Obsidian Games Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 I wanted to let everyone know that I am resuming work on my A:M export plugins effective immediately. I've recieved the approvals that I needed, and am clear to work on them again. This doesn't mean that I will have everything available today or tomorrow. A lot has changed in the last few months, and now that I'm back, I have a number of things to do before I'll be fully up to speed: General * Purchase A:M 2006 Subscription * Install and look into the A:M V12 SDK * Install and look into the A:M V13 SDK * Look into the A:M SDK's ability to write plugins for OSX Tiger - Plugins written with current OSX SDK do not work with Tiger versions of A:M. - Current OSX Panther SDK (v11.1) seem to be at least partially compatible with A:M v12 on Panther - It appears that Hash is releasing a new Mac SDK next week (fingers crossed for Tiger support) * Check back in with Hash about adding weighted CPs to the Import/Export portion of the SDK. - I just checked the new V13 SDK, and they do not appear to be available. I asked Hash about this in the V13 SDK announcement thread AMXtex * Update AMXtex to fully work with A:M V12 * Update AMXtex to fully work with A:M V13 AMXdtsPlus * Download and install the new version of the Torque Game Engine (v1.4); examine any changes to DTS portion of TGE * Communicating with Garage Games about the sale of the AMXdtsPlus exporter * Re-examine the AMXdtsPlus exporter, and get it in shape for public use - AMXdtsPlus works with newest version of A:M v12 on Windows - AMXdtsPlus works with newest version of A:M v11.1 on OSX Panther. It hangs during export on V12, but appears to be working (just need to find and fix the hang) - AMXdtsPlus does *not* work with A:M on OSX Tiger (hopefully the new SDK will fix that) I will be working on these as fast as possible, and will continue to post updates as I get more information. Thanks, Quote
ZachBG Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 * Install and look into the A:M V12 SDK * Look into the A:M SDK's ability to write plugins for OSX Tiger (currently the only Hash OSX SDK is for A:M v11.1, and I believe is Panther only) The v13 SDK was just released for Windoze, and according to Will, the OSX SDK will be released sometime next week. Can't wait! Quote
triath5147 Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 GREAT to hear chris, thanx for the update, and thanx for your continued support of AM. Quote
Obsidian Games Posted January 14, 2006 Author Posted January 14, 2006 Thanks for the heads up Zach, I had not noticed that earlier. Keeping my fingers crossed for the OSX SDK update. I've modified my original post (changes are in italics) to add the v13 info, and also what I've found since I first posted. Also, I want to thank everyone for their patience these last few months. I'm really looking forward to getting back into A:M and programming again! Quote
RViewer Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 This is excellent news Chris. I will now have a use for future versions of A:M with your dedication to keeping the pipeline from A:M to .X intact. Thank you very much. Quote
Zaryin Posted January 15, 2006 Posted January 15, 2006 Great to hear yo are back to work on these, and that you got approval. Quote
gschumsky Posted January 15, 2006 Posted January 15, 2006 That is WONDERFUL news!!! Looks like TimePilots with A:M and Torque might be a reality. Thanks for the update Chris, and if you need any help (sample models, etc.), let me know. Greg Quote
martin Posted January 15, 2006 Posted January 15, 2006 Also, I want to thank everyone for their patience these last few months. I'm really looking forward to getting back into A:M and programming again! Chris; Are you getting everything you need in the SDK? What about CP weights? Do you got that figured out now? Quote
dborruso Posted January 15, 2006 Posted January 15, 2006 This is great to hear Chris. I really want to upgrade to 13 but am waiting on the AMXtex upgrade. Thanks man! Quote
Obsidian Games Posted January 15, 2006 Author Posted January 15, 2006 Thank everyone, I appreciate the support. It looks like A:M has gone through some impressive updates while I was gone, and I can't wait to play around with V13! Chris; Are you getting everything you need in the SDK? What about CP weights? Do you got that figured out now? Martin -- I don't think that CP weights have been added to the Import/Export section of the SDK. So far it looks like it's only available for live model editing. I'm still looking into it though, and will report back with what I find. If it's not there, I will probably put a feeler out on the A:M Reports ticket I opened about adding CP weights last year (unless you'd prefer I go about it a different way). I know there's a lot going on with A:M right now (not the least of which is now Intel Macs!), but I think it would be a big win for A:M if game modellers were able to make use of CP weights on model exporting/importing. Thanks, Quote
Emilio Le Roux Posted January 17, 2006 Posted January 17, 2006 Those are excellent news, Chris! I'm a serious fan of your work. Quote
Motility Posted January 18, 2006 Posted January 18, 2006 This is great news Chris.........I am a version 12 person and look forward to buying the xport version 12 version. And as other have said thanks for committing your energy's to AM. God's Speed. Quote
