posted 01-20- 09:40 PM               

I simply created a new simple object like a wing, it had no end caps, just 4 polys with a sharp traikling edge.

LOD #1: For this LOD I merged everything, optimized verts, and smooth shaded. For the next LOD

LOD #2: I used the same starting mesh as #1. I then split it into two objects, a top and a bottom. Now I smoothed each of these objects. Now I merged but I did NOT optimise, so the verts should not be shared. Sure enough, there are more verts in the final object.

LOD #3: I do the same as #1, but I do NOT smooth shade.

OK, now I take each of these .lod files and compare them with the DIF tool in source safe. What the hell? They are ALL identical!!! What does this mean???

First, the .lod file NEVER shares verts as far as I can tell. This might explain why when you import .lod files into AC3D you must always re-optimise the verts. However this also shows that that step is meaningless since all verts will be exported unshared anyway.

Second, smooth shading does nothing. I can not believe this one, I am certain that I remember exporting non-smoothed objects and saw them non-smoothed in SDOE.

Maybe my test is flawed.. I checked and checked. I even went in and manualy changed a small value in each file, and sure enough Source-safe caught the difference.

This is confusing me very much...

posted 01-20- 09:45 PM               

If you smooth shade or un-smooth an object and re-export in AC3D, I don't think AC3D makes the update! You need to move a vert or something.. maybe AC3D has a "file chnaged" flag that effect the saving.

When I moved on vert a tiny bit, it changed every line of the file - the smooth shading change made it then!

posted 01-20- 10:02 PM               

the trick to smooting is you have to cut-away the area (or surface) you want to have perfect shading, then flip normals in then flip the normals back out.

Say i'm working on one piece of a wing, well i'll want to cut-away the top and bottom of the wings to get perfect shading before i export it. once you cut-away all the parts and smoothed everything, merge it back together and export it. don't opt anything and try to resmooth it now. if you do it will just revert back to it's messed up shading.

This works on anything and will fix shading problems on the model. Only plane this never worked on was the P-39 and it's fuse was modeled funny.

when your making a new plane it's a good idea to remove all backsides to control surfaces and snap together all the vertices in those area to give you perfect smoothing over all parts. Then add the backing to the control surfaces once they are in the plane, just reimport them and add the backs, then opt, smooth and follow the process above then everything will meet up. Somethings will look out of place sometimes but i've found that SDOe is forgiving in some shading places..

This works very well and i've even fixed the shading problem in the spit thats on the right side behind the cockpit. just snapped the two points and resmoothed. Worked on a messed up place on the P-38 also.

posted 01-20- 10:04 PM               

If you open a .lod in AC3D, and then do not re-optimize and re-shade the .lod, it will NOT be "smooth" in the sim and will have "sharp" edges at the poly joints.

So while these actions may appear to have no effect on the actual .lod file, they will definitely affect the .sm file you add them to...

posted 01-20- 10:15 PM               

Here is it in the game:

The wing on the right in this picture was with all vertecies shared in AC3D, the wing had a total of 12 verts.

The wing on the left in the picture was made of two wing halfs that were first smoothed and then merged. Verts were NOT optimized so there was 16 for this wing.

Both LOD files for the wings contain 16 verts. However, both wings have differnt vertex normals on every vertex. Here are the LOD files, first for the Right wing, and then for the left: (bold coords are vertex normals)

RIGHT:
1 LODShape
1
120000.000000
16
-7.030082703 2.451547623 0.0000000000 -0.3333333433 0.2471786290 -0.2236377150 0.0000000000 1.000000000
6.904544830 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.3333333433 0.2471786290 -0.2236377150 1.000000000 1.000000000
6.904544830 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.3333333433 0.2199264169 -0.5558551550 1.000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 -0.3333333433 0.2199264169 -0.5558551550 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 -0.3333333433 0.2199264169 -0.5558551550 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.3333333433 0.2199264169 -0.5558551550 1.000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.3333333433 -0.05707998946 -0.0002213319094 1.000000000 0.0000000000
-7.030082703 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 -0.3333333433 -0.05707998946 -0.0002213319094 0.0000000000 0.0000000000
-7.030082703 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 -0.3333333433 -0.05707998946 -0.0002213319094 0.0000000000 0.0000000000
6.904544830 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.3333333433 -0.05707998946 -0.0002213319094 1.000000000 0.0000000000
6.904544830 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.3333333433 0.2271595448 0.5442898273 1.000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 0.4074591100 -0.3333333433 0.2271595448 0.5442898273 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 0.4074591100 -0.3333333433 0.2271595448 0.5442898273 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.3333333433 0.2271595448 0.5442898273 1.000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.3333333433 0.2471786290 -0.2236377150 1.000000000 1.000000000
-7.030082703 2.451547623 0.0000000000 -0.3333333433 0.2471786290 -0.2236377150 0.0000000000 1.000000000
4
0fff 29 4 10 08 1.268752570e-008 0.7415359020 -0.6709131598 0 1 2 3
0fff 29 4 10 10 -1.398839045e-009 -0.08175662905 -0.9966523051 4 5 6 7
0fff 29 4 10 10 0.0000000000 -0.08948333561 0.9959883094 8 9 10 11
0fff 29 4 10 08 1.319099763e-008 0.7709619403 0.6368812323 12 13 14 15

LEFT:
1 LODShape
1
120000.000000
16
-7.030082703 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 0.7562489510 -0.01701596379 0.0000000000 1.000000000
6.904544830 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 0.7562489510 -0.01701596379 1.000000000 1.000000000
6.904544830 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.0000000000 0.3298896253 -0.8337827325 1.000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.0000000000 0.3298896253 -0.8337827325 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.0000000000 0.3298896253 -0.8337827325 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.114951134 -0.3720278740 0.0000000000 0.3298896253 -0.8337827325 1.000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 -0.08561998606 -0.0003319978714 1.000000000 0.0000000000
-7.030082703 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 -0.08561998606 -0.0003319978714 0.0000000000 0.0000000000
-7.030082703 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 -0.08561998606 -0.0003319978714 0.0000000000 0.0000000000
6.904544830 -2.420245647 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 -0.08561998606 -0.0003319978714 1.000000000 0.0000000000
6.904544830 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.0000000000 0.3407393098 0.8164347410 1.000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.0000000000 0.3407393098 0.8164347410 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
-7.030082703 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.0000000000 0.3407393098 0.8164347410 0.0000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.114951134 0.4074591100 0.0000000000 0.3407393098 0.8164347410 1.000000000 0.9309090972
6.904544830 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 0.7562489510 -0.01701596379 1.000000000 1.000000000
-7.030082703 2.451547623 0.0000000000 0.0000000000 0.7562489510 -0.01701596379 0.0000000000 1.000000000
4
0fff 29 4 10 08 0.0000000000 0.7415359020 -0.6709131598 0 1 2 3
0fff 29 4 10 10 0.0000000000 -0.08175663650 -0.9966523051 4 5 6 7
0fff 29 4 10 10 0.0000000000 -0.08948333561 0.9959883094 8 9 10 11
0fff 29 4 10 08 0.0000000000 0.7709619403 0.6368812323 12 13 14 15

posted 01-20- 10:22 PM               

But you are correct, smooth shading makes a large difference.

Notice that while both wings are indeed shaded differntly, neither of them has any reak "bug." However, if you mixed these wings together, or created an aileron differntly it would show a seam.

I will now test "spanning" objects, that is: I will create one long rectangle in SDOE, but it will be made of two parts.