Lift causing FPS hit even when not used?

[nick_op]

Originally posted by SACarrow
A request for either nick_op or Koniption: Could you produce a version of the lift with the same collision but totally static? When I look at the original lift mesh, there are things with the collision that make me suspect that instead of the anims (though K looks like she addressed that in version 2). I'm sure that stripping all anim data from the model can be done in NifSkope, but I'm not at that level of NifSkopery.

Deleting the NiControllerManager would probably get rid of all the animation data.

As for what I saw, the big thing was the ~800-tri collision mesh for the railings of the hoist. From my work with the rocks, I've seen that un-MOPPed tristrips tend to "leak" a lot in the collision calculations of the engine, and in this case a set of capsules looks like it would fill the bill. A much more minor observation is that all the CM is marked ANIM_STATIC, even the static MOPPed framework. That should only be an issue if the game engine is too "dumb" to see that that part of the mesh is not controlled by the anim manager.

I think it was Koniption that dealt with the final collision for the lift, as I recall setting up the animated bits with MOPP collision, which doesn't work.

A set of capsules should work for the frame work. I thought I'd set it up with capsules, as I remember Razorwing asking me to simplify the collision mesh.

BTW how is the animation for the ropes controlled? Is that with texture animation or actual vertex movement?

It's a texture transform animation (i.e. the texture is dragged a certain distance along either the u or v co-ordinates).

I've attached what I think is the most recent .max scene I have, but I can't be sure. My files are not the most organised.

You won't be able to export the texture transform anim with NifTools as it's only supported by CivIV at the moment, but the rest should be fine. I'm hoping that since we've got a NifTools shader in Max we might get support for the animations listed here at some point.

[Koniption]

Originally posted by SACarrow
A request for either nick_op or Koniption: Could you produce a version of the lift with the same collision but totally static? When I look at the original lift mesh, there are things with the collision that make me suspect that instead of the anims (though K looks like she addressed that in version 2). I'm sure that stripping all anim data from the model can be done in NifSkope, but I'm not at that level of NifSkopery.

As for what I saw, the big thing was the ~800-tri collision mesh for the railings of the hoist. From my work with the rocks, I've seen that un-MOPPed tristrips tend to "leak" a lot in the collision calculations of the engine, and in this case a set of capsules looks like it would fill the bill. A much more minor observation is that all the CM is marked ANIM_STATIC, even the static MOPPed framework. That should only be an issue if the game engine is too "dumb" to see that that part of the mesh is not controlled by the anim manager.

BTW how is the animation for the ropes controlled? Is that with texture animation or actual vertex movement?

All for now,
Steve

To make the lift static, do what nick_op said: delete the NiControllerManager.

The static "MOPP-ed" framework that is marked ANIM_STATIC, should not be causing any issues. If you look at the "dreamstairs01.nif" in "meshes\dungeons\misc..." folder in Oblivion, it does the same thing, by putting a MOPP'ed ANIM_STATIC on a mesh that stays static. I basically copied the stuff from the dreamstairs01.nif and how it was set-up, to the lift nif.

Koniption

[SACarrow]

I actually tried to create a capsule-based collision set based on nick_op's Max scene, forgetting that the export process still involves NifTools, CivIV, sometimes a spot of Blender, and Dr. Manhattan wouldn't hurt either. The resultant NIF looks like an exploded watch in NifSkope; pretty amusing for sure.

Anyway my working hypothesis is that the actual moving collision should be a collection of simple shapes and not tristrips. If the new model is OK with sandor, I'm good. If either nick or K would like to try the capsule method, I'm good with that too. BTW could you lay out your export method so I can see if I can try to get the NifTools exporter to do more of it? I haven't done much lately, but I think I'm the only one working on non-FO3 stuff. hrug:

To bed now,
Steve

[nick_op]

Originally posted by SACarrow
BTW could you lay out your export method so I can see if I can try to get the NifTools exporter to do more of it? I haven't done much lately, but I think I'm the only one working on non-FO3 stuff. hrug:

To bed now,
Steve

My export workflow for the lift was something like this:

1. Export entire mesh except for ropes with NifTools (nif w/o anim).
2. Export just the ropes with CivIV exporter as default export script.
3. Sort out lack of BSX flags plus scene root/non accum stuff in NifSkope.
4. Export two animations (forward and backward) with CivIV exporter and attach in NifSkope.

If NifTools could do texture transform controllers then the whole export could be done with NifTools. I'd have thought that since we now have a dedicated NifTools shader that the implementation should be fairly straightforward (says the guy with no programming knowledge ).

This page details the export process for Civ IV only animation exports. Most of them are reliant on the Civ IV shader, so I'm hoping that you'll be able to implement them in a similar way using the NifTools shader at some point.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by nick_op
If NifTools could do texture transform controllers then the whole export could be done with NifTools. I'd have thought that since we now have a dedicated NifTools shader that the implementation should be fairly straightforward (says the guy with no programming knowledge ).

I wouldn't recommend using the 3.3 version of the plugin. I tried it a few weeks ago, but the model I exported with it caused the Construction Set to crash when I dragged it into the world window. I didn't investigate it further since the 3.0 plugin is stable and has what I need. (That may be true of 3.1 and 3.2 too. I wouldn't know since I didn't try them.)