Yes I’m still here…Thu, April 22nd, 2010 @ 13:32

Err Hello,

It’s been over 6 months since I last made a post here. I’m assuming most people had assumed I’d been crushed by stampeding moose.

Actually since last August it’s mostly been two things keeping me from doing more updates – a new job which keeps me extremely busy and I’ve been working almost entirely on Ham and Jam which I hope we’ll be able to release soon.

Regarding the plug-ins and other modding projects, there are some things going on but a lack of free time has meant that updates aren’t as rapid as usual.

A couple of “ongoing” things:

  • I’ve been looking into adding XBox360 support to VTFLib/VTFEdit.
  • I’ve tested the VTF extensions with Windows 2008R2 (people asked for support) and need to update the installer.
  • I’ve been adding support for multiple meshes in the VTA exporter. It’ll make face/mouth cavity animation easier.
  • Still trying to figure out a good algorithm to try and recreate smoothing groups in the SMD importer. I’m thinking edge/normal matching and neighbour trees.

All the above are “when I can find the freetime” so don’t hassle me about it please.

Finally people have been asking about versions of my plug-ins for 3DS Max 2011 – just use the 2010 versions. They’re compatible.

Perma-linkRelated posts

Add/view comments (2)

VTF Shell Extension for Windows 7Tue, August 25th, 2009 @ 22:05

A quick update, as mentioned in my previous post. I’ve now ported my VTF Shell extensions to Windows 7 RTM (the official release version) although they should also work with the Beta/RC as well.

There are no new features, just Windows 7 compatibility, so the version number hasn’t changed and if you’re already using the latest version on XP/Vista you don’t need this update. All I’ve done is add compatibility for Windows 7 into the installer.

So, the current supported OS’s are: Windows 2000, XP 32-bit, Vista 32/64-bit, Windows 7 32/64-bit. If you’re running Windows 2003/2008 I’m afraid I don’t have access to those OS’s for testing, but if you’d like to try the extensions, e-mail me for the files and manual install instructions and if it turns out it works, I’ll add support for it in the installer.

Perma-linkRelated posts

Comments Off

A quick update.Tue, August 25th, 2009 @ 21:57

Hello.

This summers passed by really quickly and I realised I haven’t posted anything here for ages. I started a new job in June and I’ve been fairly full throttle with that for the past three month, hence the lack of any movement here. It’s nice to be working full time again and developing stuff but sadly it’s not game related. :(

I haven’t had as much freetime as before and what little I have has been given over to Ham and Jam and trying to get that finished. We are very close to be able to make a public release but we are still short of a few art assets. We are absolutely desperate for weapon texture artists for our first persion view models and it’s the only think holding us back right now. If I had to make an estimate I would say that with a reliable weapons texture artist on board, we could be looking at a public beta within 2 months.

Other stuff, not much moving on the plug-ins and such but I have had a lot of good feedback and I’ve got some new features I want to add to the VTA plug-in. I’m still toying with the idea of a VTA importer and possible a raw MDL importer but those are future projects if/when I get more time to myself. There is one minor update though – I’ve ported/tested my VTF Shell Extensions to work with the RTM (Release To Market) version of Windows 7. This is the proper release version of Windows 7, not the RC/Beta (although it should work with those as well) so hopefully no problems. As I haven’t added any features it’s the same version number, just re-download the installer as I’ve updated it for Windows 7.

Perma-linkRelated posts

Add/view comments (2)

TF2 Heavy Bear – VTA plug-in for the win!Tue, May 26th, 2009 @ 23:03

Got an email from “superaldo” over at the Steampowered forums telling me he used my 3DS Max VTA exporter plug-in to make new face flexes for his custom player model for TF2.

You gotta check this out. :)

Perma-linkRelated posts

Add/view comments (1)

3DS Max VTA exporter release!Wed, May 20th, 2009 @ 00:57

Thanks to those who volunteered to test-drive the beta of my VTA exporter. No bug reports came back and all said they had successfully managed to get their face animations working so I figure we’re good for general release!

I’ve written up some rough instructions on how to use it here but basically it’s exactly the same as Cannonfodder’s exporter. The main difference is that you don’t have to delete a lot of stuff before export – just make sure you have the bones and morphed mesh selected and off you go.

Feel free to email me any pics/demos of any models you got working with it! :)

Perma-linkRelated posts

Add/view comments (2)