Multigen Creator 
|
|
|
Multigen Creator |
|
|
|
MultiGen Creator is the industry's leading software for creating highly optimized, high fidelity realtime 3D content for use in visual simulation, urban simulation and other applications. The integrated and extensible toolset puts more interactive realtime 3D modeling power in your hands than any other mode If you have a tip, FAQ or code snippet etc you would like to share you can send it me at faqs@3dscenegraph.com and I will add to the FAQ, or if you spot an error in a FAQ or a change in Creator that makes a topic out dated let me know and I will get the items updated
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MultiGen Creator is the industry's leading software for creating highly optimized, high fidelity realtime 3D content for use in visual simulation, urban simulation and other applications. The integrated and extensible toolset puts more interactive realtime 3D modeling power in your hands than any other modeler. MultiGen Creator simulates almost all realtime rendering techniques for true WYSIWYG interactive modeling, enabling you to build within your world and preview interactively within your developing scene. Changes appear in realtime as you make them, improving your productivity by reducing the number of modeling system and target application viewing iterations.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Multigen Creator 3.x is currently only avaiable on MicroSoft Professional windows systems Multigen Creator 2.x and before is/was avaiable on MicroSoft Professional windows systemsand SGI Irix systems.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hardware Requirements:
Software Requirements:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hardware/Software Requirements:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Multigen current; places bug fix patches for Multigen Creator on their downloads website pages For upgrade patches like 2.5 to 2.6 these are generally only available to customers how have purchased a maintenance support contract, and thus only available directly from Multigen and are not on line
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Yes there is a very active user forum for Creator, which is well supported by the user community and the Creator support manager and Engineering manager. You can find the Official MultiGen Creator user forum at the MultiGen Website Also you can find an Unofficial Creator user forum at 3dSceneGraph.com along with other 3d simulation forums
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OpenFlight is MultiGen Paradigm's native 3D content which is the leading visual database standard in the world and has become the defacto standard format in the visual simulation industry. OpenFlight's logical, hierarchical scene description file format informs the realtime image generator what, when, and how to render, resulting in realtime 3D scenes with unmatched precision and reliability. OpenFlight is offer flexibility, open connectivity and easy interoperability along with advanced realtime functions, including:
All of these benefits and more make OpenFlight the most widely adopted image generator format in realtime 3D visualisation
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You find much more detailed information on Multigen's OpenFlight 3d format on their website There is also a white paper avaiable on the OpenFlight format and API on Multigens website The full OpenFlight format specification for the latest and previous version can also be found on Multigen's website
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MultiGen Paradigms provide 2 sets of plug-ins for Creator supported and unsupported: Supported Plug-ins can be found here on the supported downloads page While unsupported plug-ins can be found here unsupported downloads page
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Try using the ChangePaths plugin available from the downloads section of MPI's website This will enable you to change all ex-refs and texture paths of your database(s) without even having to load them in Creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: When using Multi-textures can other layers access another layers UV's, say if I set layer 0 up textures and UV's and then want to use different textures on layers 1 and 2 how can I use the same UV's from layer 0 There is a copy command for this exact thing, see Palettes>Texture Layers>Copy which does exactly what you want. Specifically, you select the geometry you want, start the tool, specify the layer you want to copy UVs from and the layer(s) you want to copy UVs to. You also have the option of copying the texture index from the source layer to the destination layer(s) or to use the current pattern in the palette instead
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
On of the quickest ways is to use one of Dan Oller's great Creator Plug-ins, in this case the "Convert Texture", which can be found on the MPI's web unsupported too page
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
As with any ting of this nature, I would recommend that you talk directly to MultiGen-Paradigm as they more interest they get the more they may consider the idea ( but don't bet the bank on it though) The Creator team are especially responsive to customers needs and requirements | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Yes MultiGen Creator does support the use of DDS( Direct Draw Surface) textures. Support was add in 2.60 ( might have been 2.5) Not if you are using Creator 2.60 then it is recommend you update your version to 2.61,as the patch addresses some issue 2.60 had with DDS formatted textures.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
