Update log [latest version: 0.0.79 -- 1 Aug 2012]

[mtarini]

This is just a mini-update...
The feature it contains have been ready for several weeks. The point is that didn't have much time, so rather than making OpenBRF sit for longer, I disabled a couple WIP features, and released this version instead, mostly for the bug fixes.

ver 0.0.75 --   mini-update (1 Mar 2012)
1- Added [tool] => [Measure with floating probe], to know the XYZ position of any point on/near the mesh
2- a few fixes...

The Floating probe is a tool which you can use to know (x,y,z) positions of any point on any 3D model (or texture).

How does it work:

(a): activate it: [tool]=>[Measure with floating probe]
     -- when you do, in the middle View panel you'll see the coords of the probe point, initially at 0,0,0
(b): click anywhere on the 3D screen. The probe moves to that point on the surface.
     -- you can read the current coordinates of the probe in the View panel
     -- for convenience, the coords get also copied on the clip-board (you can paste them in any text editor)
or, (c): edit the coords inside the [View] panel to move the probe in that position.
     -- like most similar controls in OpenBRF, you can either type the coords or nudge them up/down with the buttons
        (and by keeping shift or ctrl pressed, you make smaller nudges)

As for (b), the probe can "stick" to anything: meshes, collision objects, animations, skins... even textures/materials.
- When you place it over a 3D objects, coordinates are expressed in cm (like the module system likes them).
- When you place it over a texture/material, the coords are in the texture coordinate,s in [0..1]x[0..1]
  (e.g. useful for tuning tableau)
The probe remains in place until you disable it, no matter what mesh/animation/skin etc you switch too,
so it can also be used also to compare positions between different objects.


The old [ruler] tool (designed to measure weapon lengths) has been moved under [tools] menu too, next to the new [Floating probe] tool.

Screenshot:

OpenBRF telling me the coords of the floating probe, i.e. that red (glowing) spot on the chair

[mtarini]

Another single-feature update...

ver 0.0.76 --   mini-update (2 Mar 2012)     
1- added a tool to [Copy colors from texture], which gets texture colors and assigns them to texture.
2- maybe a bit more robust to sporadic crashes?

The tool was from a request, and it makes sense.

Here is a test on native weapons:
left: original, textured. Right: no-texture, per-vertex color captured from texture.
Surprising how many details are still visible.

[mtarini]

Update! From 1st post...

ver 0.0.77 --   small-update (28 Jun 2012)     
1- new "reimport" tool, to quickly re-import updated models
2- alpha editable in "recolor mesh with uniform color", and hex code editable there
3- option to multiply existing colors with new colors, instead of replacing them
    (keep Shift pressed to activate this option -- works with all tools which compute vertex color)
4- bugfixes and minor improvements

More info:


1- The "reimport" tool, suggested by [iggorbb], works as follows:

you substitute the selected mesh (or collision object, animation...) with a new one, which you import from a file. The new mesh replace the old one, but it will inherit from it: name, material name, flags, and (unless they are redefined) vertex colors, rigging... basically, anything that it might miss and you would otherwise have to reinsert manually. That's nothing that could not be done manually already; it is designed as a way to hasten routine tasks.


2- "Pick a color" dialog improvements:

Now, when you "color uniform..." a mesh, and you pick the color, you can also edit the hex code (e.g. "#FF0000" for red)  (suggestion by [Romainoir]) . This can be useful to cut and paste colors.
Plus, now you also get to pick alpha channel if you want to.
Plus, if the mesh is already colored, the dialog starts with its current general color.
   

3- Multiply colors mode (instead of replacing them).

As you know, there is a handful of tools in OpenBRF which replace all per-vertex colors in one (or more) mesh.
Namely, they are:
- [color uniform] (to color mesh vertices uniformly with a given color)
- [compute AO] (Ambient Occlusion, to bake global lighting on the mesh)
- [paste vert colors] (to transfer vertex-colors from another mesh)
- [copy colors from textures] (to transfer colors from the texture to per-vertex colors)

The new part: now, whenever you use any one of the above tools, if the Shift key is pressed when the tool is activated , then OpenBRF will multiply existing colors with the new one(s), instead of replacing them.

