MTM2.com

re: BinEdit 2k/c

these are my current notes, bug fixes, future updates... the top 5 are holding back a release, the remainder are most likely slated for later versions.

<strike>Name, BinEdit v2.0.0

update links, help/about, http://mtm2.com/~d2s/binedit/, http://mtm2.com/~binedit/ </strike>

<strike>keep 'Add Faces' open until finished</strike>

<strike>restore positive axis balls (shapes?) (working out a bug)

rotation axis incorrect

prefs, apply real time

browse bins windows close button

Open/Model with 'open in active window' checked negates the ability to minimize maximized windows

Flip/Rotate and Model tabs, side by side on texture tools window

animated textures, when moving the texture higher or lower in the sequence, the name disappears from the list, http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/binedit/be_animation_define.gif

save as, http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/binedit/SaveAs.gif

the prompt when saving the texture list to a file Models/write textures to textfile should save with a .lst or .txt extension... http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/binedit/writetexturestotextfile.gif

binmapper, store vertice coordinates in relationship to texture display</strike>

undo/redo

flat shading and light source (add gradual shading, vertex to vertex instead of polygon to polygon?)

<strike>A button on the toolbar to toggle mapping window open

Select vertex group based on selected faces</strike>

<strike>Rotate, resize vertex group (after inserting)</strike>

<strike>cycle through selected groups (faces and verts), feature (similar to the N key stroke that will cycle through the verts of a selected polygon)</strike>

Set vertex group to plane, verts selected, set them all to the same coordinate so they form a perfectly flat surface, x y or z... Set all selected verts to zero or enter a numerical value.

<strike>when mapping to an animation, the display goes all wonky...you can see the work area through the mapping window, http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/binedit/be_animation_mapper.jpg ... a suggestion would be to make frame 1 in the sequence the texture we see, or do like OP did and blank out the mapping window when the animation is selected

Reopen animations for subsequent edits. Sometimes the speed is the only thing that needs changing, yet we have to redefine it from scratch</strike>

save as backdrop function, select all faces/set face type to mtm transparent/set group magic number/save as backdrop/deselect all faces.

<strike>function, remove "collapsed faces" from a BIN model... When one does a vertix-merge in Binedit, sometimes many faces collapse into dots or lines if the merge distance is large enough. Dots are faces (polygons) with all corners connected to one vertix (a point in 3D space),...Lines are faces connected to 2 vertices.... Face/Delete collapsed/ enter editor units '#' space value, default zero.</strike>

it's reported that Binedit is causing a problem with menus in other programs which makes them all blank... Another thing this does is cause the game to cough up an 'unable to switch to full screen mode' message. A reboot fixes it. (i have not seen either of these yet in win98) (may be isolated to winXP/geforce3 cards)

generate generic shapes... sphere, cylinder, cone, square... 2D (flat) triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, octagon etc.

import/export .3ds

<strike> ctrl/arrow 3rd axis rotation (done) needs reset button.

texture/x shift key command? (lost it)

ctrl/shift/A, select all vertices</strike>

That's quite a list you have there. Allow me to add to it

> delete face, ctrl/del to ctrl/x

After a lot of time and consideration, this can stay at ctrl/del. Malibu349 is doing a great job so far, so unless it's like falling off a log, let's save him this one. Once you realize what's going on, it takes only a few seconds to get reaquainted. And if you think about it, del is in fact the delete key, is it not? The only way I see restoring ctrl/x is if you can work in cut copy and paste between windows. You know, ctrl/x, ctrl/c, ctrl/v (like standard windows key commands). The trouble with that is you'd need to create face and vert working modes so you'd know what was being cut copied and pasted. I don't see that happening anytime soon, and it might begin to complicate the program to a point we haven't been interested in going before now.

> translate vertex 'group'

Can't we do that already?

> a problem with menus in other programs which makes them all blank...

winXP on geforce3 with nvidia drivers ;-)

> ctrl/arrow 3rd axis rotation (done)

Yea! Do we get a reset button? I mean a button that will position the model in the same way and direction as when it's first loaded? In case, uh, somebody, becomes disoriented.

> texture/x shift key command? (lost it)

I never knew we had it. What's it do? Or am I going senile, lol.


Proposed name for the new update. Binedit 2.0 (the version number warrants incrementing with this release - a lot of it no longer resembles the v0.9 or v1. I know it's boring but 2 would seem to be the next natural progression).


Lastly. Absolutely, Fantastic, Stupendous, Super Duper, Incredible, Unbelievable, Beyond all imagination dreams and fantasies, Wow, Too Much, Well Done, I'm running out of superlatives, but anyway, Thank You for an Awe Inspiring, Amazing, First Rate, Top Notch, and all round Great Job on the new Binedit. When people get their hands on this it's going to blow their minds. It'll leave them speechless. It'll be like christmas, their birthday, pay day, and the weekend all at once. You guys are the best. Thank you for all you're doing.


<center> </center>

Wow...this is gonna keep me making MTM trucks for the next 10 years....lol...

"> translate vertex 'group'"

Phin's right...this one already exists......ROTATE VERTIX GROUP would be new...

