MshEx Beta 2 - much better

[YouJediJunkie]

First of all, THANKS SO BACONLY MUCH! Man, do you have any idea of how happy I am? This really works!

Even if this is awesome, and I have had succesful models exported... But those are few compared to the failed ones.

I handed some models for testing to a guy I've known like forever, and then he tried them out. By some funny reason, the models were like 10-20 times bigger in the game. Exactly, what have I done wrong? Any idea?

[Fluffy_the_ic]

Alright, just back from vacation and I get to try this out!


Although I dont really understand everything...
¤A polygon has to be in one and only one cluster at a time.
¤Each cluster must have a local copy of a material (the material name will be italicized = BAD, double click to edit and make a local copy)
¤There has to be one and only one texture projection (can someone say how to collapse a lot of them into one explicit uv map?)
There has to be a null as the parent of everything.Does this mean drag all objects under dummyroot?
You cannot use rotation or scale (well you can use them, but remember to freeze transforms before exporting).
You can only use a max of 5000-6000 triangles (polys times two). If you go over that, you're pushing your luck. ZE will freeze/lock up.


I dont understand most of that...

Things in red I fully dont understand
Blue = I think I may have an idea but Im not sure
Normal=I dont really care

Try to get past my terrible comprehension lol. Still new to XSI

Please try to clear things up for me.

I don't understand one and two myself, but three means it must all be cubic projection, spherical projection, etc. or have the same UV's.
Four, press eight, grab each cube or whatever and drag it under the null in the explorer, but the null MUST BE CALLED dummyroot!<-IMPORTANT. Five, if you use mod tool, you have to look towards the bttom right corner of the screen. There is a button the sayse modeling in the Freeze section.Six, press ctrl+shift. A pop-up box comes up, look around until you see "triangles". The number is the poly count x2. Any expert modelers can clear up one and two for both of us and correct me if I'm wrong.

[Caleb1117]

First of all, THANKS SO BACONLY MUCH! Man, do you have any idea of how happy I am? This really works!

Even if this is awesome, and I have had succesful models exported... But those are few compared to the failed ones.

I handed some models for testing to a guy I've known like forever, and then he tried them out. By some funny reason, the models were like 10-20 times bigger in the game. Exactly, what have I done wrong? Any idea?

Sounds like you needed to freeze the transforms particularly scale before export.

[elfie]

Four, press eight, grab each cube or whatever and drag it under the null in the explorer, but the null MUST BE CALLED dummyroot!<-IMPORTANT.

Funny. I didn't have anything called dummy root and everything worked perfectly for me.

[PsYcH0_]-[aMsT3r]

Hmm I've tried for a while now but I don't know how your meant to get everything out of the scene_root because when I place a null, it goes under the scene_root.

EDIT: Also, with the skin do I just export with my first texture file I used in XSI (.png) and the SWBF2 one i must use (.tga), then put the .tga texture and the .msh file in my map?

[redgroupclan]

I don't understand one and two myself, but three means it must all be cubic projection, spherical projection, etc. or have the same UV's.
Four, press eight, grab each cube or whatever and drag it under the null in the explorer, but the null MUST BE CALLED dummyroot!<-IMPORTANT. Five, if you use mod tool, you have to look towards the bttom right corner of the screen. There is a button the sayse modeling in the Freeze section.Six, press ctrl+shift. A pop-up box comes up, look around until you see "triangles". The number is the poly count x2. Any expert modelers can clear up one and two for both of us and correct me if I'm wrong.

So 3, all of my objects would have to have a cubic texture projections? And no other type?
4, I already pretty much knew that I just needed to be reassured.
5, I already do that.
6, No box pops up.
May an expert clear up 1 and 2...

