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3 Dimensional Chat / JTEdit June release now up - free 3D modeler

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JAT
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Posted: 16th Jun 2003 21:51
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This month's new features include a .3ds file format plug-in (acts as a native file format), and the loading last document state is now optional via the Options->Document Options menu item. I also fixed a number of bugs (including some pointed out by Raven and Simple).

Check it out at http://www.jtgame.com/jtedit.

It's still alpha release-quality, but steadily getting better.

-John
John Thompson
http://www.jtgame.com/jtedit
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Robin
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Posted: 17th Jun 2003 15:10
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This is a very good program
I'm using it for a game im making at the moment.

BUG - I noticed that when the file you are working on at the moment is maximised, and you then click on the 'x' to close the file (not the program) it has an error and the program quits. I can get around this by going to windows -> cascade and then when I click on the 'x' to close the file it works.

Robin

[ Download Map Maker 3D Now ]
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 17th Jun 2003 18:55
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(^_^) just downloaded it mate, gonna check it out in a min

Within the Epic battle of the fates the Shadow and the Angel will meet. With it will harbinger the very fight of good vs evil!
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JAT
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Posted: 18th Jun 2003 22:04
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Thanks, Raven. An sorry, I just remembered I forgot to make pivot-relative rotations and scaling option the default, which I think you mentioned before.

Thanks, Robin. I'll get right on the problem. One thing, I'd probably recommend not maximizing the document windows inside the application, as otherwise the window will change size every time the palettes on the right appear and disappear. This is not fatal; it's just that it might be annoying. At some point I'm going to overhaul my palette management and put up something more static. I normally just manually size the window to fit the client area (which is probably why I've not run into the crash you see). Thanks for reporting this. I appreciate hearing such things. Despite the couple of thousand hits on my download page, probably less than a dozen people have reported anything about their experience with it, good or bad, and feedback is very useful in helping me to debug and steer this project.

-John

John Thompson
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 19th Jun 2003 04:13
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yeah... problem is you really have to delve more into actual development to find anything (^_^) most take one take on the proggie and think its too hard.

To be fair it does look a little crowded with features but once the bugs are mostly weened out then UI can start being a priority hehe

not had much time to check it out much, but i've got a few simple models i wanna make and i'll take the time to make them in JTE just to test it out

I pride myself that i don't kill...
well not without a good reason
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Robin
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Posted: 24th Jun 2003 13:58
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JAT - when I draw a polygon with the point tool, and then select it with the face tool, and then I extrude it, the extrude kind of duplicates the face to where the mouse is, but doesn't create vertices between the two faces. Am I doing something wrong...or is it the prog.?
Robin

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JAT
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Posted: 25th Jun 2003 18:05
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Do you mean you created vertices with the Add Vertex tool, connected them into faces with the Add Face tool, selected them with the Select Face tool, and then extruded with the Mesh Extrude tool? Or perhaps you created the faces directly with the Add face tool. It doesn't really matter, I just wanted to get the terminolgy straight about which tool is which.

If you want to extract a face, if it is a double-sided face (i.e. actually two faces facing in opposite directions) be sure when you select the face you wish to extrude, you have the "Ignore Back Faces" option selected. Otherwise JTEdit gets confused by the bace face. If you wish to make a solid out of the face (i.e. have a back-facing bottom), create the polygon with the "Double Sided" option selected. The Extract tool has a "Delete Extrusion Remainder" option for leaving in place the original face, but if it was a single-sided, forward facing face to begin with, it will stay that way, leaving your solid with a back face on the bottom, which is not generally what you want.

One problem I did encounter is that the direction the new faces on the side will face is dependent on the direction you extrude in, so they may come up back facing. I have to think about how to deal with this, because in some cases, that is what you want. You can work around this by using the Flip Faces tool afterwards. The other problem I encountered is that JTEdit should be able to handle the case of extruding double-sided faces. I'll address these issues shortly. (I'm currently out of town, so I can't do much now without my development environment.)

-John

John Thompson
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 25th Jun 2003 20:28
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Actually John i'd suggest you try the new version, for some reaon the whole creation method seems off to me at the moment.

