So I make me a nice, tall tree. Eucalyptus, to be exact. About 14 JKU's tall.



So when I'm done modeling, I go ahead and merge all the sectors. Everything's fine, no surface errors. Great.

Well, not so great. You see, I haven't used JED/ZED in over two years. So naturally, I disregard the 300 surface per mesh rule. I load the 3DO up in a level, and of course it doesn't appear in game. Well, I think to myself, ****. I guess I'll go back and cut the model into fourths (the whole model has approx. 1000 surfaces, so 250 for each mesh should do).

And now I arrive at my predicament:



It's all one sector, so if I cleave directly across, it'll take off the tops of some branches, and I'll end up with 20 or 30 different sectors which I'd have to match up as individual 3DOs. That would be painstaking and tedious. I want an easy way out! This is about how far my skills in JED go.

I just want to cleave the trunk in the middle. Is there any other way to cleave this model so that I wouldn't have to slice through the branches? I'm not sure if many people frequent the editing forums anymore, but any kind of help would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Delphian

Change the Sector Layer for each section.

That will solve your 1 sector problem.

Let me guess... you have no jed saves right before you merged the sectors?

He didn't merge them. When he exported them, they merged together.

Simply cleave them where you cleaved them last time (again) and it'll cleave over the existing marks. Then change the layers to something like "Part1, Part2" or whatever you think works. Then multiselect them all and export again.

Cleaving down the dead center seems to be the safe bet. Then try it with two layers and see if it'll load (you might be able to get away with ~500 each since the actual limit is 512). If not, then post an updated image with the two layers and we'll try to give you an idea of where to cleave next. You'll definitely have more options after that first cleave, though (angular cleaves, but it'll work). Oh, and re-merge the trunk surfaces you cleaved (where possible) to save on the surface count.

In the future, always keep a JED/ZED backup of your 3do file with no sectors merged (unless you are really comfortable with a particular merge).

If you turn the model 90 degrees, can you cleave down the middle that way too? That would give you 4 layers.

My question still stands regardless of who or what merged the sectors. I assume there were no saves?

The problem Xzero is that by making the original cleaves, it'll cut branches that aren't supposed to be cleaved. (and jed may even throw errors depending on the cleaves)

If you can get away with cutting it in half vertically, that'd be best.

Or, could I cleave the whole thing horizontally and re-merge just the branches back together? I'm not sure if that would work.

And as you guessed, I only have one save of the model.

Also, if the actual limit is 512, how come I've always heard it's 300? If it's 512, I might be able to get away with cleaving vertically in half.

The problem with cutting horizontally with the merged model is that you'll have one sector that has branches which don't connect to each other. If you then try to cleave between the branches (where there isn't anything) you'll get an error in jed.

Are you animating it? If not then why bother saving the branches

Otherwise, you'll probably have to start the branches over again.

tsk tsk. Should have saved the JED file before exporting.

Grab (multiselect) all the vertices of one branch, (except the last few that touch the tree) and stretch it out away from the tree. Then cleave that branch without cleaving anyother part on the tree. Now, assign the mesh name of that branch to something else and move the vertices back to where they were. Do that for the rest of the branches.
As long as you cleave accross the branch you streched out and nothing else, you shouldn't get any errors.

heres some pictures of how I made the gun on the crow a new mesh without errors.
http://www.jkhub.net/project/show.php?projid=468§ion=screenshots&ss_id=project-468-6P2yLRvdb5.jpg

http://www.jkhub.net/project/show.php?projid=468§ion=screenshots&ss_id=project-468-MD_Dypq31f.jpg

http://www.jkhub.net/project/show.php?projid=468§ion=screenshots&ss_id=project-468-QaqaFfsgx6.jpg

Because it's also linked to the texture vertex limit. As such, the 512 limit applies if all of the surfaces are triangles. Each surface with more then 3 verticies will be an extra triangle polygon applied to the limit (during in-game rendering) for each additional vertex.

300 or less per mesh, is a good rule of thumb.

Also, for a tree as tall as that, you should have just made the branches out of a texture. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference from that distance (unless you've got some very specific dynamic lighting plans).

You really should look and post on JK Hub.

The 3do limits are listed on the Limits page. Note that the 3do limits are easily read in the 3do file (via a text editor); no need to guess or figure out triangles or any of that nonsense.

lexen, that's not a bad Idea, so long as he hasn't textured it yet. If you do that the textures will probably mess themselves up.

I say try it, and if it doesn't work try remaking the model, and this time save the ZED file so that if you mess up you can go back to it.