Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 02:54:37 am

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 02:54:37 am

Can anyone tell me how to make fighter textures.  I have tryed to use pre existing textures but they never quite work out for me.  but here is what i am trying to texture.

The GTVF Worrior heavy fighter.

(http://users.ncable.com.au/gtbernaldo/pics/worrior/worrior01.jpg)


(http://users.ncable.com.au/gtbernaldo/pics/worrior/worrior02.jpg)

(http://users.ncable.com.au/gtbernaldo/pics/worrior/worrior03.jpg)

Title: My opinion
Post by: Star Dragon on December 05, 2003, 03:02:11 am

Since I can't make them myself, only change existing ones, this is my take...

   As you map the model try to visualize how you want to look in general. Not really having any textures in mind, just the locations you want new ones to go. Like map out a wing area, maybe anohter space for an elevator or aileron (SP?), one for the trhruster/engine, cockpit of course, weapon/gun, turrent or socket, tail, main body...

  That way when you are ready to add the real textures you can try out different combinations until you find the ones that bring out the best look for your model. That is unless you know EXACTLY what you want the final result to be like.

If you saw Raptor's Saturn thread you can see how he mapped out working textures, and then how I interpreted it with my scheme, and then his final results... Three different texture looks, over the same areas... I hope this helps you a little...

BTW don't be afraid to experiemnt!!! A piece of th spiderman costume became the backcone of the new shivan fleet!

   http://photo.starblvd.net/Star_Dragon/6-4-2-1043929392?m=0&pg=5&ro=3&co=1

Behold Shivan-Shadow Battleship - "Septerra", model by Gevetter Lars, textured by yours truly! ;)

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: aldo_14 on December 05, 2003, 03:28:53 am

find a uvunwrapper so you can create a template.  I have no idea how this works in TS - I use max - but I think IPandrews or the B5 project did a brief tutorial.  Then draw on the template.

Takes a lot of practice to get it to look good though.  Years, in fact.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 03:30:50 am

years i have to learn

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: karajorma on December 05, 2003, 04:11:32 am

IP did the tutorial. You can find a link in my FAQ.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Vilkacis on December 05, 2003, 04:12:45 am

If I'm not mistaken there's some serious clipping going on in your model (where the wings intersect with the hull and at it's bottom), you might want to fix that before texturing.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 04:14:27 am

what do you mean??  me not on your waveleingth.  and how would i fix it??

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Baron MacDoblin on December 05, 2003, 04:18:41 am

I seem to remember a tutorial over at the vegastrike site ...

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: KARMA on December 05, 2003, 04:23:29 am

fso will probably render em w/o clippings, he just need to test in game first

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: karajorma on December 05, 2003, 04:25:58 am

Baron MacDoblin makes a good point.
Look at the shot of the wing meeting the body. See how instead of having a nice smooth line you have a series of triangles? Your wings are a seperate object from the main body aren't they? If so that needs to change or the model will look dreadful once you put it into FS2.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 04:28:36 am

would puting a little more space between the wings and the body help that or not??

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: IPAndrews on December 05, 2003, 05:56:25 am

Really you need to union and stabilise.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: boewolf on December 05, 2003, 06:46:04 am

ok i have unioned but how do i stabilise??

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: IPAndrews on December 05, 2003, 07:31:41 am

http://underworld.fortunecity.com/pacman/106/fs2mods/shipcreationguide/creatingstablegeometry.html

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: KARMA on December 05, 2003, 08:15:59 am

guys, you probably don't know, but bobbau already worked on how intersections are rendered, upgrading A LOT the z-buffer code, and we should worship him for the eternity for this (since in fs2 there were zbuffer errors even without intesectuions....)
Now even the most weird intersections are rendered PERFECTLY in game, and believe me on this since i already tested models with incredibly complex  intersections.
The only problem that may occur when using intersections is related to collision detections, since intersections give problems when the pof compiler generate the BSP tree, wich is used for collisions, as for other things.
This mean that we CAN use intersections, in a very limited way, only when they are "clean" (like small objects that intersect bigger faces withouth passing through the hull), always testing the result.
There could be problems anyway with this model, since the ventral clippings of the middle section in this model usually show up when there are geometry problems

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Carl on December 05, 2003, 08:35:53 am

if you want it to run in vanilla FS, though, there is an easy way to do it. use the NURBS tool, then extract the control mesh. all you polygons will be sliced perfectly.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Lightspeed on December 05, 2003, 08:47:59 am

I can reccommend LithUnWrap, that's what I use for UVmapping.

