Decompressing the Hexagon file to make manual changes

stitlown

Sounds weird, I know but ...

Hex has a bug when using the Daz Bridge where it appends .01 to texture file names on each crossing of the bridge and eventually they get so long it causes windows errors.  Rather than work through the Hex materials / shading domains interface, I just want to jump in to the underlying hex file and bulk change all the crap names back to their original names.  But the hex file is some sort of compressed file and I've not yet found the secret to decompressing it to allow an edit in eg notpad++

Does anyone know if / how to decompress the .hxn file???

Ascania

Hexagon files are not saved in a human-readable format.

Wee Dangerous John

I think it would be better doing it manually (the way you say you don't want to do it).

Have you tried to save it out as an OBJ file, these settings normally work for me, you need to input the textures from the Maps folder DS saves. I normally  CTRL C /  CTRL V the different parts (using the shading domains) and re-assign the textures to how I made the prop originally. 

Not sure how you are getting a HXN file using the Bridge tool, I thought it stored the textures in a temp folder.

I normally Save the HXN file for modelling purposes, Export an OBJ when the prop is finished. And only use the Bridge tool to send the prop back to Hex if I want to make any morphs.

stitlown

Thanks for the input folks.  It is for morphs that I'm mostly using Hex, and as there's lots of prototyping and tweaking the buggy additions buiild up. Looks like it's a wade through the dodgy Hex tabs for me. It is, of course, largely irrelvant as the textures are not used in morphs. It'd be great if DAZ had a decent modeler - but we know that isn't going to happen. Cheers, Lx

Wee Dangerous John

Hi Stitlown, as a matter of interest I'd like to see what you are trying to do. Could you do a before and after picture for me, there may be a few short-cuts we could suggest if we had a couple reference images. 

stitlown

Hi there, WDJ. Laugh, but it took me a long time to find this because (for reasons I don't understand) the system sort-of reset itself overnight and the Hex models now mostly have no texture. But here is a screen shot of the directory where the problem files are generated and an illustration of the naming bug / repetition. Plus a screen shot of the Hex GUI with where the problem file texture is listed. Maybe the "reset" came from me changing the HEX/PREFERENCES/IMPORTEXPORT/HEXAGON/EXPORTBITMAPASIMAGEFILES from tick to untick - which was the only Hex preference I could see that appeared to have any relevance to image transfers across the bridge.

My manual workaround would have been to just jump into the texture file name in the material pane and edit away the repetitous crap. And/or to delete all the repeated images from the working directory and have Hex revert to some default - whcih I suspect is what I might have done in the past when this irritated me enough.

Hope this makes sense / is helpful.

Lx

 

stitlown

Hi, again, WDJ. I may have mis-understood your last comment.

The workflow of what I'm doing is:

1. Open DAZ file with target model
2. Establish Hexagon bridge
3. Open Hexagon file with morph editions (maybe 2 and 3 can be merged - sometimes it seems to work, sometimes not - not sure if the problem or lag is DAZ or Windows)
4. Tinker model in Hex
5. Send to Daz and bring in as Morph update.
6. Examine revised morph and consider changes
7. <possibly send Daz model across bridge into Hex> [Necessary for eg progressive morphs where you need to negate (ie -100%) earlier part-morphs to make a progression work - think of a rotation or twist or expanding / contracting extension where the initial state cannot move directly to the final state but has to transition through intermediate states along the way to make sense]
8. Repeat <endlessly> from 4 until the final morph is "just so".

As an example, the morph I'm currently working on is a 6-part extension which needs to expand over an obstacle and then contract having passed it. In tinkering, I might send the model back and forth across the bridge 20, 30, 50 times - hence the texture name exansion to "error"

Cheers. Lx

 

Catherine3678ab

In D/S ditch the maps, use a 3Delight basic shader ...

When making morphs, you can make as many shading domains in Hexagon as desired.

Wee Dangerous John

Listen to Catherine3678a, she knows a lot more than me when it comes to Shading Domains/Morphs.

stitlown

Thanks Guys. Lx.

Interestingly, along the way, the maps have got lost anyway. Possibly when I deleted the crap from the temporary folder.

Ascania

You can alway re-apply the proper maps after you've done your morphs.

stitlown

Thanks Ascania. It's not a big deal in D|S because the base model and it's maps are unaffected by the morph loading.

So it seems the best work around is pretty much what Catherine3678ab suggested - ditch all the maps in Hex and so obviate the obsessive map renaming it is prone to.

Cheers all. Hope 2022 shines for you. Lx