What you are seeing is not a bug but is correct for DDS (Direct Draw Surface) textures and depends on how you generated them. As DDS was designed by Microsoft and thus originally intended for Direct X, which has its origin in the upper left corner, while OpenGL has its origin in the lower left corner. Basically you need to tell your DDS generation tool to invert the image,many tools can do this some don't You can use the MultiGen Vega Prime utility program to_dds.exe to do the inversion for you using the '-i' command line switch
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Direct Draw Surface (DDS) format is an optimized, compressed format that contains the binary representation of an image, as it is used by the hardware. Any image format supported by Vega Prime can be converted to DDS as an interim step for increased performance. The graphics hard ware handles DDS textures directly, which mean no decompression is needed by the texture loader. This means that when using DDS textures loading is faster, throughput is increased, while on disk storage requirements are decreased, more textures or higher quality texture can be used etc.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
There are many DDS utilities and tools available these days, a quick Google search should find you many of this quite quickly NVidia provide several DDS tools including source code( See their developer site) NVidia's DDS tools can be found here http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html Multigen Paradim ship a command line tool called 'to_dds.exe' for converting textures to the DDS format, this is shipped with Vega Prime and I think with CTS, but not with Creator at the moment( See this Vega prime FAQ 42 on using the 'to_dds.exe'
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: I know Creator supplied default Cad and Standard view window layouts available, is it possible to set my own custom layout and then save this as my "default" layout, which would be used by Creator when opened ? A: Unfortunately no it is not currently possible to say custom window layouts in Creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Q: We are not really understanding how Light point Strings data is shown in the Creator database navigator dialogs; we seem to only be able to see the first vertex and there fore can only assign one normal, how can we assign normals ? A: In Creator 'Light Point Strings' are represented by a single "vertex", a "replication count" and a "transformation". If you need to assign different vertex attributes (normal in your case) to each light in a light string, you have to use individual light points and lay them out manually
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
With Light Point Strings in the OpenFlight format you would expect ot see the following records: For OpenFlight 15.8 and 16.0:
For OpenFlight 15.7 and earlier:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Q Why cannot I not change the attributes of the isolated polygons ?
The likely cause of your problem here is that you have opened the master file that was generated during the batch processing. The master file uses(references) the individual terrain files as external reference nodes, which means that in Creator you cannot edit them from within the files referencing them in this cast the master files. In order to be able to change the colours or any attributes of polygons of the terrain, you actually need to open the referenced terrain file and not the master. To edit your terrain you can:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Creator provides the measurements of distances for free and by default in the 'Coordinates Panel', so you can simply select 2 vertices and Creator will calculate and display the accurate distance between them. When you pick a vertex then pick another vertex , the Coordinate Panel in Creator displays: Note if you then pick a third and subsequent number of vertices, these distance and delta fields will continue to be updated to show you the distances between the most recent pair of vertices you have picked Also note that these fields also update while Creation Tools are active as well; for example, when using say 'the Irregular Polygon tool' the distance displayed will be that of the last and second to last points of the Polygon you have entered
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This is a know issue and was addressed in the Creator 3.01 patch, download and apply this patch or later patch from the MultiGen Creator downloads page
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Below is a list of creator version and the corresponding OpenFlight Version produce by the Creator version
For the latest details make sure to check the MutiGen-Paradigms document center
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The plug-ins used to be place on the MultiGen Creator public FTP site, but where later given there on webs pages in 2 places: Unsupported plug-ins can be found here on MPI's Creator support pages Supported plug-ins can be found here on MPI's Creator support pages Also some of the plug-ins may have been adopted and added directly into the Creator product
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From with in MultiGen Creator you can :
Outside of Multigen Creator:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For example, if I want to rotate something, I would like to click on the rotate tool, select a centre of rotation with the mouse, then enter 2 in the dialog, when I do so I only get a warning bell. This is annoying to have this extra, unnecessary step. Q: Is this an input bug in creator , or is it a feature, or an operator error? It worked just fine on my SGI version Taking the followng example
The Problem is 2 fold here,
This is the default behaviour for windows dialogs, in that the Cancel button gets focus by default So in this case you have to do : This is a basicdifference between the Windows and Irix operating systems and how they handle dialogs and focus etc. On Irix, the dialog or window with the mouse in and under the mouse gets focus. On windows you have to click or tab to the window to get focus