dborruso Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 Chris I hate to be a dummy, but I'm just wondering how long you think it will take to make a version 13 compatible directx update. I am just wondering if I should order my 13 upgrade now. Or will it take you like a year or something to make this. I don't know anything about plug in development so I don't know. Well, let me know. Thanks Master of plugins! Your plugin changed my life, I'm serious. Quote
Obsidian Games Posted January 19, 2006 Author Posted January 19, 2006 Thanks again everyone! More great news -- I heard back from Garage Games, and have the go ahead on their end for AMXdtsPlus. I'll be working on both updated versions (PC & Mac) to get something ready as soon as possible. dborruso - I don't think it will take very long. In fact, I have a version of AMXtex already compiled for A:M V13 (it didn't require too many changes), and I'm just waiting for my V13 CD to arrive so I can test it before releasing it. Quote
dborruso Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 Awesome Chris!!!!!!!!! I will update to 13 in February. You the man! Quote
dborruso Posted January 19, 2006 Posted January 19, 2006 I guess there are no women looking on the game development thread so I'll say it. Bad Sandgroper! You sound like my dear departed grandfather. And hey, I like the sims Quote
Fred Posted January 22, 2006 Posted January 22, 2006 Hi Chris, are there any news about the CP weights issue ? It would be terrific to use A:M for game modeling & animation !! Fred Quote
Obsidian Games Posted January 23, 2006 Author Posted January 23, 2006 Hi Chris, are there any news about the CP weights issue ? It would be terrific to use A:M for game modeling & animation !! Fred I believe Hash is looking at it right now, but I don't know if it will definitely get done, what the timeframe is, etc. Just keeping my fingers crossed at the moment, and if I find out more, I'll be sure to post an update. Quote
Fred Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 I believe Hash is looking at it right now, but I don't know if it will definitely get done, what the timeframe is, etc. Just keeping my fingers crossed at the moment, and if I find out more, I'll be sure to post an update. Thanks Chris, let's hope for the best ! hey fred wheres ginger? Got me a new one called Wilma ! Quote
Obsidian Games Posted February 3, 2006 Author Posted February 3, 2006 AMXtex version 2.10 is now available for Animation:Master v12 and v13. You can download the new version from the Obsidian Games Download Page. This new version has a fix for a problem with repeating decals. It also incorporates the license agreement and registration dialog directly into the plugin, so there's no more clunky installer to run. Simply download the appropriate zip file, copy the AMXtex hxt file to your A:M "hxt" subdirectory, and restart A:M. I also removed the help button from the plugin (the license info button is now in it's place). I've replaced the old help file with an updated PDF version, which is also available from the download page. If anyone finds any issues with the new versions, please let me know. ----- On the AMXdtsPlus front, I am currently working on finishing up a beta version, which I hope to have available soon. I'm working out some bugs now, and need to install the new OSX v13 SDK and get it running there, but hopefully that won't take too long. I'll post as soon as I have more news. Also, I'm anticipating that the DTS plugin will have the same setup as the .X plugin -- the unregistered version will not export textures and will only export a few frames of animation, and the registered version will have all features enabled. Quote
Obsidian Games Posted February 3, 2006 Author Posted February 3, 2006 oh goodie gotta get that software poo no support for 11.1 and below that is sad news! i only have 10.5 i like the pdf layout! Thanks, I thought the PDF help file looked a lot better than the old version. As for the old versions of AMXtex, they will continue to remain available on the website, I just won't be working on them anymore. Other than any new features which may be introduced in the new versions, the old ones should continue to work just fine. Quote
GusM Posted February 3, 2006 Posted February 3, 2006 Great news, Chris, thank you very much. Count with me for betatesting the DTS exporter for mac Quote
Motility Posted February 4, 2006 Posted February 4, 2006 Thanks for updating Chris to newer versions for .x export . I am a version 12 person rt now and just ordered the plugin. Smooth ordering process ....cool.....and fast email for registration code. Very Nice. Have just been playing around with it so far and must say this is real nice. Currently fooling with exporting to 3d game studio A6 engine by taking it into the "med" editor as .x and saving as mdl7 model for their "wed" world editor. Things have been going through this pipleline very nicely. I am just doing simple shapes with textures but still very nice. especially for AM which is thought to be stuck in its own world. not anymore. Will have fun as I try more complex items ....... Quote
Emilio Le Roux Posted February 4, 2006 Posted February 4, 2006 Thank you for the update, Chris! It works great. By the way - I do use fragmotion to take the .X file and save it as MDL7. I find MED .X importer a bit unreliable - and fragmotion has better texture tools IMO. (Among other things, it automatically takes all textures from the .X model and creates a single MDL7 texture). Besides that, the AMXTex exported models are so clean that I can use fragmotion to turn the .X file into anything else, for instance, to go to a 3dpaint app. Quote