Practice is vital though, it will take quite a while until you're comfortable with it. The time you need to get good results can vary from several days to years, depending on your skill and the time you spend on it.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: IPAndrews on December 05, 2003, 08:52:20 am

Quote

Originally posted by Carl
if you want it to run in vanilla FS, though, there is an easy way to do it. use the NURBS tool, then extract the control mesh. all you polygons will be sliced perfectly.

Oustanding. You also end up with about a bazillion squillion (insert your favourite child's number here) polygons. Genius :)

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Carl on December 05, 2003, 08:59:09 am

Quote

Originally posted by IPAndrews


Oustanding. You also end up with about a bazillion squillion (insert your favourite child's number here) polygons. Genius :)

i said "and extract the control mesh"

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: IPAndrews on December 05, 2003, 09:54:50 am

Holy ****, he's right!  :o

1. Select your object.
2. Hit NURBS object.
3. Right click the NURBS object icon to bring up the NURBS toolbox.
4. Hit the destroy NURBS object icon.
5. When the diolog box appears hit NO to extract control mesh.

Your end result, one perfectly stabilised mesh!

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: KARMA on December 05, 2003, 10:22:19 am

yes, but you have to build a nurb mesh first...

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Baron MacDoblin on December 05, 2003, 10:19:13 pm

Here's a simple tutorial:

http://edice.netfirms.com/tuts/texturetut.htm

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: karajorma on December 06, 2003, 04:31:30 am

That is probably one of the simplest tutorials I've ever seen. At least now I have no excuse for not trying it :D

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: KARMA on December 06, 2003, 05:49:32 am

there are many strategies to make textures for a fighter, those strategies can be used for capships too.
The problem with "custom" textures is that you have limited tileing possibilities, tileing means to repeat a texture over the same poly/s, obtaining  an higher texture resolution aspect: the bigger the model, the bigger will have to be the custom maps to obtain the same resolution aspect achieved with tileing, so you have to find a balance between texture/model size when mapping capital ships.
the strategies:
1-(top-down process) unwrap your model in lithunwrap (or similar). unwrap means to assign poly/s to a specific portion of a map, like peeling potatoes, and then applying the skin over specif areas (maps). When you complete this process, you can save the templates of the maps, and you will draw the textures over those templates.
2-(bottom-up process) you draw the texture for specific poly/s (using screenshots or again lithunwrap to create templates) and then you put all this single textures together, to create a more general texture, then you use lithunwrap (or similar) to assign the poly/s to the right texture's position.
3-actually it is a variant of the one above: after drawing the single textures and applying them to the mesh (before creating the bigger maps), you can use the baking abilities of some modelling programs to create the gereral maps.

in both cases you may have poly/s that will be mapped better with a tileing texture: in this case you can use truespace or (again) lithunwrap to apply the tileing

to draw textures:
1-you can make patchworks of images saved from internet: it is easyer in my opinion that most people think.
Browse the internet to create a library of platings, rusty or dirty metallic areas,  mech elements, etc etc etc. You will need an halfway decent knowledge of your painting program to modify/adapt your images and to put them together in a realistic way.
2-draw maps on your own. this is the best way. But at the same time it is the longer and harder one.
use tutorials to see how things are done.
use general tutorials to see how simple general effects can be done and learn the basics of painting programs (www.photoshopcafe.com)
use specific texturing tutorials to see how others solve the problems related specifically to texturing
some texturing tutorials can be found here: www.xwaupgrade.com
I also wrote a step by step texturing tutorial, but I don't remember the link at this time:p, make a search over this forum

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: magatsu1 on December 06, 2003, 08:24:59 am

are there any (legal) free to download proggys avaliable ?

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: karajorma on December 06, 2003, 09:47:50 am

For texturing? I've heard a few people mention GIMP but I know very little about it.

For modelling check my FAQ.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: magatsu1 on December 06, 2003, 01:15:09 pm

Found GIMP via Google. (imagine saying that on anythin' other than a pc)

I'll have a bash at some textures soon.

Thanks k.

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: KARMA on December 06, 2003, 01:23:25 pm

I remember also a free program called satori photo xl or something like that

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Black Wolf on December 06, 2003, 10:38:01 pm

You can grab PSP 7 and 8 in free, 30 day trial mode from the Jasc Website, and then do unspeakable things to them (Personally, I recommend 7 - 8 is headachy0

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: adwight on December 07, 2003, 12:24:43 am

Is it just me, or has my trial expired, yet I can still use PSP 7???

Title: How do i make fighter textures??
Post by: Carl on December 07, 2003, 12:34:45 am

yeah, for a while you can, but after 60 days it goes away.