Help needed with .cas export errors

**Gotthard** · April 30, 2008, 11:01 AM

I'm having a hell of a time getting any .cas to export... I've made a simple model, mapped it, and then when I export, it claims

'Need the skin modifier on the top of the stack'

Whatever that means. So I do that, and THEN it claims

'Skin vertex count exceeded' or something similar (at work so I can't check exactly what is was). The vertices are extremely low on the model, <100. I notice when i use the skin modifier, it seems to create a 'copy' of the entire mesh, and layer it on TOP of the existing model. Basically, I then have two objects in the summary that are copies of each other.

Isn't that wrong? I can import/export .cas from vanilla just fine as well... I've made sure everything is attached in the right direction to the scene root, tried to place the texture I'm using (or without one at all) in every place i can think that it would look for it... no dice.

Any suggestions? People seem to have an easy time with this... I'm using 3ds max 10 if it matters.

I've tried the CA plugin as well, with no luck. It just ends up crashing.

**Halie Satanus** · April 30, 2008, 11:48 AM

See here..

Basically, I then have two objects in the summary that are copies of each other.

Isn't that wrong?

Yep, I had that as well when I first made models..

**Gotthard** · April 30, 2008, 02:28 PM

I"m confused... I don't have any bones. This is just a simple rock I'm making here. DO I need bones? I *think* I can make the scene root a bone, someone mentioned I should weight all the vertices to the scene root, but I couldn't get that to ever show up in the weighting tab.

Nice tutorials, didn't see them listed in the general section. I"m going to be reviewing them closely, hopefully something comes out of them.

**Halie Satanus** · April 30, 2008, 03:02 PM

Ah right, only objects that animate need bones.

A rock only needs a scene root, the scene root lets the game know where your model sits in respect to the ground. Your model has to be connected to the scene root in graph editors/new schematic view .. I think I cover the graph editor in the tutorial.. Oh if your rock is going to appear on the start map you need to add a smooth filter to the stack, the setting are automatically set, you just need to add it.

**Gotthard** · May 01, 2008, 05:43 AM

I've done that (or at least I *thought* I did...) I opened up a graph/schematic type thing, that had 'scene root' and 'obj_1' listed, and drew an arrow between them. When that didn't work, I reversed the direction of the arrow. Someone mentioned 'weighing all the vertices to the scene root' or something similar, but I couldn't figure this out. Is this the problem?

Sorry if this is blatantly obvious, I was trying to start very simple with a static, <100 vertex model just to see if I could get it to work...

**Halie Satanus** · May 01, 2008, 10:14 AM

The way it works is anything that animates has to have a bone, the skin (geometry) is linked to the bones by weighting them, as per my tutorial. But as your creating an inanimate object you only need to connect it to the scene root. It should work. If you attach the scene here I can take a look..

**Gotthard** · May 02, 2008, 04:55 PM

I figured it out, I was apparently attaching them the wrong way...

Alright, you've been AMAZINGLY helpful, so next question.

Why would the sprite generation fail? I get a sprite file with what appears to be one 'frame', with the RGB channels completely black, and the alpha channel just has the outline of the model... it looks like someone ran a model through a black wall, and light is shining through. The rest of the sprite files have somehting like 16 frames, and when I try to load the game, the menu loads, but when I go into a battle that has this model, it gets 1/2 way and then CTD's... my VS2k8 catches the error, so I don't know exactly what it is, but I assume an 'illegal operation' of sorts.

Is there a limit on texture size during sprite generation? I think the texture is 348k or so, they are high quality, but I didn't see any mention of a limit anywhere... the model has 800ish verts, would this impact anything in sprite generation?

**Halie Satanus** · May 02, 2008, 05:16 PM

First off try replacing your sprites with a vanilla set (just add vanilla line to dmb) .. So you can rule out any problem with your model.

Best I can do on Sprites is direct you here, partly because I've only made them once and can't remember the info off the top of my head, and partly because it seems different machines handle the SG differently, I for instance can't have -ne (shrinks RTW) in the target line.. But if I could work it out from that thread I'm sure you can..