Creating a single (or two) poly shape?

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Amabilis Forum: Microsoft Train Simulator Export: Creating a single (or two) poly shape?
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  By troub (208.235.57.196) on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 - 08:24 pm:  

There are some objects in MSTS, like some of the bush and tree stands, that look as if they are just a single rectangular polygon, with a transparency texture applied to form a low-poly treeline background. It also appears as if all trees (I loaded the tree .3ds file from the Samples directory) are made up of about 8 of these "single poly" shapes, rotated about the center of the tree.

Just about the only thing I can't figure out about 3DCanvas is how to create one of these simple shapes. It looks like it's probably just a single poly, 2 faces. When I load the sample tree, 3DCanvas says it has 16 faces. There are 8 rectangular polygons rotated about the center of the tree. I've checked the help, done a quick browse through the forum here, and haven't seen anything. Could someone tell me whether this shape is possible, and if so, how to make one? I suppose it could be done by CSG subtraction from a cube, but I would think there would be a more elegant way to do it. Is there? Thanks.

  By Richard Borsheim (Richard_Borsheim) (209.53.83.165) on Saturday, July 21, 2001 - 11:43 am:  


Hi,

To get a single face here is what you do:

1) Drag and drop a cube
2) Select a vertical face on the cube
3) Copy the face to the clipboard
4) Paste the face as a new object. Actually, you will probably need 8. MSTS doesn't display the backs of faces. You should set 3DC to do the same. You'll need 4 extra faces for the back faces. Otherwise the face will only be visible from one side.

Richard
Amabilis Software

PS If you have the pro version you can create a single face using a provided script.

  By troub (208.235.3.224) on Sunday, July 22, 2001 - 12:31 am:  


Thanks Richard! I hadn't noticed that script, but I did just buy the pro version the other day :-) Thank you! Your work for (and with) this community has been amazing. I've been successfully making objects for several days, and now I'll be able to make some great-looking trees and scrub-brush as well!