[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Just curious - with MSTS we had to limit faces and polys - Sfix has them set to 2800 and 10000 limits respectively by default - is this still needed at all in ORTS ?

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

[Genma Saotome]

AFAIK, no.

[Hamza97]

No poly limit for OpenRails... Although you still have to exercise control over polycount you cannot just run away with it ... Lol... :D But yes much more limit than MSTS ever could have handled...

[Guille592]

There is no limit, but we aware that if you come from 3dsmax and you have to go via Gmax, you'll still be limited with 20k per .S file, one of the reasons of why I was asking for a new format file, Gmax...

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the answers...

Yeah - in 3DC - it seems Paul - at some point - built the limits into the MSTS exporter for 3DC - I can’t get around them - even though Shape Fixer has the ability to break the shapes into smaller chuncks - it doesn’t seem to have the ability to reassemble chunks that already exists... It creates a chunk and draw call every 2800 polys - and a subobjects at ever 10,000 polys - with no options... It’s unfortunate as I’m trying to eliminate repetitive and unnecessary draw calls to my 2048x2048 texture sheet...

Can anyone make an ORTS tool to optimize existing shapes specifically for ORTS - to eliminate the unneeded hierarchy ? I could probably do it in Unix - but that would only work on Unix/Linux systems...

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

[Eldorado.Railroad]

scottb613, on 06 April 2019 - 09:39 AM, said:

Yeah - in 3DC - it seems Paul - at some point - built the limits into the MSTS exporter for 3DC - I can’t get around them - even though Shape Fixer has the ability to break the shapes into smaller chuncks - it doesn’t seem to have the ability to reassemble chunks that already exists... It creates a chunk and draw call every 2800 polys - and a subobjects at ever 10,000 polys - with no options... It’s unfortunate as I’m trying to eliminate repetitive and unnecessary draw calls to my 2048x2048 texture sheet...

Can anyone make an ORTS tool to optimize existing shapes specifically for ORTS - to eliminate the unneeded hierarchy ? I could probably do it in Unix - but that would only work on Unix/Linux systems...

Yes..a few years back..Paul appeared on this board..asking about an update to his shapefile viewer. That went..nowhere..fast. Have you tried contacting Richard at Amabilis about this?
If you can, why not write the code on Linux platform, what language would you use? Source code can be translated into another language/OS if needed. Just a thought. As in your case, yes, that 2800 polys split is a royal PITA with the 3D Crafter exporter and I have also noticed that a subobject in Open Rails should have less than 32K worth of polys, otherwise your model will show up rather differently than expected in Open Rails!

Have you tried exporting your model in .OBJ format to Blender? The Blender exporter does not behave like the exporter in 3DC. Also, you can modify the exporter, which is written in the python language. It is a shame that Paul did/does not allow any updates to his exporter for 3DC.

[scottb613]

Eldorado.Railroad, on 12 April 2019 - 02:23 PM, said:

Yes..a few years back..Paul appeared on this board..asking about an update to his shapefile viewer. That went..nowhere..fast. Have you tried contacting Richard at Amabilis about this?
If you can, why not write the code on Linux platform, what language would you use? Source code can be translated into another language/OS if needed. Just a thought. As in your case, yes, that 2800 polys split is a royal PITA with the 3D Crafter exporter and I have also noticed that a subobject in Open Rails should have less than 32K worth of polys, otherwise your model will show up rather differently than expected in Open Rails!

Have you tried exporting your model in .OBJ format to Blender? The Blender exporter does not behave like the exporter in 3DC. Also, you can modify the exporter, which is written in the python language. It is a shame that Paul did/does not allow any updates to his exporter for 3DC.

Hi...

Sorry - I missed your great response...

Yeah - over the years Richard has gone MIA for long periods only to reemerge at some point... This latest MIA period has exceeded all others - I've tried is personal email address as well - no joy... It seems like he is done...

Yeah - I'm pretty handy and most comfortable with shell/awk scripting - which - as I'm sure you know - really isn't a programming language per say - but it could certainly do the job... Thanks to "Cygwin" (free and open source) - it's a Unix emulator that runs on my PC and can access/process all my PC files - it can even execute PC executables - which I've used for countless Flight/Train Sim repetitive tasks over the years... I don't think I've seen converters for that...

I have exported "obj" before (standard for when I model for Flight Sim) - but I haven't used Blender - maybe this is the excuse I need to try it...

I've stayed in contact with Paul over the years - maybe I'll send him a note to see if he has any interest - I know he's moved on from Train Sims... So if he is willing to take a gander - 32K polys is the new limit for subobjects ?

Regards,
Scott

[rickloader]

Scott, if you are reviewing the 3dc exporter, there is also a problem that animated subobjects for signals do not display. when exported to ORTS. TSM can export these subobjects to OR. Its not vital, but I mention it incase you find a fix.
thanks, rick

[Genma Saotome]

Has anyone tried moving the 3dmodel source file into Blender? Perhaps that exporter doesn't have the limit you're discussing.

Over in Sketchup the exporter does not break models at 3k polys... I'm looking at one hierarchy of one right now in Shapeviewer that has more than 5000.

The (now unsupported) SU Make program, version 16 appears to be the last one that the exporter will always perform properly. Thew installer can be found on the web.

SU does not do animations and it's method of doing textures is quite unlike anything else so it's not a good solution for creating a variety of models. That said the menu says it will import Collada, .3ds, .obj models, and surprisingly will also import .kmz and .dem files. I have experience only with Collada so I cannot speak to the fidelity of which it performs any of those imports. Perhaps it could be put to use exported .s files of models created in other programs.

The exporter I'm using is custom, has a couple of quirks to it so I've not released it publicly, but if I can explain what's still goofy i have no problem sharing it.

FWIW, applying LOD's is trivial in SU. The procedure is

• enter the distances you want that will be kept as a reference in the source file, select any number of faces. You may add or delete any at any time.
  
• invoke the LOD function (I set up a shortcut for the letter L)
  
• use your mouse to choose the distance you want from the list you created earlier
  
• click ok.

That applies any one of those values to however many faces you have selected,

[scottb613]

rickloader, on 16 April 2019 - 08:28 AM, said:

Scott, if you are reviewing the 3dc exporter, there is also a problem that animated subobjects for signals do not display. when exported to ORTS. TSM can export these subobjects to OR. Its not vital, but I mention it incase you find a fix.
thanks, rick

Hi Rick,

I sent Paul an email - if he has any interest I'll be sure to bring it up...

Regards,
Scott