Broken Window Transition.

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               Hey guys! Sorry to bother again, but I have hit a new snag. -__-

I hadn't noticed until recently most of my modified tiles in both Rural and City Exterior have lost all window transition effect. By this, I mean they don't change texture as they should when nights comes in and they light up. I assumed this was due to my editing and messing them up, but upon testing, I realized it happens the moment one decompresses the original tile file. I noticed the pack made by Zwerkules and Toro for Rural, the one which fixes ceiling gaps and such, has fully working window transitions, so that tileset is saved for me. However, TCN is still an issue. I wonder if anyone may tell me how to fix this or point me to some overriding project that has already dealt with it.

Thanks in advance! ^__^
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               Not sure if it is of help but i found out that cleanmodels can kill animations. for whatever reason i couldnt use cleanmodels for my latest tileset because it does whatever it does to screw up the day/ night transisions and the sewer fog!

I recall it tells me there are no animation keys which ARE there... how else could i enjoy it ingame
               
               

               

                     Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 01 mai 2013 - 07:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               Thanks Baba.. but I have no idea what that is... 0__0 I mean I just decompress the tiles into ASCII and work on them...

Oddly enough, I compressed back the edited tiles and the transitions were fixed. The tile itself, however, is unworkable, as if the entire walkmesh is inexistant. pointer will recognize the entire tile as unwalkable and when you actually step on it, it sends you to the sky...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               thanks for the info and cool you got it fixed. strange that a compressed file works better as a decompressed one. Maybe i compress my tiles too and see what happens;)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

Master Jax wrote...

Thanks Baba.. but I have no idea what that is... 0__0 I mean I just decompress the tiles into ASCII and work on them...

Oddly enough, I compressed back the edited tiles and the transitions were fixed. The tile itself, however, is unworkable, as if the entire walkmesh is inexistant. pointer will recognize the entire tile as unwalkable and when you actually step on it, it sends you to the sky...

I don't know what Bioware used to compile their tiles, but the walkmeshes of their tiles work in game even though they are buggy. If you decompile the tiles and then compile them again the walkmeshes don't work any more. That's not because the compiler has bugs, but because the walkmeshes are buggy (origin not at 0,0,0).
This will make your PC walk up in the air.

Using NWNExplorer to decompile the models doesn't destroy any animations.
Editing them in gmax however destroys a lot of animations from Bioware tiles because they don't use proper key
lists for a lot of things like selfillum, alpha and birthrate.
If a simple
   birthrate 20
in an animation is replaced by
   birthratekey
            0.0 20
   endlist
gmax will export the animations without destroying them.

There is also a problem with lights with lensflares. When tiles with such lights are decompiled they will make the game and NWNExplorer crash because instead of an integer there is a 'zd' in the ascii files.
This can be fixed if the zd is replaced by the number of lense flares, textures, etc.
Example:
node light AuroraLight01
  parent trm01_c01_01

[...]

  flareradius 50.0
  texturenames 4
    fxpa_lensflare
    fxpa_lensring
    fxpa_lensring
    fxpa_lensflare
  flaresizes 4
    5.0
    5.0
    7.0
    2.0
  flarepositions 4
    1.0
    0.5
    1.5
    0.4
  flarecolorshifts 4
    0.0 0.0 1.0
    -0.2 -0.2 -0.2
    -0.1 -0.1 -0.1
    -0.7 -0.7 -0.7
endnode

I replaced each 'zd' by '4' and now the tile can be viewed with NWNExplorer or edited with gmax.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               I think... I get what you mean Zwerk, but I still don't know how I could get the window transitions fixed. You did it with the rural tileset, as I mentioned in the opening post. Your tile models are ASCII, and window day/night transitions are working fine. I mean, none of them use flare effects. How did you accomplish that? Also, I don't use Gmax, I use 3DS Max 2010. So, does the same apply to it? 0__0
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               Also, no no, Baba! I didn't fix it! In any case, it made things worse, precisely because of what Zwerk mentioned earlier! The window transitions were fixed, BUT the tiles are bugged and unusable in-game. As for the compression/de-compression matter you seem interested in, we went through this some time ago in one of the many threads I posted about my "freeze framing" issue. Nothing was ever conclusive. In my case, I have all models in my override and haks de-compressed, mainly because it is easier for manual modifications in text editors. Also, bear in mind I realized, with angry tantrums, that many creatures are broken if you compress them. Custom community trolls are a good example. 0__0 As to whether compressing makes a difference in performance, I honestly didn't notice any changes in-game, and it didn't solve my particular issues.

Hehehe... just noticed... "custom community trolls"... hehehe...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

Master Jax wrote...

I think... I get what you mean Zwerk, but I still don't know how I could get the window transitions fixed. You did it with the rural tileset, as I mentioned in the opening post. Your tile models are ASCII, and window day/night transitions are working fine. I mean, none of them use flare effects. How did you accomplish that? Also, I don't use Gmax, I use 3DS Max 2010. So, does the same apply to it? 0__0

I only fixed one of the windows which always had a broken animation, for those windows with working animations there was no need to fix anything. I use NWNExplorer to look for a tile, then click on the Ascii Model button and then right click it and select 'export text' and remove the .txt extension.
The ascii files I get that way never have broken animations and the animations gmax breaks on export are the ones
I mentioned before which have no proper key lists. There are a few other things that the export script breaks.
Sometimes it changes nDynamicType 1 for lights to nDynamicType 0 and if you have placeables with two use nodes,
it messes up one of them if there is no walkmesh geometry or if the use nodes are linked to the dummy before the pwk geometry. One of the use nodes is set to 0,0,0 then. Also if the pivot of the pwk geometry is not at 0,0,0 it will be
set to 0,0,0 when the placeable is exported, so make sure it already is at 0,0,0 where it should be anyway.
A lot of placeables however don't follow that guideline and the pwks get buggy when exported.

I have no idea why your night/day animations are bugged. I never saw that happen.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               Ooooh! So you're saying instead of using Carotes or directly decompressing them in 3ds Max I should just export them directly from NWN Explorer! Hmmm... I thought you actually DID something to them! Well, I will definitely try this and test things out! Thanks Zwerk! ^__^
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               Ok, just a final update. The main issue is I used the original tiles included in the main game to make my editions. Those break upon being de-compressed. However, I then had the feeling maybe those were buggy and later redone for the patches, so I went and checked, and lo and behold! I was right. The HOTU patch resources included all of the tiles for City Exterior I needed. I took them out and de-compressed them via Carotes only to find out the animations didn't break at all. Downside is, upon adding the modifications I had before, the window transitions were fine and dandy, BUT, the dynamic lights started blinking out like broken neon lights. So, damned anyway!

Nonetheless, just a little reminder: If you're using original content for your own modifications, remember to check if there are patched versions of it in later game version resources.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_CalSailX]

               Zwerk I really wish I'd have seen this thread earlier... was working with a old model and got bit with a game crashing light. The little bug with linking use nodes explains a few headaches I've enjoyed over the years with some placeables I've done in gmax.

 The stuff about buggy walkmeshes on old tiles brought back some not so fine memories of rebuilding new walkmeshes for some walkable bed tiles. Real mood killer when the romantic interest in the storyline spins in half a circle, takes a trip 3/4 of the way around the bed and walks over top of you to get to "her side".

 Better end this post before I talk myself out of doing anymore tile work