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Q: I have an OpenFlight files that references many other OpenFlight, that are the steps required to create only one flt file from them with no references ? Assuming your are talking about a master file and external references the to integrate the externals into the master file
You should now have a file that contain all geometry
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Creator is not really suited for creating character animations, currently Creator only offers Flip-book animations and some articulations through DOF nodes. If you are looking for Character animations for use in the simulation world then you cannot do better than using DI-Guy from Boston Dynamics, they provide wonderfully fully animate characters both civil and military, See the Boston Dynamics website for more information. Boston Dynamics also offer module for the various run-time API such as Vega, Vega Prime and SGI Opengl Performer etc. Flipbook animation can be useful but is expensive in turns of polygons, see the sample shipped with creator called 'characteranim.flt' for one example Also you see an example of a walking man flipbook animation made many years ago, this was designed to be on some form of a path such as a Vega Navigator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: With Creator how do you create mirror image of a model or node that has textures, as we when we try this the textures distorted textures and are not aligned properly If the geometry of your model has texture mappings applied, then the mirror tool will not do what you expect. If this is the case, then remove the texture mappings from the faces (set their Mapping index to -1, this will "fix" the UV's to their "current" values), then do mirror. Then you should get what you expect. Also note that if any face has more than 3 vertices and has UV coordinates that are not linear (I.e. warped in any way), then the texture on the mirrored face may not render exactly like the original. The possible problem in a case like this is that the original face may be distorted to begin with, but it is accepted as being correct because it was first. This is a quirk when you have UV coordinates that are not linear across a surface. OpenGL does not promise to render them in a deterministic fashion. Sometimes you may see a seam across the surface that moves when you re-orient your eye point. If this is your case, it's not necessarily the mirrored face that is distorted, the original is as well, but the fact that they are each distorting differently makes the problem more evident
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Open up the Light Source palette and "edit" Light Source #1. Change its ambient value to the settings you wish to use. (Note assuming this light is "Activated for Modeling", then this will change how your scene looks in lit situations) This will change the ambient light value in the current database only. To change the ambient light value for all databases you have to do a little more work. To set up a "default" light source palette file that will be used to initialize all subsequent "New" files using the procedure shown here: (note this is for Creator 3)
After you do this, next time you do a "New" database, the light source palette will be initialized to the contents of this file. Note that if you saved the file to b) and subsequently create environment variable RESOURCEPATH or MPI_CREATOR_RESOURCEPATH Creator will look there instead of b) from that point forward. If you want the ambient light value to change in existing dbs, you have two options:
Note by deafult since Creator (2.61), Creator now places the default palette files in C:\Program Files\Multigen-Paradigm\config\creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The
Default color palette name is flt1.color When Creator launches, it searches for the file flt1.color. If flt1.color is found,
then Creator loads this file as the default Color palette. Creator looks for
flt1.color first in the directory specified by the RESOURCEPATH or MPI_CREATOR_RESOURCEPATH environment
variable, then in the working directory. The working directory for Windows is
the directory where Creator is installed, and for IRIX it is the directory where
Creator was launched If Creator cannot find flt1.color in either location it loads a standard palette of 1024 shaded color definitions.You can save custom Color palette files with other names, but must reload them each time Creator starts up Note by deafult since Creator (2.61), Creator now places the default palette files in C:\Program Files\Multigen-Paradigm\config\creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You can set the materials in the default materials palettes that is used every time you use Creator by saving a palette with the default palette name The Default materials palette name is flt1.materials When Creator launches, it searches for the file flt1.materials. If flt1.materials is found, then creator loads this file as the default materials palette. Creator looks for flt1.materials first in the directory specified by the RESOURCEPATH or MPI_CREATOR_RESOURCEPATH environment variable, then in the working directory. The working directory for Windows is the directory where Creator is installed, and for IRIX it is the directory where Creator was launched If Creator cannot find flt1.materials in either location it loads a standard palette of 64 materials definitions.You can save custom materials palette files with other names, but must reload them each time Creator starts up Note by deafult since Creator (2.61), Creator now places the default palette files in C:\Program Files\Multigen-Paradigm\config\creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The default texture palette name is default.txt When Creator launches, it searches for the file default.txt. If default.txt.is found, then Creator loads this file as the default Texture palette. Creator looks for default.txt first in the working directory, and then in the directory specified by the TXTPATH or MPI_CREATOR_TXTPATH or MPI_CREATOR_RESOURCEPATH environment variable.The working directory for Windows is the directory where Creator is installed, and for IRIX it is the directory where Creator is launched. If Creator cannot find default.txt in either location, it loads a Texture palette that contains no texture patterns. You can save Texture palettes with other names, but you must reload them each time Creator starts up Note by deafult since Creator (2.61), Creator now places the default palette files in C:\Program Files\Multigen-Paradigm\config\creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
