Providing Flashpoint Support post 'AA'

[chris330 0]

this is a great idea.

what would be great is standardising recoils per weapon. that way we could get the most realistic weapons action as well.

i recommend earle & sucheys marines for most accurate weapon recoils. any other great recoils?

I appreciate both your enthusiasm for the idea

Dear Twisted,

It is a great idea but the only issue is that if you alter weapon recoils in their config files it can screw up the AI's ability to aim the weapon accurately. I discovered this when I made the SA80 addon way back when. I will however have a good look at the project you mentioned as I'm sure there will be something very useful in there. Perhaps this idea will be something that can be implemented in a future version of the project

[ag_smith 0]

I was going to ask them for permission anyway - I've seen the consequences of what happens when people don't There are two issues though:

1) They may not have MLOD formats lying around for their models anymore (I haven't kept any of my old ones).

2) They may not even be around in person anymore (lots have left the community).

It's just a way of including addons that have been forgotten about or would otherwise be unrecoverable.

As for the likelihood of permission being granted though, I cannot see too many issues arising due to the fact that if this project is a success it will draw attention to an addon makers work.

Which is something they like...alot

You seem not to be aware about the fact that ODOL explorer conversion sometimes (which means: quite often) irreversibly damages models in not very obvious ways. There're some topics about it in O2 modelling forum, if you're interested. Additionaly, the model lighting always gets screwed up.

[chris330 0]

You seem not to be aware about the fact that ODOL explorer conversion sometimes (which means: quite often) irreversibly damages models in not very obvious ways. There're some topics about it in O2 modelling forum, if you're interested. Additionaly, the model lighting always gets screwed up.

I appreciate greatly you taking the time to let me know about that. That piece of information you just shared could mean dozens and dozens of hours or even days saved having to find that out for myself. I will check out the forum you mentioned. Just on the off-chance though are you aware of any means of fixing this damage? Even if it means going in to the brass-tacks and repairing it (which I don't mind), can it be done?

[JdB 151]

I appreciate greatly you taking the time to let me know about that. That piece of information you just shared could mean dozens and dozens of hours or even days saved having to find that out for myself. I will check out the forum you mentioned. Just on the off-chance though are you aware of any means of fixing this damage? Even if it means going in to the brass-tacks and repairing it (which I don't mind), can it be done?

Lol, that is what I meant why you should ask people for MLOD models. It takes ages to repair the models to roughly the way they were before, when you can just ask people that are still around for MLOD models and not have those problems

[ag_smith 0]

Some of the issues are:

- vertex lighting properties don't work as they're supposed to. Ie. for optic models, the muzzle flash doesn't shine at night.

- wound textures don't work, even though everything is configured properly.

There're some others, but I forgot what it was.

They're pain in the ass because they don't happen in every case, also I'm not aware of any ways to fix them.

The lighting and screwed up selections (especially important for animation of soldier models) can be easily fixed, but you'll have to redo a lot.

[klavan 0]

I've noticed that textures are also influenced: more often that not transparent textures are screwed up by it, appearing black instead of being invisible or semi invisible.

Sometimes models loose some faces also.

Klavan

[chris330 0]

Some of the issues are:

- vertex lighting properties don't work as they're supposed to. Ie. for optic models, the muzzle flash doesn't shine at night.

- wound textures don't work, even though everything is configured properly.

There're some others, but I forgot what it was.

They're pain in the ass because they don't happen in every case, also I'm not aware of any ways to fix them.

The lighting and screwed up selections (especially important for animation of soldier models) can be easily fixed, but you'll have to redo a lot.

Thanks that's exactly the reply I was looking for On balance then I would say that I will not be considering this as an acceptable or reliable means of editing models. Not only does the work involved appear to be too great given the number of addons the project will likely include but if I were to go to the trouble of repairing them (which isn't a viable option anyway by the looks of things) then the end result might differ enough from the original addon for someone to potentially end up getting upset should they re-appear on the scene.

In that case then and with the information offered by others I shall restrict the project only to addons for which I can acquire MLOD models as has already been advised.

Just on a side note and purely out of curiousity (thinking WAY ahead into the distant future) do you think it would ever be possible for a utility to be created or an old one be modified which would not lose this important data?

Also is there a professional third party software package available which can be purchased which would accurately convert this data?

Thanks again for your help

[ag_smith 0]

I've heard *rumors* that p3dedit is able to handle the conversion correctly, but this tool is not available to public and there's a little chance that you could get ahold of it these days.

So overall, it's a good decision to avoid ODOL>MLOD conversion. It's gonna save you a lot of trouble.

[Jezz 0]

p3dedit does it better but not perfect, there are still errors with named selections

[chris330 0]

p3dedit does it better but not perfect, there are still errors  with named selections

Thanks for the replies again

Just out of curiousity how severe are the named selection errors? That sounds alot less severe than the problems thrown up by ODOL explorer (tinking a long way ahead again).

[JdB 151]

Just out of curiousity how severe are the named selection errors? That sounds alot less severe than the problems thrown up by ODOL explorer (tinking a long way ahead again).

Don't bother asking, the chance of you (or me) getting your (my) hands on P3DEdit is very slim, it was only given to a limited number of people

[chris330 0]

Just out of curiousity how severe are the named selection errors? That sounds alot less severe than the problems thrown up by ODOL explorer (tinking a long way ahead again).

Don't bother asking, the chance of you (or me) getting your (my) hands on P3DEdit is very slim, it was only given to a limited number of people

That sounds like that one's out of the window then if it's a really close guarded thing. MLOD only it is then. Only in very exceptional cases (less than 1% of the time) will I consider having to convert ODOL to MLOD, unless a better tool comes along way in the future.