Unpacking AN2 files

[Einheit-101]

Here is the Succubus in an early state in X³ Terran Conflict. Most things are working great

http://i.imgur.com/QQY1k0l.jpg

[sideshowBob]

What's with the water ripples on the wing? Is that the original texture?

[Einheit-101]

100% Original texture at the moment, but i want to edit it (Higher Quality, bump mapping) and i want to edit the model (More details)

I got the 2 turrets working ingame. You can equip the "Boat" with 4x front laser + 2x 2 Turret lasers (Total of 8 Laser).
It has a special engine effect i just created for it:
http://i.imgur.com/WPc09u3.jpg

€DIT:::

WELL, this seems like the BEST Quality i can get with my skills, but i still have some small texture fixes to do. I improved the original texture, added bump maps + specular maps +light maps and some small details.
The next step is to improve the model itself with more details (especially the wings and other small, round objects should get more polygons).
This is my current Succubus (looks really much better than before)

http://i.imgur.com/wbmUU1W.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3XpJI8a.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UEBchdQ.jpg

[thexil]

That looks much better! I cannot wait to see the result after you removed all those sharp edges and corners.

[Einheit-101]

I will do what i can with the Succubus.

BTW:
I found the issue with MSBtoX, it does connect all faces the wrong way and that causes the model fail. There must be 2 different MSBtoX programs, one with this issue and one without because some ppl had successful conversions.

Wrong 3D Model entry:
3; // Faces
3; 0,0,0;, // Face 0
3; 3,3,3;, // Face 1
3; 4,4,4;, // Face 2
(and so on)

Correct 3D Model entry:
3;
3;0,1,2;,
3;2,1,3;,
3;4,5,6;,

MSBtoX tries to connect 3x the same vertex instead of 3 different vertices. If you try to draw a line between the same point 3 times, you end up in a 1 dimensional point instead of a 3 dimensional face......
The UV coordinates are lost during conversion with MSBtoX anyway so this tool is practically useless in its current state, i can get the same result with Ninja Ripper. Converting all ships from AN 2 would take months.
But lets see how the Succubus will look like in Aquanox 3.

[sideshowBob]

That looks much better! I cannot wait to see the result after you removed all those sharp edges and corners.

Well, judging from the render images in the SF manual the Succubus was supposed to be quite smooth. Of course the 1996 in-game model had so few polygons it was pretty rough around the edges, but so was the Succubus in AN if I remember correctly.

[DragoFire]

I will do what i can with the Succubus.

BTW:
I found the issue with MSBtoX, it does connect all faces the wrong way and that causes the model fail. There must be 2 different MSBtoX programs, one with this issue and one without because some ppl had successful conversions.

Wrong 3D Model entry:
3; // Faces
3; 0,0,0;, // Face 0
3; 3,3,3;, // Face 1
3; 4,4,4;, // Face 2
(and so on)

Correct 3D Model entry:
3;
3;0,1,2;,
3;2,1,3;,
3;4,5,6;,

MSBtoX tries to connect 3x the same vertex instead of 3 different vertices. If you try to draw a line between the same point 3 times, you end up in a 1 dimensional point instead of a 3 dimensional face......
The UV coordinates are lost during conversion with MSBtoX anyway so this tool is practically useless in its current state, i can get the same result with Ninja Ripper. Converting all ships from AN 2 would take months.
But lets see how the Succubus will look like in Aquanox 3.

You'll find a few of the odd AD models when converted will have faces reversed, not sure why only a few had this issue, others are perfect. I think I had a total of 3 models that failed to covert on my first try, but after reinstalling AD the newer models converted without issues, though still had the same models with reversed faces, which required manual fixes once converted.

I have tried to locate the original convert tools that were make years ago, only one place I can think of that I still may have them, but requires an AGP card to boot the old server up. Will advise once done.

These were the tools that GodGell made ages ago. I have tried contacting him to see if he still has copies but never heard back from him.

[DragoFire]

if interested I have all AD, AN and AN2 models coverted into .X format

[Einheit-101]

Very nice! This backfacing issue is ready to fix by just flipping the normals so it is no big deal. I have currently no plans to convert and improve more models than the succubus (at the moment) but you should not delete your .x models, maybe I will do more ships anytime later. You could upload them anywhere and give me a link if you want but the bugless converter would be enough.
Btw. I have no news for the succubus, my time is very limited for 3ds max...
But hey, AN3 is far away.

[Einheit-101]

Here is a part of the improved Succubus model... i finished the left wing. It`s a LOT of work, but it seems to be worth every penny.

http://i.imgur.com/Oc3DG8C.png