Contribution Discussion

[Nikodemus]

So duplicate the mesh and flip its normals?

I'm still concerned what should i do aout the transparency problem. 

[Karyuu]

So duplicate the mesh and flip its normals?

Yep! Unfortunately I'm not sure about the transparency issue, but you don't have to make this item that nifty. An opaque item is just fine.

[Wired_Crawler]

Option "twosided" in b2cs menu works exactly like this: during export it automagically duplicates faces and flips normals while retaining uv map. However, it causes (or was causing) problems with lighting in CS, opposite faces cast shadows on each other, although they should not do it. So - better and more predictable effects can be achieved by duplicating faces manually and pushing them away from each other a little bit.

I'm not sure, what is Your problem with transparency. Options in b2cs gui don't affect the way a model is displayed in Blender. For this to work you need to go to "uv face select" mode and push button "alpha" on "texture face" tab, do it for each face wich has texture with transparency information.
Still, in Blender's 3D workspace transparency glitches always appear (at least for me). Renders should look OK though. Also try to play with button "ZTransp" in material settings.

Setting priority and zmode for items will not help at all, because those settings in CS affect objects, and you are supposed to produce factories (libraries), which then will be used to create objects placed in the world by game engine, and this is the game engine, which will decide what will be priority, mixmode, zmode etc... However, by preparing material in proper way you can get good results - find in b2cs gui (material menu, section: texture) option "binary" and set it to true (I think it was called texture_binary in older versions of b2cs). This usually gives best results with transparency in CS (although it does not help with translucent textures).

BTW: question for Karyuu: will those object be of type sprite3d or genmesh ? Or maybe something else is planned ?

One more comment about transparency in CS - it often works unreliable and unpredictably and it is hard (or even impossible) to make an separate object which would always look good in CS . So don't worry too much, I hope that the new CS renderer will deal better with that.

Edit:
Note about using "twoside" option: remeber, that model after export will have 2x more triangles than shown in Blender.

[Karyuu]

BTW: question for Karyuu: will those object be of type sprite3d or genmesh ? Or maybe something else is planned ?

They will be converted to the sprite3D format.

[Nikodemus]

I'm not sure, what is Your problem with transparency. Options in b2cs gui don't affect the way a model is displayed in Blender.

I wasn't trying to have effect on blender render by setting blend2cs properties xD what made you think so? x)

For this to work you need to go to "uv face select" mode and push button "alpha" on "texture face" tab, do it for each face wich has texture with transparency information.
Still, in Blender's 3D workspace transparency glitches always appear (at least for me). Renders should look OK though. Also try to play with button "ZTransp" in material settings.

Yeah, there are glitches and it has no effect on render, so if in my workspace i see transparency, render wont have it. Thanx for telling how to see it in the workspace though
I couldn't find "ZTransp" in material settings.

Setting priority and zmode for items will not help at all, because those settings in CS affect objects, and you are supposed to produce factories (libraries), which then will be used to create objects placed in the world by game engine, and this is the game engine, which will decide what will be priority, mixmode, zmode etc... However, by preparing material in proper way you can get good results - find in b2cs gui (material menu, section: texture) option "binary" and set it to true (I think it was called texture_binary in older versions of b2cs). This usually gives best results with transparency in CS (although it does not help with translucent textures).

By setting zmode, it see the partial transparency (you call it translucent) It's a shame it doesnt work well with complicated meshes (it would work alright for 2d plane of window i gues (dirty, so worse transparent at edges and better in the middle))
Thanx for reminding me about that binary transparency. It works well, only no partial transparency. I gues i can now make a presetating post...

Edit:
Note about using "twoside" option: remeber, that model after export will have 2x more triangles than shown in Blender.

I'm not that stupid I actually put big efford to the efficiency and wouldnt miss something so big

[Karyuu]

Nikodemus: Very nice presentation

*edit*

Although... 1024x128 texture? I hope there's a typo in there somewhere..! You might also want to add a soft black outer glow to the icon.

[Nikodemus]

Nikodemus: Very nice presentation

*edit*

Although... 1024x128 texture? I hope there's a typo in there somewhere..! You might also want to add a soft black outer glow to the icon.

No typo. Such a texture is same as 256x512 or 512x256 and this is allowed In the end what really matters is solely the file size, but yeah dimensions is some indicator.
Also, the ico has a soft black outer glow Maybe too soft?


I been wondering for sme time, should we attach to each presentation the .obj file and the texture? Or if accepted we will be asked for them?

EDIT:
Oh, i can remember the cap to be 512x512, now i see it 128x128. So the texture is going to be scalled down, what a pity.

[Karyuu]

Well... the problem with a 1024x128 texture is if you scale the large side down to 256, which is the most it's going to be, you're going to lose a ton of the detail you've put into that 1024 dimension. Unless I'm simply not understanding how you've laid out your texture page.

If your item is the one we like the best, we will ask you for the .obj at that time

[Nikodemus]

Yeah, it will look like this:


Size at which it should be looked at and when you dont see pixelation effect

It is phisically impossible to put more detail nto this not a big loss.

EDIT The funny part is if i did it 128x128 there would be no more details ;P because with current layout it is tiled in a specific way, if you can see it from the UV map screenie i did.

[Nikodemus]

Karyuu, does Harnquist Assurace Letter need a mesh?

[Keldrena]

http://lww.demon-host.com/index.php

OT: That site isn't working for me. Sucks because I remember Laanx Wheel Of Wishes and it was really useful. Did the site move?

[Karyuu]

Hey there dudes and dudettes,

The What The Team Needs From You thread is going to be closed for the first round in four weeks, on September 1. The "round" deal works like this: Since not all items have been created, we are going to choose between what you guys put together so far, and those items are going to go off the list. The remainder will be left up for another month (round two), and probably a bit more (deadlines will be posted way in advance). So if you are still interested, get as much in as you can so we can shorten what's needed.

Thanks for everything already!

[Karyuu]

Nikodemus: Remember that PlaneShift does not use double-sided faces. If a face is meant to show up in the game, it must have its own individual polygon. PS doesn't use 2-sided materials.

[Nikodemus]

duplicate, flip normals and done

That in case someone was wrong that it is exactly what happens when you add a property doublesided and export.

[Jeraphon]

Nikodemus, I like the idea of a sealed message bearing a seal of Laanx or whatever, but not on Murago's - he's a priest of Talad, not Laanx.