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Problem compiling a MDL file

J

john1234

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20
Country
newzealand
Seem to have started having the following error popping up, anyone got any ideas as to why this could be happening??...

Sorting by Material...
Optimize Parts...
Welding...
Generate BGL...
Done!
Existing XML file found, it will not be overwritten!Existing XML file found, it will not be overwritten!Failed to output XML file for scenery object!Existing XML file found, it will not be overwritten!Failed to output XML file for scenery object! Assembling: D:\scenery\main-terminal.azm
D:\scenery\main-terminal_0.asm(65534) : error A2071: initializer magnitude too large for specified size
DRAW_TRI_BEGIN(2): Macro Called From
D:\scenery\main-terminal_0.asm(65534): Include File
Error!

Is there a limit for asm files?? My main-terminal_0.asm file is 11,036,321 in size :) :)

Regards - John...
 
Hi John,

I would have to see the source, but I guess the start vertex count of the polygon is too high (I think the maximum value is 65536). So that would mean that you can not use more then 65536 vertices.
 
I presume you are talking about the total number of Vertices in the whole airport, cause the building I was doing before the error I had only done 3 sides and wanted to check it... (I wouldn't have a clue how many vertices were in the whole thing (I would hate to guess))

What I have done for now, is that I split the whole airport into 2 files and compiled 2 separate MDL's and then imported them both using the same parameters into scengenx..

Once I split the airport into 2 files the error went away...
 
Hi John,

I guess you have found a vertex limit in MakeMDL then :).

It is a very bad idea in general to put an entire airport in one GMax file. It is much better to use a MDL file for each building. Putting everything in one file means that the performance is not optimal (because all buildings are always drawn, even if they are outside of your view).
 
Hi Arno...

Hmmm, well I decided to put everything into one file cause I thought the other way.. "If everything in one file then FS only has to draw everything once" :) :)
But if you recommend putting each building etc into a separate mdl file then I may have to look at doing that..

At last count I think I was somewhere over 60 buildings along with around 21 ground bmp's as well (not to mention the airbridges and other little things dotted around the place)
 
Hi John,

If some small buildings are close together you can group them in one GMax file of course.

But the bounding box of a GMax scene is used to determine when something should be drawn. Imagine that the objects are within the visible range, but they are behind you. In that case, if the bounding box is totally behind you, they will not be drawn. If you have everything in one scene then all objects will be drawn as long as any part of the airport is on the screen.

So combining some small objects that are close together is no problem, but having an entire airport in one scene is not a very good idea.
 
Gonna have to have a real think on this...

It not going to be easy to split the main part up methinks...

Here is a little picture of one of my mdl's :)
 

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Humm, yes, to change this project would be a lot of work. Moving all objects to 0,0 and then determining their coordinates would be a lot of work. Maybe you can continue like this for this project if the framerate hit is not too big.
 
Actually I didn't even bother with moving things to 0,0 with the other MDL file either, just left them where they were originally on the one big one but made 2 files one with main stuff and the other with the other stuff :)

As for frame rate hits, there are virtually none in all the testing ai and others have been doing as the scenery progresses..
It is sort of suprising as I was expecting a hit, but never got it so far :)
 
john1234 said:
Actually I didn't even bother with moving things to 0,0 with the other MDL file either, just left them where they were originally on the one big one but made 2 files one with main stuff and the other with the other stuff :)
Click to expand...

For the performance that still is not optimal. As the visibility distance is always checked from the 0,0 point in GMax. So when you just export as two MDL files without moving it can also solve your errors, but is not better for the performance.
 
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