3D modeling topology.

@Forces @Mexican_420 @JustaFordGuy Well guys, a lot has happened since the last post. After killing my brain trying to figure out how to implement the bones for the suspension, I quit and moved on to export the mesh and for the first time get my hands on the editor. So I did.

Downloaded the ST .X exporter and the first thing I encountered was this error when clicking the export button to save the .x file:

exporting error.jpg
Have you seen it before?
Now, it would randomly export it, but haven't figured out what's happening yet.

If I try to open the resulting file in the editor, I get this message:

error editor.JPG

Well, after a bit of tweeking without results, I decided to enable the built-in .x exporter Blender has, just to try it out. and voalΓ‘! it worked!! but it's not perfect tho, when loading the mesh, it shows this error:

error normals.JPG

After that the model just loads, but It shows up everytime I reload the file to update materials or so.

So I worked for a while seting up the materials, baking the Ambient Occlussion and tweeking the Specular maps which has an exagerated effect in the game engine.

It looks like this so far:

truck in the editor side view.JPG

truck in the editor.JPG

Still have to adjust most of the specular maps, but I think it's comming together.

So, have any of you faced any of these errors before? any known fix? Tried googleing a lot, but found nothing.

@deathcoreboy1
I have had the "bad normal" error before, but I honestly cannot remember what caused it or how I fixed it. I think it's a safe assumption that it's not Blender related, since I've only ever used 3DSMax. Sorry...
Truck's looking pretty sweet though! Good work! πŸ‘

@Mexican_420 Thank you mex... I'm, thinking about switching to 3DS for my next project. Can I use the latest version of 3DS to create mods for MR? oh, and, do you know if I can use Maya as well? cuz it looks pretty sweet. Never tried it tho, but for the look of it, I'd be more comfortable using maya than 3DS. I really really like blender better than Max, (especially 2.8) but I'd like to try both sides to see what suits me better.

Let's see @Forces or any other Blender user here has seen these errors before.

I get the random "bad Normal" error also, seems to be an editor bug because everything still works fine even after I get the error.

I haven't seen the other exporter error on a windows machine but I do get a similar error when trying to use it on a Linux machine. I have not found a way around it and have been forced to export only with my Windows 10 system.

@JustaFordGuy Thanks! that's weird though. I'm in Windows 10. Tried Blender 2.78 and 2.79. I guess I'll have to try exporting on linux πŸ˜ƒ

Here is the error I get on the Linux box, Looks very similar to your error.

Linux export error.png

@deathcoreboy1
I don't know if Maya is an option, but only because I don't know if there's a compatible exporter for it.
I'm running on the student license for 3DSMax, and use the Axe exporter.
There is another exporter that works with 3DSMax, it's noted in the Modding Guide that comes with Spintires and might even be included with the ST install (not at my PC atm, so going by memory here lol)

@deathcoreboy1 lets debug

  • Are you exporting the base of your hierarchy? (main cdt mesh)

  • is your armature inside that base model? (it shouldn't be)

  • if you have 2 or more materials in a mesh be sure they all have materials assigned to them (empty material slots will cause errors)

Editor Codes

  • Dont mind the bad normals error is a new pop up that got added (and should be taken out becuase its pointless imo)

CDT based Suspension as yours truck is quite complicated here is a file of a similar setup, it seems to be really hard to achieve mostly because the 2 constraints in a single cdt code is now much more weak

Kraz 255 frame edited

this is taken from my rebuilt kraz 255 it does has cdt based suspension but much simpler this is a edito where i try to add the linked suspension via cdts from a axle to the other

Maybe just try to export a simple model just to verify that your exporter is installed and working correctly.

Hi @Forces .

-Are you exporting the base of your hierarchy? (main cdt mesh)
Yes. I took a screenshot of the hierarchy but forgot to attach it. I have a main "chasis_cdt" mesh as parent and all other meshes, including other cdts are child of it.

-is your armature inside that base model? (it shouldn't be)
No armature yet. Just the 3d model.

-if you have 2 or more materials in a mesh be sure they all have materials assigned to them (empty material slots will cause errors)
This makes sense because I was baking AO before exporting so I might have messed up the materials. I'll check this when I get home today.

Thanks a lot for your reply and for the example file.! I dug a little bit further and found other types of suspensions used on this truck that might be easier to animate. So I can peacefully move on if I don't manage to understand your kraz example.

@JustaFordGuy I'll do that also and report back.

last edited by deathcoreboy1

@Forces I've been studying your model for the past few days and I think I have fairly figured it our, but... I'll need a few clarifications if your don't mind πŸ˜ƒ

1- The only weighted vertices are the ones in the front leaf springs. No weight for the rear leaf springs?

1.JPG

2- The rear arms and front shocks are not animated? because they are not weighted, nor have a parent cdt.

2.JPG

3- Why are these 2 cdt parented? Isn't it enough with one parented to the cabin cdt?

3.JPG

4- What are these 2 objects?

4.JPG

Thanks a lot.

PS> the exporter randomly started exporting well... No idea why. Fingers crossed.

last edited by deathcoreboy1

hey, yes only the leafs are animated on that model, just the front ones, i ignored the rear or shocks in the front

the Front _cdt are parented to the cabin to allow Frame wisting and still maintain a front cdt based suspension
Axle arm is the up and down travel cdt while the Axle cdt is the Xaxis rotation cdt

the rear leafs act as the swivel arm in the setup (to mimic yours)
and the axleArmR_cdt and C are the up and down control arms but i took them out of the equating because is a swivel suspension, the Xaxis rotation is done by the actual axle cdt

Quick disclaimer: The wheels arent mine. They are from the American Wild's Freightliner. With That out of the way:

yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy my truck is in the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy!!!!

2019-07-19 First time in the gamemodifiers applied and wheels correctse45d!!!!!!!!!!!!!.jpg

Might seem silly but I feel like it's a huge achievement for me. I've just modified the base template to point my cdts and reposition the wheel.

Still, the suspension thing is something that's driving me mad, but I'm getting close. Thanks to @Forces I'm paying close eye to the file you sent me and reverse engineering it.

Anyways. Just thought of sharing this.

2019-07-19 First time in the gamemodifiers applied and wheels correcte4d!!!!!!!!!!!!!.jpg

Congratulations man, welcome to the club, dont mind the wheels they fit perfectly, and the textures are also really good, they blend well with the game

@deathcoreboy1 , Congrats on your first in game truck. Looks awesome so far.

@Forces @JustaFordGuy Thanks a lot! Still a lot of things to implement and tweak (I.E: Windshield transparency/texture). Slowly by steady! Thank you all.

last edited by deathcoreboy1

@deathcoreboy1
Excellent! Happy to see the progress, bud! πŸ† πŸŽ†

Guys, I just noticed my truck is "mirrored". I mean, in the game. In blender it's ok, but once exported, it get mirrored. How do I fix this?

Also, added the driveshaft following along the guide @JustaFordGuy put up for me, and something weird happened. I can see the shaft in the editor, but, once in-game, the shaft is missing. Any ideas?

Captura.JPG

last edited by deathcoreboy1

Hey, yeah you need to mirror your meshes once ready to be exported to the game

Are your messages location applied? (Origin 0;0;0) maybe they aren't following the asked and move it of position once in game

@Forces Sorry for the dumb question, but how do I mirror the whole truck?

I have applied rotation & Scale before exporting, but IDK what you mean by (Origin 0,0,0). Now that you mention it, I was having a similar issue with the driver position showing up sitting in the fuel tank despite the cordenates being correct. I solved it by changing the parent frame from the cabin_cdt to the chassis_cdt. Not really sure why, but it appeared in the right possition.