Custom Ships HELP

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Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

Then the problem is most likelÃ§y in the BOD file.

Have a peek in my tutorial ( the link Roguey posted ) and see if you made all the steps i placed there, if not, you're missing them.

If you can use the script editor to get your ship in game and it's simply not showing or texteured badly, your problem is in the model itself, not the scene, and yep, that scene you placed above looks fine to me Smile

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

Rogue the missing parts in the model were because of texture issue I just checked with copying and pasting the mat 6 from an argon ships everything is there expect for the cockpit glass which is an easy fix.

I followed your tutorial skipped the engine and weapon effect part.

The problem seems to be my custom texture files. I am using custom textures and used LithUnwrap to make my UVmaps. How do I go about making my custom textures work. I made them as .dds but didn't make mini maps or use any compression when saving them.

3dsmax render

ktide

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

If you used photoshop with the plugins installed it will do it for you, thats' no problem really.

For your textures to work right they need to have mat6 entries, those X knows what they are and what to do with them and if you don't place those entries in the bod, the ship will be invisible or have invisible parts.

My recommendation is that you get Observe's material editor ( i have a lionk for it on the first pages of my tutorial ) and get atleast one of every race's ships in decompressed form ( BOD format ) for you to use, the material editor will allow you to accuratly paste all the mat6 info from one ship to the other, all you have to do is replace the name of the textures you have by the ones that the model you have chosen ( for example, the Argon Titan ) by the ones your ship needs.

Remember, it is best to name the textures like Ego, for simplicity like the bump texture is whatever_bmp and the diffuse is whatever_diff, it will help you really. If you don't use bump or light maps just remove the old paths and type in NONE in there place.

Have a try and tell us how you did Smile

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

I will give that a try! My only question with that is, once I replace the texture files will all the Titans now use my textures?

Roguey

Trueguey (22)

Posted 12 years ago.

depends if you name the textures with the same name (ie. replace), or new name (so it doesnt replace).

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

With the Mat 6 editor I am literally just changing the file path in to the dds directory from the stock files to mine. I am using Gimp as my photo editing program with a dds plugin for it, the plug in has all kinds of options for compressing. I think for now I will do mini maps no compression and see how it works.

If I use the mat 6 lines that dbox makes in my files but add argon.fx to it I only get 4 lines and it matches my line count. This is my new dds files. In sections where I didn't give it bump mapping or glass texture it reads NULL. Will that work? Or should I copy and past another mat 6 over in the text editor and change the file path for defused text to mine? If I do that will I lose my uv mapping.

Each mat in 3ds is a x3 multimap that is made up of the textures and uv map for each separate component that has been joined together. So I emulated that in my ship. If I open a stock object delete it and import my own and try and apply the one palate to my model my uv map doesn't line up. If then I open my model in mat 6 editor and change my file paths to the texture I want it won't assign them to the components I want.

Example I use one texture for the wings another for the noise if I change the file from argon_componets_2 to my file it will use that one texture for my whole model and the parts that have been uv mapped for it lines up. But the noise will use the wing texture. Once the model is consolidated I can't (don't know how) to assign the noise portion of the texture to just the noise from that now modified x3 multimap. Nor can I (don't' know how) use a stock x3 multimap to assign different textures to a consolidated mesh. Reading over the tutorial all the texturing is done before you consolidate the model.

Guess I should modify the mat 6 file before I consolidate. How do you the textures in 354 from the multimap with out having to create a new palette?

ktide

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

Ok this is going to be hard to emplain because i can't place a Mat6 entry on the forum, just gave my pc an old format C: so i'm still working on getting it all installed but i'll do my best.

For texturing, yep, you can ( and should ) use the method you are using ( x3 multimap ) but that will not sufice mate.

The Mat6 editor is a very nifty program because you can simply turn the simple 3ds or Gmax texturing ( the 4 lines you speak of ) into a X material... Yep, there's a difference!

Those 4 lines are not used by the game at all, simply because that's not a texture map, it's a pallet. The Mat6 program is for you to pick one of the ships you think look best ( i used the nova, but some people whant the ship to shyne more so they go with the paranid or more gloss go with teladi and so on ) and make the ship you made look like that but with the textures you made/have for your ship.

