Col Issues

[TheDude5000]

I'm in the very early stages of this map mod I'm working on. I'm not at the point where I model my own land/buildings/streets yet, I'm using existing objects and maybe modifying them in 3DS a bit. I can't make much progress, as I'm having some COL file issues.

 

I'm using 3DS Max 7, and Kam's scripts. The problem is, the col file is not aligned properly when I export it. Here is an example:

 

 

That's my usual problem. I add the object to the .ide in Map Editor, and after I add it to the IPL and render that part of the city, I can also see the object is not aligned properly. When I try to place an object in this situation, the game won't crash, but the object dissapears when I get close to it in-game. My solution is to import the dff that I orginally exported from my model, then re-export it, and export a new col file. That usually helps align them, though it's kinda hit and miss.

 

Here's my current problem though. I took one of the bridges, re-modeled it so it was flat, and shortened it to create my own patch of road(not just a 2D plane, but including a sidewalk, and the cement underneath it or whatever).

 

 

The COL file turns out well:

 

It's aligned right, and it appears in-game properly. However..it's not solid:

 

 

Can someone help me with this? I'm having big problems just creating proper col files. Either they don't align properly, or they don't work.

[X-Seti]

This is a quick example to answer your collision problem.

 

Starting from the beginning, lets say you have a road network made of the following models;

 

Your normal objects;

 

mainroad0, mainroad1, mainroad2, mcrossroad

 

And your LODS objects;

 

LODnroad0, LODnroad1, LODnroad2, LODossroad

 

Everytime you create a model in MAX, Make sure that your saved model 'mainroad0' has the same name as your model displayed in the tools box. When exporting your col FILE named 'mainroad0' this also has to have the same name as the model.

 

Your have mainroad0.dff and mainroad.col

 

I can see you know how to export cols, but once you have exported the col, save your model aswell.

 

The col cords should be the same as your model and you should have no problem, but if you do have issues, reload your model you create your col again.

 

Moving on, lets say we make an IPL file called mytown.ipl, and in the IPL file called mytown.ipl you have the following example;

 

 

inst1000, mainroad0, 0, 10.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 1001, mainroad1, 0, 12.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 1002, mainroad2, 0, 14.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 01003, mcrossroad, 0, 16.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 01004, LODnroad0, 0, 10.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 1005, LODnroad1, 0, 12.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 1006, LODnroad2, 0, 14.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 01007, LODossroad, 0, 16.3, 20.4, 7.2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0end

 

 

The col file will be called mytown.col and will containing the following entries;

 

mainroad0.col

mainroad1.col

mainroad2.col

mcrossroad.col

LODnroad0.col

LODnroad1.col

LODnroad2.col

LODossroad.col

 

Where I also think you could be having problems is your IDE file, and it should look something like this.

 

 

objs1000, mainroad0, txdmainroad, 1, 200, 01001, mainroad1, txdmainroad, 1, 200, 0 1002, mainroad2, txdmainroad, 1, 200, 01003, mcrossroad, txdmainroad, 1, 200, 01004, LODnroad0, LODmainroad, 1, 500, 0 1005, LODnroad1, LODmainroad, 1, 500, 0 1006, LODnroad2, LODmainroad, 1, 500, 01007, LODossroad, LODmainroad, 1, 500, 0end

 

 

Hope this helps.

Edited November 23, 2006 by X-Seti

[TheDude5000]

My .col library, .ide. and .ipl are fine. The model is labeled properly, and now it's labeled properly in 3DS:

 

 

Still isn't solid though:

[X-Seti]

Can you show me your IDE and IPL lines?, also have you entered the col in to your GTA_VC.Dat?

 

Like after this line, shown below;

 

COLFILE 0 MODELS\COLL\GENERIC.COL

 

Add your line like this;

 

COLFILE 0 DATA\MAPS\mytown\mytown.col

 

 

[TheDude5000]

 

4800, vroad, vroad, 1, 299, 0

 

 

4800, vroad, 0, -699.546, 317.634, 33.5546, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1

 

 

I should add that I didn't create a new .ide/.ipl. Rather, I added these into the haitin .ide/.ipl's and .col. And it can't be a limit of some sort that's causing this problem, because at one point I had the same amount of objects I do now, but instead of this road, I had a platform there, and it was solid.

 

I will get around to my own .ide/.ipl eventually, but as I said above, I'm only in the early stages of this mod.

[xrk]

Have you used size/alignment solver from kams modeling helper script?

 

 

 

[TheDude5000]

Damnit, I just forgot to name the .col/.dff./txd files properly. Notice I used some CAPS in the .col file name. I renamed that, the model, the texture, and now it's solid.

 

Edit:

 

I'm still having alignment problems. I have that alignment script, but I'm not sure how to use it.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2006 by TheDude5000