[nounette]

Hello All,
I'm new to modding on IL2 and I'm trying to add scenery to a map.
I'm alredy used to work with Blender and I've built some nice buildings that I exported to .obj and .3ds.

However, I'm a little stuck with Dr. Jones msh converter as I generate a .msh from the .obj but the resulting file is not imported in IL2 (I've added it to the static.ini but it will not be loaded when inserted in FMB). If I've correctly understood, for scenery I only need to declare the new object in static.ini and no need to touch the .sfs files.

I've been flying around different posts and tutorials but most of them are for planes (so much more complex) and no one explains how to use Dr. Jones tool.

If I use only one model and I define it as main mesh, the resulting .msh file will have LOD section blank.
If I define it only as LOD some other sections will be missing.

1) How many different models do I need to create for only building ?
2) How do I select and declare them on Dr. Jones converter in order to get a .msh correct for IL2 ?

Thanks for your help,
N

[Deutschmark]

If I was doing this then this is how I would go about it.
1, find a download of a ground object that some one made.
2, make sure it works for you with your game.
3, then make your model files the same as what you see in the
One that you download and works for you with your game.

My thoughts on it, sorry I cant help you more maybe some else
Can that works with maps and ground objects.


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[Heinkel-162]

Ok The models you should make should be:

D0 model(Base perfect condition)

D1 Model(Damage 1)

LOD 1(Depending on how many polys it is, if it is low detail building do not worry but you still need to add a value(Eg. 500) in the LOD section of the mesh.

Shadow model

And then you need to add hooks, from my understanding these are:
Ground_Level Body HK
You must have that hook!

You can find that by taking it from another model.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is an example of a basic mesh and what each section looks like and means:

[Common]//Seems to be the same on every Mesh.
NumBones 0
FramesType Single
NumFrames 1

[LOD]//Distance at which the Next LOD is visible.(Must have atleast one value in their otherwise the game won't load the model)
//Example:
50
50
150
350
800

[Hooks]//Special Java things for Special Effects and other things.
//Example:
_Clip09

[HookLoc]//Numbers that tell the game where the Hooks are positioned.
//Example:
1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 -0.00448 -1.17328 0.81369

[Materials]//The .MAT files that point to the Texture that the assigned parts of the LOD0 Model use. (Must include atleast one .mat file otherwise the game will refuse to load the model)
//Example:
Glass2

[FaceGroups]//The grouping of faces on the Model of LOD0.
//Example:
1073 845

[Vertices_Frame0]//The shape and postioning of Vertices on the Model of LOD0.
//Example:
-0.346649 0.767822 0.162201 -0.951076 -9.15523E-05 0.308958

[*]^^These are the numbers the game uses to create the model.^^[*]

[MaterialMapping]//Position of the Textures on the Model for LOD0. Done in the modelling program by mapping the object.
//Example:
0 1
0.7960052 0.3399506

[Faces]
//Example:
8 2 4

//Shadow Model of D0 Model(Or LOD0):

[ShVertices_Frame0]//Same as normal Vertices except these are for the shadow model, usually you can just copy the D0 model vertices here.
//Example:
-0.3937073 -0.9940796 0.07792664

[ShFaces]//Same as normal faces except these are for the shadow model, usually you can just copy the D0 model faces here.
//Example:
4 3 6

//LOD's: (Only required if you have an LOD1.)

//Same as above except it is for the LOD's

[LOD1_Materials]

[LOD1_FaceGroups]

[LOD1_Vertices_Frame0]

[LOD1_MaterialMapping]

[LOD1_Faces]

[LOD1_ShVertices_Frame0]

[LOD1_ShFaces]

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Other than that do what Deutschmark suggested, hope this helps.

[Deutschmark]

@ Heinkel-162, wile this is good info I dont think its what he needs.
He is looking for info on map ground objects and I belevee they are
Just two model files to each map ground object that is ( live & dead )
I think but not for sure its live.mesh and dead.mesh in each ground
Objects model folder.

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[Heinkel-162]

Yes that is correct, just live.msh and dead.msh but still same mesh structure.

[nounette]

Hi,

Thank for your answers.

I've done some tests with other working meshes and it seems that LODs are not mandatory for scenery objects (they still load correctly when eliminating all the lods from the .msh).

However, I've found some bugs on Dr. Jones converter when converting my .3ds objects:
- in [Vertices_Frame0] section after some lines, 3 last numbers (out of 6 per line) have NaN values
- [MaterialMapping] section is empty

I've thought that I could change some sections manually (hooks, hookloc, lod) by copying them from other files but I don't see how I could possible fill manually vertices and material mapping...

Do you know if Dr. Jones created a new version (I've got version 1.8 ) or if there's another tool to convert .3ds to .msh or directly from blender?

Thanks,
N

[Deutschmark]

The only other thing that I know of is the IL2 exporter for 3D max
That we have in the IL2 tools forum.

Deutschmark