Re: [Nel] landscapes, geometry and characters...

[Cyril 'Hulud' Corvazier]

> hello, this is my first entry on the list. I have a lot of questions here...

Welcome Frederick :-)

> I'm looking on how to model for the nel engine. I've browsed the archives a
> bit, and understand the proces a bit, but it seems that the tools (max
> plugins and postprocess utilitys) are not on cvs (web) anymore? have the
> names changed or something?

On the cvs you have all the plugins developped at Nevrax, max scripts,
batch build processes and the librairie.

A plugin for the landscape is missing because it is based on Discreet source 
code.
It is a modified EditPatch plugin to edit NelPatchMesh.
The ligo tools are not available on the public CVS.

> Can someone give a look on the workflow to create the zones? I found one,
> but it seems a bit old, since some tools are not used anymore.


Try my post "Landscape generation pipeline" (10/19/2001)

> I haven't found a lot of info on what you call .shapes, what kind of
> geometry/modifiers can you use in max? Will there be any Max 5 support?
> (lightmaps etc) Are interiors just plain geometry?

Shape files are a NeL format for standard meshes (not landscape), skinned 
meshes with level of detail, 
particule systems (not edited with max), remanence meshes and water surfaces. 
They all are produced 
from max files.

> And then how do you tackle animation? Do you use character studio, or can
> you use your own Max4 bone rig / skin modifier setup ?
> I haven't found any info on animation yet... what is exported? keyinfo? the
> bonesystem itself?

We supprort CS and comSkin2 plugins. We export various controllers.
Take a look in nel\tools\3d\plugin_max, you will found some .txt
files explaining quickly what is supported. (max_animation_support.txt)
Note that Nevrax uses 3dsmax 3.1 for its project. Some people on the list uses 
3dsmax 4. Small changes may be needed to use 3dsmax 5.0.

Cyril Corvazier