If your geometry is using a black color and is does not have a material applied, then your geometry will always appear black because the final color, even with lighting applied, the color is calculated by multiplying the RGB values into the lighting equation. Since the RGB values are all 0 for the color black, multiplying them by anything will be 0, thus black will stay black. If you were to apply a material to the geometry( with its emissive property not set to black) this material will be used and thus you will get some color other than black
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q:There seems to be a problem in displaying light points that are created using Creator2.6 and above; which are not being displayed in SGI Opengl Performer2.3 Light points went through some major change in Creator 2.6 as Creator took over functionality that was in originally in Vega Unfortunately the version of Performer currently cannot correctly load flight files with the newer Light Point records introduced with the release of Creator 2.6, note you may also have problems with other attributes until the SGI performer update their OpenFlight loader to support the new version of OpenFlight Note that Creator has the option to save the light points in the older format specifically for Performer, you should try that, although there was a problem with this which I think was fixed in Creator 3.0 ( Check with MPI for further details)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Creator Terrain bundle contains a tool known as the DED Builder. The Creator's terrain tools only process DED elevation files, but the DED Builder converts other formats to DED format. The builder can convert DEM to DED (Digital Elevation Data), but it cannot convert S-57 to DED Multigens new Creator Terrain Studio (a different product than Creator Terrain Bundle) currently supports reading DEM and from version (v1.2) it will also support reading of S-57 data as well. If you have FME (Feature Manipulation Engine) from Safe Software that program will allow you to convert S-57 to a number of other formats that are supported by Creator terrain tools
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: I want to be able to run Creator from the command line and open two or more flt files. But the command "mgfltx.exe building1.flt" works, but "mgfltx.exe building1.flt building2.flt" Unfortunately mgfltx.exe will only accept one file on the command line However if you call mgfltx.exe once for the first file and call it again with a second file, and so on you will get what you want. You can do this for as many files as you want. This works because if you run creator while another instance of the app is running, the new invocation "attaches" to the currently running instance and loads the file in that instance. For example if you create a batch file similar to below should work: mgfltx.exe file1.flt mgfltx.exe file2.flt mgfltx.exe file3.flt ...................... mgfltx.exe file40.flt
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You can set the light points in the default light point palettes that is used every
time you use Creator by saving a palette with the default palette name The default Light Point Palette name is mgprop.dat When Creator launches, it searches for the file mgprop.dat. If mgprop.dat is found,
then Creator loads this file as the default Light Point palette. Creator looks for
mgprop.dat first in the directory specified by the RESOURCEPATH or MPI_CREATOR_RESOURCEPATH environment
variable, then in the working directory. The working directory for Windows is
the directory where Creator is installed, and for IRIX it is the directory where
Creator was launched If Creator cannot find mgprop.dat in either location it creates an empty Light Point palettes.You can save custom light point palette files with other names, but must reload them each time Creator starts up Note by deafult since Creator (2.61), Creator now places the default palette files in C:\Program Files\Multigen-Paradigm\config\creator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
In Creator with your model loaded Double click in the database background to open up the Header Attributes of your model. On the Preference's tab, under Data Preferences, ensure that the 'Save Vertex Normals' is checked, this will then save any shading you apply
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: I have an Integrated graphics card with 128mb texture memory that supports Opengl but when I use Creator I get various graphics issues and glitches Integrated Intel graphics chips are notoriously bad at OpenGL and are really designed for the basic consumer windows tasks and users and not professional tasks such as 3d modeling or simulationOne thing to try is getting the latest driver from Intel if you don't have it, but sadly the real solution is you need to install a real graphics card that has full and proper support OpenGL See this article on Toms Hardware about intergrated graphics cards http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050915/index.html This repsonse from Intel really says it all: "Intel says it designs its graphics processors with what it calls the "mainstream user" in mind, creating a low-cost part that does not consume an inordinate amount of power. The equation is not so much about letting you enjoy playing Unreal Tournament on your laptop. Rather, it is about getting the job done for Internet access, email, home office applications and maybe a few games that are albeit not so graphically-intensive. "
