How do I convert PM to LOD?

[Steamdemon]

There are two meshes that are in the outdated pm format and I want to change them to the LOD format
Any idea how?

Oh btw, They are the Sneplov_body and the Sneplov_shadow.

 

[Napalm]

You need to convert them to .im format using PEV's PMtoIM tool.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm

You will also need to edit the config file to point to the new .im meshes.

Nathan

 

[johnwhelan]

You can convert them to .im but not to lod which needs access tho the original mesh source and the creation of additional .im files.

Cheerio John

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Does simply converting to .im make the asset more poly-intensive (on average) than leaving it as .pm? In other words, you go to the trouble of removing a warning notice but actually make the performance worse.

 

[clam1952]

Makes nothing worse that I can see, if anything performance is slightly better.

 

[johnwhelan]

Does simply converting to .im make the asset more poly-intensive (on average) than leaving it as .pm? In other words, you go to the trouble of removing a warning notice but actually make the performance worse.

TS2010 can dump it on the GPU which is usually not the performance bottleneck. If the lod change is less than 500 polys its not worth doing, many wagons were less than 500 polys in total so switching to .im means a performance gain but dumping the lod.

If you are running in TRS2004 its less advantageous.

Cheerio John

 

[PEV]

Does simply converting to .im make the asset more poly-intensive (on average) than leaving it as .pm?

Deane,

None of the methods I have written to convert PMs to IMs change the number of polys in the mesh. What you see in the first instance is exactly the same as after conversion. Only the bits that do the progressive mesh poly collapsing have been removed, and there are no polys specified within those sections.

Animation base specification is another matter. PM2IM can alter that part.

Performance of IM meshes should be considerably better than PMs for 2 reasons.
1). Indexed meshes are considerably smaller than the equivalent Progressive mesh so loading time is quicker.

2). No calculations for poly reduction by collapses is needed so rendering will be faster.

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

OK, so all my work so far hasn't been a waste of time, that's good to know. Makes me wonder why they advocated .pm format in the first place then.

 

[clam1952]

OK, so all my work so far hasn't been a waste of time, that's good to know. Makes me wonder why they advocated .pm format in the first place then.

At a guess because at that time, the Jet engine was less advanced and could only handle PM or simply they hadn't "invented" the IM format yet.

 

[misquetofarmer]

Back to the question

There are two meshes that are in the outdated pm format and I want to change them to the LOD format
Any idea how?

Oh btw, They are the Sneplov_body and the Sneplov_shadow.

I don't give a crap about how many pollies it takes to screw in a light bulb. I want to know how to do the conversion to LOD from a progressive mesh. Or at least some way to utilize some of PEV's great conversion utilities. I have tried to us the PMtoIM program when I open the edit directory I don't find anything that PM2IM can open.

I know some are going to hate me for this but next version of Trainz needs to start sun-setting some of the older versions. Either upgrade them or let them die like a dignified defunct railroad. Two things will occur. First our oh so talented numbers will begin to bring those dearly loved assets to the latest version and Trainz will become a more pleasant experience (well I can HOPE!)

 

[johnwhelan]

I don't give a crap about how many pollies it takes to screw in a light bulb. I want to know how to do the conversion to LOD from a progressive mesh.

No actually what you want is better frame rates and to be able to make better use of the GPU.

LOD Level of Detail means two or more .im files each one has fewer polys in it. You can only get one .im file from a .pm file even with pev's tools.

There is a roughly 500 poly equivalent overhead when you switch lod levels, in some cases I've actually seen frame rates increase when the lod is taken out.

Converting .pm to .im often gives a performance increase.

Cheerio John

 

[RPearson]

At a guess because at that time, the Jet engine was less advanced and could only handle PM or simply they hadn't "invented" the IM format yet.

Actually I think the .im mesh was and is the standard mesh file for jet and the .pm was the LOD mesh reducing scheme invogue back then. The .pm allowed automatic mesh reduction - good for the video card but often made for some odd visuals.

I don't give a crap about how many pollies it takes to screw in a light bulb. I want to know how to do the conversion to LOD from a progressive mesh. Or at least some way to utilize some of PEV's great conversion utilities. I have tried to us the PMtoIM program when I open the edit directory I don't find anything that PM2IM can open.

Well the main point of the thread so far is that you can't change the .pm files to LOD directly using PEV's tools. LOD require a series of .im mesh files each having fewer polys - a mesh reducing scheme for the content creator to work with rather than the automatic one of the .pm meshes. PM2IM will only give you the base .im mesh in that series - you have to create, with some model building program, all the others that are necessary for LOD to work.

Not all assets have .pm mesh files. You have to work with ones that CM3 flags with a warning that indicates it uses a .pm mesh. Open the asset for editing in explorer. The mesh will be named with a .pm extension and will exist in the asset folder or a subfolder of that asset. I don't know how to be any clearer.

I just tried it with Prowler's k-27 interior that is flagged by CM3 as having progressive meshes. Opened it in CM3 for editing in explorer and then ran PEV's program and browsed to the open editing folder for the k_27 interior. Selected the k-27_int.pm and hit the convert to im file to convert k-27_int.pm to .im.

Admittedly that's an easy one because only 1 .pm file in the main folder and no subfolders but it works.

Bob Pearson