BAT - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[SimFox 802]

that

[beebs 129]

Quick question for you guys.. I'm trying to get some nightlights on my transit center, but they keep showing up at night AND in the day.. I'd like to only appear at night. I do have Nite as a prefix for the name on my light. Am I missing a step here?

Thanks

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Is this just in the preview? If that is the case, the lights you set up will show in both anyway so you have to disable them in your day view if you want to check that again. As long as your export looks fine you should be ok.

Not sure what the solution would be if your export comes up with the lights on though.

-Todd

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Is this just in the preview? If that is the case, the lights you set up will show in both anyway so you have to disable them in your day view if you want to check that again. As long as your export looks fine you should be ok.

Not sure what the solution would be if your export comes up with the lights on though.

-Toddquote>

Yeah it's just my previews.. awesome, thanks.

[SimFox 802]

Beebs, one point...

SimHotToDDy was absolutely right about the preview. But there is more to it...

nite most probably isn't good enough...

the prefix must be - nitelite - Function in the script that does this turning on and off is looking for this exact word in the name of lights. It first separates first 8 characters of the name, than checks if those are exactly nitelite and only then applies itself to the light in question.

So to cut long story short, if you do traditional night export and you use either original v2 bat4max or any of mine ones (2.5 or2.6) you HAVE to name you night lights with nitelite prefix or they will be night AND day.

[GlobexCo 33]

I don's remember if someone have already asked that question. Sometimes in the preview, textures with UVW map or without it aren't shown, so is it a problem only about preview or if I export the model, the texture won't be exported?

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: SimFox

Beebs, one point...

SimHotToDDy was absolutely right about the preview. But there is more to it...

nite most probably isn't good enough...

the prefix must be - nitelite - Function in the script that does this turning on and off is looking for this exact word in the name of lights. It first separates first 8 characters of the name, than checks if those are exactly nitelite and only then applies itself to the light in question.

So to cut long story short, if you do traditional night export and you use either original v2 bat4max or any of mine ones (2.5 or2.6) you HAVE to name you night lights with nitelite prefix or they will be night AND day.

quote>

Hmm.. I've got them renamed to nitelite, but the exports are showing the lights in the day as well now.. does it matter of the N is capitalized?

[SimFox 802]

yes it does... It has to be nitelite and nothing else as script compares them character by character.

[Amthaak 1,501]

To Globexco: I have the same pb with Gmax.here, is the answer from Odainsaker:

"It is a quirk of gmax BAT.  Applied materials will be properly showing in the viewport, but when previewed or rendered, some or all of the materials will randomly vanish and be replaced by a placeholder gray.  It is hard to say if it is a memory issue of the system or the program, or if texture maps scattered across directories outside gmax's own directory, or even if map filenames longer than 8 characters exacerbate it, though many have tried different theories and solutions to uncertain effect.  I suspect memory restrictions artificially inserted into free/shareware gmax cause the program to conserve memory by shedding things like displayed textures, which must be reloaded or refreshed back into memory.  Larger models, those with more materials, or larger texture maps seem more prone to unearthing the issue, but I've also seen small models afflicted as well.  Editing objects or object geometry with materials already applied to them sometimes seems to bring the problem as well.

What can also be seen is that for the affected material, the button within the Material Editor for showing an applied material in the scene begins to malfunction by mysteriously turning itself off or even working in reverse.  Activating and deactivating that button several times in succession for that troubled material eventually brings it back temporarily to working order and also restores the material in previews and renders.  However, often fixing just one problem material alone simply causes another to inexplicably vanish when previewed.

The only certain workaround is to develop the habit of reloading all materials before every preview and every render.  It is usually enough to open the Material Navigator and then straight down the list briefly open each material one-by-one in the Material Editor, which will have the effect of reloading them.  At least for me on gmax, this allowed the previews and renders to succeed."

[Gn_leugim 858]

a simple work around is to save and load your model, and export it right away.. you will have all the textures in it

[LivingInThePast 364]

I followed directions on the BAT Tutorial, except I don't know how to draw two-dimensional boxes on the model face for windows and stuff...and I think the roof doesn't line up with the rest of the model.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Like, there should be a way to draw two-dimensional boxes on the sides of other faces, right?

[Jasoncw 11,934]

The easiest thing to do would be to create a new rectangle, and attach it to the old one. For example, if you create a circle, and then create another circle, and attach and extrude them, you'll have a tube shape.

When you extrude things, the spline (and all of the shapes that make up that spline) need to be on the same plane. That's to say the spline must be 2D (it will get its third dimension when you extrude it). One way to ensure this is to use snaps. At the bottom of the screen there is a little icon with a magnet. Click and hold that for a few different snap options (the numbers relate to dimensions, I usually have 2.5D on), and click the icon to turn snaps on or off. Right click on the icon and a menu will come up with snap options.

