[actual_glue]

I've been banging my head against this for hours upon hours, and I just don't know what it is I'm missing.  I'm sure it's perfectly obvious, but I'm not seeing it.

I'm using Blender to model ships and skyboxes.  I've got all the UV unwrapping and stuff down... but then how in the heck do I get those textures into the game?

Let me run real quickly through what I have to do.  I'm not on the PCS2 bus yet because my onboard laptop graphics card apparently isn't really down with the whole "OpenGL" thing (psh!  Who does THAT stuff, anyway?)  So I export from Blender into a .cob, from a .cob to a .pof in PCS1, and tinker using PCS1 and ModelView32.  So, someone who remembers the dark days before PCS2, how did you get your textures from Blender to FS2?  My particular concern here is having multiple textures--I have a different textures for a detail box that serves as a cockpit, and skyboxes with six textures each.

As soon as I can work out a viable solution to this, I'll be releasing ships based on near-future projections of technology (I'm thinking humanity's first interplanetary war) and true-to-life skybox models of low orbits and starfields in the Sol system.

Thanks so much.

[Water]

Try splitting any object with multiple textures until each piece has only one texture.

Only textures that are assigned in the uv editor count, materials don't.  Any object with multiple textures, when exported to cob, gets assigned whatever the first uv texture happens to be.

Using Truespace3 and the Trueview plugin they can be recombined into one object.

If Truespace isn't your thing I have an old Blender export script that can combine multiple objects as part of the export process.

[actual_glue]

Hey!  I was reading some of your texturing stuff on the forums yesterday.  It's an honor to hear from the pros.

I've given up on TrueSpace, and I don't want to go back if I don't have to.  Where can I find that Blender plugin?

Alternately, is there any reason that just parenting objects to detail0 shouldn't work for this?

[The E]

One thing that bugs me here is, why can't you run PCS2? What error messages does it give you? Which versions did you try?

[headdie]

Hey!  I was reading some of your texturing stuff on the forums yesterday.  It's an honor to hear from the pros.

I've given up on TrueSpace, and I don't want to go back if I don't have to.  Where can I find that Blender plugin?

Alternately, is there any reason that just parenting objects to detail0 shouldn't work for this?

the stuff you need for blender conversion is here

[FreeSpaceFreak]

the stuff you need for blender conversion is here

Well, it would be, if glue was using PCS2. But PCS1 can't import DAE, which is what that guide is written for.

[headdie]

the stuff you need for blender conversion is here

Well, it would be, if glue was using PCS2. But PCS1 can't import DAE, which is what that guide is written for.

and that's what I get for butting in on the last few entries of a thread

[actual_glue]

One thing that bugs me here is, why can't you run PCS2? What error messages does it give you? Which versions did you try?

Well, I abandoned that a while ago, but at the time my best guess was that I was having OpenGL problems, since my card has a poor track record with OpenGL.  My laptop has this onboard graphics card from the Mobile Intel 965 Chipset Family, although when I tried to update the drivers for it, I found that Dell had put some sort of custom deal in the laptop, so I have to get drivers from Dell rather than Intel.  Dell seems uninclined to release updated drivers.

I tried every compatibility option that Windows Vista has to offer, and often run things in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2 anyway.  What happens is:  When I'm using PCS2, as I go through the red radio buttons on the left side, after selecting a few, the program crashes.  All I get is the windows "pcs2.exe has stopped working" dialog.  I'm not sure which buttons exactly are causing it, but I can find out if it's relevant.  There are some particular offenders--for example, "Docking points" consistently crashes the program.  They only do this when I have a model open.

I have tried every PCS2 version from 2.0 to 2.0.3.

I've only recently been diving into this kind of stuff, so maybe I missed something.  If you have any insight on how to make PCS2 work on my laptop, I swear I'll PayPal you five bucks or something.  For reals.

[The E]

Well, first, go on over here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=193.0

Look for Spicious, and download a 2.1 build from his signature. Replace the exe from the 2.0.3 install with it. Then run the program, go to the preferences menu, and make sure that OpenGL VBOs are turned off. Then load a model into it, turn on OpenGL VBOs, and see if it still works. If it does, that's good. If it doesn't turn it back off.
I know for a fact that even an Intel GMA can run PCS2, so if you encounter further problems, give me a shout.

[Water]

There are others who have reported similar problems with PCS2. If you can't get it working this should help.

Blender .cob export
The python export script goes in the scripts folder (Blender\.blender\scripts) You need to install python as well.
http://www.python.org/

Model orientation uses Blenders orientation.
Press numpad 1 should show the front, numpad 3, the nose pointing to the left side.

Everything is parented to detail0. Check that each object has scale and rotation applied. Before exporting select all and then Apply scale and rotation (CTRL-A)

Every mesh object can have its own auto smoothing angle.



Set up a turret like this. PCS2 will auto generate from this. It's worth a shot with PCS1. The firepoints are lamps



To combine several mesh pieces into one object, parent the other pieces but put xxxx-   as a prefex to the name. The script will skip group generation for these pieces. In Truespace terms they don't get a light assigned to them. Debris0 is made from three objects, each with its own texture.


When the time comes to export, select detail0 and the hit a twice, so the name turns white.

Textures - Whatever is assigned in the UV editor is the texture PCS will see. Assigned materials are ignored.

Set PCS to import 1 to 1

Hopefully enough is covered, Its been a while since I used it.



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[actual_glue]

Dear Water,

Let me tell you what you are.  You're a saint.  I owe you in a big way.  Here's a little something to hang on your fridge: http://imgur.com/gwOvO



Sincerely,

Glue



P.S. For anyone else who might be trying to use Modelview and PCS1:  Don't fret if they don't display textures.  They don't seem to support DDS.  If you have to see your textures in those programs, save a copy as PCX.