[RepSharpshooter]

Rules you must follow:

1. Make sure you have Crosswalk 2.6 (you probably don't)
2. A polygon has to be in one and only one cluster at a time.
3. Each cluster must have a local copy of a material (the material name will be italicized = BAD, double click to edit and make a local copy)
4. There has to be one and only one texture projection (can someone say how to collapse a lot of them into one explicit uv map?)
5. There has to be a null as the parent of everything.
6. You cannot use rotation or scale (well you can use them, but remember to freeze transforms before exporting).
7. You can only use a max of 5000-6000 triangles (polys times two). If you go over that, you're pushing your luck. ZE will freeze/lock up.

2. Look up clusters in xsi help if you don't understand. I don't even use xsi and I know what it means fyi clusters are groups of polygons within objects, sometimes with their own materials that are different from other clusters.
3. Just do what it says. You can see all about cluster's and their materials in the scene explorer.
4. If you have more than one texture projection, export as a .obj then re-import. Delete any extra materials.


This is self-explanatory. If you can't do basic menus and pressing buttons, you are beyond my help.

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote="RepSharpshooter"]
Instructions:
[list=1]
[*]Put everything you're going to export under a null (not the scene root).
[*]In the scene explorer, middle-mouse click the name of the null.
[*]Go to file, crosswalk, export (it should be on 6.0 text when it pops up).
[*]Click settings tab.
[*]Select a filename/filepath.
[*]CHECK "EXPORT SELECTION ONLY"
[*]CHECK "CONVERT GEOMETRY TO TRIRANGLES"
[*]CHECK "EXPORT XSI NORMALS"
[*]UNCHECK "Keep referenced paths relative"
[*]Press export.
[*]Run mshex in same directory and convert file to a msh. (and if you're really stupid to put it bluntly, this means put the .xsi file in the same folder as mshex.exe and hedr.msh, then double click on mshex. Then type in the .xsi name such as box.xsi)[/list]
[/quote]

[Caleb1117]

Hmm I've tried for a while now but I don't know how your meant to get everything out of the scene_root because when I place a null, it goes under the scene_root.

The null can be under the scene_root, you can't get it out of it anyway. It's just that everything else must then be under that null.

And BTW, if doesn't matter what the null is called in the case of MshEx.

[redgroupclan]

I think I finally prepped everything right for MshEx, lets see if it works!



EDIT: 'MshEx.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.' Uh oh...great...Now whats wrong.

[woner11]

I'm sorry if this has already been asked or said, but I didn't see it. So does this program convert msh into obj format or something else?

[Blade]

I'm sorry if this has already been asked or said, but I didn't see it. So does this program convert msh into obj format or something else?

This program converts .xsi into msh. Aka (I'm sure you know this already, but) you can now get models in game without the need of the full version of XSI

[woner11]

Rep... I love you!!! in a manly cool way.

[Blade]

Oh, I've been meaning to ask this. I don't think it does, because I don't think it counts as "visible mesh," but can this export terraincutters? It's not a big deal if it can't, but I need to know, as I'm working on a pool for the DMI, and can't decide if I should make it in ground, or above ground.

[Crazy_Ewok]

It can export terraincutters. I would have a different house right now if it didn't.

[Blade]

Good Good, I'm waiting for the (possible) ok from Rep' to add a few squares of water (Heh, this is really my first mod, I don't want to ruin my reputation by, I don't know, destroying the universe...)

[Eagle Eye]

Hey, Everything works fine and i can import my model into ZE but without texture... What can be the problem?

[Blade]

Don't take this to be stupid, but do you have the tga's in your msh folder? I didn't with the first model I exported, and it took me like 3 hours to figure out why my model had no texture .

[Eagle Eye]

yes the same tga as in xsi
EDIT: Found the texture problem: I used the wrong tga (it has to be 512x512, 8bit i think)
I found the problem by using the tga from an existing swbII model

[redgroupclan]

So far this thing is STILL not working for me. Ive followed every single direction with my other models. And I even tried a default cube with a single texture, still didnt work. Rep was the one that told me to try the cube thing. Sooooo.....Anyone here got a full exporter that'll export my models for me?

Hidden/Spoiler:

FAIL!

[Maveritchell]

Send me one of the XSI files you're trying to export. Set it up exactly as though you were going to run it in MshEx.