[eurocity83 0]

Hi everybody!

I have already posted this question on my BAT workshop thread but I guess I have a greater chance at solving the problem by posting here. The problem occurs when I export my model in game. It's still far from being completed but every now and then I export it just to see how well it sits in game and then this happens.

And if I change the angle it's not just glitches but it gets really horrific.

Does anyone know what's the problem? Am I doing something wrong or is gmax doing everything on its own?

[Gn_leugim 858]

that's a issue with shadows as far as i can see =1

may is a thing of how you positioned the building in gmax or about lods.. but as far as the building is just a wall (and a nice one I have to say) keep going and see it does the same with the building completed.

can anyone tell me which versions of BAT there is? I need the older one (the one which only had 2 night textures sets lol)

let me reformulate my question. I was looking at the several scripts of BAT for gmax, and I found (or I think) that "BuildingMill.ms" script was modded. due to this mod, is not possible now to have different night textures with different intensities.

does anyone have an older version? or know how to put the night windows work again?

thank you

[LivingInThePast 364]

Here's one I'm afraid to ask, but how do you revert changes you made in Arc Rotate to default?

[Mrqs 33]

Hi,

I made a model in 3ds Max and made 2 scenes - for a day and a night. I've made several BATs using truenight and everything was ok. But now I have a trouble.

The rendering of both scenes went ok.  The model is the prop with lights on "true" in the Plugin Manager.

In the game there's no lights. There is the "normal" night view. 

I used the Reader and there are the night FSH files with my lights.  I don't know the FSH files are complete or not, but in the Reader I didn't see any "normal night" FSH, just with mine, rendered lights.

And now I don't know where to seek the reason of the error I've got.

One more thing, maybe it is important - I made my own LODs (they are the same in the day and night scenes)

P.S. I use max2008 and BAT4Max 2.6

[SimFox 802]

Mrqs: hm...

first of all you should post issues like that in Bat4Max support thread, I believe it would be more appropriate there...

But about the problem.

As long as the night FSHs are there with proper modding you should see night view in game. It is hard to say much more without seeing the file... Sent to me or post somewhere both SC4Model and Desc file for the offending object and I'll take a look.

eurocity83:

it looks like you have a problem with either camera setup or may be LODs...

Game creates shadow out of the FSH of the following rotation ((clockwise following that is). In your case there is some misalignment and what is far more important sign - abnormal stretching going on. FSH is clearly not big enough. Game takes one from smaller zoom. Since zooms (apart from 4 and 5) differ not only in size but also in terms of viewing angle you have such additional (past the stretching) misfit of the shadow.

So to put long story short, game, for some reason can't find next rotation FSHs... Why does it happen is hard to say. One needs to look both at SC4Model and GMAX (is it made in GMAX?) files

[Mrqs 33]

SimFox:

here is my work:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246004682/ZNTK.zip.html

Thank you for your time.

[SimFox 802]

well here is your problem:

as you can see your day FSHs (and s3d files) have Instance ID:

while night time FSH have instance ID . So basically for game they are two different buildings.

Are you sure you have exported this building with BAT4Max 2.6? The thing is it has specific routine written into it to prevent this kind of errors...

[Mrqs 33]

Originally posted by: SimFox

Are you sure you have exported this building with BAT4Max 2.6? The thing is it has specific routine written into it to prevent this kind of errors...quote>

Yes, I'm quite sure. I have no other Bat4Max... I made some HD props and they were ok (with truenite).  Troubles occured with this one.

Maybe I have to re-install Bat4Max?

[SimFox 802]

Well, but you have started this mode l way before v2.6 has actually been released. I remember you have had some issues with it and you were saying you were making it with Bat4Max 2.5...

What I'm saying is with v2.6 this sort os error is impossible. It comes from common user mistake of saving the Max file with sc4Modle File name already put inot it. Other versions of Bat4Max do save this file name (or to be precise Group and Instance IDs) internally and do it only ONCE. So when you decide to put anther one you may see it in the field in UI, and it will be used in determining of the output folder to which all the content will go, but internally scripts will still be using Instance and Group IDs of the original SC4Modle file name. this will result in precisely situation you have with your model.

Would you have same mishap with day view you would be getting checker box textures, but since when game doesn't find properly named Nite FSHs it simply assumes there there aren't any you see what you do...

In v2.6 this bad "habit" of Bat4Max original design had finally be fixed. Every time you use new SC4Model file name it will be it's Instance and Group IDs that will be used all the way. This is dead certain. I have checked this many times prior to release and again now. And ALWAYS was getting correct results.

