TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!

I'm wondering if anyone has figured out a solution to that aggaravating tendency of custom made TSM objects to disappear at certain angles?...I've been making some highly detailed (but low polygon count) objects and some have this problem and some don't...haven't been able to come up with any common denominators as to why this is...any help is appreciated!!!here is a pic of what ive been up to....Longhairedwizard

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RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, Railfan727, Nov-01-02, 10:41 AM, (1) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, FozzyBear, Nov-01-02, 01:17 PM, (2) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, pwillard, Nov-01-02, 01:34 PM, (3) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, LawrenceKellie, Nov-01-02, 02:41 PM, (4) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, FozzyBear, Nov-06-02, 06:21 AM, (10) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, LawrenceKellie, Nov-06-02, 07:42 AM, (11) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, enocell, Nov-01-02, 02:59 PM, (5) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, GMOF3A, Nov-01-02, 04:56 PM, (6) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, lnghairedwizard, Nov-05-02, 11:11 PM, (7) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, OkrasaGhia, Nov-06-02, 03:08 AM, (8) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, lnghairedwizard, Nov-06-02, 04:13 AM, (9) RE: TSM Disappearing act is driving me nutz!!!!, OkrasaGhia, Nov-06-02, 10:19 AM, (12)

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NICE WORK!!!!Reminds me of the Marathon refinery about a mile from my house.Got anything else I might be able to make some use of?Also, would you be interested in modeling some of the landmarks of downtown Indianapolis? I know of at least one other route builder besides myself who would really appreciate them.Bruce Bridges
railfan727@yahoo.com

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>I'm wondering if anyone has figured out a solution to that
>aggaravating tendency of custom made TSM objects to
>disappear at certain angles?...I've looked at it a number of times... It's usually a distance or details level problem.... That said there is an easy fix for this one Mate! Move over to 3D Canvas, that doesn't have any of these problems and you don't have to spend hours rooting through the .s files to cure em.Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

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Bill, I'm sure Julian and I would be willing to help you through the rough spots of converting to 3D Canvas...
Pete Willard

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A question, or two, for you and Fozzy. I was looking, again, at the features of 3dCanvas; and I noticed under the feature list that both of the pay versions have "Extended Modelling Operations." Upon clicking to find out what that was, I came across the "Unwrap Operation." This appears, from Amabilis description, to be a feature where you can "extract" or "unwrap" the 3d model into a 2d, paintable image in order to be the basis for the textures. Am I correct in what I understand this to be?If so, then that can make creating your textures a whole lot easier.I then looked at the features of gmax (the one for the gaming packs) and noticed their feature "Direct manipulation of texture vertices with extensive UVW Unwrap tool." Here's the main question. First, assuming that I am correct on my understanding of 3dCanvas' Unwrap Operation, do you know if gmax's UVW Unwrap tool is the same thing?Thanks for considering this question.Lawrence

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-06-02 AT 06:23 AM (EST)

>A question, or two, for you and Fozzy. I was looking, OK No Problemo!!>Upon clicking to find out what that was, I came across the
>"Unwrap Operation." This appears, from Amabilis
>description, to be a feature where you can "extract" or
>"unwrap" the 3d model into a 2d, paintable image in order to
>be the basis for the textures. Am I correct in what I
>understand this to be?Yes!! But I tend not to use it very much... It helps if you're painting a smokebox... because you do your smokebox and not have your rivits stretched out of place at top and bottom. However I found it just as easy to apply the texture and then do a UV-Remap.. that allows you to pull the texture coordinates around in real time.. the coal on the tender of the K36 was done this way to make it look less stretched in places. In fact on that model so were the rivits on the smokebox.>If so, then that can make creating your textures a whole lot
>easier. YUP!!>I then looked at the features of gmax (the one for the
>gaming packs) and noticed their feature "Direct manipulation
>of texture vertices with extensive UVW Unwrap tool."That's more like UV-Remap in canvas where you can move texture coordinates around in real time.Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

