What is the biggest object you have ever made?

[EmergencyBrake]

For me, its the station buildings at Ongar- at 35.7kb

Can anybody beat that?

 

[Tom B]

The old Picc object of Cockfosters was, I think, 103.8kb!

 

[Coxster]

The old Picc object of Cockfosters was, I think, 103.8kb!

Not sure about v4 but my old v3.2 copy is:

Cockfosters.csv - 108kB
CockfostersConcourse.csv - 7.75kB

 

[Dennis]

Biggest object I've made is 13kb - I tend to build smaller objects that fit together to form a larger structure; the advantage of doing this is that the smaller parts may be used elsewhere.

In terms of dimensions, I think the largest stucture I have built (and which does not repeat itself) is a cement works, about 400m long.

 

[Tom B]

Not sure about v4 but my old v3.2 copy is:

Cockfosters.csv - 108kB
CockfostersConcourse.csv - 7.75kB

That's the one - cobwebs getting to me!

 

[Simon_G]

File size alone doesn't indicate how complex an object is. My record is

196 vertices
42 double-sided faces (using AddFace2)
38 single-sided faces
6 textures loaded (one twice)
(no cylinder or cube commands were used for the above)

There are however only 12 mesh blocks in the object and the file is just 12K. I believe (though I haven't seen it proved ) that this makes for more efficient object handling by BVE.

The object in question is this swing bridge, which I built several years ago (BTW, most of the faces you can't see were left out):

 

[Dennis]

Can't top that, 150 vertices plus a few cylinders with 12 mesh blocks, lost count of the faces (some of them double sided for ease of construction), 9.6k.

Circular objects where the inside is visible can be quite a challenge!

 

[Coxster]

Now those look good

 

[Simon_G]

They certainly do - presumably this is the cement factory at Westbury?

BTW, one day us BVE modellers are going to have to bite the bullet and learn (in my case anyway) to use 3D modelling programs. The .X format allows for smoothly shaded curved faces, but manipulating the normals by hand would not be the way to do it!

 

[Tom B]

Yes - a very small number of people have used them. I suppose its a case of "stick to what you know best".

 

[Dennis]

They certainly do - presumably this is the cement factory at Westbury?

BTW, one day us BVE modellers are going to have to bite the bullet and learn (in my case anyway) to use 3D modelling programs. The .X format allows for smoothly shaded curved faces, but manipulating the normals by hand would not be the way to do it!

Those tanks are actually the primary filtration tanks from a sewage works I built - just need to build a route for it!! (note to self; stop building objects and get some route built)

Re .x format and 3d modelling programs, I had a go with G-max (now superceeded) but didn't really understand what I was doing and also had difficulty exporting the files in .x format. I was wasting so much time on this so I decided to stick with hand coding. Circular (and other curved) objects are not really much of a problem if you make sensible use of spreadsheets to help with the calculations (and if set out sensibly create all the necessary code which can just be pasted into the object file).

On the subject of the directional lighting available in BVE, on its own the results are quite good providing objects are constructed with this in mind and the light settings thought about a little (eg more red and a low angle for morning / evening). By combining this with the possibilities of changing the reflectance and luminosity characteristics of various faces using .x files, some really good effects can be achieved. The biggest problem is the need to construct shadows manually and (for me at least), not fully understanding the .x format and relying on conversions from .csv format.

Obviously, constructing obejcts for specific lighting conditions (remembering that at different times of the day, different sides of objects will be illuminated and shadows cast in different directions) is very time consuming and not really worthwhile. Some form of automatic shadow generation would be a most welcome feature in BVE.

Also, as an aside, has anyone ever tried using an animated object (in .x file format) in BVE; something I've often thought about trying but never got around to doing - probably won't work, but as far as I'm aware it's not been tried.

 

[Simon_G]

Those tanks are actually the primary filtration tanks from a sewage works I built - just need to build a route for it!! (note to self; stop building objects and get some route built)

Sounds like a useful model. Would it be worth releasing?

Circular (and other curved) objects are not really much of a problem if you make sensible use of spreadsheets to help with the calculations

But unless you use the cylinder command, they will be shaded as flat faces: the .X format allows smooth shading to be specified. It also permits compound curves, which up to now haven't been possible in BVE. Obviously the possibilities are limited as BVE can't handle large numbers of polys (faces), but limited use might improve the appearance of high profile models like train objects.

Also, as an aside, has anyone ever tried using an animated object (in .x file format) in BVE; something I've often thought about trying but never got around to doing - probably won't work, but as far as I'm aware it's not been tried.

I once tried to display an animated object from an online tutorial about .X format using the structure viewer and as far as I recall the animation was ignored by BVE. So I've always assumed that Mackoy didn't implement it in BVE4, but I could be wrong

 

[EmergencyBrake]

BTW, one day us BVE modellers are going to have to bite the bullet and learn (in my case anyway) to use 3D modelling programs. The .X format allows for smoothly shaded curved faces, but manipulating the normals by hand would not be the way to do it!

Will pro-desktop work for this?

 

[Tom B]

If it can export in .x format, yes.

 

[Stooopid]

Is there a quick way to count the no. of faces/vertices?

 

[Guinness]

If it can export in .x format, yes.

Sadly it can't well on Version 8 anyway. I've also tried to find a program for converting the ProDesktop Format into a .x format but with no luck so far. I'll post if I find something useful.

 

[Tom B]

There will probarbly be some way - what can Pro Desktop export to?

 

[EmergencyBrake]

Here all the options under the export menu of Pro Desktop 8.0

 

[Simon_G]

Is there a quick way to count the no. of faces/vertices?

I did it by using an editor that reports the number of changes made when you do a 'replace all' and changing all the AddVertex statements to something else in a scrap copy of the file, noting the figure down separately. And similarly for the other statements. Not exactly elegant and before Tom B comments, grep would have done it slightly quicker.

As far as 3D programs go, I believe Blender will export .X format: http://projects.blender.org/projects/directxexporter/

 

[Guinness]

I've also tried Blender in my quest to make BVE Objects using a Program. I just can't get my head around Blender despite 2 months of Tutorials....