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- BigDOGGe's Boneyard ...The Best Custom Trucks in MTM2 -

resize vertex group wouldn't be half bad either

WOW more stuff to learn lol. Well sounds good there Malibu.
You know best thing you do is is reprogram so it reads your mind and makes model from that. OOPPs our wifes wouldnt like that never mind lol

Holy....

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"In my restless dreams, I see that town, Silent Hill..." - Mary, Silent Hill 2

I had no less than 14 BE text files full of notes that I condensed yesterday, weedeed out the finised or obsolete ones and did some clairifications to others.

> Allow me to add to it

lol I knew you would, it's all good

> > delete face, ctrl/del to ctrl/x

crossed that one off the list.

>> translate vertex 'group'
>Can't we do that already?

Typo :o), meant rotate group, as in when inserting a new group... adds resize to list

> ctrl/arrow 3rd axis rotation (done)

ahh yes, the reset button, that slipped by

> texture/x shift key command?

That's the code OP had in place all along but never told anyone about, where we can stretch a texture from left to right or visa versa to aid in slightly mismatched texture alignments... i made that note as a reminder to myself to ask Rich what the key command was, I forgot lol... but it may be obsolete with the control we have in mapping lately.

> Thank you for all you're doing.

welkie :o) likewise thanks to all for the patience and input given.


> WOW more stuff to learn lol

not really, same stuff for the most part, just a heck of a lot easier to do it now :o)... I can see a lot more editors feeling much more comfortable with binedit in the near future.

>> texture/x/y/z shift key command? (lost it)

> I never knew we had it. What's it do? Or am I going senile, lol.

Update.. apparently this was some leftover code that OP never completed, I found the key commands and tried it in the last BE versions OP did and they do not work... anyway it's fully functional now and what it does is allow you to shift a texture one pixel at a time on a single polygon, up, down, left, or right without having to open the mapping window.

You know what, I remember it now. First time I tried it, I messed things up worse than they already were, lol, so I never touched it again. Btw, Z won't work because mapping is only 2D. I remember being told that by somebody too.

<strike>Progress looks great </strike>

<font size=1>Edited by Phineus (30-04-2003)</font>

> Z won't work because mapping....

yep.. left, right, up, down, is all that's needed

Great work Mal...Wish it woulda came out months ago. I'm moving on, and will have no need for it.

Sorry to hear that slick....good luck where-ever you end up....



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- BigDOGGe's Boneyard ...The Best Custom Trucks in MTM2 -

<center>
<IMG SRC="http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/mtmgbbs/be_icon2a.gif" border=0>
</center>

Works for me <font size=+2 face=Wingdings>J</font>

ps. Keep add faces window open until done (like verts), or put a quick button on the tool bar, or make a hot key combo.

Thought of one to add (that I don't think you've got there): Texture swapping. Essentially the same as what we do with MDMRE or Binnamer, but make it native to BinEdit. At present, the only way to swap face mappings between textures in BinEdit is to remap the faces, which can sometimes be a total pain - it would be great if the mapping could be swapped to a new texture while keeping the existing coordinates intact. It would be great for applications such as truck repaints, and more powerful than using something like Binnamer if you could specify which faces to swap mappings on, instead of having it replace all the mappings to a particular texture with a new texture.

For example, I'm working on a truck for the Expo, and have part of a .RAW file set aside for mapping the chassis to. I'm thinking of moving that chassis part of the texture to a different .RAW due to the 256-colour limit we have with our texture files, and being able to swap the face mapping would be easier than either remapping it from scratch (since it's quite precise and took a while to get it right first go-around), or using Binnamer (which removes and replaces the texture for ALL faces mapped to it - I only want a certain set of faces swapped).

It's not high priority, since we have means and methods for this kind of thing already, but it seems an intuitive kind of thing to include for our modelling editor.

BTW, won't that icon you propose
a) not fit the standard colour palette used by Windows icons, and
b) be difficult to see against the blue title bar of a Windows app?

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Please use the brake provided and not the vehicle in front of you.
- V8 Challenge online racing guidelines

Until then, you will have to use the manual method I use:
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Make two copies of the truck. Give them temporary names like temp1.bin and temp2.bin

On model#1, delete all the faces except the ones you want remapped...delete excess vertices, and save.

On model#2, just delete the faces to be remapped....remove unused ver. and save.

Run temp1.bin through your favorite texture-swapping program to assign these faces to new textures....

Last, Load it in Binedit once again, and insert TEMP2.BIN....merge vertices if necessary, and save.....

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Just for the record, I used a variation of this method to remapped all those EVO body's at my scrapyard, to make sure the left and right sides were perfectly aligned....another DOGGe-trick revealed.....


(D2S most likely knows this method already, so I posted it here for the benefit of newer truck-makers.)


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- BigDOGGe's Boneyard ...The Best Custom Trucks in MTM2 -

Work has already begun in the texture swapping area, there will be one more tab in the texture tools that soley deals with just texture options, but for the time being it's been put on hold until a few other details can be worked out that'll allow the current status to be released.

as for the icon, you're right about the windows palette not displaying it correctly, a custom palette fixes that easy enough...
the pic below shows two icons that I've been using against a black and a blue title bar.


<IMG SRC="http://rhinoseros.com/~malibu350/images/mtmgbbs/beiconview.jpg" border=0>

Just push play...

<center>



Excellent ! </center>

Can you teach BinEdit to play mp3 files?