How To: Pandemic XSI Plugin under Windows7 x64

[vf501]

The Pandemic MSH Exporter is for the full version of XSI 4.2-5.11 only, this is not a hack to make it work for the XSI Mod_Tools.

This should also work under Windows Vista x64.

First a Rundown of how the Exporter works.

The XSI plugin Pandemic made for SWBF2 for cloth editing and msh exporting breaks when installed on XSI running under Windows 7 x64. This is due to it being a VB (VisualBasic) script. This means it uses Windows based dependencies in the system and ActiveX components to convert .scn to .msh.

The functions are carried out by the PandemicMSHExporter.vbs calling up functions built into its extension which is PandemicExporter.dll.

The PE.dll is a data link library which contains all the necessary functions and calls to make a XSI scene into a usable .msh. The main problem is that this .dll was written, and compiled for x86 (32bit) systems. So when you install it under x64 systems, the .dll registration required for the .dll to be called by the scripts breaks. This has to do with how x86/x64 support is implemented in Windows. All x86 extensions are run from Windows\sysWOW64. The problem being that the PE.dll under Win7x64 calls for extension dependencies found only in Windows\system32 which house x64 extensions. This breaks its ability to register with the OS.

Fixing the Issue
Install XSI
Install the Pandemic SWBF2 plugin
Go to C:\Windows\system32
Find cmd.exe
Right Click and select run as admin
Type regsvr32 C:\Users\YourUserNameHere\Softimage\XSI_X.X\Addons\PandemicBF2\Application\bin\nt-x86\PandemicExporter.dll
Hit Enter.

This registers the PandemicExporter.dll to the system at Root level, which resides even above admin level. Trying to register the .dll by running the cmd.exe at admin level will only result in failure. Not registering the PandemicExporter.dll causes the following error in XSI, and calls line 81 of the exporter script out as the error even though it is not.

Code Select Expand

Activex component cannot create object


The above error is associated with VBscript .dlls not being registered with the OS.

[aeria.]

Might as well move to the tutorial section.

*Shrug*

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

The Pandemic MSH Exporter is for the full version of XSI 4.2-5.11 only, this is not a hack to make it work for the XSI Mod_Tools.

Why do you say hack? And what about the demo version of xsi found here? What I am hearing is that you can not get the full version any more. Is that correct?

[Giftheck]

You cannot buy the licenses for the full versions of XSI any more, no. Hack was the word used because we (still) have not made the Pandemic MSH Exporter work in XSI Mod Tool, and people might have mistaken this for a hack to make the exporter work in Mod Tool.

Not yet, anyways. Maybe someday.