[Bobboau]

you could make a glow map, give it a glow point, or just give it a huge thruster glow

[Omniscaper]

I just used the specs for the cyclops minus the trails and engine glows. I put a GLOW point on it instead. The glow seems to work but a bit off in alignment, despite the fact that glow location is in absolute zero as well as the object center.

Can Glow maps be animated? I've tried replacing the pcx with an ANI but it just doesn't. ANI specs are 15fps 256 colors 50 frames.

[Bobboau]

it loads the pcx if it finds it first,
and glow points are haveing some issues at the moment, I'm not sure if it's going to get fixed befor the next relese, but it will get fixed eventualy

[Omniscaper]

I am optimizing the Sovereign Class model now and I'd like to know if its ok to leave the mesh as multiple objects. I booleaned all the seperate parts together and the polyon count nearly tripled. "Chronocidal_Guy" modeled the parts seperately and the vertices do not align with each other. Would it be better for the HT&L to handle a ship with multiple objects rather than a single mesh with 3x the polygons?  It went from 12k to 19k

I have a shot of the segmented model as shown in the bottom of this forum:

http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~bridgecommander/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=203105#203105

In regard to the animated textures, I have not tried it on model textures, but I know that the GLOW texture refuses to accept ANI's, only stills.

[Bobboau]

just put the objects into a single abstract groupe, glue them together, don't make them into seperate subobjects (i.e. glue a light to each part then glue those together)

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Omniscaper
In regard to the animated textures, I have not tried it on model textures, but I know that the GLOW texture refuses to accept ANI's, only stills.

The Glow option is for glowpoints not glowmaps so there isn't really that much need for animation there as you can already blink glowmaps the way you like anyway.
You'd achieve the glow you want there by moving the texture around instead.

[Omniscaper]

If I understand your instructions correctly, my first successfull conversion (the ones in picture) was correct.

My hierarchy:

Sov
...Part A
......Saucer
......Light
...Part B
......Secondary Hull
......Light
...Part C
......Nacelles
......Light
...Part D
......Bridge
......Light
...Turret01
......Turret A
......Turret01-FP (light)

etc....


Should I put the parts as siblings to the turrets? The original hirarchy did not have any other major groups.

[Omniscaper]

My goal with the Photon torpedoes is to use the model I made and make the glow animated like in the movies. Just rotating the still pcx (if possible) looks cheesy.

I made an ANI animation that is 256x256, 256colors, 15fps, and 60frames. The animation looks like an actual photon torpedo.

Using that animation, the alternative is to do away with the model and just create an animated sprite (if possible). Or texture a sphere in away that the texture is always facing you.

[KARMA]

do this:

Code: [Select]



Sov
......Saucer
......Secondary Hull
......Nacelles
......Bridge
......(light) (it should work even without light)
......Turret01
.............Turret A
.............Turret01-FP (light)

if you want for example the nascelles destroyable, you may want  a destroyed version of the nascelles (not necessary, but it will look crap if they just disappear when destroyed), and they will have to be placed as a separate group, like turret01

[Omniscaper]

The problem with doing it that way, is that the model would not convert or crash the game because much of the parts (nacelles, bridge,etc) intersect with an underlying structure. Intersection = crash or no convert. I had to make every "Part" grouped with a light to make it a subobject in order for it to convert and be playable. I'm trying to find a way to get rid of the intersections via boolean subtraction, but it will be a long process of cut and paste.

[Bobboau]

put the cob up in a zip somewere so we can try converting it

[KARMA]

remember that this way it will take much more to convert. Even if PCS seem crashing, just let it work for a while, don't give up before...mmmm....10 minutes....
For the game crashing, there may be many reasons: if the single group pof crash it, and the multigroup pof doesn't, this reduce the range of possibilities, and will help the coders finding reason/solution

[Omniscaper]

At this point, I had already forgoton the NUMEROUS combinations of hierarchy that i've tried. But aside from hierarchy, I know for a fact, from deduction, that any "element" (3dsmax term, a select group of polygons which in this case make up part of the object like nacelle casing) that intersects with another element within a single object, crashes PCS or Freespace.

