• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

The SOH P-61 thread.

warchild

warchild

Charter Member
OK, by now most of you know that the P-61 development thread was deleted. I apologize for that. I assure you it was not the doing of either myself or any of the P-61 team.

The bottom line is, the P-61 is alive and well, and moving forward. We have run into some technical issues with exporting the model due to poly count ( its quite hefty ) but we are looking for ways to overcome the limitations of GMax so that we can complete the model.. Please stay tuned and we will bring this model too you as promised..
Thanks
Pam
 
Great news Pam, you know I will be flying the P-61 off Iwo Jima. Thanks for the update.
 
We have run into some technical issues with exporting the model due to poly count ( its quite hefty ) but we are looking for ways to overcome the limitations of GMax so that we can complete the model.
Click to expand...

You have heard about ULE, Unlimited Export from Gmax? Edit: delete this. Sorry, for a moment I thought this was FS9. Still, at FSDeveloper they have a compiler that can handle huge numbers of polies.
 
Very kind of you to post an update Pam. Really appreciate it. Shame that the development thread was moved, belongs here in FSX.
 
mjahn said:
... at FSDeveloper they have a compiler that can handle huge numbers of polies.
Click to expand...

OpenXtoMDL, a 64-bit MDL compiler by Sean Isom. Assuming the export from Gmax to .X and .XANIM succeeds it might help. It reportedly gets around the problem if using 3ds Max, so worth a shot.
 
mjahn said:
You have heard about ULE, Unlimited Export from Gmax? Edit: delete this. Sorry, for a moment I thought this was FS9. Still, at FSDeveloper they have a compiler that can handle huge numbers of polies.
Click to expand...

can you give me a link?? I imagine zRob has already tried, but who knows.. anything i can do to help this dream come true ya know :)..
Pam
 
hairyspin said:
OpenXtoMDL, a 64-bit MDL compiler by Sean Isom. Assuming the export from Gmax to .X and .XANIM succeeds it might help. It reportedly gets around the problem if using 3ds Max, so worth a shot.
Click to expand...

Indeed it may be.. I'll pass this along as well.. Thank you..
 
Pips said:
Very kind of you to post an update Pam. Really appreciate it. Shame that the development thread was moved, belongs here in FSX.
Click to expand...

Afraid it wasnt just moved. for reasons I dont know, it was completely deleted..
 
FSX & Gmax, I am fairly sure you don't get the .x file, you'd need max for that.

But owls to Athens dept. probably, have you tried the usual trick, i.e. move all texture maps to a different folder so that gmax can't find them AND use a single wire frame window only ... that should give you a massive mem boost. If that is what's needed ...
 
mjahn said:
FSX & Gmax, I am fairly sure you don't get the .x file, you'd need max for that.

But owls to Athens dept. probably, have you tried the usual trick, i.e. move all texture maps to a different folder so that gmax can't find them AND use a single wire frame window only ... that should give you a massive mem boost. If that is what's needed ...
Click to expand...

to be honest, i'm not sure what techniques Rob employes. I can be fairly certain he's tried everything reasonable and a few things that arent, cuz after working with the man for two years, i can unequicably say that the man knows GMax inside and out.. he's one of the very best..
Franly, if we need Max to get the x file then we need to look at another way of possibly do this. Max costs 5000 dollars and more, and is not an option for us at this time..
Thanks though.. great suggestions :)
pam
 
Regarding the export issue...I am aware of using wire frame mode and not loading textures to save memory. I am also aware of the new exporter as I followed that discussion over at FSDeveloper. It is only for Max as Gmax does not allow access to the .x file for user manipulation. That was part of the agreement between Discreet and Microsoft to allow a Gmax game pack for FSX. I have not actively worked on the project for some time, but I occasionally open it up and fiddle with things, and I am constantly pondering how/what I can simplify in the model to keep it exporting. Right now it is doing fine (after removing the 3d engines and going with a textured disc), but I still have a fair amount of parts to build in the vc. I am also hoping for an update from the MAAM on their restoration site. The photos there have been invaluable to me on the project.
 
Have you guys tried contacting Lionheart and seeing if he would put in 3DSMax and export it for you?
 
It's not really an option for many reasons, not the least of which being the number of times I need to export the project to check things in a session. :eek:
 
I am going to stick this thread here in the FsX forum which I believe is the right place for it. If the problems become insurmountable then we can unstickie it later.
 
Warchild, thanks for your commitment to the p-61 project. Your efforts and interest in the project will be appreciated when it is completed.
 
Did someone eventually think to use Blender with the plugin to import and export .x directx files ?

I know using blender means a long learning curve but it could be of any help.
 
Blender would be a huge step backwards for more reasons than I care to list. It really just boils down to knowing and accepting that there is indeed a "limit" to what Gmax can do, and then working within that. For this project that has meant that I am faced with simplifying a lot of things already done to make room for parts not made yet. It's just a matter of spending the time and effort to make the end product fly.
 
mjahn said:
FSX & Gmax, I am fairly sure you don't get the .x file, you'd need max for that.
Click to expand...

I'm forgetting that Gmax compiles straight from .gmax to .mdl without leaving an .X file lying around. However Gmax also uses the XtoMDL compiler as part of that process, so it might be worth trying Sean's compiler instead of the FSX version, just rename it from OpenXtoMDL.exe to XtoMDL.exe and see if the Gmax exporter will use it.

Worth a try... :isadizzy:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top