Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: LtNarol on March 11, 2002, 09:55:17 am
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stupid question #1:
What is the difference between polys and surfaces?
stupid question #2:
How many surfaces is too many for a fighter? For a capital ship?
stupid question #3:
Truespace is flipping faces but never the same ones, it even flips faces i dont mess with that it didnt flip the time before. Is truespace5 just f***ed up?
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Originally posted by LtNarol
stupid question #1:
What is the difference between polys and surfaces?
stupid question #2:
How many surfaces is too many for a fighter? For a capital ship?
stupid question #3:
Truespace is flipping faces but never the same ones, it even flips faces i dont mess with that it didnt flip the time before. Is truespace5 just f***ed up?
1) There is none, to my knowledge.
2. For a fighter, about 1,000 polys, the best is around 800-900. For a capship, it's 3000, unless it's broken up into sub-objects.
3.Yes.:p:D
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1. great
2. so 137 surfaces for a fighter will work?
3. great news, how do i flip individual faces in truespace?
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Originally posted by LtNarol
1. great
2. so 137 surfaces for a fighter will work?
3. great news, how do i flip individual faces in truespace?
2.Yes, if ot looks good enough.
3. Don't use TS if you can help it.
Anyways, sorry, can't help you there.
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Flip them in the program you're making the model with, and re-export them.
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Originally posted by Starfury
Flip them in the program you're making the model with, and re-export them.
Ive been doing that, but then another faces becomes flipped in truespace, a face that i didnt even touch...i spent 2 hours flipping faces that way, and im on the verge of deleting truespace because of it.
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If you use Blender you can do the face stuff by entering edit mode (tab) and selecting all the vertices (A key) now press Ctrl+N to get all the faces to face outward. Then exit edit mode (tab again) and save.
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1st point- DON'T USE BLENDER Its alot better to model in TS (or MAX in my case) and the models come out much cleaner and more FS2-freindly.
2nd point- learn to keep the models to a poly limit and stick to it, I use this one
Fighters- don't exceed 750
Cap-Ships- Not over 1000
Juggernaughts and Installations- Not more than 1500
Super-Ships- Don't exceed 2000
Make sure that the polys are low before adding the turrets becuase they can sometimes add up to 200 more polys and causes the model to be laggy.
The wise words of untouchable :D:D
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Program used to create original FS models: 3D Studio MAX
Program which converters predominantly favour: TrueSpace
There's something not quite right about that but I can't put my finger on it. :rolleyes:
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Whats wrong with that?
MAX is what V used to create all of the models form both FS and FS2. They used the COB format because of its (well I don't know why)
But TS is 400,000 times easier to create the higherarchy correctly and so I too, along with many others, use TS to convert models because you can do it much faster than anything else. Plus, it makes it so that it is already prepared to convert :nod:
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I like Max much better than TS, but TS seems to be the only choice due to all of the cob converters out there.
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Then get some programmer to make a Blend to POF (or Cob) Program!
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on another note, anyone here know how to make textures from scratch that would be willing to help me out a bit?
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Originally posted by untouchable
Whats wrong with that?
MAX is what V used to create all of the models form both FS and FS2. They used the COB format because of its (well I don't know why)
But TS is 400,000 times easier to create the higherarchy correctly and so I too, along with many others, use TS to convert models because you can do it much faster than anything else. Plus, it makes it so that it is already prepared to convert :nod:
Ts1 was free....that's probably why a cob convertor was made.
V will have their own Max - pof convertors, but won't release them.
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It says on descent network they used an 'in-house program' to add the POF data to the MAX files.
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yeah, that was the BSPGEN utility. Don't know much more than the name, though.
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whats the Poly limit to FS1 ships?
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Er... .3ds files standard in MAX are also used in practically every other program, and all you have to do in TS is retexture (and assign the damned names, etc... which is bad enough that I never do it). TS also ports Lightwave objects, and practically everything else in the later versions, BTW. Only autocad files get screwed up.
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Actually, avoiding Autocad screwups is fairly easy, using Blender. Just make the model single sided, turn on the Z-Buffer, and make sure all the faces are black. :p :D
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Originally posted by LtNarol
on another note, anyone here know how to make textures from scratch that would be willing to help me out a bit?
first point is the uv mapping, if you don't know what uvmap is look for the the truespace manuals or make a search over internet...there is something in the texturing tutorial of volitionwatch too...its too difficult to exlain with my sucking english...the uv maps "says" how a texture will be projected (orientation, angle, scaling..) over a group of faces...
there are two ways:
1use an unwrapper (like lithunwrap that is free .. use the search tool in this forum to look for links and tips already posted from megalemor and others) that lets you set more uvmaps (so more areas of the model) in the same textures
2use a strategy that may sound like "one uvmap->one texture" (but you would have a lot more textures with this strategy, at least 6-7 for a fighter, but it depends on the shape obviusly), there is a small tutorial on www.xwaupgrade.com about this strategy
the second point is how to create a texture... what you need is a decent 2dgraphic program firstable.
the best (but most difficult) is photoshop, but psp is good too, btw any program that use layers will work, if you look for a free program there is satori photo xl (i posted a link sometimes ago..use the search button ) or gimpsy (if i remember well the name, not sure..it is a free program build for linux but there is a win version too), ultimate paint althought without layers is a cool program too.
When you have your graphic program, well just start creating your texture... there is a tutorial on xwaupgrade (the same before) that gives you some basics, but there isn't the "right" way...ant that you create can work, it just depends on what you want to obtain.
just remeber that texture must be 256*256 or 128*128 (or 512*512 if you have the registry hack) and of 256 colors, you will need the textures of 256 colors and in *.bmp to be used in truespac, in *.pcx to be used by freespace.