OpenZone 6.3

[Windcatcher]

Another day, another release:

1. Fixed the ability to import .3DS objects into the mesh library that contain multiple objects.

2. If a mesh library object contains multiple objects, they will all be created when the object is placed.

3. Fixed exporting objects to .S3D when the target .S3D is an equipment file rather than one associated with a zone.

The changes all revolve around getting custom weapons to work, and you should now be able to replace weapons and/or add new ones. This might be a good time to issue a formal Call For Item Models and see if we can build some sort of repository here for them all. With the exception of animated models, it should be possible to create total replacements for all of the equipment files (and if someone could make one animated weapon model I can look into adding that capability to OpenZone).

OpenZone 6.3 is available here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=88515&package_id=128908&release_id=358637

[GeorgeS]

WC - Excellent job

I'm glad my 'multi-object' models now load into OZ!
I'll soon be exerimenting...


On the issue of animated 3DS models - does this format actually use animation? I would rather have gone .X or .MDL.

GeorgeS

[Windcatcher]

The problem with .X is that I don't have any code to import it. I suppose I could write some but I'd rather not if I can avoid it. .3DS does support keyframe info, but I don't know if it supports skeleton animation. I've never seen an example of a .3DS fle that had keyframe info in it to know. If you have an animated model, even a .X version is better than nothing, since I can at least try it in various converters and try to determine what changes need to be made to OpenZone to support animated objects.

By the way, there were a couple of additional changes to OpenZone that made it into 6.3 that I failed to mention:

1. If you select a pure mesh object (like one that was imported from a .3DS file) without selecting a polygon, you can now use the Edit Polygon Properties dialog to change ALL polygons in the object at once. Handy if the texture name was chopped by the .3DS conversion and you want to assign the correct texture to them all.

2. Altered the small mesh library 3D viewers so the origin is always at the object's origin. Useful so you can see how objects will be placed, especially for weapon models so you can see where the "handhold" position is.