.vxl Decryption

TheMG · Guest

How did you decrypt the .vxl file format into the different layers of data? I need to know how to open them for my own game software (a voxel engine - I can already display voxels, I just can't open .vxl files).

ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

the full info is somewhere but i forgot where. someone else will help you with that but i need to say to you, why are you making a voxel engine? there is no point. voxels are not great.

TheMG · Guest

I am making it so that I could display Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 in my C&C engine, but using a fully 3D environment full with color/alpha blending, proper 3D object formats as well etc.

ORCACommander · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:27 pm Post subject:

please register and aply for hosting

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TheMG · Civilian **Joined**: 10 Apr 2007

I've registered now (I couldn't earlier, it said I had tried to register to many times this session when I hadn't tried once), but why should I apply for hosting? I already have a web-host, and why do you care lol?

ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

has anyone helped you yet? are you trying to make a replacement exe for Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2? can you show screenshots of what you've done so far?

TheMG · Civilian **Joined**: 10 Apr 2007

I am basically making an exe that could be put in a folder of C&C ini/mixes, and run it in a fully 3d C&C environment. Before I can start it properly, I need to be able to import voxels into the game.

Banshee · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:53 pm Post subject:

You can download the latest VXLSE III and check the source (it was made in Delphi). The voxel.pas has the code to open the file, save the file and open and save each section.

Unfortunatelly, that file is a mess, I know and I couldn't be bothered to organize it properly.

ORCACommander · Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:35 pm Post subject:

by web hosting do you mean a full site forums or just file space? or maybe a combination?

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ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

no. screw the source code. there's documents somewhere of the file formats.

here use this:

http://xhp.xwis.net/documents/VXL_Format.txt

this is old and incomplete we know more than is written here. you also need hva info.

actually i'll privately send you the hva and vxl documentation because i found where i had it.

and the 2 normals palettes come with 3ds2vxl in straightforward txt files.

TheMG · Civilian **Joined**: 10 Apr 2007

Thanks guys! Ill be gone for two days, but Ill be checking out those files, and some C pseudo-sourcecode I found, hopefully back with a little bit of understanding!

@ORCACommander: I have normal web space, I don't see why I would need it on the forums.

@Banshee: Ill download a copy of the source to my flashdrive so that I can also toy with it (I wont be able to compile it though).

ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

btw i hope you realize that the games don't actually use voxels in realtime. they convert them to 2d sprites like the SHP files and use those while the game is running. using a voxel renderer for every unit on screen for every frame would just be too slow i think.

Judeau · Commander **Joined**: 28 Feb 2004

ViPr wrote:

btw i hope you realize that the games don't actually use voxels in realtime. they convert them to 2d sprites like the SHP files and use those while the game is running. using a voxel renderer for every unit on screen for every frame would just be too slow i think.

i have a software renderer i've written that takes 50-60 milliseconds to render 50 mammoth MK IIs in real-time, though it's on a 1.7 Ghz AMD processor, with very little extra stuff surrounding it

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ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

really? that's good news. is this with parallel or perspective projection and are you using dots, squares, circles, or cubes? can you show screenshots? and why are you not using graphic acceleration? why is the voxel viewer so slow and can you make a better one?

Banshee · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:34 am Post subject:

The voxel viewer is slow because it wasn't enough optimized.

If a voxel has n used pixels, then OS Voxel Viewer will send (6 * n) quads and (24 * n) vertexs to OpenGL. Of course, OpenGL will cut most of them, however, that will only be done after doing transformation, vertex lighting and projection with all of them.

ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

can't you store all the cubes together as a mesh and store that on the graphic card and then you only need to send how the meshes are situated relative to the camera so you don't need to keep sending the vertex information because you will need to do it only once.

Banshee · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:30 am Post subject:

Hmm... well.. OS: Voxel Viewer uses lists, which helps a bit, but when the remap colour change or few other events happens, it will have to send the whole stuff again.

ViPr · Gauss Rifle Trooper **Joined**: 30 Dec 2004

if you send the whole stuff again will the pause be noticeable? i doubt it, and even if there is a pause i don't think people will be annoyed since they change the remap color very infrequently.

anyway i have a feeling that graphic cards have a feature where you can resend only the vertexes that have had their data changed instead of all of them.

Judeau · Commander **Joined**: 28 Feb 2004

here you go

screenshot.JPG

Description:

Filesize:

39.84 KB

Viewed:

16033 Time(s)

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Portable, no campaign, movies or music, just the engine and needed resources for skirmish and lan.

IcySon55 · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003 **Location**: Overworld

Thanks for blinding us with that JPG Judeau. [/sarcasm]

Good to see that you're going somewhere with this, but please use PNG next time, that image looks horrible.

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Kiith-Sa · Rocket Cyborg **Joined**: 26 Oct 2004

Lol... everyone is suddenly remaking TS...

TheMG: I can send you a .cpp voxel loader if you want, but it's a mess too. Judeau's TS Open source probably also contains one, he uses pure C.

Banshee: OpenGL 3.0 (if there will be any) will probably drop immediate mode and display lists, and these already run slower on some ATI cards.

I think it's best to either to create an optimized mesh from voxel (eg. destroying all faces inside and merging groups of faces), which takes quite a lot of time, or use pointsize like 2, GL point and voxels created using remove redunent voxels and send that to VBO's, or do everything in SW like WW or TS Open, altough that wouldn't be good if you also want to use 3D accelerated meshes.

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ORCACommander · Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:23 pm Post subject:

where can I dl dl open gl 2.0? by defualt my card only has 1.x and patches crash the computer.

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Kiith-Sa · Rocket Cyborg **Joined**: 26 Oct 2004

There is nothing like OpenGL installation pack, OpenGL implementation is in drivers for a 3D card, so get the newest ForceWare/Catalyst. If you have only Windows standard driver, you have SW emulated OpenGL.

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Time will tell...
Sooner or later...
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stucuk · Geek **Joined**: 27 Aug 2002

To render Voxels u rearly need to render it like it was ment to be rendered in 2d not 3d. Voxel Viewer uses a crap method (Which i take full credit for #Tongue

). Banshee has improved on the original code but it will never be as fast as it could be as long as it uses 3d to render.

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