DeleD Community Edition

Optus · DeleD PRO user Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 4 Location: OR

Hello everyone. This is my first post here, basically I need someone to simply verify DeleD's capabilities for me. I'm currently writing a 3D game engine in Java, using OpenGL and the TrueAxis physics engine. So far the model format of choice (For both Physics and Rendering) has been Milkshape3D's ASCII format. As you can imagine, making levels in the Milkshape editor is a pain, and it is impossible to make lightmaps! (Something I really want for my engine, as I'd like it to be able to run on older computers).
Please verify one thing for me:
After creating a level in DeleD and lighting it, I can export the geometry as .OBJ file, and have lightmaps exported as well? This would be very workable for me, as the conversion from .OBJ -> milkshape ASCII is quite easy. And I would have good lightmaps for my levels, which I could convert to PNG (the image format I currently use).

If the answer to my question is yes, I'll be picking up DeleD PRO very soon!

Thanks a lot, for your time.
Adam

Jeroen · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject:

Hi there Optus and welcome! Smile

Right now lightmaps are exported as BMP files when creating DeleD maps (.dmf). We do not yet have an OBJ exporter but, as you might know, DeleD developement is very much community driven. So now that you asked, creating an OBJ exporter is higher on our TODO list. Question is, there are several flavours of OBJ out there (afaik)... which one should we implement?

Paul-Jan is busy rewriting our OBJ importer so that it can handle u,v coords etc. He might be pursuaded to create an exporter right after finishing the importer. Wink

Paul-Jan · Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:23 pm Post subject:

Hi Optus,

I think the most important question is: how do you expect to load in your lightmap information? Lightmapping requires multitexturing capabilities in both "materials" and u, v coordinates (the lightmap is a separate layer), and as far as I know .OBJ does not support storing that information, nor does the Milkshape file format.

I might be wrong about the latter though, I'll look it up. If the Milkshape format does support multilayered materials (and u,v coordinates), a direct exporter might make more sense. Smile

Regards,
Paul-Jan

[edit]Looking through the Milkshape SDK I can't seem to find a way to store multiple layers of information in that format either. Do you have a particular toolchain trick in mind to circumvent this limitation?[/edit]

Optus · DeleD PRO user Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 4 Location: OR

Oops, you guys are right on both counts. I can't imagine why I assumed these formats would support multiple texcoords per vertex. It seems the only workable solution would be to export to .B3D (supports multitex), and write a loader for my engine. I don't mind this work, as getting proper radiosity-based static lightning is very high priority for me. My only question is: is B3D exporter completed?

Thanks for your amazing response time, too!

Edit: Is DeleD's standard format ASCII or binary? I mean, which would be easier to write a loader for B3D, or DMF? I have plenty of experience writing loaders in ascii and binary, I'm just looking for someone's opinion

Edit2: Found the file format in the help doc... simple format! I figure you guys can stop reading this post now Wink

Paul-Jan · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:24 pm Post subject:

It's really nice to have users answer their own question so quickly, and so thoroughly Wink

The B3D exporter is pretty much ok (imho), but if you want to go for the DMF format in stead (yay!), there is some example code (donated by users) in our varous downloads section. If you run into any problems, or have any questions, ask away!

Optus · DeleD PRO user Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 4 Location: OR

Well, looks like success on all fronts after a bit of a struggle. The rewards far outweigh the effort, though.

Here's the test zombie laying in the level TowerInferno. I re-did the lighting a little as it was really dark.

Thanks to you guys for the help! I cant even imagine how much better it looks when lightmaps aren't locked to 32x32

/sign me up for PRO

Paul-Jan · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:57 am Post subject:

Glad you got things running (that's a really tiny zombie, or a huge tower! *lol*). And thanks for getting yourself that nice little "PRO user" mark under your forum name Very Happy

As for the lighting, the quickest way to brighten things up is usually to set the lights to an intensity > 100. The 'darkness' of the shadows is set through the 'shadow opacity', one of the scene properties.

Glad to have you aboard! Smile

Optus · DeleD PRO user Joined: 13 Oct 2005 Posts: 4 Location: OR

Yeah, when I was first coding and got the skeletal anim working via MS3D, I was surprised by how huge the zombie was. Now I see that he is just a dwarf.

Anyway, I know getting access to DownloadeD is a manual procedure, but I was wondering what UserID/password I use to get in. Is it what I use for this forum? Or what I entered on the second to last page when buying PRO (Someting about being able to remember customers.) Anyway, just let me know as I'm very excited to check out the free stuff and new version.

Edit: The Answers-His-Own-Questions bandit strikes again! I was mistaken about the email I put in to the purchase page. But now it's all straightened out and I have my DownloadeD Access!

Jeroen · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:16 pm Post subject: