SC4 Model Tweaker Development/Support thread

[cogeo]

Hi again,

I have just uploaded the version 1.00 Beta of the tool. It should now be working without problems, so please report any of your findings as bugs or omissions. After some few days, and if no probelms are reported, I will release it as an "official" version.

The download link is <Get the official version from the LEX>


Changes from the previous version:
- The Help file has been updated, all missing topics were added, and there is now help on using the commands and explaining the operations.
- It is now packaged as a standard Windows Installer Package (creates menu links, and uninstall info - run Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs, or run the installer again and select the Uninstall option).

Some Notes:
- The program doesn't change file associations for any file type (it's not a main modding tool, so this wouldn't be right). However it's quite simple to use, you can use the standard File Open command, or drag-and-drop.
- All information in the registry is stored under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cogeo\SC4 Model Tweaker". The (un)installer deletes this key automatically, while uninstalling.

INSTALLATION
- If you had installed an older version you have to uninstall it fully first (delete all installed files and shortcuts, and then open the registry editor (in your Windows Taskbar select Start->Run, and type-in regedit), go to  "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cogeo\" and delete key "SC4 Model Tweaker" (and its subkeys). This step is required before installing the new version, otherwise some menu commands may not be displayed, as the program stores there the "personalisation" options of the old version.
- Otherwise just run the installer.

The help file has been updated, and is now complete. I would like to ask the community, esp the native English speakers to take a deeper look, and report their findings, ie missing topics, broken hyperlinks, even linguistic errors, or instead make suggestions and, why not, even their own contributions. There are some topics not directly accessible from the Contents tab; these are accessible by clicking the Help button on the Toolbar: the cursor then changes to arrow+help, and clicking on any part of the application (menus, windows, toolbar buttons etc) should launch the corresponding help topic. Take as an example the document window: open a model file, and then click on the help button and the document window, this displays help on editing the file. There should be help topics for ALL application items.

I would also like to ask some artist to make a nice icon for this, it currently uses the default MFC icon (supplied by the development tool). Esp needed 48x48, 32z32, 24x24 and 16x16, 8-bit and 4-bit (the last ones are dithered versions of the 8-bit ones - they should normally not be needed, but some user(s) may have choosen such display settings).


Replies to your posts:

@null45: Yes, but apparently both use the GL library, which I doubt if it allows selecting and dragging objects, although this is out of the scope of this tool anyway. The s3d.dll is indeed not included in the reader's source; I just use it (there is a header file and an import library included with the reader's source). Unfortunately there is no documentation, so I had to figure out how it works by looking at the reader's sources.

@Diggis: Jeronij didn't say exactly that. Anyways, you can look at the help, this describes how it works in detail - if it doesn't work as specified, then there's a bug or something.

[sithlrd98]

Unfortunately ,it still doesn't work on x64Vista
I'll have ago at it under x64XP later.

Just ran through the help file , and the only thing I noticed was this:

Window Arrange Icons Command

Use this command to arrange the icons for minimized windows at the bottom of the main window. If there is an open document window at the bottom of the main window, then some or all of the icons may not be visible because they will be underneath this d ocument window.

All links worked and , although I skimmed it , nothing else seemed odd.

Jayson

[cogeo]

Jayson, thanks for testing!

What exactly do you mean, the extra space in "d ocument" or what it says?

These "standard" commands are actually ready-made, so I didn't really check them at such level of detail. Ie commands like File Open, or Exit, incl their associated help topics are already implemented by the development environment, and as such they are not expected to contain errors, but sometimes... I'm going to fix this in the release version.

Thanks again

[sithlrd98]

What I was saying was there was a space between d & ocument...very simple , just noticed!
I still haven't logged over to the xp install yet , but I'll let you know if I have any problems.

Jayson

[cogeo]

Hi all,

Version 1.00 of SC4 Model Tweaker is now released on the LEX.

I would like to thank all members who have provided testing, feedback and recommendations.


There are some few changes in respect to the Beta:
- Warning message removed.
- All help topics completed.
- Changed application icon.
- Operations are now accessible through a context menu too (right-click).

You can now access operations in four ways:
- Context Menu (right-click on the selected items)
- Application menu
- Toolbar
- Shortcut Keys

The User Interface is customizable to your liking. In the View menu select "Application Look" and pick the desired theme.

There are also many more customization options. Right-click on the toolbar and select "Customize...".

It is recommended that you set the Text Labels on. In the "Toolbars" tab check the "Show text labels" check-box.



Also the feature of hiding the least used menu commands can be turned off. Currently the menus are really short, and hiding some commands not only is of little benefit if at all, it may be frustrating too. In the "Options" tab uncheck the "Menus show recently used commands first" check-box.



Or customize the tool to your liking.


More features are about to be implemented soon. Please post requests or recommendations in this thread. In the case of requests for new features, please provide a detailed description. It would also be great to provide the associated help topic too (check the help file to see how they look like).

Enjoy!

[jeronij]

Excellent news ¡¡¡ Thanks for sharing this wonderul tool 

[cogeo]

I would also like to announce that the Move Model command is already done. Tested it, and it works. It was quite easy to implement, as it is very similar to the Scale Model command (operating only on the vertices), so the whole work was basically a copy-and-paste thing (plus some changes); Making the parameters dialog box was most of the work.



I'm going to upload an evaluation version by the middle of the upcoming week. It will contain the rotate command too (operating on 1-Z/R models only), as it is very similar (operating on vertices only) as well. Models with 20 Z/R views can't be rotated because they lack the "back" faces. But for such models it is possible to make a different command, working by renumbering the view aspects (effectively "rotating" it by multiples of 90°). For example, to "rotate" such a model by 90° it is enough to renumber all 0x------0- S3D files to 0x------1-, the 0x------1- ones to 0x------2-, the 0x------2- ones to 0x------3- and the 0x------3- ones to 0x------0-. This feature might not look very much useful, but it is, I have used it to make prop families of models with a different orientation. But it is possible to do this in the reader too, without very much effort actually, so I don't  know if it's really worth.

Another point that needs to be addressed is operation under Vista. Unfortunately I don't have a Vista installation, but it might be possible to send sevaral test versions to someone who does, and solve this problem too.

[sithlrd98]

Models with 20 Z/R views can't be rotated because they lack the "back" faces. But for such models it is possible to make a different command, working by renumbering the view aspects (effectively "rotating" it by multiples of 90°). For example, to "rotate" such a model by 90° it is enough to renumber all 0x------0- S3D files to 0x------1-, the 0x------1- ones to 0x------2-, the 0x------2- ones to 0x------3- and the 0x------3- ones to 0x------0-. This feature might not look very much useful, but it is, I have used it to make prop families of models with a different orientation. But it is possible to do this in the reader too, without very much effort actually, so I don't  know if it's really worth.

Although I have no idea what that last part means...since I am running x64Vista and hate switching over to my x64XP for one tool . I have no programming experience but I would love to try and help with anything that I can.

Jayson

[dedgren]

cogeo- I still owe you that PM...

I would be happy to be the 64-bit Vista tester.  I have a reasonably powerful HP laptop with dual Intel processors, so that end of the Vista world is covered.  I also have a 32-bit XP Pro machine set up now, so I can do side-by-side comparisons of what works and what doesn't.

Let me know.


David

[allan_kuan1992]

Interesting... I'll be keeping my eye on this... =)

- Allan Kuan

[Orange_o_]

Hello Cogeo, I have just downloaded your software.

It like me very well  ,

only I think that he could have of the other one integrated functions:

- The possibility of moving 4 view (centring the building for example) oups
- The possibility of deforming the building (Ripplejet use several methods for the CAM here

It's all for the moment 


Orange

[choco]

nice!  that "move model" cammand would have been great last week...

excellent tool cogeo! 

[cogeo]

@jeronij: Thanks for the nice comments!

@sithlrd98, @dedgren: I will send you test versions if you want to help.

@Orange_o_: The "Move Model" operation is already implemented , although not released yet. It has a variety of uses, among others making overhanging models. As for the "centering", you can specify reverse offsets in moving, so that it's centered. I doubt if this can be done automatically (see the discussion in the previous posts). The problem is that it's not easy to make an algorithm that determines the off-center amount (the rest is the same as the move command, only the parameters wouldn't be entered by the user, instead calculated as described above). As for deforming a model (de-squashing etc) this is really easy, just the scale command has to be modified a little, to work on the Z-axis only.

@choco: Thanks! Well, maybe you can use other (upcoming) features, like merging models etc.

[dedgren]

I'll be watching my email inbox.  Jayson, once you start looking at this, let me know- we can chat about what we find.


David

[sithlrd98]

No prob! Looking forward to it in my inbox as well!

Jayson

[sdc16064]

Does this not work with Vista, because whenever I try to scale the SC4Model, the Tweaker crashes.

[dedgren]

We're working on the Vista issue.  Patience, patience...


David

[null45]

It also does not work under the Windows 7 RC 

I have a crash dump, but could not analyze it very well without the debugging symbols.
It says HEAP_CORRUPTION_c0000005

[cogeo]

Hi again,

I have just uploaded a new test version (V1.50 - TEST) of the tool.

The download link is: <Link Removed - Find a more recent link in later posts in this thread>

New features:
- Move model operation
- Rotate model operation (1-Z/R models only)
- Flip/Mirror model operation (1-Z/R models only)

Notes:
- Unlike in the reader, the X, Y and Z axes have their "normal" meaning (Z refers to the height). What is causing all the confusion is just a naming inconsistency in the S3D.DLL's interface, which was propagated even to the reader's user interface.
- The Rotate and Flip/Mirror operations work only for models with one Zoom/Rotation (not for the 20-Z/R, ie those generated by BAT exporting), for the reasons discussed earlier in this therad. I have also tried rotating BAT models (eg for making diagonal versions), but the results were poor. While for certain models (with simple, orthogonal LODs) and angles the lack of back faces might not be a problem, there are problems with the textures (stretched) and protruding objects (badly deformed). So I'm not sure if providing this operation (even with the aforementioned limitations) is really good (though as far as the programming effort is concerned, it's really trivial).
- The Flip/Mirror opeation reverses the Index (triangles) too (swaps the 1st and 3rd vertex refs); otherwise the model/material isn't visible ingame (though it is visible in the reader). The program does not do this in the "invert" case (mirroring with respect to the XY plane), as the order of drawing doesn't change. Btw I'm not sure if this specific opearation is really needed, it might be preferable to remove it. I have not experimented a lot with flipping/mirroring, so I'm not sure if reversing the triangles is always needed; it is definitely needed for flat models (horizontal planes) but I'm not sure about the rest (vertical, inclined or more complex ones). It might be needed for all cases, or may be needed for some cases. I could change the operation, and make this optional or conditional - in the last case some more experienced modders should describe the conditions in detail ("specify" them exactly, ie as an "algorithm").
- There is no documentation (help) for the new features yet, but you should be able to figure them out easily.

INSTALLATION
- Download and install version 1.00 from the LEX, if you haven't already.
- Go to the installation folder and copy the executable somewhere else (outside the installation folder). This way it will be much easier to revert to V1.00 later.
- Get the (new) executable from the download link and overwrite the original (in the installation folder).
- Run the program.
- All commands should appear in the toolbar and display tips, and all menu items (in both the main and the popup menus) should display the keyboard shortcuts.



If this is not the case, try using the "Reset", "Reset All" or "Reset my usage data" commands in the "Customize" dialog (right-click on the toolbar to open this dialog). Close and restart the application. If it still doesn't work, try uninstalling and re-installing V1.00, and then overwrite it with the new version, without running the program (V1.00), so that it won't write anything in the registry. Note: uninstalling the application removes everything in the installation folder and the registry, ie it leaves off no "garbage".

Features to be implemented soon (in this week):
- Enhancing the "Scale" operation, so that it is applied to each of the three axes separately (useful for "de-squashing").
- The "Reorient" operation for 20-Z/R models ("rotation" by multiples of 90°, by renumbering the models' instance IDs - see the description in my previous post).

So, stay tuned!

Happy Testing!

[Jonathan]

Thanks for this great tool Cogeo!

The latest new feature will be a great help thanks 

Jonathan