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˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#1 Old 23rd Oct 2009 at 4:55 PM Last edited by cmomoney : 21st Jan 2010 at 4:02 PM.
Default 3D Thumbnail(Solved)
This issue was resolved with the 1.01 version of the Object Tool.




Has anyone figured out how to change the position of the camera for the 3D thumbnail in the catalog?

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 24th Oct 2009 at 10:51 AM
Couldn't it be determined by the object's bounding box ?
Granted, I have no idea how to test that (put me in the code-challenged group ^^; )
In the Arena
retired moderator
#3 Old 24th Oct 2009 at 12:03 PM
WIP...
I'm trying things out on my ceiling smoke alarm which has 3 flaws atm: the missing 3D preview, the footprints are off and away from the object causing the grabber-hand tool to be off the object in order to grab it from the top only and the routingSlots (?correct term? I want it grab-able/approachable from all angles)
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#4 Old 25th Oct 2009 at 12:14 AM
Changing the bounding box was the first thing I did. Seems like that would work, right? No. Also change the closedpolygon thing. Didn't work.

Ellacharm3d: Looks like we're walking down the same road. I have 3 objects with the same 3 flaws keeping them from being finished.

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Alchemist
#5 Old 25th Oct 2009 at 1:49 AM
There are two purpose-unknown (compressed) vectors in the MODL chunk. Of course, there is usually only one MODL chunk per object, and it is the only thing that makes a MODL file different from any of the MLOD files.

I have documented what I know about the format here:
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...ms_3:0x01661233
and the last two values are what I am talking about.

A vector is a set of three numbers that describe a direction... like a ray in geometry. I have wondered for a while what those values are for, and the direction of the camera viewpoint could be one (or both).

The compression scheme appears to be the same method used to encode the normals and tangent normals in the VBUF, it is the type 05 described here:
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...ms_3:0x01D0E723

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#6 Old 25th Oct 2009 at 1:59 AM
Thanks, Wes. I look into that

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Alchemist
#7 Old 25th Oct 2009 at 4:47 AM
I am happy to see someone around here that isn't afraid of a hex editor. If changing them doesn't change the viewpoint, then they may be related to the angles for the SunShadows.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#8 Old 25th Oct 2009 at 5:45 AM
Quote: Originally posted by WesHowe
I am happy to see someone around here that isn't afraid of a hex editor.
I usually figure stuff out by breaking it first and looking for what stops working. 'Tis the root of my fearlessness

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#9 Old 27th Oct 2009 at 5:16 AM
I tried changing those values, but I'm not sure I was changing the right ones. I understood the wiki info until I got to the unknowns. So I compared a table and topiary and changed the bytes that were different. It didn't effect the 3d thumbnail, but it did effect the 2d thumbnail, they were empty. I also think the change I made was major, because I don't quite understand the compression.

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Alchemist
#10 Old 27th Oct 2009 at 5:45 AM
2D thumbnail? Interesting.

If you want to post the bytes, I can analyze them quickly and reply, maybe explain-by-example. Generally, they end in 0x7F, that is the maximum signed divisor.

I would like to do this, but my plate is full and I can't come out and play until I clean it all up... you might have noticed I launched my anim converter, as soon as everyone got used to the object mesh tools.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#11 Old 27th Oct 2009 at 6:12 AM


Cmomoney sits crosslegged on the rug in front of Wes's rocking chair and waits patiently...

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Alchemist
#12 Old 27th Oct 2009 at 8:04 AM
There is a looping set of values on the end of these files, one per lod/mlod file. I will type the sets of bytes from the last one in the second example:

03 00 00 30 00 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 FF FF 7F 7F FF FF 7F 7F

That is a set of data about an lod. The items are (after correcting for little-endian):

0x0003 0x3000 the 0x0003 is the index into the tables that exist (and the values are listed in the MCFG file), 0x3000 is a flag that indicates we are referencing the external list (resources in different parts).

0x00000000 is an unknown, perhaps a reserved and never used value.

0x00010001 should look familiar, it is the lod for the less detailed sun shadow mesh.

We have two of 0x7F7FFFFF, which I think is a packed vector (three float) array.


The divisor is 7F (127) plus 1, so we get 1/128, or 0.0078125 as a scaler.

The bytes are 7F FF FF, in decimal 127, -1, -1.

