[Moe]

i have read the past 30 minutes some descriptions how to convert models, but all where very inaccurate and covering a couple of steps and without any backgroundinformation what i relay doing)

I'm basically looking right now for a how to get my self modeled ship into openfs2/fs2scp.

i got:

pcs
modelview
vpview
tblview

my favorite modeling-program and texturing-suite that can convert my work to binary .cob-files

my ship is triangulated, smoothed and textured:







the the textures r in bmp.-format right now, is that ok to goon, or i need to convert to tga or a more hardware related format like dxtX-compressed dds?

where to put my textures after conversion to .pof with pcs and opening the .pof with modelview it says that modelview was unable to to find the textures ... but doesn't gave me a hint at what folder it expects the files ... so i cant know it as a newb.

the second thing i saw was that my smoothing on the model was screwed up totally, i extra grouped the things that it can be smoothed in separate modelgroups to keep things really simple for the renderer (smooth by group) but it screwed up anything ...

that r the things i like to solve before i goon ...

[Wanderer]

Yay! Seydlitz FTW (if i recognized it correctly)

PCX (8bit), TGA (24 or 32bit), DDS textures are good. Modelview recognizes only the 8bit PCX graphics though. And maps go to data/maps directory (preferably <yourmod>/data/maps)

[Moe]

so its 8 bit only in modelview ... okaaaay ....

how about the smoothing problemes? is there another converter than pcs around that smothes by model-group??? that way it needs no fraekin calculation that mess up evrything and do things i dont want?

[Vasudan Admiral]

Smoothing via PCS is explained here:
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/POF_Constructor_Suite

There are only 2.5 working converters out at the moment. PCS, the Max Exporter and the WIP of PCS2.
Don't use anything else! Modelview has a converter and there are a couple of others around, but they don't produce stable pofs.

Also, remember that the 8bit texture restriction is because modview is out of date now. You *should* use DDS only for in-game stuff.

[Topgun]

Also, remember that the 8bit texture restriction is because modview is out of date now. You *should* use DDS only for in-game stuff.

no, sometimes it is better to use low-res TGA's. try it with both see which looks better.

[Vasudan Admiral]

It doesn't and can't look better in terms of efficiency - which is what I'm talking about. Have a read of Taylors guide in the FSU forum. He lists a lot of very good ways to getting the most speed out of your models, and using DDS textures is a big one.

Also, remember that you can save uncompressed DDS textures too, so if you *really* want to preserve that much texture quality you can do it with DDS. Usually though DXT1c or DXT3 compression is fine.
Since they can store alpha map info as well, there's really no advantage at all to using TGA over DDS, except maybe for download size. The thing will take up just as much if not more memory in game (once uncompressed) than an equivillant size and quality DDS.

[Topgun]

It doesn't and can't look better in terms of efficiency - which is what I'm talking about. Have a read of Taylors guide in the FSU forum. He lists a lot of very good ways to getting the most speed out of your models, and using DDS textures is a big one.

Also, remember that you can save uncompressed DDS textures too, so if you *really* want to preserve that much texture quality you can do it with DDS. Usually though DXT1c or DXT3 compression is fine.
Since they can store alpha map info as well, there's really no advantage at all to using TGA over DDS, except maybe for download size. The thing will take up just as much if not more memory in game (once uncompressed) than an equivillant size and quality DDS.

go read lightspeed's DDS tutorial... I swear DDS files are only good for large textures.

[Wanderer]

Lightspeed's DDS tutorial is badly outdated.. converters are way better these days. Even then that concerns only the compressed DDS formats

You can always use uncompressed (u888 or u8888) DDS files.. The same as the TGAs qualitywise but with mipmaps.

[Topgun]

I thought DXT5 was the best? what is u888? why doesn't my converter list that?

[Wanderer]

The best? There aren't 'the best' dds format... It depends on the purpose of the file.

DXT1c is good for any 24bit image (== no alpha) if small amount of compression artefacts doesn't harm you.
DXT5 is for the same but for 32bit images (== with alpha).
u888 is uncompressed 24bit (8+8+8, who could have guessed...).
u8888 uncompressed 32bit.

AFAIK Qualitywise there isnt really any difference between DXT1 and DXT5.

As for good converter.. http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nv_texture_tools.html with -quality_highest option

[Moe]

im usin gimp2 with the famous dxt plugin waht covers all versions of dxt-compression .. it worked quite good for freelancer-models, maintexture is 2048x2048 so i think dxt compression should be used, but im still messing around with the smothing :/

[Vasudan Admiral]

Heh, good old Lightspeed was always after perfect texture image quality, and unfortunately pursued that goal despite the massive blow to efficiency it could often cause. As this is a game engine, we need to find a balance between the two.

DDS is an excellent way to do this, since you just pick a compression quality from the list Wanderer posted to suit your needs.

Anyway, Moe - what problems are you having with smoothing? What program are you using to save the cob/scn files?

Also, you may want to shrink that texture down to 1024. For fighter or bomber sized craft 2048 doesn't offer much visual improvment at all for four times the memory usage. Cruiser size upwards is ideal for 2048 res maps.

[Moe]

the fighter is mostly the first test of what openfs2/scp-engine is capable for, and to learn/find out how things r workin ... im prety shure i rework the whole fighter after a while to bring the quality of the model and texture in line with others that will follow...

to texture and convert from lightwave7-modeler im usin ultimateunwrap3d maybe the cob export is bugged in uu3d, but how i can figure this out?

anyway usaly i dont play around with smothing-groups anyway, i group my models thiswise that the smothing can be groupwise applied and it looks like it schould be , means when want an hard edge the poligones from the one side of the edge are in another model-group than the ones from the other ...

seem i have to load truespace to figure things out ...

[Vasudan Admiral]

Can you post the converted POF or preferably the unconverted COB file you're using? I think I may know what you mean, but I'd have to see the model itself to be sure.

[Getter Robo G]

(pause)

A old school Battletech aerospace bomber (Correct?)...

Does this we can expect more of the genre?

[Wanderer]

AFAIK that is actually the light(est) fighter available in aerotech...

[Moe]

Getter Robo G, if the inititial problems with open fs2 are solved, the mod will quickly progress since we got a plenty of fighter and capshipmodels in the pipes ...

one of the main problems is to replace the energylimit for gunfire by heat, the scale needs to be inverted and we need some events to dice for on high heatscale like lifesupport-failue (blackout), reactorleacks or amunition-explosion ...

Vasudan ADMIRAL, in the attachment u can find the  cob and pof ...






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[Vasudan Admiral]

Found the cause of all your problems:

This is how your hierarchy will appear in truespace, and so that's what it will appear as in FS.

Your ship is comprised of no less than 15 separate objects making up what should be just the one single object. This fracturing would make smoothing over the seams impossible, which would give you those errors you were describing.

What that ship should look like is more along the lines of this:


If you haven't already, it's probably an idea to download the crappy free version of truespace (3.2) to correctly set up your hierarchy before saving it as a cob.

[Getter Robo G]

Here try this: (File at bottom of post!)

I opened it with 3.1 and unglued all the separate parts and made the majority under fighter group, I left the cockpit 1&2 parts and glass as a separate group. I did that because I recalled something about cockpit glass, but you can change that later (talk to Scooby or VA...)

Let me know if it works for you... I hope the textures stay mapped since you didn't include any..

L8tr! 



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