3D Models and Stats Viewer : Version 2.0.3.2 (12th Dec 2010)

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Mon, 1. Nov 10, 19:45

Shouldn't really need to do that obviously,
what files are in your mods directory ?

Scripts don't affect the viewer,
but mismatched/missing xml files for a mod might
(whether the pck/xml is in a cat or uncompressed in t dir),
certainly a missing .dat file for a .cat file (& vice-versa) will.

Andr3as
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Post by Andr3as » Sun, 5. Dec 10, 23:14

Hi,

first of all a BIG THANK YOU for that great tool. I have a suggestion (maybe it is already included and I'm to stupid to find it):

- It is possible to rotate the ship with the mouse but it would be also great to shift the view to all directions (left, right, up and down) with the arrow keys:

for example: you rotate the ship to the position (e.g. horizontal) you want, then you zoom in (maximum) and then you can move around with the arrow keys (e.g. to view the left front in max zoom).

Best regards,

Andy

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Mon, 6. Dec 10, 02:53

Hi Andy,

joined May 2003 and 4th post ?, that must be some sort of record :)

This has come up before, but I never got around to doing anything about it,
it's a good idea cos it's annoying not being able to see some bits of the models
you really want to focus on.
Shouldn't be too difficult I guess.

I'm unlikely to get to the thing I was hoping to do, i.e.
combining the model-viewer/asteroid-seeker/complex-calc/other-things in one package,
so perhaps I should review this & various other past suggestions for the
viewer with the aim of making a new version at some point.

I'll see if I can allocate some time/effort...soonish

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Sun, 12. Dec 10, 21:31

Had a go at Andy's suggestion to see if was useful,
turns out to be quite an improvement, more so than I thought.

New version 2.0.3.2 :

EDIT: made this the main version, no point in delaying for comparative testing.

All changes from previous version are as described below,
download link is in original post in this thread.



CHANGES :

Example with Elite M4 ship detail:
(a) initial view
(b) shift-clicked on round light on wing-tip (and mouse-wheel a bit):
(c) click-drag to rotate - it rotates around the clicked point:
(d) further mouse-wheel, get's it up close, which is the effect Andy was looking for I think:

(a) [ external image ] (b) [ external image ]
(c) [ external image ] (d) [ external image ]


When the viewer is in 'mouse control' mode (white mouse button in the toolbar) then :

1. you can now shift model(s) up/down/left/right/in/out in the screen axes (i.e. orthogonal to your viewing-plane)
[ external image ]

2. you can now roll/yaw/pitch model(s) in their local axes (i.e. as in-game)
[ external image ] or [ external image ]


At any time (& the most useful change) :
3. you can now 'Shift + Left-mousebutton-click' anywhere on a model & that 3D-point becomes the centre of 3D-rotation.

And:
4. The rotation given with left-button-down-mouse-movement (click-drag) is now more intuitive, it used to be
a bit confusing, now rotation 'follows' the mouse-cursor more closely which is hopefully clearer.


Other bits:

Pressing Ctrl key is now used for 'move/rotate all models together' (was the right mouse button),
applies to all the above & to mouse rotations (ie left-mouse-button down & move mouse around)

While right-mouse-button is down, each view shows a marker indicating the centre of rotation for each model,
you can rotate models like this as well (i.e. don't need to press left-mouse-button at the same time).

The clock toolbar-button (Reset Animation) 'resets' all of the above transforms,
maybe it needs a separate button for each tranform set (?)


Relevant things that are still the same :
1. mouse-wheel still makes the camera to model view distance larger/smaller.
2. everything else...


I'll have to update the manual at some point if this beomes the new OP version.

Might need feedback about my choice of buttons though, not sure it's optimal,
or even available on all keyboards (?)

kotorone1
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Post by kotorone1 » Mon, 13. Dec 10, 02:34

Thanks! this will really help me figure out how the turrets shoot

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Alex Corvis
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Post by Alex Corvis » Tue, 21. Dec 10, 17:17

Hi again,

yesterday the xtended terran conflict mod was released and I tried to use the the 3d viewer with this mod. When I start it, it loads the cat files, but as soon as it starts "populating universe" it doesn't do anything anymore. Is there any chance to fix that? Thanks.

A. Corvis

Marhkimov
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x3tc

Post by Marhkimov » Wed, 22. Dec 10, 10:40

Alex Corvis wrote:Hi again,

yesterday the xtended terran conflict mod was released and I tried to use the the 3d viewer with this mod. When I start it, it loads the cat files, but as soon as it starts "populating universe" it doesn't do anything anymore. Is there any chance to fix that? Thanks.

A. Corvis
I second this. I have the same problem.

Any fixes?
-----
Marhkimov

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Wed, 22. Dec 10, 11:33

I'm on it, got the XTC mod downloaded (huge!) last night after Alex's post.

I can see the reason why it locks up = xml-file read-in details (again), should get that sorted quickly.

There may be some new uses of game features that the viewer as not had to deal with before - we'll see...

Alan Phipps
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Post by Alan Phipps » Wed, 22. Dec 10, 11:38

@ exogenesis: Giving up your own preparations for Christmas to make your gifted work better for others and with no reward for yourself. You are a star!

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Wed, 22. Dec 10, 11:46

No prob, I've got to have something to do over the next 2 weeks :)

Only one slight problem : just after last post my new camera arrived (Canon SX30 IS, good Postie!)
- may cause a few hours interference.

