3DC 4.23 Beta 2 Available

Richard,

I used the file gwrcmail1.tga file as supplied by microsoft in the samples folder as the basis for my ace conversion. It is a 512 x 512 file. My thought was that if I used a file supplied by them then it should have been made correctly for use in MSTS. (there is a possibility that I might not be making the alpha channel correctly with my graphics package).

Regards

Kevin

Hello all,

3DC 4.23 Beta 2 is now available.

What’s New Beta 2

Provides details about the scene such as number of points, number of faces, number of objects, object positions, materials used by objects etc.

o) Improved Microsoft Train Simulator Export to include the ability to create distance levels for models that use multiple materials. See the ReadMe.txt file for more information.

It is availabe at: [img:3q4as4ri]http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC423Beta2.zip[/img:3q4as4ri]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC423Beta2.zip">http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC423Beta2.zip</a>&lt;!– m –>
and is approximately 2.6 MBs. You must have 3DC 4.22 installed before this beta. Installation is explained in the ReadMe file. If this update causes you problems you can easily revert to your previous version if you have followed the installation instructions.

Note that this is a BETA and the MSTS export has undergone extensive changes.

Also, if you have trouble getting this to work the odds are pretty good that you don’t have 4.22 installed. Before installing check the andquot;About 3DCandquot; on the Help menu to make sure you have 4.22 installed not 4.21 or 4.20. A full download of the beta (18 MBs) is also available at [img:3q4as4ri]http&#58;//www&#46;amabilis&#46;com/downloads/3DC423Beta2&#46;zip[/img:3q4as4ri]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC423Beta2.zip">http://www.amabilis.com/downloads/3DC423Beta2.zip</a>&lt;!– m –>
. It includes other fixes to 3DC not included with the smaller download.

Richard

cohearn,

Good to hear things are going well.

Unfortunately I don’t have any good suggestions for books on 3D graphics. I haven’t really investigated to see what applies to 3DC. I really ought to look into it.

Richard

Can you give me your system details? CPU/RAM/Video card etc.

Absolutely! Conserve your translucency. It is a MAJOR hit to performance.

Did it improve with the new version? Just curious.

Richard

My system is :-

Celeron 500
128 meg ram
Elsa gladiac 511 video card
chaintech 6ltm motherboard
windows 98

Kevin

Do you know what chip is on the Elsa?

<!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –> <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –> <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –> Thanks Richard,

I just did my first export to MSTS after I found where the instructions were. For your information I used 3DC textures and chose yes for both answers. Also I have been randomly playing around choosing different functions. I have not found any delays of more than a couple of seconds, nor has 3DC crashed. On startup of the beta, I did not get the test that went on the first time I installed 3DC. My CPU is an Intel P1.7 with 256M and a GE Force 3. I want to thank you again for all your support and the way you listen to your customers. For the newbies, could you reccommend a couple of graphic texts which explain some of the technical terms.

<!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –> <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –> <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>Charles

Kevin,

Well, i think you answered a question of mine. andnbsp;I had been working on my baggage car, i made translucent windows, all worked well. andnbsp;I added some transparent ladders, all worked well. andnbsp;I added a couple more transparent ladders, the sim started to choke a tiny bit. andnbsp;I added some transparent grabirons, it then failed to load the car. andnbsp;I thought perhaps it had reached some sort of poly limit, but i added some non-transparent stuff with more polygons and it still works ok (i removed lots of the transparent stuff). andnbsp;I begin to wonder if MSTS can only handle a certain amount of transparencies/translucencies. andnbsp;Just a thought, also added to by a post from ACyLum on trains-sim saying use transparencies sparingly.

Richard,

Have tried using beta 2 (complete download) and have trouble loading TGA files. Occasionally they load but can take up to 3 mins to load file. Other times the program stops responding altogether. I have noticed that after a crash it takes pro a long time to reload. It appears to hang at the loading materials stage and can take 3 to 4 mins to complete loading. Is this normal?

Also, Can you or someone else give me a very quick run down on how to use translucency in 3DC pro?
Have tried many times today and although I can easily export an andquot;sandquot; file this then crashes MSTS when it trys to load the created file.

Many thanks for your help
Kevin

Um, well, i really didn’t try… andnbsp;since it wouldn’t work at all after a point i removed the transparent stuff before i downloaded 4.23 beta 1. andnbsp;Right now, though, i have six distinctive translucent parts and everything is working great.

Thanks for your replies,

My graphics chip is a Nvidea gforce2mx.

I have had a thought that maybe it may be my graphics package that at fault (picture publisher 7). Therefore, I will try a couple of different ones today.

Will also do a complete reinstall using the new release candidate version.

Thanks again

Kevin

Did some more tests to today and I think Picture publisher 7 does issue a non standard TGA file. I tried loading a TGA file from the train simulator samples directory and this did load into 3DC pro whereas Pic pub 7 tends to hang the system.

therefore, I tried to use a tga file from this directory (gwrcmail1.tga) in the game, but still ran into problems.
Using a cube, If i painted the faces using the above file with the translucency set at 0 then i can export a file and it will run ok with transparent windows. If I set the translucency to greater then 1 then I can export OK but when loading the file MSTS crashes.
I then tried creating 2 files one with trans at 0 the other with trans at 3. Both using the same tga file and basic cube.
The first worked the 2nd didn`t.
However, If after successfully running the first one (trans 0) I exited the program to the route selection page and then dropped into windows , by then renaming the faulty .s file to the name of the one that ran ok and then running the game It ran ok with transluscent windows visible! But if I then exited the game completely, on reloading I would get the usual error message.
My video drivers are the latest ones.

I think that I must have a problem with my computer system but I cant think what it is.

If anybody knows what I`m doing wrong please let me know.

Kevin

That should all work. If you want, you can send me the good cube and the faulty cube and I’ll give it a try. (<!– e –><a href="mailto:richard@amabilis.com">richard@amabilis.com</a><!– e –>)

Richard

Ok, I have had a look at it and found no problems. Both S files loaded properly with that texture.

I didn’t use your SD or WAG files. The problem could be related to them. You might want to ensure they are identical.

Richard