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Thanks.Lawrence

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LAST EDITED ON Nov-01-02 AT 02:59 PM (EST)

This is (usually) easy to fix.
Just export it normally, except uncompressed.
Then in the beginning of the .s file, find this kind of text:SIMISA@@@@@@@@@@JINX0s1t______shape (
shape_header ( 00000000 00000000 )
volumes ( 1
vol_sphere (
vector ( 0 2.30759 0 ) 8.92047The last number (here it's 8.92047) must be bigger than the last number inside the brackets.
The problem is caused by the origin not being in the center of the model. But sometimes you must place the origin to the end of the model, like with track pieces.This fix may not always work, though.

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I really do not know if this helps or not..but anything that does the disappearing act in the GM&O ROUTE..I must click on it and set it as a terrain item..then it stays put...(have I been missing something about this....maybe I should have known this before I started doing the ROUTE...)

Paul...
www.mstsgmo.com

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I have tried setting the object as a terrain object with no joy....Enocell, can you elaborate a little more on how I should change the volume sphere settings??? Longhairedwizardbbzak@msn.com

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Just as he says it, that entry is found at the top of the uncompressed s-file. Object dissapearing at certain viewing angles is an indication that the last number (outside the paranthesis) is too small.
This happens when you have the shape center located at one end of the object. This number is the radius from the origin in which the object is viewable and is (roughly) calculated as half of the max of width and length. That usually works for buildings and other scenery as they have the origin at the bottom and middle of the shape and scenery often aren't higher than this value.
For objects which are relatively tall or where the object have it's origin in one end of the object (such as tracks and roads) it becomesa problem as then this radius value needs to be larger.
Roughly you should set it to a value equal to the distance from the object origin to the part of the object furthest away from the origin. In your case the height of those objects would be a good approximation. Try it and see what happens, if you still have some problems whit it dissapearing increase the value slightly (~10%).


//Okrasa
Chief Engineer
okrasaghia @ yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia/XTracks



Steam: 4-4-0 8, 0-4-0ST 9, 0-6-0 12, 0-8-0 15, 2-6-0 25, 2-8-0 27, 2-6-6-2 37, 2-8-2 40, 4-6-2 56
Diesels: SW8 16, F3 53, F7 54, FP7 57, CPA 58, RDC 61, GP7 81, GP9 82, RS11 86, H16 87, TM 88

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How would I "uncompress" an S file? when I convert a TSM project into a msts object...there is no check box for compressing or not compressing any files...there is a "convert to binary" check box...if I were to uncheck that box would that perhaps be what I need to do?I have tried opening the S file in wordpad but end up with hierogliphics...I have since located the axis to the middle of the object and that helps alot but you still get some of the disappearing effect when the object is still in (but just barely) in view.Thanx for everyones help....Longhairedwizard

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That's exactly what you should do, uncheck the "convert to binary" check box. Each time you convert the TSM project you have to adjust that value again.The s-file is not actually compressed it's rather compiled into a format more readable by MSTS, this format takes less disk space and is unreadable by humans much like any zipped text file is if you try open it with Wordpad and as normal users are much more familiar with compressed files than with compiled files the term has stuck.If you have a s-file you can't read and you would like to change into readable form you can use the utility ffeditc_unicode that was supplied with MSTS. You should find it in the utils folder of your MSTS installation. Note that it's a DOS-program and can be a little cryptic to use.


//Okrasa
Chief Engineer
okrasaghia @ yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia
http://www.geocities.com/okrasaghia/XTracks



Steam: 4-4-0 8, 0-4-0ST 9, 0-6-0 12, 0-8-0 15, 2-6-0 25, 2-8-0 27, 2-6-6-2 37, 2-8-2 40, 4-6-2 56
Diesels: SW8 16, F3 53, F7 54, FP7 57, CPA 58, RDC 61, GP7 81, GP9 82, RS11 86, H16 87, TM 88

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