Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 export limitation questions

[h.mullane]

I tried searching but couldn't find much, I need to know the export limitations for the dotXSI export function. An old game engine that I mod uses dotXSI 3.0 for compiling and sometimes it lets me export with UV's and some models I get function not implemented in EXP version and the compiled model will have no UV info. Seems like it's a certain property that the polymesh has that is stopping it sometimes from exporting. I've tried quite a few things but the only thing that seems to work is if I export using crosswalk, reimport then export as dotXSI 3.0. Any info on this is appreciated, don't see why this is even capped since the format is pretty old at this point, didn't think anyone still used it.

[Leendert68]

I can't recall any such export limitations for the Mod Tool, but I do seem to recall that the export facilities were somewhat buggy. The one thing you could try is to download the "setup_Crosswalk_2012.5_windows.exe" from this page and install it. The Crosswalk 2013 installer for some reason doesn't recognize the Mod Tool anymore, IIRC. That's why I point you to the 2012.5 installer.

[h.mullane]

Well what I'm looking for is the older dotXSI export, Crosswalk uses XSI v5 and v6, the one I need working is 3.x which is used in File>Export>dotXSI.

After doing some googling I managed to pull some info from an old game modding forum, turns out material type has a huge part in it and something about rendering.

It's retarded that Autodesk has NO info on what the export limitations are since I get a dialogue box saying "Function not implemented in Mod Tool version".

[Leendert68]

I've edited my original post,
the method I described here doesn't work any easier than the one already posted in the original post...

What engine do you need strict 3.0 files for?
Have you considered falling back to the Mod Tool 6 (apparently still available here)?

[h.mullane]

I've tried all versions of Mod Tool and different crosswalk versions don't seem to do anything since I think they only update the crosswalk export functions and not the older dotXSI 3.x. The game I'm exporting to is Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. A work around at the moment seems to be using a soft_material shader copied from an imported model, for some reason it'll export without error and not lose UV info although that's an unsupported shader that can't be made inside of Softimage.

I'm trying to find out if there's any sort of shader out there that's similar, as in super simplistic. Someone a few years back figured out how to export without problems by they haven't gotten back to me yet, their vague post just said "I deleted all unnecessary render data and export worked fine". Can't seem to figure out what exactly they did to their render tree to make it export.

[Leendert68]

I don’t know if this helps, but after having downloaded the files humanoidanims.zip and basemodels.zip which are labeled "Raven Animation and Model Source Files" from this webpage gamefront.com: Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy, I noticed that some of these files aren’t dotxsi 3.0 (header: “xsi 0300txt 0032”) at all, but xsi 3.5 (header: “xsi 0350txt 0032”), which at least would seem to imply you should somehow be able to use dotxsi 3.5 export as well. This probably won’t solve your problem, but it might open up a new avenue for exploration, as you would not seem to be limited to the extremely ancient dotxsi 3.0.

[h.mullane]

Yeah but there doesn't seem to be much difference between the 2 and either way I still get the error when exporting.

Is there any possible way a custom shader can be made with the same properties of the old soft_material shader? That is the only time I can export without error is if the soft_material shader is applied but importing a dotXSI file and copy/pasting is a bit annoying, I'd like to be able to just simply apply a shader that will work.

I keep being told that the soft_material shader is obsolete and cannot be generated but having that applied to my models I can export as if I were in the full version of Softimage.

[Leendert68]

Okay, this is getting weird.
First up: exporting to dotxsi 3.5 doesn’t require the use of the soft_material.
Secondly: you did try static meshes as well as animated ones I assume.
And thirdly: this is a general troubleshooting trick, I really don’t know if it will help, but it cannot hurt either: Go to your Softimage installation folder to the Application\bin folder (in my case “C:\Softimage\Softimage_Mod_Tool_7.5\Application\bin”) and locate a file named runonce.bat”. Run this file as an Administrator to reregister all the associated dlls and spdl once again. This is the closest thing you can get, apart from actually uninstalling and reinstalling the software. This might not help one bit, sorry, but it is something you should try on the small chance your installation got messed up somehow. And just to show, I’m not making this up: Running runonce.bat to reregister DLLs and SPDLs, which provides another the way to start the command.

[h.mullane]

So you were able to export a model with say a simple phong shader applied using the texture>image method to apply using dotXSI 3.5?

I still got an error, after the usual function not implemented it also crashed and failed to save scene. I may just try to reinstall. Thanks for the help, hopefully I can get it working.

I also did export some animated stuff without problems, but that had a dummy mesh that wasn't used and had no real texture applied, just a phong shaded scene material.

It's crazy that they support file types that could potentially lead to the program being exploited for commercial use but the old dotXSI 3.x format that no one uses anymore has limitations. =/

[Leendert68]

I think you should really rule out that your installation has been corrupted somehow. A lot of things can do that, for instance registry tweakers. Try the runonce.bat to at least rule that out...

[h.mullane]

Yeah I ran the runonce.bat file, didn't fix anything. Still very curious though, you exported a model with textures without it saying "Function not implemented in Mod Tool version"?

[Leendert68]

Yes, i forgot to mention: static meshes, with frozen UV and exported to dotxsi 3.5.
I haven't tested it with animation...

[h.mullane]

I see now what happened, it seems that for whatever reason setting it to export as triangles is causing the error. The game needs triangles but I can just triangulate and Freeze M before export. Thanks for your help.