Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Tools => Topic started by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 28, 2017, 04:31:04 am

Title: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 28, 2017, 04:31:04 am
Alrighty, I searched through all the related threads without finding anything useful.
I have a bunch of ships ready for the finishing touch, but I can't progress because nearly every single thing I do on PCS2 makes it crash with 'ERROR: Array out of bounds'.
Also, is there any alternative in case PCS2 simply refuses to work no matter what I do?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on April 28, 2017, 05:23:11 am
Are you using the version linked here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=77292.msg1835466#msg1835466)? (which I think is the most recent)
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 28, 2017, 08:50:04 am
Alright, so that fixed the Array thing.
But now I'm facing a new problem: I have absolutely no idea how to use it.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on April 28, 2017, 10:11:54 pm
Well.. what do you want to do? Import some models from some modeling program (which one?) & make them ready to use in FSO?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 29, 2017, 03:41:41 am
Yes, exactly that. Modeling program is Blender.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on April 29, 2017, 05:48:25 am
OK, I've never done that  ;)  Maybe this wiki page will help?

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Blender_to_POF_Conversions

edit: or maybe this thread, probably towards the end, would also help?

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=84335.0
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 29, 2017, 06:29:00 am
I tried both things, neither worked. According to the program, it loaded the model but the model won't show up.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: krevett62 on April 29, 2017, 07:39:32 am
If you're using blender make sure your model follow naming conventions  (detail0, detail1, debris01 etc...) then export in dae format with textures and triangulate options then load the dae in pcs2 it should appear

Edit: sorry I did not see if you followed the guide posted above it's strange that it did not show up in pcs2, anyway from experience I may say that if the model is loaded but does not appear it's probably because textures applied were not exported with it during dae conversion
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 29, 2017, 08:56:22 am
YES! After making sure I exported it with the texture, it finally showed up. It shows up inside out though, but I'll probably find a way to fix it.
Anyway, thanks a bunch.

EDIT: Nope. Still haven't found out how to make the thing normal again.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: chief1983 on April 29, 2017, 08:59:39 pm
You mean that the textures are showing up on the opposite side of whatever face they should show up on?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Axem on April 29, 2017, 09:09:30 pm
It sounds like you have inverted normals. Either try inverting normals or making sure you don't have a negative scale modifier applied to your model. (That last one tripped me up a lot when exporting with Blender)
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on April 30, 2017, 02:26:45 am
So, none of the solutions here really worked, but, weirdly enough, what DID fix it was applying a negative scale modifier to my model, for some reason.

EDIT: I am sincerely sorry but I still have one last(?) problem: I got the texture done and all, but it refuses to show up in PCS2, and when I load the ship in FRED, it only shows the wireframe when selected.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on May 01, 2017, 12:58:47 am
In Options -> Preferences, check that you have the correct path to your textures set. i.e. PCS2 doesn't know about mod.ini files (or mods in general) so you need to set the location of your textures manually.  e.g. FSO_INSTALL_LOCATION/MOD/data/maps.  Ensure you have a trailing slash (/) on each path you set (I think this bug is fixed now, but in the past it's caused me much :banghead:)
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 01, 2017, 02:15:23 am
Nnnngh.....nope... that didn't work....
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: chief1983 on May 01, 2017, 05:46:42 am
In the past, I seem to recall also adding a ./ path so it finds textures in the folder with the model, for any WIP models I open.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: zookeeper on May 01, 2017, 06:03:40 am
In Options -> Preferences, check that you have the correct path to your textures set. i.e. PCS2 doesn't know about mod.ini files (or mods in general) so you need to set the location of your textures manually.  e.g. FSO_INSTALL_LOCATION/MOD/data/maps.  Ensure you have a trailing slash (/) on each path you set (I think this bug is fixed now, but in the past it's caused me much :banghead:)
At least I only have the mod directories in the paths, not mod/data/maps directories.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 01, 2017, 12:38:01 pm
I slapped every single directory on it, still nothing showing up.
Is PCS2 the only program I can use for clearing that last remaining step or am I essentially f***** right now?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 01, 2017, 12:54:13 pm
Where are the texture files, exactly, and what format are they in?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 01, 2017, 02:10:10 pm
Where are the texture files, exactly, and what format are they in?
In a folder called "maps" and they're in a DDS format.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 01, 2017, 07:05:34 pm
Where are the texture files, exactly, and what format are they in?
In a folder called "maps" and they're in a DDS format.
But where is that "maps" folder located?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Black Wolf on May 01, 2017, 09:30:32 pm
PCS2 understands the structure of Freespace data files. If you have your model in "data\models" and your maps in "data\maps", and the \data\ folder in the list of texture sources, it will show up. It's possible that your file structure is fine, and what you're dealing with is a problem with the model or the texture, especially if you had other weirdness when you imported.

Check that the list of textures PCS gives you id the same as the list of textures you expect to see. Make sure they're all spelled correctly, with no trailing or preceding characters. Open the dae file in another program and make sure the textures show up there and the UV mapping looks right. Confirm there's nothing weird with the alpha channels on the textures (unlikely to be the cause, but an important step, easily forgotten). If all else fails, upload the model and the textures and let us try to help. My instinct here, based on the fact that you've had other errors that you've had to bodge your way around, is that your exported model was less than 100% kosher. That happened to me a tonne before I got a good process going in Max, and it can be stupidly hard to diagnose, but is often very easy to fix by a good, clean re-export.

