deepMesh3D - Irrlicht powered 3D Modeler

3DModelerMan · Post by **3DModelerMan** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:47 pm

I downloaded the demo and when I try to use one of the axis for the translation tool, it moves on all of them... Did you know about the open asset import library? http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/ it would be perfect if you wrote an importer for that, because you'd be able to support all those formats.

Innesoft · Post by **Innesoft** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 10:09 pm

3DModelerMan wrote:I downloaded the demo and when I try to use one of the axis for the translation tool, it moves on all of them... Did you know about the open asset import library? http://sourceforge.net/projects/assimp/ it would be perfect if you wrote an importer for that, because you'd be able to support all those formats.

Which translation tool? The 'Translate Scene' from the menu, or from the object controls? If you mean clicking and dragging on the axis arrows, it doesn't work that way (yet, will probably add this).. you can lock an axis with the 3 'padlock' buttons on the lower-left.

Downloading that library now.. looks interesting. I'm currently fixing up and improving a lot of model formats for the next release.

3DModelerMan · Post by **3DModelerMan** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:01 pm

Yes the arrows for transform.

shadowslair · Post by **shadowslair** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:43 pm

Using the arrows will be nice. I also set the position/rotation/scale components manually in textboxes quite frequently. There`re some, but I was not able set them that way.
One "Set" button there will be nice. Also, when I`m navigating the help (scrolling the mouse etc) if I have selected some object its position etc. is changed, when the scene system should ignore this input IMO. Also, is there any way to change the lightmapper lightmap resolution in the demo or only in the full version? Wanted to test its quality, but such low lightmap res cannot show very much.

Innesoft · Post by **Innesoft** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 3:11 pm

shadowslair wrote:Using the arrows will be nice. I also set the position/rotation/scale components manually in textboxes quite frequently. There`re some, but I was not able set them that way.

Yep, I realise a lot of people will expect that behavior.. adding it for the next version (along with some importer improvements)

Also, when I`m navigating the help (scrolling the mouse etc) if I have selected some object its position etc. is changed, when the scene system should ignore this input IMO.

That's a bug.. will fix

Also, is there any way to change the lightmapper lightmap resolution in the demo or only in the full version? Wanted to test its quality, but such low lightmap res cannot show very much.

The lightmapper resolution is more affected by the Lumel Size than anything else. The smaller the lumel, the larger the texture needs to be to accomodate it. The 'Size' field is actually the maximum size texture it will use, so if it can compress all the lighting (at the given lumel-szie) into a smaller texture, it will.

To force a higher-resolution lightmap, set the lumel to something around 0.1, or even 0.05 - and the 'size' (maximum) field to 2048 or higher. Warning: if you set the lumel too small, it could produce wierd results caused by it running out of texture space, so experiment.

ACE247 · Post by **ACE247** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 4:55 pm

Got another bug, some static .x models which load fine with Irrlicht, cause deepMesh to crash.

Another question which Irrlicht SDK was deepMesh built with? Its not one of the older ones is it.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:15 pm

The Irrlicht lib should include a static string which denotes its version. Also wondering why you don't use the Irrlicht mesh loaders and convert to your own structures from there?! I might be intereseted in some of the exporters. Would you give some of those loaders for inclusion in Irrlicht? And also maybe your file format would be interesting?!

christianclavet · Post by **christianclavet** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:54 pm

Wow! I got it too. Really nice.

fmx · Post by **fmx** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:58 pm

hybrid wrote:The Irrlicht lib should include a static string which denotes its version. Also wondering why you don't use the Irrlicht mesh loaders and convert to your own structures from there?! I might be intereseted in some of the exporters. Would you give some of those loaders for inclusion in Irrlicht? And also maybe your file format would be interesting?!

I had similar questions in mind when I say it too, his reply was

Innesoft wrote:
fmx wrote:Very professional tool, congrats on getting it up and running

Can you provide more information about your deepMesh (.dpm) format, and why you decided to invent a new file format even though your program already supports many other types (collada, x, b3d, etc)?
The deepMesh .dpm format specs can be found here. I wanted a format that basically provides 1:1 exports, so what you see in the editor is exactly the same for the export, and the third-party exports have a varying amount of support with some working better than others.

I also wanted it to benefit from any optimizations done in the editor - for example, most of the model imports for irrlicht unweld the vertices, which slows your game down considerably. If you use the .dpm specs to write your own importer in your chosen language, it's going to be as efficient as possible, as it's designed to be parsed easily without unwelding, because all chunks (meshbuffer-->vertices-->triangles) are nested in the order you need them.