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: In Creator I can use the arrow keys to cycle through the preset grid sizes set in my preferences, this is all well and good, but When I try to enter a value directly into the grid size Creator will not accept my input whether I use the return, tab keys etc my input is ignored, but I know it has worked in the past, what is the problem ? The problem is likely to be a bug that was found in Creator version up to at least 3.02, basically in your preference if you set the lowest grid size to say 20 and then try to enter a value for the grid that is less than the smallest preference in this case 20 Creator will ignore your input. The work around is to set you lowest grid size preference to a low number say 0.001 then you can set grid size down to that size, this does not appear to affect the upper bounds of the grid size only the lower bounds. This issue will be fixed in a upcoming patch or release.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: When I import my files into Creator all my group have [TRS], what are these and can I do anything about them ? T = Translation R = Rotation S = Scale Basically they mean that the group node has a Translation, Rotation and scaling applied which will affect of its child nodes Many other modeling programs use a lot of internal translations and scales to position and size geometry that you do not normally need in an Openflight file or your simulation runtime When export these other formats to OpenFlight you get a T, Rand S on nearly if not all group nodes The reason the faces move and jump as you put when you copy and paste is the Translations and scale are applied from the group down to the faces, when you remove the faces from that node the translation and scale are no longer applied thus the faces move. You can flatten out ( apply and remove ) the translations and scaled so that they are burned into the vertices of the faces, by Selecting the groups then go to the main Menu/Local-DOF/ and Selecting "Make Geometry" Note that there is no undo for this operation
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: Why I set the environment variable MPI_CREATOR_TXTPATH with several directories where my textures reside, Creator 3.20 crashes on start-up, if I remove some from the path then Creator starts OK, is there a finite length to the paths I can set ? Da Man from MPI replies with: "It appears that although the string used to store the environment variable is dynamically allocated and therefore has no "hard" limit in length, the code that uses it down the line will fall over if the length of the expansion plus the length of any file it looks up takes more than 1024 characters. I believe this is what is happening to you. I have fixed the offending code but be warned that if the environment variable + length of texture name is longer than 1024, the file won't be found. It won't crash but it won't be found!"
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Make sure that you recalculate the shading after you have set the vertex colors, this should then apply the correct shading method selected Don't forget to turn off 'Update Vertex Colors ' when using Gouraud shading... The difference between 'Gouraud ' and 'Lit Gouraud ' is simply the latter will respond to light and time of day changes etc. For example here's 4 Tri's with Flat, Lit, Gouraud and Lit Gouraud shading modes Face are White, Top Verts are Red, Left verts are Green, Right verts are Blue
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: My run-time application does not yet supportI OpengFlight Version 16.0, how Can I save my files as an Older version of OpenFlight With Creator 3.x you can save your models out to the following OpenfFlight Versions 15.4, 15.6, 15.8, 16.0 you can also set the default version its saves to as one of these options as well If you need to go 14.2 you can import your model into Polytrans (www.okino.com) as export them there
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: I have many faces that I need to edit, is it possible to edit the attributes of multiple faces in one go? This is quite straightforward Select all the faces you want to edit (in face pick mode and open up the Face Attributes page (CTRL + =) Make sure that Modify All in the upper right hand corner of the Face Attribute dialog is checked. Now when you make your changes, you should see the changes occurring on all of the selected faces
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Q: When I´m importing dxf files into Creator, some the normal normals are changed and thus the face orientation can be wrong on many faces, so I need to flip normals one by one. Is there a tool to help me align the faces in Creator In Creator 2.6 and above , there is a tool called Orient Faces. You pick a face that is "correctly" oriented (normal facing the right way) and then invoke the tool. The tool will finds all "connected" faces and for each face that faces away from your "correct" face, reverses the verts of that face. It uses a recursive algorithm to "orient" all "connected" faces. Note that two faces are considered "connected" if they share a common edge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© Copyright 2003-2006 Gordon Tomlinson All Rights Reserved. All logos, trademarks and copyrights in this site are property of their respective owner. |
1