Motility Posted February 4, 2006 Posted February 4, 2006 emilio- I tried to take .x models from am to fragmotion and then a6 as a mdl7 file and seems for me i get a bad mdl file error in wed. Being a newbie i am probably doing something wrong but is there any tricks or things to be extra careful that you have figured out. I have found am as .x to med and to wed much more easier but I do like some of fragmotions toolsets. Quote
Emilio Le Roux Posted February 4, 2006 Posted February 4, 2006 emilio- I tried to take .x models from am to fragmotion and then a6 as a mdl7 file and seems for me i get a bad mdl file error in wed. Being a newbie i am probably doing something wrong but is there any tricks or things to be extra careful that you have figured out. I have found am as .x to med and to wed much more easier but I do like some of fragmotions toolsets. I KNOW THAT ONE! I KNOW THAT ONE! It's a simple problem: this error happens when there aren't any animations on the model. You could add an empty animation in fragmotion, but as MED always saves an 'empty' animation or scene with any model, the easiest solution is to open the model in MED just to save it again. Quote
gschumsky Posted February 6, 2006 Posted February 6, 2006 Hey Chris, Ping me as well when you're ready for beta testing dtsplus for Mac. Got some sutff we're working on now, and Torque looks like it's the candidate for our game engine (did you see all the cool libraries they already have??). Thanks, Greg Quote
Obsidian Games Posted February 6, 2006 Author Posted February 6, 2006 Quick update on AMXdtsPlus -- Using the new Hash Mac SDK, I have the initial build working on A:M v12 on OSX Tiger, and have successfully exported DTS models and animations. This is an important step, as I want to release the plugins simultaneously on the Windows and Mac side. As for A:M v13 on OSX Tiger, it's not looking so good at the moment. A:M uses a newer version of the gcc compiler for v13, and while the AMXdtsPlus plugin will compile just fine using the new version, the Torque code for creating DTS files does not. I'm not sure if and when Garage Games will update the code to work under the new version of gcc, but until then, I'm not sure there's much I can do. I will continue to work on it and see if I can come up with a workaround. Quote
gschumsky Posted February 6, 2006 Posted February 6, 2006 Quick update on AMXdtsPlus -- Using the new Hash Mac SDK, I have the initial build working on A:M v12 on OSX Tiger, and have successfully exported DTS models and animations. This is an important step, as I want to release the plugins simultaneously on the Windows and Mac side. Good news Chris. Thanks for the great update. As for A:M v13 on OSX Tiger, it's not looking so good at the moment. A:M uses a newer version of the gcc compiler for v13, and while the AMXdtsPlus plugin will compile just fine using the new version, the Torque code for creating DTS files does not. I'm not sure if and when Garage Games will update the code to work under the new version of gcc, but until then, I'm not sure there's much I can do. I will continue to work on it and see if I can come up with a workaround. I'm going to go harass Jay over there right now... Quote
Obsidian Games Posted February 8, 2006 Author Posted February 8, 2006 so if i have a query on those versions , will you answer them? If you're having any problems, I will do my best to see if I can help, or to see if the issue is still there in the new versions, but I don't plan on updating the old versions with any new changes/fixes. Harassment process completed. Thanks, Greg, please let me know if you hear anything. I also posted about the specific problem that I'm having on the GG message boards, to see if anyone else has come across this yet. I was able to get around the errors by effectively breaking what the functions did, and the result was empty DTS files. Hopefully someone here or on the GG site will be able to shed some light on the subject. In the meantime, I will get back to working on the plugin! Quote
Obsidian Games Posted February 15, 2006 Author Posted February 15, 2006 Great news! Paul Scott at Garage Games figured out the issues with the Torque SDK code running under GCC 4.0, and I have an initial build of AMXdtsPlus running under A:M v13 (Tiger). Animation export crashes, but model exports work. I'm still working as hard as I can to get it ready for a beta release, and will post as soon as I have something. Quote
gschumsky Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 Great news! Paul Scott at Garage Games figured out the issues with the Torque SDK code running under GCC 4.0, and I have an initial build of AMXdtsPlus running under A:M v13 (Tiger). Animation export crashes, but model exports work. I'm still working as hard as I can to get it ready for a beta release, and will post as soon as I have something. Cool! After I pinged them about this, Jay wrote back that he'd bring it up with the Mac guys, but they had some other stuff to get out of the way first. Glad to hear they got back to you so soon. Looking forward to the beta. Quote
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