Coplann if you are still in the forums, I need some 3d advice....

the last time you gave me your advice it was really great! thanks! I got now 3ds max 8 and I got my .obj file ships so I pressed "import" at the task bar and the ship really worked but when I'm finished, I need to export it in .X file format but I knew I were missing something... so I put my ship in the models file, and make it a hull on GC2_Types.XML. but when I'm in the game and I want my ship I saw it without texture... (that's what I forgot...) and the size is Hugh!!!
so I tried to put the texture (that comes with the model) into the models file and I did my own thumbnail and it's still not working.... I need some advice...

this is the screen shot:

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any help will be very appreciated
Thanks in advanced
-Master U
3,634 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top
Have you unwrapped the UVs? if not that's where your texture problem is. As for the scale see if there is a setting in you .x exporter. In mine i have a "scale" value.
Reply #2 Top
now thats a big ship

sadly you are not done just with importing and exporting the ship. you need to create a material within 3DS Max and apply the texture to it. I usually open the material browser within Max (key: M), then use the menu to "pick from object" and let Max create a material from your model (or a part of your model). if the model was well done it should be named similar to the texture name. then simply go to maps and add the texture file there. then reapply the material to the model and click on "show map in viewport" so Max shows it in the viewport. then you need to make sure the texture maps are set correctly (e.g. disable both tiling flags in the map-options within the material and check if the texture is still looking correctly on your model. if yes, you are fine to export, if not you need to work on the UVW maps (UVW Unwrap -> edit, make sure the texture map only uses the center tile of the texture). then resize your ship (select all -> scale). looks like you need to resize it quiet much. usually however the game resizes the ships on the galactic map by itsself. if that doesnt work make sure you didnt use and export any animations. they screw up the auto-scaling (also note that the size on the galactic map if auto-sized by the game isnt comparable to the size in combat).

I need to go to work now...
Reply #3 Top
thanks I'll try it now!
Reply #4 Top
sorry to bother you so much but I have another problem I just need some more details... I know it's rude to ask but... could you please please help me convert only ONE ship... I'm trying to do this from that time that I bought GCII... I'm looking for help over 1 month... I thought I can handle this myself but I guess I can't I tried everything that you told me but pics talk for themselves...
if I will ask you (please please.. )to convert the ship for me just for once, it'll be very rude? here are something that I didn't get:

this is my ship:

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my texture and .obj model:

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the material thing..:

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my texture in the material browser:

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don't know if it's important but the rendering thing:

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the unwrap thing:

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the Panda Exporter: What to Do?

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and in this level:

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and this level:

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my E-mail in any case: [email protected]
Thank you very very much
any help will be very appreciate
and thanks in advanced!
many thanks...
________________________________________

-Master U
Reply #5 Top
hi there,

in the 3rd and 4th screenshot you see the 2 marked boxes that say "Tile". remove the markers (disable all tiling) if you want to see whether your textures will look correctly in GC2. If after you disabled the tiling your ship has no or no complete texture anymore it means you need to work on your texture UVW maps (and its not the render to texture thing what I meant, dont know what you can do with that cause I never used it, I meant "Modifiers -> UV Coordinates -> UVW Unwrap").

Now for the Panda Exporter:
1. 3DS Max Objects:
use Mesh definition, Materials and optimize Mesh -> Optimized
dont use Include Animation (can cause your model to become too large on the galactic map because animations prevent galciv from automatically rescaling the ship, reason my Omega Destroyer doesnt feature a rotating hull section anymore)
dont use Bones
use Geometric, Dummy, Mapping Coordinates and Vertex Colors
dont use Flip Normals

2. Animations:
there should be no entries in the listbox (if there are delete them)
everything else shouldnt matter without having an animation

3.Texture $ .fx files

Texture Conversion -> Convert texture Map
use: White diffuse override (texture)
dont use: Use full pathname and Scale texture to nearest power of 2
Format: PNG (.png), dont use BMP. GC2 uses PNGs almost exclusively
Overwrite: not important, is Do not overwrite here

I dont know if GC2 supports .fx effect files. Include .fx file is deactivated here

4. X File Settings:
Text, Binary or Binary with Compression all work with GC2. I use the last one so my file becomes smaller ^^

DX Frame (this is important): Top frame only
dont use: include animation options here once again
Coordinate System: dont use Left Hand Axis at first. if your ship isnt correctly placed in the game you can try to use this instead

Thats it. These settings work well for me.

even if your texture isnt applied correctly due to the UV Coordinates the model itself should work.

if you are still having problems you can mail me your obj files and textures to coplann(at)gmx.net and I will take a look at it when I have time.

regards,
cop
Reply #6 Top
wow, thank you very much! I'll try to do my best now!