Simply putting it, if you like the barracuda, for example, and wish your ship had that glow or whatever attracks you in that ship in paticular, got to the ship file location and unbob ( unbob is a faster way of typing turn the file into a format 3ds or gmax can import, because Mat6 will read it also ) it, then just pop it open with Mat6 and select it all ( all as in one of the lines, the hole entry for that line ), copy one of the entries, open your ship's bod file and paste it.

Now all you have to do is redo this step in all the entries you have and replace the names of thextures the barracuda has to your own and save... That's it!

It will only add the info X needs to make it work in game, and if you whant to test it before placing it in game do it like i do:

- work the bod in Mat6 and import that bod in 3ds max again, using the importer.

If you make a copy of the first version ( like you have once you export it from 3ds ) you will not see the textures once imported, after you poke and fix everything in Mat6 your see all the textures without having to click F9 once imported.

Have a go, see how it works out but remember, importing a ship is a big crust to bite for any pc so it may take a minute or so Wink

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

I have tomorrow off of work and I know what I am doing! You guys have been great it helping me out and i'm sure it won't stop there. Once I have it done and do it write probably going to do a tutorial on texturing and some trouble shooting tips and things to check for newer modellers like myself. One of the biggest problems I had wasn't even something I did, dbox did the double // and using the wrong slashes, it was very nice for you guys to read through my script and bods line for line. once I have it in game going to fix my tscipt (cockpit is at 0,0,0) that and I guess I messed up the ship order when I added my new ship midway throught the entry.

ktide

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

How did you add your ship midway in the scene file mate?

Once you export the ship with all the gadgets ( guns and such, you know, the scene of it all ) it allways adds the ship first, mostly because it's allready there Confused

Oh and the cockpit being at 0.0.0 as a fast solution, if you didn't place it like that, it means one of the files is miss pathed, either the scene file or Tships, have a peek at it.

I'll be installing X and all the gizmos for moddeling today, so i might be able to help better once it's all in, just let us know what you need help in, Roguey or myself are her for that aswell Wink

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

I save everything like its a religion so when I was having issues with my scene file and the naming paths I went back through and renamed everything. Because of that I deleted the ship in my _scene and reimported it from my object file and thats why it is mid scene. I guess I could alway move it to the top and manual reenter the indexs.

What should my file pathways look like in mat 6? I am using ;NULL; for no entry like lights and special texture enties cause I have none. And ddsSwordfishsfrednoise.dds for t_diffuse

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

You got my scene file there. Those pathways seem to be correct, however my engine doesn't show up and its a vanilla my ship has no shields and one of my weapons is missing even tho the dummy item is on my ship.... must be a tships issue.

ktide

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

Have you peeked at the tutorial i made for engines?

http://x3.roguey.co.uk/edit/killertide/ship_tutorial5.php

If you browse all pages i cover just about everything, have a peek.

Pretty soon i'll have a costum internal hangar tut in there aswell, i'm still working on it Smile

PS: yes, u are going to love modeling for X lool, it's hard, the game is very peculiar about certain "mistakes" we make and there's another down part of it... If you're really lucky, it will not work even if everything is ok, just because it doent't want to lol... You're gonna love it, i do lol.

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

I'm using a vanilla engine the telidi motor fx just for simplicity.
In your guide you have -92 set as the texture file, and the go on to the animation aspect. If there is no animation can I direct the mat 6 to my texture file do I need to tell it dds folder and then my file name or just the file name if my texture is in the dds directory?

ktide

Skillguey (7)

Posted 12 years ago.

You don't need to do alot when it comes to engines, X has it's own way of handling them in the core of the game, the -92 dds file that you refered is just a "link" for the game to associate the textures/animations it should use in the effect.

The -92.dds is:
fx_engine_blue1_diff
fx_engine_blue2_diff
fx_engine_blue3_diff
fx_engine_blue4_diff

The games doesn't use the -92 texture, u can place a blanc texture there if you whant to, it's just a reference to what you are using and too see how it looks in the game, since the textures will loop from 1 to 4 all the time.

Oh and you must refer all the engine effects on the effects file, i made a file you can dowload and use that allready has a few collors, just add and use if you whan to Wink

Ship modeling for X3 tutorial

Outlaw_no1

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Fightguey (6)

Posted 12 years ago.

Okay I will look at that when I'm ready to move on to the motor. I mean for the ship object and mat6 for the custom ship. In the mat 6 for that ship can I just reference the file name in the .bod that I am replacing or should I give it the dds directory before my replacement file.

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