denham2010

Hey all, I am about halfway through my tutorial. Hope to post it before the weekend, but just felt I should add this to the discussion... SC4 uses 2 types of animated props. The ones I can now develop are based on FSH, AVP and ATC files, as I have the tools to create these. The other type, and I suspect they would be easier to create, just use animated S3D files. Unfortunately I don't have the tools to create animated S3D files, and the BAT only produces single frame S3D files. I will include an appendix in my tutorial to show the 2 different .dat file set ups required, as well as exemplar properties to set up. Hopefully, someone will be able to fully crack the S3D method to improve and greatly speed up animated prop creation. Back soon with the tutorial!

UPDATE - I have uploaded the tutorial to the STEX. It is in the props section titled Animated Prop Tutorial (funnily enough!). I will get around to posting the tutorial to the BAT Workshop Tutorials forum as soon as I can. Hopefully, someone with a bit of programming knowlegde, will be able to devise a tool to automate the bitmap extraction and reconstruction process described. Anyway, have fun, and lets see some fantastic props start appearing on the STEX. (Side note - It was late when I finished the tutorial, so if someone can check my sums and hex conversions in the tutorial, it would be greatly appreciated!) D2010 [ORIGINAL POST] Hi all, Not sure if this have been done yet, but I can't seem to find any reference to it on here. Everything I find seems to say it has not been done. I have figured out how to make animated props. Stay posted - I will upload an example to the STEX and also a construction pack with instructions very soon!! EDIT: As promised, I have just uploaded my demo file to the STEX. It will appear in the next publishing cycle. The file is in the props section titled 'Animated Prop demo' It is only a demo, and all are welcome to pull the .dat apart to assist in making improvements (I am still working on the offsets to align the prop correctly on a lot) Excuse the crude appearance of the graphics, by no means a limitation of the process, but my poor attempt at making alpha channels. See a screen shot from the lot editor below. I am also in the process of writing a tutorial for building the props. It is an involved process (with the tools I have anyway) and is not for the faint hearted I'm afraid (you can be dealing with over 100 bitmaps!). Anyway, back as soon as I can with the instructions! https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Cubeart.jpg align=baseline> EDIT: Gee that was fast! The prop is now available in the STEX.

Hi, Having a bit of a problem with Gmax. From my understanding....when you create a light and turn it on in your scene, the default lights should automatically turn off to assist you in getting your lighting right. This is not happening for me. My scene stays in daylight, so it is very hard to try to get my lights right. I have checked the settings for each preview pane, and the default lights check box is unchecked...... How do I get the default lights off so i can preview my night scene? Thanks! EDIT - I can get around the problem by removing the lights & camera rig -EDIT

Hi, a little help with textures in the Lot Editor would be appreciated. I have followed the Create new base and overlay textures tutorial and have successfully made a new dat file of textures. My problem is, the new textures do not show up in the lot editor. I have opened my dat file in ILive and the textures display correctly. I have tried moving the dat file between my MY DOCS....PLUGINS folder to C:\PROG..FILES.\....SC4\PLUGINS folder and also to the root SC4 folder. Still no luck. I have checked the TIG for the textures and they all appear correct (as follows) 0x7AB50E44 0x0986135E 0x4000A000 ...... 1 ...... 2 etc I have also checked the sizes of the bitmaps I used for the textures, and they are correct. ie. 4x4 8x8 16x16 etc. Any ideas as to why LE will not display my textures? Thanks! EDIT: Problem solved.....seems the bitmap sizes in the tutorial are wrong. It lists the sizes as 4x4 8x8 16x16 32x32 & 64x64 Should be 8x8 16x16 32x32 64x64 & 128x128 My textures now appear in the lot editor!!!!!!