Author Topic: Question.......HTC Staff (Read 733 times)

FighterPuke · « **on:** July 06, 2006, 10:55:00 AM »

Would you consider any planes 3d modeled from sources other than Hitech Staff?

In all seriousness.......Im talking about people (dedicated people) 3d drawing planes (in AC3D maybe?) that are accurate and to scale for use in AcesHighII. If your even interested Id love to discuss this more. It would be incredibly easy to spot frauds, poor quality, or most other issues. And I have a feeling would open many avenues. If your not interested Im sure you have your reasons.

Ryan

hitech · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2006, 11:25:26 AM »

The answere is it would be great if possible, but many hurdles stand in road.

First somthing like AC3D while adiquate for doing buildings, would not be adiquate for doing complex shapes like airplanes with all the detail atributes that needed to be added to the shapes.

2nd that leaves us with 3 possible 3d packages, MIA, 3d studio, Multigen Creator. all 3 of those packages cost between 3k & 8k. We currently only have converters for Multigen. But the cost of the package meens only a few people would be able to create shapes to begin with.

3rd creating an airplane shape is much more complex than just making it look like an airplane. Of the time needed to create a plane, only a small part is acctuly creating the external shape of the plane. Those details are where most people intrested in creating the plane tend to loose interest.

Even after the shape is created, the flight model still would need to be made, this proccess we would not have done on the outside.

So while great in theory, the details have always made me say it isn't worth it.

HiTech

FighterPuke · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2006, 12:58:48 PM »

While I will say I am disappointed....I must admit your points are entirely valid. That being said you mentioned AC3D not being able to cope with the complex shapes of an aircraft but what about ground vehicles. It would seem (incorrectly maybe) that coding in general would be easier for all parties. The "flight model" for gvs in my way of thinking would be easier. I know this is AcesHigh not WW2 ground atack so I dont know your feelings on new gvs but none the less thought Id bring it up. Thanks for the quick reply!

When you say details what do you mean.......interior, flight data, historical impact, or external movable surfaces?

Ryan

NHawk · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2006, 03:07:04 PM »

Out of curiosity, can't you import/convert DXF files? Most 3D engineering software exports in that format for (mostly)universal compatability.

I have Cadkey and Autocad which do 3D modeling quite well.

hitech · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2006, 03:26:34 PM »

DXF's do not contain all the information needed.

HiTech

Krusty · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2006, 04:17:05 PM »

Out of curiousity, what do you need? Do the models you use have bones? Or is it a matter of groups, materials, different smoothing for different groups? All that type of stuff?

For those that don't know much about 3D, think about it like DXF is the plain text of notepad, but 3DS Max, Maya, and Multigen are like the rich text format of wordpad -- it allows a lot more to be stored directly into the file, formats, info, etc.

NHawk · « **Reply #6 on:** July 07, 2006, 06:02:53 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by hitech
DXF's do not contain all the information needed.

HiTech

I figured, that's why I said mostly universal. It was always interesting to import a dxf file and see a surface extend 25 miles off the drawing page.

I took a peek at Multigen. Impressive stuff and out of my league. If that's what you use to create the planes in AH a BIG thumbs up to you! That software is being used by some heavy hitters in real life flight sims.