Hey GT,

I was placing an ODF into my map and I got this error message: The model itself is only 1803 Polygons, so I don't know why this is happening. If anybody knows as to why this issue is happening, I'd very much appreciate it if anybody told me how to fix this!

Thanks in advance!

Post your .odf file.

Here's the contents of the ODF: Here's the actual ODF file:

Nothing weird there. Is it high poly? I feel like I saw a mesh like this being asked for on FacePunch, but I don't know if that was you, nor where it was ripped from. Doubt polygons would be an issue, just spitballing.

The model was originally 6000+ but I decided to split it up into 4 different parts (main structure, roof base, roof tiles etc.) and after I tried exporting it as separate msh files, and made ODFs, it would STILL crash.

It most likely was me, my picture and username for these types of forums are the same on each so I would be recognizable to other users haha

Edit:
If you'd like to test out the ODF in a map to see if you have the issue as well, I could send you the file

Try a different model with the same odf. If that works, maybe it's one of the tga's. Did you check the model before export?

There are only two reasons why loading a mesh crashes ZeroEditor:
As JimmyAngler mentioned it could be the file size of your .tga or..

One of your models have 5 or more Vertexes than allowed. The only allowed numbers are three (Triangels) and 4 (Sqaures). 5<x are not allowed and will crash both ZeroEditor and MshViewer. It should also crash pc_ModelMunge. It happened to me when I made models with more than 4 Vertex Points a Face/Polygon.

Figured it out, the TGA was FAR TOO BIG. It was a 2048 pixels, shrunk it down to 512 and it worked great!

Thanks to the lot of you for the assist

512x512 works good. But If it was 2048 then you can also use 1024. The difference would just be the resolution, which sometimes matters more (In my opinion).

Yeah, I used 1024 to have a little bit more detail to the model.

Almost forgot to ask this, how do I know if I exceed the vertex limit? How would I check that?

From the docs:

art_guide.doc wrote: Props - 0 - 500 polys
Buildings - 200 - 3000 polys (the higher end of this spectrum represents large buildings with large interiors)
Vehicles - 1500 - 2000 polys
Characters - 1500 - 2000 polys

But if you are not going to add Characters and Vehicles as static props into your map then they can have 8 times more than actually allowed. For example: The SWBF3 Assets were way too high-polyed. I reduced them down as good as possible and they were still "larger" than allowed (Regarding to the Poly Count). In-game they worked fine. But when I placed them in Zero Editor then it crashed. So..Large poly vehicles should better be spawned through a vehicle spawn than "as msh directly". The same for Characters. Props and Buildings must be placed in ZE so..there's no real way out. The only way would be to edit the .wld or .lyr file and add high poly models through file editing. But ZE will crash when you attempt to load your map.

Hmm, interesting. Thanks, thelegend

Appreciate the help!

FYI: In a prop's ODF, the GeometryName line under the [GameObjectClass] header specifies the .msh file that is displayed in Zero Editor only. What this means is that you can have a lower-poly version of the mesh to display in ZE, and have the higher-poly version be shown in-game.

Example of what this might look like:

Marth8880 wrote:FYI: In a prop's ODF, the GeometryName line under the [GameObjectClass] header specifies the .msh file that is displayed in Zero Editor only. What this means is that you can have a lower-poly version of the mesh to display in ZE, and have the higher-poly version be shown in-game.

Example of what this might look like:

Code: Select all

[GameObjectClass]		
ClassLabel		=	"prop"
GeometryName	=	"editor_eur_combat_zone.msh" // this line specifies the Zero Editor mesh

[Properties]		
GeometryName	=	"eur_combat_zone" // this lines specifies the mesh shown in-game

FoleyFXGroup    = "metal_foley"

So with this method it is be possible to have textures loaded which are in 4K without causing ZeroEditor to crash?

thelegend wrote:So with this method it is be possible to have textures loaded which are in 4K without causing ZeroEditor to crash?

Yep! Just use lower-res versions of the textures in the editor mesh.

Marth8880 wrote:Yep! Just use lower-res versions of the textures in the editor mesh.

Thanks. I am gonna keep this in mind for new props.