Converting 3D Cabinets

[Zallax]

I found a huge array of 3d arcade cabinets online but made in SketchUp. I love Discs of Tron (Environmental) but it is not included in the collection GameEx has on their web site. So, I thought maybe I can convert the SketchUp file I found. I downloaded a Direct-X Exporter plugin and dumped the file. To be more in-line with other 3D cabinets, I converted all the jpg textures to png and renamed them in a similar fashion that I saw in other 3D cabinet dumps. I also made sure I properly updated the renamed images within the .x file.

I opened up my GameEx and, unfortunately, the cabinet did not display and the video took a long time to show as well. I wondered if the polygon count might be the reason. So, I compared the dotron.x versus the dotrone.x I had converted and updated. The dotron.x file has 662 polygons while dotrone has a massive 20,552 polygons. Is the file just too massive to load?

[Draco1962]

You are likely right. You may have to try to work with a model that is a little less detailed (fewer polygons).

[ehuonder]

The polygon count can cause a load delay, but if that's the only problem, GameEx will load it... eventually. I had a high-polygon count version of the GameEx.X Logo I made that took around 8-10 minutes for my machine to load it... If you go to the screen that should load it, and then just let it work for an extended period of time, it might load.

Also, HeadKaze posted the Mview.exe utility here that can load and display .X files. You could use that to try and load your modified .X.

Mview post link

[headkaze]

I converted most of the Sketchup models I found and include the utilities I used in this thread.

GameEx currently takes a while to load large models because it reads all the verticies and then calculates the centre and bounding box so it can position and scale them correctly. There are two possible ways to make this faster and that is to do these calculations and then save back the model at a 1.0f scale with origin in the model's centre. Then it could skip this step next time it loads. Another method would be to use matrix transforms to scale and position the model rather than adjust the verticies directly but I believe you still need to read the verticies to calculate the origin.