New test build: Max NifTools Plugin (many versions)

[Phitt]

Originally posted by Razorwing
Thanks for sharing the future update with us, phitt I'll make a note of updating the moldcave pieces shortly after the MOPP-enabled exporter is released and will send you those updates.

Feel free to think of me as a happy go-lucky idiot, because often times I am, but here is a volley of questions from me that I hope you guys can answer.

1. When MOPP shapes can be exported, how do I go about setting it up in 3D Studio Max? Do I create, say, one 3d mesh that covers a wood surface, one 3d mesh for metal, one for stone, et cetera and hook them up to a bhkRigidBody helper?
   
2. Should the 3d meshes be closed, or can I leave holes in it where I don't need collision?
   
3. One of the things I've heard about MOPP shapes is that you can clone collision. To take a wild example, if you have for instance four identical columns on the visual model my understanding is that one can make a fivesided cylinder and clone it to cover each column and that would impact the FPS less than making four separate cylinders. Is there any chance this will be supported?
   
4. Apart from material sounds, will MOPP shapes be able to accommodate for splinters and arrow penetration?
   
5. This is isn't very important but on a sidenote I wanted to ask if there's any chance of a future version of the exporter being able to export NiVertexColorProperty and NiAlphaProperty nodes? Because at least to me personally those abilities would save quite a bit of time. I mean setting them up in Nifskope once isn't a problem but I often find myself revising a model a couple of times before I feel like it's final. It would also be cool to have a custom shader for Oblivion models so a modeller could get a WYSIWYG impression of how it'll look in-game -- but I can understand that that request would be farfetched, so it's not a serious suggestion.
   
6. I shouldn't ask this here, but what the heck. What is the deal with the NiSpecularProperty node? Should it only be added when the texture of the mesh lacks a specular map, but you want the surface to have specularity anyway; or should it be added to enable the specular map on the texture of a mesh? I haven't been able to reach a conclusion on my own, and the times I've tested it I haven't noticed a strong difference in either direction.
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1. Unfortunately more than one subshape isn't supported yet, neither by the Blender nor by the 3ds max exporter. That means it doesn't have any shapes that could be called 'sub'. Only one. Tazpn wrote that it's one of the harder tasks to implement it, but it doesn't seem to be impossible.

2. You can leave holes, it works just like TriStripsShapes before.

3. Didn't know that, would be great. I think the people at Niftools can answer this question.

4. Yes, they do already.

5. Would appreciate that as well. Again, Niftools forum would be a better place to ask I guess.

6. This is from Throttlekittys Nifskope 101 tutorial about the SpecularProperty:

Adds specularity with this property.

It has one value: Flags, and it can be 1 (on) or 0 (off) I suppose you could flicker it with a controller, but I haven't tried.


This method useful when using animated textures or just not having a normal map. When using this property, The vertex shader is used; Black vert colors are not shiny, Gray are kinda shiny, and White ones are most certainly shiny! wowzers!

I have to admit that I tried this with an animated texture and it didn't work at all though. I tried with different vertex colors, vertex color properties - no luck. The texture didn't react to light at all.

[Razorwing]

I thought you were also working on the plugin, Phitt. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I appreciate the information you could provide, thankyou!

1) I hope multiple shapes become possible later on, meanwhile I can just accomodate for that development by creating the collision so it can eventually be cut up into subshapes.

2) That's interesting to know. I've been on the fence whether leaving open edges in a mesh was a good idea or not and for a time I had attributed the bleeding collision bug to that practice, but later on concluded it had to do with the mesh collision itself.

6) Aah, I see! So, the specular property works together with vertex painting. I did not know that. I'll have to test that out soon