Not sure i can explain what i mean in a few mins, i'll pop in the forums later and try to explain

I pride myself that i don't kill...
well not without a good reason
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Guyon
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Posted: 25th Jun 2003 21:51
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Jat I loaded a .3ds object into your app and the object had a grid attached to the end of the object. Is that just it's pivot point? If so how do I move the point to the objects center?
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JAT
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Posted: 26th Jun 2003 04:29
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Guyon,

Use the Translate tool to drag the model where you want it.

However, to do something reasonable, you may need to adjust both the model's mesh relative to its object space origin, and the model's object space origin relative to the world origin. This is because the .3ds models I've seen didn't seem to care much about the origins.

To do this, turn on the Axes marker in the Render toolbar. This displays a little 3-axis marker show you where the object origin is. Select the Object option in the Translate tool parameter palette. Drag the model until the axes marker is over the world space origin, or wherever you wish the object origin to be. Then, if the mesh itself is not positioned as you want it relative to its object origin, select the Mesh option and drag the mesh to where you want it.

By default, the center of the grid is at world space origin. If you wanted, using the Grid Tool you could move the grid, but for modeling purposes, you generally want to position your models at the origin.

-John

John Thompson
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DrReaper
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Posted: 6th Jul 2003 05:48 Edited at: 6th Jul 2003 07:55
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I opened a 3d file in the program and went to file export and nothing happened.

Update: it didn't need to as I can save in the xfile format. They won't load in DBP for some reason...
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JAT
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Posted: 7th Jul 2003 23:52
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Sorry, ignore the Import/Export menu items as I haven't implemented them (and should delete them until I do). When I do implement them, they will be for importing or exporting subsets of the current model. For just loading or saving .x files, use the regular "Open..." and "Save As.." menu items and set the file type to "DirectX *.x".

Is there a problem loading .x files created with JTEdit in DBP? Any help figuring this out would be appreciated. Unfortunately I don't have DBP so I can't try it.

-John

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JAT
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Posted: 16th Jul 2003 22:56
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I've just noticed that there are two major problems with the current JTEdit version 0.14 and before.

The Rotate tool appears to be broken with respect to rotating joints.

The Add Face tool has a problem in that pre-existing vertices are not being reused. This apparently has always been a problem.

I don't know how I missed these. I'll probably need to create a simple model from start to finish for every release for a sanity check. I'm suprized no-one emailed me about this. Is anybody out there using JTEdit?

I'll update the release in the next day or two.

John Thompson
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lcfcfan
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Posted: 16th Jul 2003 23:04
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think you just need to find a way tolet more ppl know about it!

i can put a bit about your program on my site if you like and a link to your site if that's any help.

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 17th Jul 2003 00:51
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lol... i think graham perhaps if he wanted to have a better user base to test he should talk to Rouge13
i'm sure JAT knows who i'm talking about

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JAT
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Posted: 17th Jul 2003 01:33
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Graham,

Please do! For example: JTEdit - This 3D editor does all of 3D modeling, texturing, and animation, and it's currently free. http://www.jtgame.com/jtedit

Raven,

Thanks for the tip. Once I've got JTEdit stable again I'm going to ping him.

What features do I lack that you feel are important?

The next release I'll have multiple vertices per joint assignment. After that, the main features on my to-do list are more face-splitting options, IK animation, mesh booleans, and prefab library support. With these, I think I have covered the main bases for low-polygon modeling. I'm leaving mesh simplification, and nurbs and edge modeling for later.

Thanks.

-John

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 17th Jul 2003 01:49
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i'd say after the next release just try to work on the tools to be easier to use, perhaps make using them more fluid like other editors ... suchas Milkshape and such
its bursting with great features, its just so dang awekard right now which might put people off.

(^_^) - look forward to the next build

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lcfcfan
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 16:31
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Sure i'll do that for you plus i think i will have a play around with it too!

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JAT
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 06:03
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I've updated the JTEdit release to 0.15, with some bug fixes and new features such as assigning vertices to multiple joints and setting weights. See http://www.jtgame.com/jtedit.

Stay tuned for more features and bug fixes next month.

-John

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JAT
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 23:17
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Oops, again.

I had to update the 0.15 release I made yesterday. I inadvertantly included the wrong .3ds and .b3d plug-ins, such that these file types would not show up in the Open and Save As dialogs.