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Thu, 23. Dec 10, 01:48

Well here's a test version
http://www.Exogenesis.co.uk/XModels3DVi ... C_Test.exe
(7 MBytes)

or just the exe : with a different name, i.e. you'll have to make you own desktop link,
(this is so you don't have to overwrite the previous installed version)
http://www.Exogenesis.co.uk/XModels3DViewer_2.0.3.3.exe
(1.5 MBytes)

known probs:
weapons key has many missing names,
possibly races should be expanded (somehow).


Should mention some minor extra changes (that will end up in the manual eventually):
1 : left-shift + click somewhere on model = re-center model's view on clicked point
= as before, but now the model 'part' highlights in blue while left-shift is held down.
2 : right-shift + click somewhere on model = as 1 but doesn't cause re-centering
(e.g. useful for identifying names of ship-turret sub-parts).
3 : Sizes of loaded ships/station/missiles are now shown in metres at the bottom of the stats window(s),
(these should match em3e3's recent table of object sizes, I hope)

Anyway, it's a start for viewing XTC-mod models, probably other problems may crop up, tell me what you find.

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Alex Corvis
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Post by Alex Corvis » Sun, 26. Dec 10, 11:22

Hi, thanks. Now it works with most of the x-tc ships. But a few ships still cause crashes or freezes. For example the Terran Macana or the Hive Queen.

A. Corvis

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Sun, 26. Dec 10, 22:35

Yes I can see the problem = embedded (docking) scenes within the ship scene file.
Unfortunately as yet I have only done the special case of gun-scenes (from dummies).
I haven't even yet done the more usual method for docking scene (i.e. with linkage from dummies etc).

Guess that's some fair amount of coding, not sure when I'll get to it atm,
mostly because I've already got interested in digital camera image-processing.

At least most ships/stations are viewable
- even if there are a few stats oddities & some gun names missing.

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Nonpluszultra
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Post by Nonpluszultra » Wed, 29. Dec 10, 00:51

Thank You.
I tried the wiever on XTC as soon as it was launched, iwasn't really disappointed when it crashed and i hawe definitely not expected a fix that fast.
Keep up the good work!
kids, don't try this at home

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surferx
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Post by surferx » Thu, 30. Dec 10, 16:45

Thanks exogenesis, for the XTC version. It really is an essential program. IMO thread shoud be stickied somewhere. :)
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.

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Litcube
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Post by Litcube » Sun, 2. Jan 11, 09:44

Does the app support the weapon dummy positions and rotations from the components.txt? I know cockpit positions are extracted from it, but I can't get the app to react to dummy modifications within components.txt

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Sun, 2. Jan 11, 12:42

Cheers Nonpluszultra & surferx
... I think it's 'stickied' via the 'The Ultimate X resource and guides list' topic :)

Litcube - yes, the components.txt & dummies.txt are parsed
for the weapon dummy parts/positions/rotations/animations.

The files do have to be built into a cat file though, 'raw-mode' doesn't work too well atm
(well maybe it does to some extent ? - really I should get that working properly sometime).

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surferx
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Post by surferx » Sun, 2. Jan 11, 14:15

exogenesis wrote:Yes I can see the problem = embedded (docking) scenes within the ship scene file.
Unfortunately as yet I have only done the special case of gun-scenes (from dummies).
I haven't even yet done the more usual method for docking scene (i.e. with linkage from dummies etc).

Guess that's some fair amount of coding, not sure when I'll get to it atm,
mostly because I've already got interested in digital camera image-processing.

At least most ships/stations are viewable
- even if there are a few stats oddities & some gun names missing.
exogenesis wrote:Cheers Nonpluszultra & surferx
... I think it's 'stickied' via the 'The Ultimate X resource and guides list' topic :)

Litcube - yes, the components.txt & dummies.txt are parsed
for the weapon dummy parts/positions/rotations/animations.

The files do have to be built into a cat file though, 'raw-mode' doesn't work too well atm
(well maybe it does to some extent ? - really I should get that working properly sometime).
I and I'm sure many others would be appreciative if you did; especially the stat views, imo. All the ship's stats have changed so much in XTC it makes it much simpler to view the ships side by side when considering which ship you want.
Hopefully you find some idle time to address this before the real XTC gets released in the spring. Thanks again and have a nice New Year.
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.

Operating System:
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KF RAM: 32606 MBytes MBO: Gigabyte Z790 UD AC (U3E1) GPU: ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4080 Trinity OC NVIDIA 16 GB GDDR6 SSD: AJP600M2TB 1907 GB

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Litcube
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Post by Litcube » Wed, 5. Jan 11, 06:20

You know what would be really, really handy for scene modders? You know the pivot point created when you shift-click? It puts a point on the model.

It would be totally weapon if that point's x, y, z could be displayed somewhere, so notepad scene modders can have a starting reference.


Edit: Or even identify the scene part index of the object we clicked.
:)

exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis » Wed, 5. Jan 11, 20:47

surferx, a nice new year was had (so far), hope yours is too.
Hopefully I'll get idle at some point :)


Litcube : the viewer put up wire-mesh markers centered on the pivot point when you press the right mouse-button :
The sub-mesh shows in cyan colour as long as you keep the shift pressed (times out after several seconds)
[ external image ]

The clicked-on (sub)object mesh-name should be shown in the lower-right area
(for several seconds, disappears at the same time as the cyan colour above does).

Showing coords of the pivot-point in shipbody-centric units: didn't think of that - I'll add it to the list...

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