[Nighteyes]

Hi everybody! I'm having trouble converting FS2 models into 3D studio max...
I manage to convert the pof to *obj, and the model shows up in max, but the UVW maps are messed up completely...
Is there something I'm doing wrong?

By gbtf67 at 2009-08-18

[JGZinv]

Perhaps the guide for Max - PCS2 - FS2 would help if you review that?

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,64929

[Galemp]

That won't help him at all.

You're sure they're messed up? There's some parts that are UV'd, and some that are tile textured, so the end result might actually look like that. Try applying the materials to their polys and see what it looks like.

[Nighteyes]

Well, actually both of you guys helped me
JGZinv link pointed me to a place to DL the new ColledaMax plugin, so now 3ds max can import dae properly
and as suggested I pasted the textures on the totally strange(strangest I've ever seen) UVW map, and somehow the model is showing properly
I assume now I need to select manually polys and assign to them the appropriate tile map?

By gbtf67 at 2009-08-18

[Galemp]

You ought to be able to select by material index... or at least you would have been able to, but it seems you have applied the Cain's UV Map to the whole thing.

The Cain, like many FS1 ships, uses one UV map for some areas, and tiled textures for others. I recommend you look at the POF with ModelView and turn on and off the different textures to see which ones you need, and where they belong.

[Nighteyes]

Yeah ill do that... can't wait for the long a tedious work of selecting polys...

[Nighteyes]

Wow!!! Galemp your a saviour!!!
I just tried adding a sub-objects shader with different colors to each one, my work will be much easier now all is left to do is apply the appropriate textures...
thanks!!
btw there should be some kind of documentation on this process(pof to max), as I found none...

By gbtf67 at 2009-08-18

[Galemp]

Glad I could help. Why not take this opportunity to write a page on The FreeSpace Wiki on converting POF to Max? Having just gone through the procedure you could explain it far better than most.

[Nighteyes]

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Nighteyes
I'm not sure I did it properly...

[Nighteyes]

By gbtf67 at 2009-08-19

[Galemp]

That looks about right. Did you just want them for beauty shots, or can we expect some renders or animations in the future?

[Nighteyes]

You can expect some rendered animation in the future (ED mod)

[Gen]

My apologies for resurrecting this thread, but i can't seem to get this stuff to work right. I saved the model as dae, i saved the textures in an extra folder and all. But when i open the .dae in 3ds max, i get this:

While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.
    -Warning: Image file path cain_1.tga does not begin with "./", "file://" or "file:///". Some textures might not be loaded.
    -Warning: Image file path cain_2.tga does not begin with "./", "file://" or "file:///". Some textures might not be loaded.
    -Warning: Image file path damage.tga does not begin with "./", "file://" or "file:///". Some textures might not be loaded.
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node
    -Warning: Extra node is not supported in node

The model is there, but without textures whatsoever. I'm kinda lost at the moment...

[Nighteyes]

well, you need to assign the textures to the model yourself... look this topic up in the wiki I made once a tutorial about this...

[Gen]

well, you need to assign the textures to the model yourself... look this topic up in the wiki I made once a tutorial about this...

I have. But, let me quote your article there:

4. Now the model should have the correct UVW maps, even if they look completly wronge and screwed up, ignore it. go to meterial editor, and creat a new sub-object meterial(according to the number of different textures the model has in PCS2), assign different colors to each meterial, and apply it to the model.

I read that as "The textures are on the model, just looking goofy" - or does it mean "If you assign them normally, they will look goofy"? And what's with the error message, is that normal? Should i just ignore that or try to rename stuff?
And assigning colors to the model.. should there be any sub-objects i can select (because i can't see any) or do i need to select the appropriate polygons and apply the materiel to them?

if you put all texture files in the dae model folder, max will automatically assigne the textures to the model but then you lose a bit of freedom as to how the meterials work.

They're in the same folder as the dae and max doesn't assign anything for me. I didn't change the filenames and tried saving them as single dds and tga, neither works.

Now don't get me wrong, it's a good thing someone wrote a tutorial about this and i thank you for that - it's just not that easy to understand for people who don't work with 3d-stuff that regularly.

[Nighteyes]

if you don't work with a 3D program, may I ask why you'r trying to get a model into it?

basically, what you need to do is assigne the textures by yourself, using a sub-object material as a model usually has more than 1 texture.
if it has only 1 texture, than put it in diffuse, put the glow in the self illumination, and put the shine map in the specular slot.

the different colors for the sub-object meterial is just meant to help you know what texture should go where on the model.

the error messege is because 3ds max can't find the textures, sometimes even if they are in the same folder as the DAE model it won't find them, I also don't know what version you'r useing, so perhaps newer versions will automatically look for the textures in the same folder...

[Gen]

if you don't work with a 3D program, may I ask why you'r trying to get a model into it?

So that i can delete the debris and stuff and save it so i can use with Photoshops 3D-Tools.

basically, what you need to do is assigne the textures by yourself, using a sub-object material as a model usually has more than 1 texture.
if it has only 1 texture, than put it in diffuse, put the glow in the self illumination, and put the shine map in the specular slot.

the different colors for the sub-object meterial is just meant to help you know what texture should go where on the model.

You know, i get that. But i have real problems selecting subobjects (and assigning them the textures) in 3ds max - with some models (the Cain, for instance) it kinda works, but other models (like the Blue Planet Chimera) are just one big bulk when selected.

The way it works now is, i clean up the dae, convert into obj, open it in PS and copy&paste the textures in there. It's tedious (to say the least), but i think it's still faster than me trying to really get into that damn materiel editor. 3D Modelling is just not my world..

Here's how it looks rendered, btw:

[Nighteyes]

yeah, I do agree the meterial system can be a bit confusing if you don't know what you'r doing
but as long as you got it working in the end, that all that matters right?