Queston about DOGA L3

[TerranC]

What about this, then?

[Starhawk]

My question: How do you get a perfect Sphere with DOga! I'm trying to make a 5th Imperium Shipset but that's dang hard when the "sphere" has frakkin corners heh.

[Kana]

From what I've seen trolling about on the Star Fleet Command Model sites...most modellers suggest that you don't do a completely round, or circular object...the poly count ends up to high...so you actually end up having a multi-sided object that at a distance and with a texture, look round, or cylindrical...for example...one of the warp engine nacels on a star trek ship should be a long cylindrical tube...but its model with actually 24-64 seperate sides...

As for file export...I ask, because I found a program that will import and export models in like 50 different formats...one of which is .X...and was wondering if I could import DOGA models directly and then export them to .X...

Kana

[Atrocities]

Kana said:
As for file export...I ask, because I found a program that will import and export models in like 50 different formats...one of which is .X...and was wondering if I could import DOGA models directly and then export them to .X...

Kana

Yes we can export to X format. However there have been problems with the X exported models. They don't load all that well in the X viewer for SF and SEV.

I would be willing to donate an X model if you like.

[Kana]

Atrocities said:
Yes we can export to X format. However there have been problems with the X exported models. They don't load all that well in the X viewer for SF and SEV.
I would be willing to donate an X model if you like.

I was actually going to ask your for one of your DOGA models...in what ever format DOGA can export in...IF you have a .X model I would love to check one of those as well..

Thanks,

Kana

[Atrocities]

Here is one of the lower polygon count Klingon ships I am working on for SEV. It is in VRML, DXF and Direct3d (x) formats. Enjoy and good luck.

[Kana]

Thanks...

Edit: Ok I tried all 3 formats...there were plugins on Unwraps site. First off the vrml one didn't work...even though I had the plugin installed...the dxf and the .x worked, the dxf had no color, it was just grey, and I believe it was off axis. .X was the champ it was colored and on the proper axis...for those of you who want to take a look at the program, the demo is at...

http://www.unwrap3d.com/downloads.aspx

Kana

[Atrocities]

Starhawk said:
My question: How do you get a perfect Sphere with DOga! I'm trying to make a 5th Imperium Shipset but that's dang hard when the "sphere" has frakkin corners heh.

The perfect sphere is a huge polygon hog. I have sphere parts that are perfectly round. The more you use them, the higher the polygon count of your model is.

JAF, that is a nice design. I really like it.

[TerranC]

Starhawk said:
My question: How do you get a perfect Sphere with DOga! I'm trying to make a 5th Imperium Shipset but that's dang hard when the "sphere" has frakkin corners heh.

You get it like so:

Add parts from files --> go to 13_samp --> go to Parts --> go to ball --> Double click on any one of the three you see.

[zircher]

You can also use a transparency mask and slider to get varying levels of translucency for a texture. That should give you the ghostly thrust effect.

DoGA is intended for stills and movies. There are two gotchas with using DoGA to make make game models:

One, you need to understand the difference between render engine effects and what an .X model supports. Blending, coloring, masking, and material settings are subject to getting dropped. Stick with white models with a single texture image per part. If you need more complex textures, you can create them in DoGA, render the image, and save that as a custom texture for your model.

Two, since DoGA uses a parts based metaphor, it does not create optimal game meshes. This can result in Z buffer conflicts which are visible as saw tooth patters where twi faces intersect.

The best thing to do is to use DoGA as a design tool and export the geometry to another program such as Metasequoia or Milkshape. There you can merge the faces, reduce the polygon count, and set the exact texture mappings that you want.

I have a tutorial here that can walk you though that process for DoGA and Metasequoia.

http://zircher.iwarp.com/doga (scroll down to Tutorials
--
TAZ

BTW, the reason that the DXF export looks wrong/offset is that all the faces are inverted. DXF is clueless about using vertex ordering to determine facing/normals. In most cases you can just select all the faces and invert them with one of the other editors.