[starfox]

"Missing texture" - problem is gone now, thanks for update.
According to the shiplab, "GTC Orff" nameplate is stuck with Leviathan and Fenris models...

[StratComm]

That's why you need to download the "nameplate fix" package I put in the media VP patch thread.  It will strip the Orff logo off of the Leviafenris, and I presume is needed for this change anyway.

And taylor, you should just be resizing the tga's themselves, not padding them with empty space.  If you're just expanding the canvas, you will end up making the text itself smaller.

[taylor]

And taylor, you should just be resizing the tga's themselves, not padding them with empty space.  If you're just expanding the canvas, you will end up making the text itself smaller.

The non-power-of-2 versions are 420x61 so I was trying to avoid stretching it horizontally if I could.  It may not have mattered, I just wasn't sure.  The problem with the PCX plates is that they include parts of the hull, is it still safe resize those and not cause seams?  I can't tell if my current Orion model is up-to-date so I haven't fixed the texture yet.  The one I have includes a real nameplate but the missions here use part of the hull for texture replacement rather than the old nameplate.  One of the problems of using my own MediaVPs I guess.  Trying to get everything updated to current (or at least more official) right now.

[StratComm]

The problem with the Orions are that Galemp didn't realize what I had done with the nameplate texture when he did his reskin, and so the "extra" nameplate polys were removed and replaced with the old style on-hull nameplates.  The one you should be using should work just like the retail Orion, as that's the way the "final" version ended up working.  I'm not really thrilled about it as I changed it in the first place to ease the burden of making nameplates, but what's done is done.

To answer your question though, you should ALWAYS be scaling the whole image.  If you rescale it so that the edges are still the edges then tiling will never be an issue.  UV coordinates are relative to the normalized space of a texture, not pixel-specific.  The corner that starts out as 0,0 will always be 0,0; the one that starts 1,1 will always be 1,1.  Think about how the game handles upsizing internally; it's a stretch, not a fill.

[taylor]

The problem with the Orions are that Galemp didn't realize what I had done with the nameplate texture when he did his reskin, and so the "extra" nameplate polys were removed and replaced with the old style on-hull nameplates.  The one you should be using should work just like the retail Orion, as that's the way the "final" version ended up working.  I'm not really thrilled about it as I changed it in the first place to ease the burden of making nameplates, but what's done is done.

I think I remember some conversation about that before.  What would be nice is if I could figure out which friggin Orion model I'm using now.   I just don't remember who made it.  It looked really good.  I was happy.  And that's all I needed to know.

To answer your question though, you should ALWAYS be scaling the whole image.  If you rescale it so that the edges are still the edges then tiling will never be an issue.  UV coordinates are relative to the normalized space of a texture, not pixel-specific.  The corner that starts out as 0,0 will always be 0,0; the one that starts 1,1 will always be 1,1.  Think about how the game handles upsizing internally; it's a stretch, not a fill.

Gotcha.  That makes more sense.  I was looking at it more from the API side and not the g3 side, which is totally wrong of me to do since I'm seeing it in reverse code wise.  I'll resize them correctly and then upload again.


Edit: File at previous link updated.  Only tested the Orion and Deimos but both worked properly.

[starfox]

About the font used on the nameplates....are they available for download in somewhere ?
Also, is it possible to edit current nameplates in photoshop ? For exaple, "renaming" the current name instead of creating completely new one...

[karajorma]

Check the modding section of my FAQ starfox. It links to Goober's page which will tell you all you need to know

[Cobra]

oy, admiral nelson, you forgot the NTCv Belisarius.

[Admiral Nelson]

Belisarius should be there -- it was the first Deimos I did!! You sure its not present in the mission?  Unfortunately I have another business trip, and am in a hotel typing on a laptop without access to FS2.

Edit: Note that the filename for BELISARIUS lacks the NTCV prefix.  It should be there in the mission.

And thanks to everyone else for helping out in this conversion! 

[MetalDestroyer]

Good to see ^^. Good job.

[Cobra]

Belisarius should be there -- it was the first Deimos I did!! You sure its not present in the mission?  Unfortunately I have another business trip, and am in a hotel typing on a laptop without access to FS2.

Edit: Note that the filename for BELISARIUS lacks the NTCV prefix. It should be there in the mission.

I'm sure. check my 3.6.7 shots, i took a screenie of the NTCv Belisarius. no nameplate.

[StratComm]

The Trinity should definitely be GTC.  Romig tries to pass his ship off that way when Zeta wing finds it, meaning he was hoping that the record of his defection hadn't been dissiminated to the fleet (before which, changing the nameplate would be really stupid as he could still pass the Trinity off as a GTVA vessel).

[Shadow0000]

Coud someone explain me a little, how the nameplates are done...I catch this

A - Black Background
B - Green letters or White letters in 255 255 255 ? (I already have the Font)
C - A Mask (here comes my problem....)

What's is the way of apply the Mask selection, I have done with TGA Backgrounds, even using the Fusion effect for Atmospheres, but this seems to be different, it's seems simple but I can't figure it how.....

[TrashMan]

I havn't figured out the nampeplates myself. For my campiang I use normal PCX's (green background, whiteish letters). Doesn't look bad, but if the letters were slightly transparent, it would look better.

Is there a coprehensive tutorial out there on how to make such nameplates?

[Admiral Nelson]

I just used GIMP.  A fully transparent background layer of the size appropriate for the model in question.  Add a text layer with the text in Stop font.  GIMP has a transparency slider for each layer.  I moved the slider to around 90% opaque to have some transparency..  I then save the file as a TGA.  Last step is to use the nvidia utility to convert the resulting tga to dds -- there is no reason not to use dds for a nameplate.

[taylor]

I then save the file as a TGA.  Last step is to use the nvidia utility to convert the resulting tga to dds -- there is no reason not to use dds for a nameplate.

Or you could just get the DDS plugin for GIMP (http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/) and skip the TGA->DDS step.

[TrashMan]

GIMP?


Can anyone explain how to do the same in Photoshop?

[StratComm]

Photoshop works more or less in the exact same way.  Create a new image with a transparent background and sized the way you want the nameplate texture to be, add a layer for text and put the name for the plate in there, and reduce the opacity of the text layer.  Collapse the text layer into the base, save as TGA (and convert later) or DDS if you have the plugin for it, and you're done.

[Goober5000]

It's a bit more complex than that...
http://sectorgame.com/goober/nameplates.html
IMHO merely reducing the opacity on a single layer doesn't make a satisfactory effect.

The good news is that my Photoshop template can be used for any nameplate... just resize it.

[StratComm]

While I agree, the basic effect Trashman is going for here isn't of the complexity of the Orion nameplate method.  The plates he's wanting to make would be derivatives of the pure green background map.  Ideally you would use a noise overlay of some kind to keep it from being too uniform without having to custom tweak the image.

The larger question, however, the difference between Gimp and Photoshop, is more a matter of interface, optimization, and available plugings.  Their core operation is really more or less the same, at least on the level that most of us use them at.