Setting LOD within ShapeEditor does not save correctly
by Jules · in Torque 3D Professional · 04/27/2013 (6:57 pm) · 7 replies
Torque 3D 1.2 - When setting LOD levels in the Shape Editor by importing additional shapes works by testing LOD straight after adding it in the world editor, however on returning to the game after you quit, the LOD does not work. I've fixed this by editing the .cs file created within the shapes directory and adding a ./ to the start of the LOD filenames, however when you go back into the game and launch the Shape editor after selecting the shape from the World Editor it crashes. It appears the ShapeEditor looks for the LOD files without the ./ whereas the game itself needs to ./ to make the LOD work.
Anyone know if this is fixed in 2.0 ?
Anyone know if this is fixed in 2.0 ?
#2
04/27/2013 (7:39 pm)
As I thought, keeping all the Levels of detail under one model/shape works fine, even if the .cs file does not contain the ./ before the filename. Using seperate dae/dts files and importing them into the shape editor for LOD is bust. 
#3
04/28/2013 (2:35 am)
Have submitted this as a bug, lets see if we can get it fixed :-)
#4
04/28/2013 (3:01 am)
+1 :) 
#5
However Torque is much more tolerant to this now and tries to automatically detect what you may want to do, but I think you should still keep one model and the LODs under one mesh each.
But setting them up in the art program seems to work, it goes something like:
mainshape300, secondaryshape300,
mainshape200, secondaryshape200,
and so on. The numbers is important, each number will be detected as a LOD level, so you should avoid naming your models with numbers at the end, if you do not mean it to be a certain LOD level.
Also some other characters cause confusion, like if you name your model, model_1, this will be interpreted as lod level -1, so first stage of not rendered levels, so your model is gone, you now could correct that with the shape editor, but everytime you make changes there is a chance to cause confusion again.
04/28/2013 (3:19 am)
After I followed some tutorials and looked at models for Torque3D others did, I found, that they all set them up in the art program, looks like this was absolute necessary in the past.However Torque is much more tolerant to this now and tries to automatically detect what you may want to do, but I think you should still keep one model and the LODs under one mesh each.
But setting them up in the art program seems to work, it goes something like:
mainshape300, secondaryshape300,
mainshape200, secondaryshape200,
and so on. The numbers is important, each number will be detected as a LOD level, so you should avoid naming your models with numbers at the end, if you do not mean it to be a certain LOD level.
Also some other characters cause confusion, like if you name your model, model_1, this will be interpreted as lod level -1, so first stage of not rendered levels, so your model is gone, you now could correct that with the shape editor, but everytime you make changes there is a chance to cause confusion again.
#6
Also you can get a lot of models with separate models for the LOD's off the net, this saves time again saving you having to merge the model cutting out having to load up your 3D editor, etc. plus some people aren't up on 3D editors and just want to use stock art someone else has made.
The real point is, Torque lets you do it, then doesn't save the result. Its probably a trivial fix somewhere (or not) but if it's now a known issue hopefully it will get fixed. :-)
04/28/2013 (5:21 am)
@Duion, I set them up in the Model all the time, but there are times I want to quickly test a LOD without merging it with the existing model.Also you can get a lot of models with separate models for the LOD's off the net, this saves time again saving you having to merge the model cutting out having to load up your 3D editor, etc. plus some people aren't up on 3D editors and just want to use stock art someone else has made.
The real point is, Torque lets you do it, then doesn't save the result. Its probably a trivial fix somewhere (or not) but if it's now a known issue hopefully it will get fixed. :-)
#7
04/28/2013 (5:46 am)
I normally do them via one model, with several LODs, but I wanted to quickly see what they looked like first, as they all were separate meshes. No point having basic time saving features in the tools if they don't work correctly, worth removing it if its a major hassle - I've had many frustrations over things not working in the editors in the past - mainly with animations. I much prefer the quickness of the editors for artwork pipeline, even though its not a showstopper - it would be nice to have this working. I guess these were missed in the initial bug sweep, looking at some of the old posts, it appears this bug was there for the duration but not reported.
Torque Owner Jules
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