Examples of use: if you keep Shift pressed when you "compute AO", OpenBRF will just darken current colors accoriding to global illumination (instead of producing shades of gray). If you keep Shift pressed when you [color uniform] a mesh with a blue color, and the mesh already has ambient occlusion, you will get a mesh with different shades of lighter/darker blue (instead of all uniform blue).

For completeness, in the [Settings] menu, there is now a tool, called [On mesh recoloring (info)...],which simply pops up a small info screen which describes the above "keep shift pressed" functionality.

(I thought this was the quickest way for the user to access this option, and for me to program it in. A bit crude, but effective).


4- Finally, bug fixes:
They include the last reported bugs (see bug thread here)...


edit: b-version (hotfix): reintroduced accidentally lost [Swyter]'s Spanish translation!


Small note: the list of things which I plan to add in OpenBRF at all is growing thinner, unless someone comes with interesting and useful suggestions. There might be a thing or two. Beside, the TLD mod is out already (remember this was among the main motivations for OpenBRF). I'll try to keep removing bugs more or less forever anyway.

[mtarini]

Update! From the 1st post...

ver 0.0.78 --   "un-re-do" release (06 Jul 2012)
1- undo/redo added
2- ambient occlusion computation now considers "up" direction correctly for... "helmets"
3- fixed tab orderings
4- bug-fixes
5- translation update (Spanish, by [swyter])

Additional notes...

1- undo/redo
Self explaining. Lo-o-o-o-o-ong standing request, so here it is. Notes:
- Undo-history is some 25 levels deep, I wonder if they are enough (the drawback of having too many would be memory consumption).
- the command pair is found under [edit] menu, or accessed by the shortcuts you would expect (ctrl+Z and ctrl+Y, naturally).
- OpenBRF will name the exact actions which are to be undone/redone, in the menu.
- Bursts of actions of the same sort, done in succession, are grouped into single un-doable moves (where that makes sense).
- "Modified status" of file should behave coherently, too
- It went almost too smooth... I wouldn't be too suprised if some bugs escaped me.


2- ambient occlusion (minor) improvement
Following a request by [Zimke Zlovoljni], now Ambient Occlusion computation, if asked to consider light as "coming mostly from above" (as determined from [settings] menu), will now consider the Up direction as Z (not Y), in case you are currently viewing the models with [Helmet] view-mode (see lower right of OpenBRF window). Recall that that view-mode is used to orientate, in a visually natural way, unrigged helmets (and, more in general, objects having "Z" as "up").

3- tab ordering fixes
should now make sense in all dialogs and panels. By that I mean which box you focus on if you [Tab] or [Shift-Tab] back and forth with the keyboard, all over the GUI. Thanks to [Barabas] for spotting that this required fixing.

4- bugfixes
of various nature, including the ones in [this] post in bug-report thread, and a few more.


and, last but not least:

5- spanish translation updated
...(completely, up to ver 0.0.77b !) thanks (once again) to [swyter] !

[mtarini]

New version!

ver 0.0.79 --   "revamp-skin" release (01 Aug 2012)     
1- added an option to place items at game-predefined "carry-positions" (e.g. swords carried on belts).
    It's inside the [mount on one bone] mesh tool.
2- new group-view mode, [auto], to see all subparts of the same object combined (but separated from the rest)
      (e.g. "castle.1" and "castle.2").
3- now [alt]+clicks selects all subparts of a given objects
4- direct visualization of materials a bit improved
5- new tool [discard]=>[rigging (unmount from bone)], which positions objects back into origin.
6- bug-fixes and several polishes
7- translation update (German, by [Roemerboy] this time!)

A bit of features!

1. Predefined carry positions

MaB / Warband, as you might know, give a set of predefined "carry-positions" for modders to use.
Each equippable item in the mod is set to-be-carried on one "carry-position", e.g. swords hanging on left hip or shields on back.

The new OpenBRF tool lets you simulate what will happen in game, by placing and rigging the item in a carry-position of your choice. It is accessible under [mount on one bone] tool, because after all the functionality is similar.

