to a server using a different mod from the one used to start up JKA, and it doesn't load the animations/string/menu files properly. I guess it's not really noticeable but it's still there

 

We don't plan on changing how everything works if you're worried about that.

I find it difficult to believe that increasing available memory alone could give such a huge performance increase but that's still really good nonetheless