Using Doga models in SE5/Starfury

[Ed Kolis]

The only reason we can't use Doga models in SE5 or Starfury is because of all the extra polygons that appear on the "inside" of the models, right? Well then all you need is a program which can perform boolean (aka Constructive Solid Geometry) operations on triangle meshes, because that will "solidify" the model, removing all those interior polygons. If I'm not mistaken, Blender can do such a thing... so here's what you do:

1. Create model in DoGA
2. Export as 3DS or whatever DoGA exports as
3. Import into Blender
4. Apply boolean "add" operations to merge all the parts into one big mesh
5. Export as .X

Keep in mind I haven't tried this yet, but it's an idea - I'm not 100% sure Blender actually supports booleans, and if it does, I'm not sure how it handles merging multiple objects with different materials, but it's worth trying out...

[Atrocities]

When you do try PLEASE let us know how it works. With detailed instructions - or step by step directions, on how to accomplish this great task.

Thanks Ed.

[ToxicSlurpee]

If this works, that'll be downright wonderful.

[Ed Kolis]

And not just that - I'm also trying to make a plugin for Wings which exports to DoGA format:
http://kolis.dyndns.org/ed/prog/suf_exp.tar.gz
It's not actually working yet, but maybe if someone here knows Erlang (yeah right ) they could help me out... it's based on an existing Povray plugin; I just took out all the Povray-specific stuff and replaced it with DoGA-specific stuff but it won't load into wings I posted in the Wings forum about it as well...

[zircher]

Plan B: If Blender does not work for you or it adds too many polygons during the boolean union/CSG process, you can always export the DoGA model as a SUF file, read that into Metasequoia LE, clean up the geometry, and export that as an .X file.

That how I make a lot of my game models. I do the rough design in DOGA and the finish work in Meta.
--
TAZ

[Atrocities]

Zircher, if only you had the time to write us detailed instructions on specifically how to do that.. Oh boy.