At the very least someone will probably be able to convert the model for you, far more likely we'll be able to ID the problem and tell you how to fix it far quicker with the actual files in hand.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on May 01, 2017, 09:39:35 pm
If you have your model in "data\models" and your maps in "data\maps", and the \data\ folder in the list of texture sources, it will show up.

Unfortunately it doesn't work for me; I can't see any of the FotG ship textures unless I add the full path to the maps/ folder.  Could be a Linux specific bug?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 01, 2017, 10:05:07 pm
I'm pretty sure you need to point it to the mod root, not the \data\ folder.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 01, 2017, 11:44:27 pm
Where are the texture files, exactly, and what format are they in?
In a folder called "maps" and they're in a DDS format.
But where is that "maps" folder located?


Its in the mod's 'data' folder, where 'tables' and 'models' are also located.


PCS2 understands the structure of Freespace data files. If you have your model in "data\models" and your maps in "data\maps", and the \data\ folder in the list of texture sources, it will show up. It's possible that your file structure is fine, and what you're dealing with is a problem with the model or the texture, especially if you had other weirdness when you imported.

Check that the list of textures PCS gives you id the same as the list of textures you expect to see. Make sure they're all spelled correctly, with no trailing or preceding characters. Open the dae file in another program and make sure the textures show up there and the UV mapping looks right. Confirm there's nothing weird with the alpha channels on the textures (unlikely to be the cause, but an important step, easily forgotten). If all else fails, upload the model and the textures and let us try to help. My instinct here, based on the fact that you've had other errors that you've had to bodge your way around, is that your exported model was less than 100% kosher. That happened to me a tonne before I got a good process going in Max, and it can be stupidly hard to diagnose, but is often very easy to fix by a good, clean re-export.

At the very least someone will probably be able to convert the model for you, far more likely we'll be able to ID the problem and tell you how to fix it far quicker with the actual files in hand.

Yes, I checked in Blender, it looks fine on my side, PCS2 is really the only area causing a problem for me.

Here's the model along with its.... slightly disappointing texture (I suck at texturing)


[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: niffiwan on May 02, 2017, 12:28:57 am
I'm pretty sure you need to point it to the mod root, not the \data\ folder.

Yeah, tried that too, pointing it at the root of the FotG TC folder and again, no dice.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 02, 2017, 01:01:14 am
Seems to work for me no matter what model I load, or which mod I load one from:
(http://deviance.duckish.net/pictures/PCS2_example.png)
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 02, 2017, 01:13:30 am
Seems to work for me no matter what model I load
*snip*

So it may be possible that the problem might be on my side if I understood correctly.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 02, 2017, 01:34:58 am
Seems to work for me no matter what model I load
*snip*

So it may be possible that the problem might be on my side if I understood correctly.
Could you post a screenshot of your PCS2 preferences so we can see the list of directories it's searching?
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 02, 2017, 01:45:00 am
Seems to work for me no matter what model I load
*snip*

So it may be possible that the problem might be on my side if I understood correctly.
Could you post a screenshot of your PCS2 preferences so we can see the list of directories it's searching?

I am currently unable to access my computer but I do know for sure that it searched through those directories:

<appdir>/textures
Freespace 2/shipyardtest
Freespace 2/shipyardtest/data/maps
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 02, 2017, 02:29:47 am
I specifically want a screenshot so I can see exactly how those paths are written.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: krevett62 on May 02, 2017, 07:04:11 am
I had the problem with PCS2 not showing my textures even though the path was set correct. It was solved by adding a "\" at the en of the path ie Freespace 2\shipyardtest\data\maps\ in the program preferences instead of Freespace 2\shipyardtest\data\maps
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Black Wolf on May 02, 2017, 07:15:15 am
Ok, so it's not loading the textures for me either, which suggests a problem with the pof. I exported a dae, and there's no UV mapping when I load the dae in either Lithunwrap or 3ds Max, so I suspect that your dae export dumped the UV mapping, and kept the material, but probably lost the fact that it was assigned to any actual polies. But, since the model is still showing you proper textures in Blender, that means that you still have a version that still has its UV mapping infomation, so you just need to figure out how to properly export it. At this point though, you're going to need a blender expert to help you, as I don't use that program.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: zookeeper on May 02, 2017, 07:54:20 am
Ok, so it's not loading the textures for me either, which suggests a problem with the pof. I exported a dae, and there's no UV mapping when I load the dae in either Lithunwrap or 3ds Max, so I suspect that your dae export dumped the UV mapping, and kept the material, but probably lost the fact that it was assigned to any actual polies. But, since the model is still showing you proper textures in Blender, that means that you still have a version that still has its UV mapping infomation, so you just need to figure out how to properly export it. At this point though, you're going to need a blender expert to help you, as I don't use that program.

Yeah, I got the impression earlier that he actually got it working in FRED at some point so I didn't even look at the model, but looking at it now, it's definitely where the problem is. Normally in PCS2 you can select the texture and see the wireframe go pink to indicate which polys that texture applies to, and here none of the polys simply use the texture.

I don't know Blender either, but it's probably simple to fix.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: Wet Orange Ostrich Toilet on May 02, 2017, 09:47:37 am
Okay, I figured it out!
So, I needed to apply my texture as a material and then check the "Export Material" box in order to have it properly exported with the texture and all. Thanks everyone for helping me fix this problem.
Title: Re: How do I use PCS2?
Post by: chief1983 on May 02, 2017, 09:50:06 am
Glad you got it figured out!