ZModeler forum

Hello oleg,

I know that Zmodeler 3 is FAR away.. But what will be the BIG advantage in it that you are hoping for?

For example.. Zmodeler series 1 did not support Quads.. But Zmodeler series 2 does..That was a huge jump, Will there be any "Big jump" like this in Zmodeler series 3?

maybe some proper render-tools?
dunno, just saying

hmm, that would be cool, but i have learned to render with other programs now.. a nice GUI would be awesome

yup. GUI upgrade is under consideration.

I don't really need render tools in Zmod. maybe just reflections that reflect the mesh.

_RicH_ wrote:
would be nice to have something to generate UV maps automaticly somehow, especially when games like GTAIV need the whole body mapped to work correctly.


Yeah, it detects [prim] and or [sec] (user input), and generates a JPG, GIF, DDS, TGA, or JPG file with the wire of the prim material, and if it has a bad map tho, your stuck, so you have to make it by yourself, which usually takes really long

Thats it

when i said that, I meant a tool to 'unwrap' the mesh to generate UV map.

Maybe it could work as follows:

Imagine a sphere shaped object covering the whole mesh

the faces from the mesh are 'projected' on to the sphere (all detatched faces are done seperatly)

the sphere is then unwrapped.

Maybe I'm just being really crazy lol

what about the ability to map without detaching the selected polygons from the mesh.

Angus94 wrote:what about the ability to map without detaching the selected polygons from the mesh.

lol. isn't it already possible?

I guess he means like the old zmodeler way, in zmod 2 to have 2 areas with a different texture they have to be detached.

i'd love to have a better weld-tool, which doesnt fuck the mapping up

probably related to what I said above

weld of vertices will mess uv mapping. Consider using Surface\Normals\Smooth instead.

Smoothing doesn't work when exporting Oleg. the normals get reset.

when exporting what? zmodeler-generated normals are always respected on export.

Zmodeler 3, I didn't even realise that that was in consideration. I haven't even left ZMod 1

In the end I'm no full time 3D modeler.

a bit better rendering engine would be better because sometimes it's hard to pick out details in the 3D view.

dragracer wrote:a bit better rendering engine would be better because sometimes it's hard to pick out details in the 3D view.

Well, I wouldn't say "better". But it would be nice if it was possible to change contrast, or the gamma value. To enhance visibility, with some models.

Sure, I can change these values for the whole desktop, but I really don't like that.

BTW: Zmodeler 2 seems to have had a start in 2004, at least I saw an announcement of a preview, dated so.

When did the whole Zanoza story began?

I can't remember exact date, but I think it was something around summer'1999.

Wow, eleven years!

I'll take your thoughts regarding version 3 as a sign you don't regret it, all the time.

In version three i would like to see a new GUI for sure.. i wouldnt mind seeing more file 'big' file types like .max supported, possible animation?

what kind of GUI improvement would you like to see?

2 all: which gui or workflow considerations you don't like in zmod2, wich worth to be made in other fasion?

I like Zmod2 GUI as it is.
But a more updated look would be better. like what you did with the check boxes.

1. the material editor bug.materials will disapear unless you hover with mouse over them. not sure whats causing this.

2. this happened several times: i click show all. switch to vertices mode. select all vertices. if i will now go to properties, for example to check the vertices count of all meshes; and click ok; all my materials will get fu**ed up for some reason. perfoming an undo step fixes them again though.

3. which goes with 2: an easier way to get poly/vertices count of the current scene.

4. the undo function sometimes will just quit working, mostly when u work on a scene for a long time. this isnt too dramatic since you can let zm create autosaves, but it does get annoying.


apart from that stuff i have to say the GUI is pretty decent and easy to use. zmodeler itself is quite powerful; its impressive what you can do with such a rather small programm.

just some thoughts as i saw your last post here oleg, lol.

greetings

The only thing i think needs improving is the object list.

It needs dedicated move up/down buttons for objects, and "collapse all" / "expand all" options somewhere.