Creating the Collision Mesh

**Creating the**
Collision meshes

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  (work in Progress)

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There are easier ways to create
collision meshes but this explains how everything works

First, copy the standard  mesh three times and name them col0, col1 and
col2... col0 is used for projectiles, col1 for vehicles and col2 for
soldiers.   Optimize the collision meshes
as needed.  For example, stairs should be
changed to ramps in the col2 mesh so they can be used in game.  You should also remove some details that you
don't need for the collision meshes.
The collision meshes are invisible in-game.

***Notes:***
Col3 meshes are AImeshes and are not necessary unless you are creating
Navmeshes.   Hierarchy is called schematic in 3dsmax

Now,
it's time to set up your hierarchy, first create 4 dummy's

[clip\_image001.jpg]

just
click the dummy button like shown on the image above and drag it in your scene
( size and place don't matter).

name
the first dummy root\_staticmesh\_NAMEOFYOUROBJECT
name
the seccond geom0
name
the third lod0
and
last but not least, the fourth one name it nonvis\_

now
select your geom0 dummy and then push this button:

clip\_image002.jpg

and then this button:

clip\_image002.jpg

Now
you can see your hierarchy with all your meshes and dummy's listed (except your
geom0 because you've selected this one)

Follow
the steps shown in the next image: (note that in this image only shows one root
dummy but yours you should show a lot more things).

clip\_image004.jpg

Now
its time to link all the other meshes and dummy's.   The hierachy
should look something like this when its done:

clip\_image005.jpg

Check your progress by pushing this
button

clip\_image003.jpg

... as long as this button isnt
selected:

clip\_image002.jpg

Thats
it!  You have just set up your first hierarchy.

To
set up textures, follow these steps:

Right
select your main mesh and hit the M button  (for your material editor) and
follow these steps:

clip\_image006.jpg

Exporting
the Collision mesh

You
can download the tool from http://rex3d.net/bf2/files/3dsmax/bf2\_3dsmax\_10Jun2006.zip

The POE 3dsmax plugins are also useful:

POE 3dsmax 9 tools

Poe 3dsmax 6-8 tools

A few export related problems suffer
from a bad or missing setup of the tools, so here is some
explanation.   Make sure to have the tools installed correctly:
get the .zip file with the latest tools and drag the folders from it into the
/3DS Max folder on your system. You shouldn't copy the '\_Max5' folder, unless
you have 3dsmax 5.  The '\_BF2Help' folder is not strictly necessary, but
contains some helpful documents when looking for the correct shadernames

  After launching 3DSmax run the BF2
Exporter and press 'Run Setup' in its window. A new window pops up , looking
like this:

Now
fill in the values according to your setup.  For this example, the BF2
game is installed in 'C:\Games\Battlefield 2\' if the mod is XWW2.  The
'rawdata' path is included , 'BF2' and a testmod 'EFM' into the possible export
pathes in the lower dialog.

***This is the most important step: Once***
the exporter finds one of these strings, it truncates the texture pathes (which
are coded into the mesh) to a mod-relative path, meaning your object can run
under any mod on any machine without hardcoded absolute pathes***.***
In this case, the files are directly exporting into the mod structure.
Some people prefer to use the /rawdata path (which is located in your
/bf2editor folder ) as described in the official tutorials.

After
setting up the tool,  push the finish setup button and you should now see
something like this:

At the objects sub-folder path
type staticobjects/ or something like that.  It doesn't really matter what
you fill in, but, ***make sure that the path really exists cause else***
there wont be anything exported***.***

Now
its just simply a matter of pushing the 'export' button and if you've done
everything right it should be in your mods/objects folder somewhere now.
Just make sure that your textures are in the right folder
(objects/staticobjects/yourobjectsname/textures/)