[starfox]

OK, here's the situation....
I recently completed my very first ship model, it's not yet been textured or anything like that, it's only a model. I used Wings 3D for the job. At first I wasn't intending to use that model on FS, but it came up real well (IMO, at least)....

I'd like to ask some basic guidance, of what I should do now to get it ingame. (Texturing and other fancy stuff can wait...)
The model I designed is a Fighter with no shield, it has organic hull. Because of the organic design, it's polycount is quite high, 1689 polys.
So, what I must do to get this baby ingame ?

Also, any topics/websites concerning the ship modelling will do nicely.

[Wanderer]

Check Karajorma's FAQ both turretting tutorial and the modding questions sections.

[Roanoke]

1689 is probably okay, though I wouldn't go any higher. Can we see some pictures ?

[starfox]

OK, Here goes nothing.....
 









So, any ideas how I should proceed, it's the first ones after all....

[WeatherOp]

I see two possible problems,

1. see that big vert on the bottom, I can see you made it out of a sphere. Try deleting it, or you could run into problems later. If you can't, maybe you can get away with it.

2. Your faces are in quads, so your poly count is much higher then 1689, probley around 3600 tri's, or possibly even higher then that.

[StratComm]

The thing is, by and large those quads aren't doing much.  There's a much simpler shape under there that has had a meshsmooth modifier applied to it, and the simpler structure is really what you should be working with.  Meshsmooth is a good tool if you need to increase the smoothing on something for a close-up render, but it's not something you want to use much on a game mesh.

[Axem]

If you want a nice smooth in Wings, you should really give it an autosmooth first. To give a blocky ship some curve, I usually give it an autosmooth of around 20-45 degrees. Really organic stuff should use a setting of 45 to 60. After its been autosmoothed, smooth it, and if its too much, or did too little, try different settings.

[starfox]

Thanks for the Help & feedpack guys, as soon as couple of RL issues are taken care of, I'm definetly going to continue & finish this....

[starfox]

Hmmm, when I try to convert the model to the pof file with POF-CS, it crashes.

I'm pretty sure I grouped the model correctly, using this guide, but then again...
http://underworld.fortunecity.com/pacman/106/fs2mods/shipcreationguide/convertingyourmodelusingtsandpcs.html

I added the local light to the trueview, but the ship is till missing LODs.
Speaking of LODding, are there any good guides for doing it....?

Rampages Post Modding Guide appears to be down, any other alternatives ?
http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/as/develope.html

Update: Never mind about conversion problem, I used cob2pof for the job

[Turey]

regarding LOD, you can just use the built in truespace function. It's called "Polygon Reduction Tool". you can adjust the amount the tool does, just try a couple of times to find a good number. anyone know a good number from LOD0 to LOD1?

on the other hand, you could just leave as-is and use mipmapping instead. there's gotta be a tutorial around here somewhere. anyone have a link?

[starfox]

When I try to open the POF file in POF-CS, I get the following error:

Fatal error
This POF file has failed a version check - Are you sure this is FS2 POF ?

As I said, I converted the .cob file to .pof using cob2pof, I wonder if it has something to do with this...

Also, when I try to open the POF file itself, right-clicking the pof and choosing the POF Constructor Suite from the applications, then the file will open alright. But when I save the changes I've made, the POF file's size drops considerably and the changes are still not saved, I wonder what's wrong now ?

[Roanoke]

People will shoot me down for this, but if PCS won't open or convert then you really need to go back to Truespace and take another look. I've never had any probs which were not down to the model (though I didn't know at the time)

The model looks great front 'n' rear, though the bottom view looks suspect and you can bring the poly count right down without loosing detail.