[Goku]

The Blender .S file exporter does a lot of optimization you are talking here.
For example it automatically merges all not animated parts into one.
It's the best way to make shapes for OR / TSRE now. Nothing else is close to it.

Also in Blender you can make one texture file from all textures and insert Ambient Occlusion map on them. But it's not a simple thing to do.

[longiron]

Goku, on 31 January 2018 - 01:37 AM, said:

Also in Blender you can make one texture file from all textures and insert Ambient Occlusion map on them. But it's not a simple thing to do.

Blender's texture atlas process is not for the faint of heart.

chris

[Hamza97]

Quote

Blender's texture atlas process is not for the faint of heart.

Yes... ask me.... :curiousPC: :whistling:

[JohnnyS]

wacampbell, on 27 January 2018 - 06:55 AM, said:

Just an FYI, the Blender to MSTS exporter does this drawcall batching automatically on export. It combines meshes everywhere possible to use the minimum number of drawcalls in the .s shape file it creates.

Hi Wayne,

Is it in the realms of feasibility to make a utility that can do this with pre-existing shape files? There's quite a lot of legacy content that co do with improved optimisation.

Cheers,
John.

[SP 0-6-0]

Is it possible to support Fbx file format for use with animated scenery objects like people and animals?

My link

Robert

[captain_bazza]

Honestly, at that link, yellow text on white background?

CB.

[Goku]

I see black background there.

[thegrindre]

Goku, on 18 March 2018 - 07:22 AM, said:

I see black background there.

Me too.

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/oldstry.gif

[Guille592]

Is there any progress in the new shape file format for Open Rails? Or is it rather idle?

[btrs]

I know most developments now revolve around the upcoming switch from XNA to MonoGame, but I have to bump this feature request again..

Is there any progress or developments concerning a new shape format ? Or at least some ideas whether we are going to use an existing interchange format (FBX, Collada, DirectX .x), a custom-developed format for the sim only, or extending the existing MSTS shape format ?

I was thinking along the lines of the last possibility: use the existing format (or at least the structure), but extend it with new shader names and removal of the subobject limit (the reasons why PolyMaster and Shape Fixer exist).
If we go this route I also expect the OR-team (or a third party at least) to provide an interchange converter to the new format, since I will absolutely not be using Blender. 3dsmax is my tool of choice and I want to be able to do the complete model (including textures & UV map) there and not via an intermediate Blender conversion..

[Rj Zondervan]

Hi BTRS, I am not a team member, but I can imagine that the implementation of a new shape format is postponed to the moment the conversion to Monogame has become more stable (that is, that it is included in the testing version and is not removed from the unstable branch every now and then). That in order to make use of the possibilities of Monogame and preventing to have to invent the wheel twice, once for XNA and once for Monogame. But, once again, that's my perception as an outsider with some knowledge about software implementation, not as an insider.

Btw: I second your wish for a 3ds max converter, as that is also my 3D software of choice. I might look into building such a converter myself, but that's given that I have time to do that.

[Guille592]

btrs, on 20 September 2019 - 06:16 AM, said:

since I will absolutely not be using Blender. 3dsmax is my tool of choice and I want to be able to do the complete model (including textures & UV map) there and not via an intermediate Blender conversion..

I know these feelings, hope we get someday a powerful and independent file format for rolling stock, .S would be more than enough for the buildings/scenery.

[AuzGnosis]

Been wandering through this thread getting increasing more confused till I reached Captain Bazza's line,

captain_bazza, on 16 September 2017 - 06:50 PM, said:

Isn't the .S format a derivitive of the .X format? MSTS was the "child" of Microsoft and both formats were theirs.
CB.

It is even more Byzantine than that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML I was involved in the whole
VRML standardization process (at the turn of the century){BUT I could be wrong from here as I lost the immediate following,
decade sick} Anyway from the little what I've seen of the human readable text-form Microsoft .S format(is nearly pure VRML
with some built-in/internal/hidden; Prototypes/Classes/Subroutines, using some other thing than Gzip to do the compression.

When one starts talking about computing, formats, graphics, languages, it is very important that you keep your final
purpose clearly in mind. One of the original features of VRML that seems to be inherited somewhere in the genetic .S format
is how the object-names maybe understandable self-documenting of the hierarchy of things being describe.

W'Shawn G

[AuzGnosis]

disc, on 16 November 2016 - 06:58 AM, said:

Many highpoly 3D cab, and exterior models still rotting in TS20xx because it would be a real pain to convert them to .s format to load in OR...

Had few years at the height VRML popularity crunching back high polygon-count to what was plausible for the web of the day to handle in real-time over copper-wire. So dare I ask exactly where be these TS20xx highpoly 3D-cab & exterior models rotting?

Thanks. Shawn in Auz.

[AuzGnosis]

Genma Saotome, on 03 December 2016 - 02:06 PM, said:

Is there a reason an enhanced .s format is the wrong way to go? Going down that path would mean changing or writing new exporters. Might that be easier to accomplish than changing OR to accommodate a significantly different file type? Perhaps just one program: collada to enhanced .s. Not because collada is great for games but because most modeling software can produce a collada file.

Genma's question points to the difficulty at the heart of the whole thread. By comments relating to various features user appear to desire or use; high-polygon counts, bump-maps, meshes, u-v mapping, colours & textures in the history of computer graphic [CG] many of these items were mutually exclusive due to the technical philosophy underpinning the initial graphic files creations, along with the intend function. Bump-map & meshes were originally strategies for avoiding large polygon counts.

Thanks Shawn in Auz.