3DModelerMan · Post by **3DModelerMan** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:29 pm

I bought the software too. It's really nice, I like the prefab feature. Is there going to be other lightmap algorithms available too? Like radiosity and path tracing? Another nice feature would be user data on objects, and a meshloader for Irrlicht. But I could ask for features all day, so I'll stop for now

3DModelerMan · Post by **3DModelerMan** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:31 pm

One more question. Am I allowed to install it on my laptop too? I want to be able to use it on both my laptop and my desktop. Is that allowed?

pera · Post by **pera** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:00 am

is it possible to make feature full demo, but with time limit, so we can try it out in full delight? Im really interested in exporters and UV mapping, and will not buy it before I try it.

Installation option check boxes:
- Create group in start menu
- Dont create group in start menu
That is kind of silly isn't it? One checkbox is enough?

I installed it without problem, started, looks good, but couldn't get much done. Selection, rotation, translate is not working. When I click on cube, sphere, cone... they appear, replace previous model, and I can not modify them in any way. I haven't read user manual though, but would expect to get some reaction on left clicks.

One big GUI improvement you could make is ability to stretch right pane with properties so that all tabs become visible. It would be nice if user could just grab that edge and resize this pane left or right. Modeling space can really be smaller (with widescreens) so that properties are easier to access.

other than that, project looks great, Interface looks clean, menus and commands intuitive, hope you make a lot of new versions.

serengeor · Post by **serengeor** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:14 am

pera wrote:is it possible to make feature full demo, but with time limit, so we can try it out in full delight? Im really interested in exporters and UV mapping, and will not buy it before I try it.

And reverse engineer it to remove the time limits? (not saying you will, but most of this kind of demos get patched pretty quickly)

christianclavet · Post by **christianclavet** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:11 pm

Hi, Pera...

Had the same problem... The interface is functionnal, but less intuitive for me (I think that depend on user types)

When you create an object primitive you must click the "create" button before you can do anything with it.

If you want to move an object, you must select it and take the tools on the left (select, move, rotate, scale) to do this. But a selection is required first.

I had a strange problem, that a object converted (OBJ -> X) crashed IRB. Exporting the way I've done it with MAX using Panda, still produce a .X file that does not crash the application. I don't know why the X file that is produced can't be loaded correctly by the application. I don't have the time to figure it out now, since want to have my models in IRB and my method work with Panda, but once I have a good bunch of model in the game, I'll check with the site support...

I've noticed something, the NORMAL MAP and PARALAX map doesnt seem to be supported (I've seen all the other pipeline shading there exepts those 2). Hope the support will be added in the future, as I'm creating props for IRB now and I want to use normal maps, and use the PARALAX shading on some Road/Wall section...

I'm really impressed that this app as all this stuff. It surely could be used (if only the box model tweaking could be improved, and working like it work in Hammer) to model a whole level (like a Quake Editor / Source Editor). And with the discount code, I was happy to get it for $17 CAN. So it's not that expensive.

Innesoft · Post by **Innesoft** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:35 pm

Woah.. I missed a few questions over the weekend. I'll try to address them now..

ACE247 wrote:Got another bug, some static .x models which load fine with Irrlicht, cause deepMesh to crash.

This is being fixed today for the v1.1 release. It's caused by a bug in irrlicht that was recently fixed.

hybrid wrote:The Irrlicht lib should include a static string which denotes its version. Also wondering why you don't use the Irrlicht mesh loaders and convert to your own structures from there?! I might be intereseted in some of the exporters. Would you give some of those loaders for inclusion in Irrlicht? And also maybe your file format would be interesting?!

It uses a modified (read; patched with recent fixes) irrlicht 1.6.1 courtesy of the N3xtD wrapper, so it's roughly on par with irrlicht 1.7.1 - Some of the importers do use the built-in stuff, but things like animations and materials need converting to suit the editor.

It would be great to see a .dpm format loader in Irrlicht. The one used in the editor is very 'editor based', so if someone is willing to use the format specs to write a dedicated loader for irrlicht, feel free to do so.

I bought the software too. It's really nice, I like the prefab feature. Is there going to be other lightmap algorithms available too? Like radiosity and path tracing? Another nice feature would be user data on objects, and a meshloader for Irrlicht. But I could ask for features all day, so I'll stop for now ...

I plan at some point to add radiosity to the lightmapper, and also the ability to project light through alpha textures. Keep the suggestions coming, I'm writing them all down.

One more question. Am I allowed to install it on my laptop too? I want to be able to use it on both my laptop and my desktop. Is that allowed?

Yes, you (single-user) are free to install it on another machine - as long as it's for your own use.

pera wrote:...Selection, rotation, translate is not working. When I click on cube, sphere, cone... they appear, replace previous model, and I can not modify them in any way. I haven't read user manual though, but would expect to get some reaction on left clicks...

When you build a primitive, it will show in yellow - this is only a preview of the final mesh. You should click 'Build' in the right-panel to make it editable, after you change the parameters. Your other suggestions have been noted, thanks!

@christianclavet, thanks and also noted. New versions will be coming thick & fast, as the feedback from everyone has been very useful! Watch this space for v1.1