This has a number of uses: it lets you fine tune the geometry of the object (e.g. the strings around the body), and let's you preview how that scabbard will look like, and helps you choosing which carry position to assign to your items. Also, it's good for making great custom skins (which are what OpenBRF uses to preview animations).

By the way, this feature is fully customizable. You will find a file called "carry_positions.txt" in OpenBRF folder, which details carry positions used by OpenBRF. This might be useful if, in the future (by any means) carry positions will be changed or even made customizable. If so, I might add a tool in the future to help the definition of new carry positions (like: you place the object where you want, and this defines the carry position).

Minor note: a few of the current carry-positions are dependent on the length of weapons... if needed, the [ruler] tools pops up for you to tell OpenBRF about the length of the object you are mounting in a carry position.

I tested this tool by amassing suitable items over each one of the  23 predefined carry positions, in a skin; the result is...

(click to show/hide)

This is how I would ever go in battle, if I really had to. You never know what you'll need!

This feature was only possible thanks to the info provided by [cmpxchg8b] about in game carry-positions. His knowledge of the details of internal M&B/WB engine has already proven precious on several occasions. Thanks a thousands for sharing!


2- New combo view-mode: "auto".

(click to show/hide)

As you know, in OpenBRF you can select multiple objects (e.g. Ctrl+A for all, or Ctrl-click to select unselect individual items, or Shift-click to select intervals). When multiple meshes are selected, you can choose to view them combined (combo-view mode: "combo") or side-to-side (combo-view mode: "aside"). Now there is a third mode.

In the new mode, called "auto" meshes which are part of the same objects (e.g. "castle.1", "castle.3") are combined together. This should help making quicker previews (e.g. for you to screenshot). A simple rule is applied: whatever has the same name before the dot goes together.

This mode also puts together in the same cluster all LODS for a given object (e.g. "castle.lod1.1" with "castle"). For now, only the most detailed lod available is shown. In the future, this could be advanced to make it so that the LOD used depends on the zooming distance, so to let users simulate what will happen in game and thus make a visual pre-test of lods.

The mode also works for Ambient Occlusion computation (AO will be computed for exactly the objects you are seeing on the screen, combined as you see in the screen, so it depends on how you are grouping them).

Small problem ('cos I'm lazy): right now, if sub-items are not consecutive the list, they will sometimes not be grouped together. You can sort them to bypass this problem (remember there is an option to sort item alphabetically, under [tool]). I probably will correct this at some point later.


3- [alt]+clicks group selection.

This is a simple new option. If you [Alt] click on an object, you will select not only it,but also all its subparts. This works nicely with the option above, for quick previewing. This also works in conjunction with other modifiers e.g. [Ctrl] (toggles selections on and off) and Shift (selects interval).

4- improved direct visualization of materials

This is a small thing. This is how it looks like:

(click to show/hide)

Basically, now it is easier to tell that the material includes several textures.

Similarly to before, by clicking on texture names or mousing over the texture links (in the middle panel) (e.g. "DiffuseA" or "bump") to choose which one is on top. Naturally, you can follow the link and go to the texture item (where you are told all the details of that texture).

5- unmount-from-bone tool

This is accessible from [discard] sub-menu. It is a third way to get rid of rigging:

Way one: plain. Just forget the rigging.
Way two: freeze frame. The rigging is gone, and the mesh is freezed in whichever position you are seeing on the screen.
Way three (new way): unmount: assuming the object was placed at bone positions, it is placed back at origin.

This can be useful to make, e.g., unrigged helmets.
Here is how: (1) You start with the helmet on its final position (on the neck).
(2) You mount it on the head bone (telling OpenBRF that the object is already in its final position).
(3) Now, you "unmount" it, and openBRF will place it in standard MaB/WB helm position (ready to be placed back on the neck by the game)


6- bug-fixes and several polishes

The polishes include: better guessing whether alpha blending is to be used, and sqashing of a very old bug where "shift" selecting an interval of items didn't always work correctly. BTW, I hope I didn't introduce too many bugs, because lots of little things were changed internally.


7- revamped german translation!!!
By [Roemerboy] this time (thank you [Roemerboy]!!!)
The new German translation is not complete, but is a drastic improvement over the previous one, which was too old!



Edit: no time for updating source files, translations files... soon! Done now