So for 127 we take 127-128, for -1 * 0.0078125 = -0.0078125
for each -1 we take -1 + 128 for 127 * 0.0078125 = 0.9921875

So we have -0.008, -0.008, 0.99 as our XYZ... this would look almost straight down the Z axis, straight toward the computer screen, if it is a vector.

The easiest test would be to make the 0.99 negative, and flip the vector, if it is one. 7F is +127, -127 is 0x81, so we want to change

FF FF 7F 7F to FF FF 81 7F

And see if the fireball is visible from space. Or not... but I always exit without saving when I do this sort of stuff.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Alchemist
#13 Old 27th Oct 2009 at 10:02 PM Last edited by orangemittens : 28th Oct 2009 at 12:28 AM.
Quote:
... on the rug in front of Wes's rocking chair...


Don't encourage him CMM. He goes on like he's Methuselah enough as it is.

Ignore this post Wes...I don't want you to get annoyed with me. (the idea is to make you laugh)

OM
In the Arena
retired moderator
#14 Old 29th Oct 2009 at 10:47 PM
Default progress update
Using Wes' pointers above, got it showing for a second, then it flashed off screen again.



And it appears to be taking from the modl mesh - but then again, that was the .model file I edited in Hex. Of the four values I compared with the ceiling light, only 00000 and 10000 are different.

(After changing values in hex editor and recompiled - get the UV scale error again, though?!?)

Will update again if changing the unknown end blocks in .lod files have any significance.

Although, at this point, I might better mention that I also changed
  • the VPXY bounding box values to those found in *MODL_cfg.mcfg (can also be found in ms3d under Model Info in Tools menu) and
  • the FTPT to follow the FTPT values of the ceiling light (this fixed my footprint issue)

Still pending is the grabber: still needs to be from top view or the hand won't appear to re-select the object (will experiment with all those unknowns in OBJD next; anyone got any luck identifying what they do?)

stay tuned....
Screenshots
Alchemist
#15 Old 29th Oct 2009 at 11:49 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Methuselah
Looking at this and thinking about your "flashing out", and remembering the way the game works, the thumbnail rotates.

This may mean that one vector is the axis the center, and the other is the camera angle. If your center axis was wrong, then the object would rotate in and out of view, rather than the camera orbiting it (which gives the same appearance of the object rotating and the camera being still).


Just an idea. I am still busy right now working on animation stuff... but if those vectors are vectors, I may add them to the .mcfg on decompile, and then recompile them back into vectors... meaning changes could be made in the .mcfg to alter them. I would have to come up with a way to make that backwards-compatible with the older ObjTool, because when I altered the formats and didn't, I had a lot of problems turn up that were caused by the use of older files with newer tools.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Alchemist
#16 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 12:02 AM
"Originally Posted by Methuselah"



shwew...I was afraid you were gonna be mad at me Wes.

OM
In the Arena
retired moderator
#17 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 12:21 AM
zomg, Wes! you had me going there for a min!
I almost went to search for that user's post in a thread...
I recalled OM's post just in time..
Alchemist
#18 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 1:22 AM
Where would y'all be if you didn't have me yanking someone's chain every once in a while?

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
Alchemist
#19 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 1:38 AM
Desolated darlin'.

OM
˙uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝɹ,noʎ 'oN
Original Poster
#20 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 5:14 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Methuselah
Looking at this and thinking about your "flashing out", and remembering the way the game works, the thumbnail rotates.

This may mean that one vector is the axis the center, and the other is the camera angle. If your center axis was wrong, then the object would rotate in and out of view, rather than the camera orbiting it (which gives the same appearance of the object rotating and the camera being still).

The "flashing out" was the closest I got before starting this thread. I think I had only changed the VPXY and FTPT, like ellacharm3d. It was a plate cloned from the topiary. When selected, it initially showed correctly (a full frame shot), but then quickly snapped away and down (topiary's position). Does this support that theory? The objects ellacharm3d and I have been discussing are objects that are completely out of the original bounding box, but the plate sits at the bottom of it.

p.s. Wes, this Methuselah chap sounds pretty smart. You two should work together

"Part of being a mesher is being persistent through your own confusedness" - HystericalParoxysm
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Alchemist
#21 Old 30th Oct 2009 at 2:55 PM
I don't know, looking at the values in your objects, these could well be positions. One may be the camera position and the other the "look at" point. Orbiting the look at point for rotation is not so hard to do, it works well in Ogre, for instance, and seems to be pretty commonly built into game engines.

If you like to say what you think, be sure you know which to do first.
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