DeleD Community Edition

[mappy]

Hi,

if someone here uses DeleD and BB, maybe he could help me :
I've built a level with DeleD, then exported it with the B3D plugin.
In BB, all is fine on the screen.

The only problem I have is the following :
I can't get the x,y,z coords of individual objects (torchs) from the B3D file (using the LoadAnimMesh command). The torchs are imported objects in my DeleD map, and each is named individually in the scene tab.

It seems that my code is ok, and someone told me at the BB forums "Since it isn't, the problem is your mesh, not your code. Evidently, you've exported your objects all based around a single pivot. You're going to have to go back into your modeller and see what you can adjust to give the objects a local pivot point.".

So I'm just curious to know if someone here use BB and gets the x,y,z coords of an object correctly ?

Or maybe someone here could have a hint about that "single pivot" thing ...
We have no pivots in DeleD, have we ?

OL.

[Daaark]

If your level mesh contains the torches as individial objects, find the named torch objects... (write a function to find the proper objects by name) then avergage out all the x,y,z in the vertcies to find the centre midpoint, and that is your xyz of the object.

Of course, I have no clue how blitz works, and how your level is stored.

[mappy]

[hairyprogramer]

Just read the dmf file that deled created to find xyz for each object.The xyz your getting is for the whole mesh I think. I don't know now to read the b3d to get the xyz of object,but in deled format its real simple to read.You'll have to avergage ot the vertex like Vampryre_dark said or you can use the object inspector and enter the xyz in the user info box using the xyz in the same window.Hope this helps.

[Paul-Jan]

I think I know what you mean, let me explain:

In DeleD, all vertices are stored in so-called World Coordinates (coordinates in World Space), so if a box runs from (100, 100, 100) - ( 120, 120, 120 ) it is stored exactly as such.

Blitz however, allows the use of Object Coordinates with a world position (and orientation). So a native blitz application would probably store the cube as ( -10, -10, -10 ) to ( 10, 10, 10 ) with the world position at ( 110, 110, 110 ). However, DeleD simply saves (100, 100, 100) - ( 120, 120, 120 ) with world position at ( 0, 0, 0 ), as that is how things are stored within DeleD.

So here is your 'problem', all objects are stored with World Coordinates and have their center at ( 0, 0, 0 ). Three solutions:
1) Load objects you want to treat separately as separate DMF's, and set their world position manually from within Blitz
2) We could give the plugin an optional 'approximate object coordinates', where it would automatically save all vertices relative to the object center. As 'object center' is an implicit concept in DeleD, this would not be ideal, but it might suit your needs.
3) Eventually, DeleD is very (very) likely to move to object coordinates anyway, so things would be the same in DeleD and Blitz, and the problem would disappear. This will take a while though, as it doesn't rank too high on our priority list.

Does that make sense? If I misread your post and it is not at all what you were talking about, please ignore everything above

[Jeroen]

[mappy]

Hi all and thanks for your help.

I've done some searchs, and some tests, and I must say I'm a bit confused ...
but the good news is that I'm now able to retrieve all the surfaces/vertices of an object with their proper coordinates in BB !
Funny thing (?) my torchs in BB have each only 2 surfaces (!) and 206 vertices ... go figure.
But the vertices coords seem to be ok

So I'm going to calculate the average "out _all_ vertices" of my torchs, like Vampyre and Jeroen said. So how do I proceed ? Let's say I've a simple cube with 8 vertices :

0,0,0
0,0,10
10,0,10
10,0,0
0,-10,0
0,-10,10
10,-10,10
10,-10,0

Where is the center mid-point ?

hairyprogramer : good idea to parse the dmf file, could be helpful in the future.
Jeroen : what kind of cube could have 90000 vertices for one of its faces and only 4 for the rest ?

OL.

[Jeroen]

Just add all components of all vertices together and divide them with the number of vertices. For example:

[mappy]

Thank you and yes I got your point

[Daaark]

[Jeroen]

[inquisitor]

hi,
i have the same probleme ( coord. retrieving ).
can you give me the portion of the code that let you to retrieve your object coord.

so,
u have another problem with b3b exporter.
if i want to add a light into a scene create & exported in B3d with DeleD in blitzbasic, the light does not appear. but if i export the same scene in .X format the light appear.

anyone have an idea ?

thanks.

[Paul-Jan]

Yes, I think I could throw an educated guess at that

As far as I know, B3D doesn't support storage of lights, so the B3D exporter doesn't export them. If I am wrong here, please correct me and point me to a resource that describes how to store the lights within the file.

Please remember development is an ongoing process, especially where the plugins are concerned. If you find a feature missing, don't think "ah bummer there is a feature missing", request it! Without user feedback, we developers are quite lost

[mappy]

[inquisitor]

Thanks a lot !

For the light :

i don't talk about deled light.
I try to explain.

1. i create my 3D scene with deled ( lightmapped or not ) and export it into B3D format.

2. i load it in my Blitz sourcecode ( scene=LoadAnimMesh("scene.b3d") )

3. if i create a light into my code ( light=createlight(2) for exemple ) it doesn't affect the scene.

if i export with X format, it's work.
but X format isn't easy to handle into Blitzbasic.

thanks all again.