How+to+refine+the+shape+of+3dz+when+converting+it+into+HR.

From Col.Gibbon and submitted by RAF_Dumoulin

As a sort of how to do it, which I've been trying to explain to Shreck, I thought I would post a

series of screenshots of how I changed to top of the Boom of the P38. I thought this secion of

the model was the easiest to see what was going on, as it's only 4 elements. Now, I know some 3dz

masters, don't like using piggyback elements, but I think with the new Spit model, I've shown

they can be used to great effect, and you don't need to know anything about the RS. I should mention this is done with a HR model in mind, as there are a lot of spare 3dz nodes

available when you break up a LR model, but this can also be used to make small ground objects

more refined too, which don't normally use anything like the full 255 nodes per model. The shot below shows the starting point, with the 4 elements which make up the top of the stock

P38 tail boom. Now as I've shown we have to add a point to the model. If you've not found out how to do this all

you do is click on the "NODE tab and then "ADD NEW NODE" and return to the elements screen. Addig

the new node is now just a question of hitting "ADD" and typing in the X/Y/Z position. You can

take a rough position from on of the two nearby nodes, and then changing it manually later. Now, you have to join the elements together, and this is done by adding the new node to the

ajoining element. This screenshot shows the situation after adding the new node to the element. Now we have to do the same thing with the outer element, adding a point to it so it becomes a

rectangle Now, you have to join the elements together and this is done by adding the new node to the

ajoining element, as before. The other side is done in exactly the same way, by adding two new nodes and carrying out the same

changes. From this point we're now going to add a new piggyback in the middle of the boom, by

splitting the boom in two. OK so we now are going to split the tail boom down the middle. To do this add two new nodes to

one side of the centre two elements. This will allow you to move one side away from the other,

and create a space to make a new pigyback element. Now, I know what your thinking, why bother

doing this? Simple, a rounded shape looks much better when it has a top and side rather than a

nasty angle, so adding this one extra makes a lot of difference to the finished shape. As you can see from this final screen it's just a matter of adding the new pigyback to close the

gap. Now a word about flickering panels. Most of these changes will not cause any RS problems as the

element has only changed shape and not position in the RS, but the normals will be changed, so

you will need to recalculate the normals for some elements, In the case of the element I've used

to close the gap, you will have to add the magical -32768 to the parent element, or you will see

this element flicker. Sometimes it will be nessassery to add the same piggyback elemet to both

ajoining elements, to cure a problem, but this is rear, unless you adding something extra to the

shape of a model like a pod which is outside the normal placements of the parent element. This next shot shows the nose of the P38, where I have had to split one element firstly into a

rectangle, as shown above, and then into three, to give a decent curve to the nose. For this

situation you recaculate the normal for the new centre section element. But you will have to use

the magic number to make all the three elements show in game without any flickering.



After mapping you can safely brake all the elements also into triangles to give an even better

shape.

This is what I did on the HR new Spit, Zero, and Wildcat.

Col.Gibbon.


 * Q and A**

//Q Mr. Johnson. (the 6th)// the problem is that piggybacking (altough it can't be seen) makes the whole 3d rendering slower.as long as there is no RS calc available, it is a 'half solution' for the problem.Another is to make modders read Gurney's RS tutorial. which is a clean stuff. the rest is only logic. what is behind and in front of... :S takes a bit more time, but saves resources from the cpu/gpu. Mr. J.

//A Col.Gibbon //Hi Mr. Johnson!

I can't say I've ever noticed any problems with frame rate hits due to piggybacks, and there are a hell of a lot of them in the new Spit, and or that matter many of my earlier models, so I don't think the problem with piggybacks is quite as you claim.

Working out the RS for a detailed model as the P38 will be, for every sub element I've added to the F model, would be a major challenge, so I'm not even going to go there. I'll wait ans see what the future holds