So, you see now why I'm doubting the fact that this had been exported in Bat4Max 2.6 At least in normal, automated fashion. Or there may be some very specific situation still open to error. This is why it is very important to get to the bottom of it. Could you zip the Max file of the NITE export and post it as well, I really need to understand how could it happen, because , as I've said earlier this version of Bat4Max has special feature that should prevent exactly this kind of problem.

Here is, meanwhile, a file I've manually fixed for you:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246602801/ZNTK-0x5ad0e817_0xb9d57f74_0x30000.zip

[gtaki 5]

hi all

I am a newbie in the BAT field (though i have some private BATs ingame...)

I have a small question about the scale of models. So we know we can scale our models by 133% for better harmony to maxis buildings.

But actually WHEN do you scale your buildings?

I scale them when I build up my models, and texture them with a scaled UVW parameters. But now I doubt whether there're any other better method.

[Mrqs 33]

Originally posted by: SimFox

So, you see now why I'm doubting the fact that this had been exported in Bat4Max 2.6 At least in normal, automated fashion. Or there may be some very specific situation still open to error. This is why it is very important to get to the bottom of it. Could you zip the Max file of the NITE export and post it as well, I really need to understand how could it happen, because , as I've said earlier this version of Bat4Max has special feature that should prevent exactly this kind of problem.

Here is, meanwhile, a file I've manually fixed for you:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246602801/ZNTK-0x5ad0e817_0xb9d57f74_0x30000.zipquote>

Thank you very much! Now it works properly

here is the night max file: 

http://rapidshare.com/files/246679566/ZNTK-night.zip.html 

Now I read once more your post and I'm not sure what Nite export file you were talking about. My english isn't too good :-(

If it isn't the file you requested, please tell me which one I have to send you. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[shoRt-mAn123 43]

Can somebody help me? i dont know wat happened but its happening to almost every building i export. Ive tried refitting lods and merging it to a new scene and emptying plugins folder. What else can i do? They are fine until zoom 4 (sometimes zoom 5, sometimes none work) but then they show these crooked pieces of maxis buildings

[SimFox 802]

you have ID conflict with in-game buildings.

Most likely it will be fixed by using updated ModelNames.ms script from official site.

mrqs:

yep, that is a right file.

Looking into it I can for sure tell you that there is NO WAY you have been exporting it with BAT4Max 2.6

So the reason you had those problems is...

because you didn't use Bat4Max 2.6 At least not in it's proper form.

How did you do installation? What version have you been using before?

[Mrqs 33]

Originally posted by: SimFox

mrqs:

yep, that is a right file.

Looking into it I can for sure tell you that there is NO WAY you have been exporting it with BAT4Max 2.6

So the reason you had those problems is...

because you didn't use Bat4Max 2.6 At least not in it's proper form.

How did you do installation? What version have you been using before?

quote>

Hmm.. I've checked what I have installed. It *is* 2.6 'cos it has HD possibility. I don't remember how exactly I installed it, but I put the scripts into proper folder, I think. Maybe my tries with BAB made something wrong? But I installed gmax and BAT/gmax separately to use BAB...

before 2.6 I used 2.5  :-)

[Mrqs 33]

Originally posted by: SimFox

mrqs:

yep, that is a right file.

Looking into it I can for sure tell you that there is NO WAY you have been exporting it with BAT4Max 2.6

So the reason you had those problems is...

because you didn't use Bat4Max 2.6 At least not in it's proper form.

How did you do installation? What version have you been using before?

quote>

Hmm.. I've checked what I have installed. It *is* 2.6 'cos it has HD possibility. I don't remember how exactly I installed it, but I put the scripts into proper folder, I think. Maybe my tries with BAB made something wrong? But I installed gmax and BAT/gmax separately to use BAB...

before 2.6 I used 2.5  :-)

[benvoliothefirst 36]

Hi everyone, I have a question I've been mulling over and I hope someone can answer for me. I have a few buildings exported to GMAX from Sketchup, and I'd like to retexture them. The problem is that attempting to use the Sketchup models, which are basically shells, results in strange problems with the UVW map switching around every time a different polygon is clicked. I'm wondering, is there a way to break each face apart (so they each have their own UVW gizmo, rather than sharing one between all the sides of a poly/mesh, as is apparently the case now)?

Here's a couple pics to illustrate what I'm talking about. Every time I click another poly, the existing ones get all wonky.

I can go back and edit the UVW for each face, but each time I click on the UVW map and select another face, the others get weird again.

And yes, I realize I'd have to do more of a SimCity type of modeling with .3 meter thick walls etc. to get these up to STEX standards. I'm just looking to do some rough previews to see what I'm working with. Thanks in advance for any possible advice you can give!

[LivingInThePast 364]

I heard that's what happens when you import from SketchUp...

Anyway, my question is this:

The back wall, when cloned and put 32 meters away, seems to be okay, but the Perspective view looks a bit to the contrary.