[TrashMan]

It just struck me that there could be a easy way to make nameplates for each warship without making new models..

Fighters/bombers have a space reserved on their hull for a squad logo (I still don't know how to actualyl add that space to a model..geez..really gotta look into it).

Well the same can be done for capships, but on a bigger scale, and insted of a logo, you put in the ships name!

*Feel free to hit me if this was talked about before but I somehow missed it*

[Fineus]

What would be even better would be a text to graphic generation system - the ships name is extracted straight from FRED and plastered onto the side of the ship in the appropriate place. This would admittedly limit text to a certain length - but it'd be cool anyhow

[Goober5000]

*cough* texture replacement *cough*

Thunder, you should really stop by the SCP forum more often.  That feature has been out for nearly two years now.

There was an associated discussion about graphics-from-text generation on-the-fly, but we concluded it was more trouble than it's worth.

[TrashMan]

I knew about texture replacement, but I still think that using squadron logos (ship names) is a better idea.

First, such nameplates would be smaller and simpler than new textures with names.
Secondly, it's easy to to add more such name places on existing ships...

[aldo_14]

IIRC squad logos don't have proper shading in the code (i.e. for spec maps, etc - any confirmation?).  I think that texture replacement is visually better and allows a lot more variation in terms of placement (depending on your texture setup, of course)

EDIT; i.e. IIRC the ships on Babylon 5 - and hence tBP - have floodlighting around their nameplates; that'd be a pain in the arse to duplicate properly without effectively.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Goober5000
*cough* texture replacement *cough*

Thunder, you should really stop by the SCP forum more often.  That feature has been out for nearly two years now.

There was an associated discussion about graphics-from-text generation on-the-fly, but we concluded it was more trouble than it's worth.

may be more trouble than its worth, but all it takes is one bored coder with too much time on their hands

still a rather natty idea, anyways.

[Fineus]

See? See? He likes my idea

(And yeah, I am massively behind the times).

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
See? See? He likes my idea

(And yeah, I am massively behind the times).

well, it would save time with making campaigns with ships that have custom nameplates, heck, you could have the GTCv bunghole if you wanted to, it's all about choice, isn't it?

[aldo_14]

Doesn't take any longer than typing the name in in Photoshop, though.

[Grimloq]

*shrugs* aldo is right. most decent paint programs have a 'text' option. just type it in, and make sure the sizing is right. 5 minutes work... and thats with applying ,aligning, etc.

[karajorma]

You're missing the fact that most current FS2 ships don't have an easily replaceable texture that can be given the nameplate cause they are tiled.

Adding an insignia can be done using only PCS whereas adding a suitable nameplate texture requires exporting the pof into Truespace. Adding the texture and then converting it back. So I can kind of see why Trashman would want this.

That said with HTL models coming out of all the major capships (at least the terran ones) this is much less of a problem than it would have been a year or so ago. By the time this was implemented we'd probably have replacement ships for most of what we want anyway.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
See? See? He likes my idea

I've been mentioning text to nameplate for years, and these folks think that the texture replace is good enough

Also, it's easy for graphics people to say how easy it is to do a nameplate in photoshop. But doing a good nameplate takes time.

With a customized version of the stop font (with some paint scratches) on the hulls of ships, a consistant and good looking nameplate setup can be done. Personally I think having a point coordinate on the .pof where the text is drawn would work. Then the text is drawn on a plane over that point. (point includes X, Y, Z and rotation data for the plane)

Font size would be able to be controlled in FRED2, so if a name is too long and runs off of the hull you can make the text smaller.

[Hippo]

Or, modelers could just create a single plane on a ship, for logos and such... I've done it myself, and i can hardly model...

[Grimloq]

i think that tex replacement is good enough for now.

[Bobboau]

I was actualy thinking I might be able to use the decal code to have dynamic/on the fly nameplates

[NGTM-1R]

Texture replacement is not good enough. Not all of us have access to a graphics program worthy of the name. Further, it requires you to go crawling around in the maps folder, go through several options in FRED that are not immeditately obvious, and has been known to give people trouble.

[Bobboau]

"...and has been known to give people trouble"

not to us....
gotam people, tell us when you have a problem (this was Goobers baby btw)

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by ngtm1r
Further, it requires you to go crawling around in the maps folder, go through several options in FRED that are not immeditately obvious

So do a lot of texturing and FREDding features.

Originally posted by ngtm1r
and has been known to give people trouble.

There's a crash with the regular texture replace but not with the duplicate model texture replace.  I have yet to try to debug it.

Originally posted by Ace
Also, it's easy for graphics people to say how easy it is to do a nameplate in photoshop. But doing a good nameplate takes time.

Not since I released my Orion nameplate tutorial and template.  New nameplates can be made in fewer than 60 seconds.  I timed it.

Originally posted by Bobboau
I was actualy thinking I might be able to use the decal code to have dynamic/on the fly nameplates

But remember that the original nameplate code you implemented was a decal system, and it was buggy up the wazoo.  I know; I had to go through and clean it out.

Speaking from experience doing both programming and graphics, I can say that just adding another texture requires much less effort than coding another nameplate system.

[TrashMan]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I was actualy thinking I might be able to use the decal code to have dynamic/on the fly nameplates

Hail Bobboau!!!!!:D

And I say no - texture replacement isn't good. Why? HT&L!

The less textures you are using, the better.
And, the ship files themselves would be smaller since no additional namplate texture would be required.
And, it's easier to add nampleates to ships that don't currently have them. Orion has a nameplate.. others don't...

[Getter Robo G]

Ok I think I know why it didn't work for me (as I only used the FRED button option thinking that's all it took for FS2 3.6 now)

I wanted to cut down on the number of ships needed as both pof's and ship entries if they are basicly the exact same ship differentiated only by textures (like blue, red, and green Alpha fighters or their Guardian and Battloid modes, also blue , red and green!)

So I opened up Fred and made a standard wing of 4 ships (all Alpha fighters (blue is default). I edited each ship in FRED using the texture replace button and typed in the red or green textures as desired (each is just ONE map.  ie: alphab, alphar and alphag respectively.

I saved and ran the mission and guess what. They all were blue

So what went wrong? Do I ahve to do as vaguely stated in that year old post and edit the ship table for each entry?? Or is this automaticcaly done or circumvented in FS open 3.6?

How does Texture replacement work as of today? Or rather for 3.6...

thanks!