Apparently they were built debug-mode, and are not compatible with release-mode JTEdit builds. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

-John

John Thompson
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 20th Jul 2003 00:38
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hey John you still inbetween job mate?
i'm just wondering because over the past 2months alot of Blizzards staff have upped sticks and left - which leaves them needing something like 16employees, in all fields.

I'm not sure how much north you are from LA you are (i'm still learning the geography around here) ... but with you exp, you could probably get a damn decent position as a senior programmer.
just thought i'd mention it because i'm not sure how things are going with you - and i'll be applying myself soon because i think with so many of the oldies gone it would be good to have a professional backing to push some brand new ideas, especially if they're bought out be Verdalli (or however you spell it).
Certainly a very good oppertunity to breath some originality into a stale old company.

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Preston C
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Posted: 20th Jul 2003 06:05
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If only Blizzard would except amature Dark Basic programmers at the age of 13 (talking about me).

At first glance, I'm a mediocre mech pilot. Look again and you will see my battlemech's computer code rushing through my eyes. My Mech And I Are One!
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 20th Jul 2003 08:01
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lmao... they might be desperate for staff but not that desperate mate

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Preston C
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Posted: 21st Jul 2003 05:37
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They'd probably let JAT and you in Raven. You'd be perfect there (well I think, dont think I've seen much of your work.) Who else thinks they would be good working for Blizzard.

At first glance, I'm a mediocre mech pilot. Look again and you will see my battlemech's computer code rushing through my eyes. My Mech And I Are One!
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lcfcfan
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Posted: 21st Jul 2003 07:30
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well i can make a damn good cuppa

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Preston C
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Posted: 21st Jul 2003 18:47
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Hey, I might be lousy a graphics, but if they do allow programming in Dark Basic, I'm sure if I was in the team, that I'd contribute at least a little. Enough to earn me a paycheck that is.

At first glance, I'm a mediocre mech pilot. Look again and you will see my battlemech's computer code rushing through my eyes. My Mech And I Are One!
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JAT
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Posted: 21st Jul 2003 22:14
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Raven,

Thanks for the lead. I did land a contracting job continuing Alchemy development for its new owner. (Alchemy was Intrinsic Graphic's C++ game/graphics application framework.) I hope it turns into a permanent position, but will save this lead for later if it doesn't.

-John

P.S. Regarding JTEdit, I've started overhauling JTEdit's UI and the tutorials. It may not be exactly what I'm guessing you had in mind, but it will be more convenient switching tools.

John Thompson
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Preston C
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2003 14:25
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Umm, I dont know why, but, JT Edit wont work on my comp anymore. It says "Error Creating the Direct3D device" then it says "Unknown Exception" I'd love to use JTEdit again, but its been acting this way for about a month now. Do you have any suggestions? I run a windows XP, 1.3 Ghrz Celeron Processor, 512 MB Ram, 4 MB Video Card (Dont ask for the video cards name, I dont even know it) and thats about it. I've uninstalled the old version, and installed the new version, and same error .

At first glance, I'm a mediocre mech pilot. Look again and you will see my battlemech's computer code rushing through my eyes. My Mech And I Are One!
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JAT
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2003 22:04
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NWC Omega,

JTEdit is pretty demaning of graphics cards, and I haven't yet evaluated its resource usage, or tested low resource cases. It may be that 4 mb is too small. Your primary display probably takes it all up. You might try a lower resolution setting.

Otherwise you might try updating your display driver. You can find the type from the display settings control panel, and then look for their website and driver updates.

Or even better, if you have a few bucks, NVidia GForce2 cards are pretty cheap now, and very well supported by DirectX. Meanwhile, I'll put it on my list to figure out if I can make JTEdit behave better on smaller cards.

-John

John Thompson
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lcfcfan
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2003 23:03
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Jat i have now put a link to your site on my site!

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JAT
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2003 23:44
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Icfcfan,

Thanks!

-John

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keeblerElf
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2003 05:53
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I had the same error with JTEdit as Omega...you need to change your desktop to 16 bit color for it to work

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Preston C
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Posted: 23rd Jul 2003 07:24
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Hmm, cool that worked, thanks keeblerElf. Now I gotta redownload the install, thinking it was buggy, I deleted it.

At first glance, I'm a mediocre mech pilot. Look again and you will see my battlemech's computer code rushing through my eyes. My Mech And I Are One!
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