[Vengence]

Ok, as many of you already know I made a fighter and I plan to port it to FS2. I used 3ds for the modeling and Truespace to add the local lights (as was instructed) and exporting to cob was successful and then I used PCS to convert it but as soon as I selected my file PCS turned all white and stopped responding and did nothing and it didn't tell me what the problem is.



More info:

1. Used 3ds Max7 to model. Attatched all objects as one object.
2. Exported as obj and 3ds.
-2a. Used 3d Exploration to export as cob
-2b. Imported obj or 3ds file into TS
3. Added and glued lights as children to the main model.
4. Exported as cob
5. PCS crashed.

[Galemp]

Well, I -think- there's a direct exporter from Max 7 to POF. Look in the stickied thread here.

Otherwise, make sure you're using the latest version of PCS. In the directory where you're doing the conversion there should be a log file telling you where PCS got stuck.

[Vengence]

No that exporter is not for 3ds 7. 4 5 and 6 yes but not 7. And there is no log file. It all just froze up. I have 5 separate cob files each worked out a different way. One has all needed lights, one has none, one was .3ds, another obj, and another 3d exploration. The one without anything said that "You forgot to group the objects", and the rest freezes.

[Vengence]

Ah, the 3ds 6 pof exporter seems to be working now. Now I must be careful, DO NOT SAVE AFTER EXPORTING!!!

[Vengence]

Well, it now works ingame!!! But my fighter is way too fast, 380m/s.

[Galemp]

That's a table issue. Good job on your conversion.

[Vengence]

I know its a table issue. I coded it that way. OK, time for the next level:

How do I apply Glow maps and relflective maps?

[StratComm]

Both are special maps with the same name as the base texture, but with a -glow or -shine tag on the end of the filename (before the filetype extension).  Glow maps are rendered full-bright all the time and applied additively, spec maps determine the color of a reflection from a surface.  Spec maps can have an alpha channel, which will be used as a mask for reflectivity with environment mapping.

[Vengence]

Ok, so if I use the original skin and make it black and add glowing lights and sorts it will glow in the game. Now -shine gets me thinking, I want the cockpit to reflect 85% and the body to reflect 15% but I don't know how to do that part. I don't know how to add Alpha channels in Photoshop. Final question, it can't be as easy as adding a name behind the skin file and putting it into the maps directory, there must be a catch or some kind of method in PCS. Any explaination?

[StratComm]

If you're wanting spec to be 85/15 you just have to adjust the intensity of the individual parts.  So the hull would be mostly dark, while the cockpit would be relatively bright.  Look at one of the fighter shinemaps from the media VPs for an example.

[Vengence]

I got the glow maps to work:D



Sorry about the big pic, thats what I get for playing at maximum resolution.

But the reflection map doesn't really work. Though all I did was adjust the brightness and contrast. Either way I can live with the thing being very shiny. Last problem: On SOME missions the engine flare doesn't appear. It just was never there! Any cure for this overly buggy fighter?

[Wanderer]

Missing thruster effects might have nothing to do with your design. How old / new FS Open build are you using? In some older builds there seems to have been a little bug that caused any non directly fredded models (= chosen from loadout screen and not present in mission in other ways) to lose their thruster effects.

IMHO try CVS 20/09 to get thrusters visible. link

[Vengence]

I'm using the latest 3.6.7 build. And I have no idea what that stuff is on that link

20050920-redmenace.rar  20-Sep-2005 02:39  3.3M ???

What does this stuff do?

[Wanderer]

Stuff at the end of the link is a collection of quite new builds. Just extract the fs2_open_r-20050920.exe from the archive (20050920-redmenace.rar)  file to your FS2 directory and then use launcher's browse button to select the proper (new) exe file. You might also need to do the OpenAL (dll) installation.

I think there are better instructions somewhere around here however... In fsdoc or under the Source Code Project perhaps?

[StratComm]

It looks to me like your shinemaps are working.  You have to have environment mapping on to get environmental reflections, and environment mapping doesn't work at all in OpenGL.

[Vengence]

The relfections work on the entire ship but the reflected amount is the same on the entire ship and not just the cockpit so its a little bugged.

Ok, should be working now. This is the very last problem I'm getting and I really mean last as in once this one problem is gone it should be perfect:

I was flying my ship and was thrown around like a potato just by being hit by subach blasts and explosions. I can stand being thrown around by missiles but a subach tossing me away??? no way. I only modified the subach laser to move faster so that it would go faster than my ship. What would cause a blast or a hit to disorient my fighter?

Hmm, in PCS my fighter has a mass setting of over 900... but the herc is only 187. Could this be the problem?

[FireCrack]

try decreasing the masses of the weapons proportionaly to the amount you increased their velocity...

Ex, if you doubled the velocity give it 1/2 the mass...

[Wanderer]

Odd happenings with even the lightest hits or strange rotations in engine wash can be caused by poorly assigned MoIs (Moments of Inertia). Try to find design with similar profile and size and copy the MoI values with for example the ModelView.

[Vengence]

I increased the subach's speed by 50% but I decreased it's mass to 0.02 but it still tossed me around.

[StratComm]

MoI.  Changed through Modelview.  Open a fighter and copy the values from there into yours.