So I have to detach that element, and make it its own object. Those intersecting elements as well as other objects which I cannot seamlessly attach (vertex-wise) to the super-structure become seperate objects. In Truespace, these seperate objects are glued with a light and then glued to the main object. Same way turrets are attached.

[Omniscaper]

My latest Galaxy hierarchy which is works flawlessly:

Galaxy Class
---Galaxy
------Nacelles
----------Nacelle
----------Bussard
----------Blue Coil
------Impulse Engine
----------Impulse Engine
----------Light
------Bridge
----------Bridge
----------Light
------Turret01
----------Phaser1
----------Turret01-fp
etc......   more turrets up to 34.

I'd like to keep the turrets more tidy by making subgroups seperating the turrets of a particular Phaser arc from the other arcs. Like:

Galaxy Class
---Galaxy
------Phasers
----------Saucer Upper Arc
--------------Turret01
------------------Phaser1
------------------Turret01-fp
--------------Turret02
------------------Phaser2
------------------Turret02-fp
etc...  

I found that by making subgroups with the turrets make many of the turrets untargetable.

[Omniscaper]

OK folks, I just played the newest space sim X2-The Threat. I have to say, she is quite a beauty. It looks like a Directx9 version of Freespace2 with cockpits.

Shes got HT&L, bump-mapping, speculars, glow, and the most impressive effect, shadows with self-shadowing (Please SCP, explore incorporating those in Freespace) Shes even got localized nebulas and inter system jumping. Of course I decided to give my computer a shakedown, and put all graphics to its highest without antialiasing.....  X2 makes quite a beautiful slideshow on my radeon 9500pro. Even with effects at medium, 25 FPS was the best I could do. I dont even want to attempt antialiasing.

I've yet to dive into the game fully which includes eventual capitol ship fleet control and RTS elements, but the game falls short in physics and handling. Inertia seems none existant. You stop and turn at a dime. Freespace has it beat in this realm immensely.

Shes quite a pretty site, but like a number girls I've dated, the beauty came without a brain. As a space shooter, it feels WRONG.

I have complete faith that FS@:SCP will eventually get to the Directx9 state with most of the trimmings. Freespace, in my opinion, still got it beat, despite X2's diverse gameplay offerings. At the current state of FS2:SCP's graphics, it holds its own without all the graphics icing. Go team!!! No "Threat" here!

[KARMA]

the point is not that FSO has to better than other actual studio quality games (who said halflife2?)..that's impossible..we can't compare (on the graphic side) FSO to recent games, for obvious reasons.
The point is that FSO WILL be better, one day or the other, than actual games, for the simple reasons that it is an in-development project, and therefore it is in continue evolution:)
(ps: you can already jump between systems in FSO...in a certain way...)

now, about your galaxy: I don't say I don't believe you, but I converted recently a 10k polys ships with the weirdest intersections you can imagine, placing al the objects (40..) all in the same layer.
It took a lot to convert with PCS, but it got converted, and the game never crashed (but I haven't made some stress tests like you, placing 3 or for of those ships in game, I just placed 2 of em and looked at the results)
If you are having problems converting the model or if the model is crashing the game, then there is something strange, that MUST be analyzed, since it could be important.
Just find an FTP space and upload your files, I'm sure Bob (and others) will be interested in it, since such an high poly model is an excellent test for FSO, and the fact that it is crashing the game may be important to show some of its limits.

[Omniscaper]

Who do I give the kulprit model to, for analysis? And how should I deliver it?

[KARMA]

upload somewhere and  post the link

[Omniscaper]

Upload where, I'm still new to any form of file hosting. Normally I would assume I would give it to the forum admins to distribute. I'd actually would like to get the Galaxy model up for the public to try out. I just don't know how. Give me a link where I can upload files to, free preferably. Yahoo is the only place I have anyform of membership asside from forums.

[KARMA]

there are hundreds if not thousands of free web hosting services. From geocities to fortunecity to angelfire, etcetc.
just choose one, you don't need a pro hosting service to just share files
I also think there is a guy in this community offering free ftp space too.