[MartyrOfKharak]

So I've finished most of the models for the ships in my mod (except the texture maps).  Made in Lightwave (that's what I was taught on and am most comfortable with) and converted to .cob with Blender.  They import fine into PCS, and I can do all the setup, but once I save them as a .pof and try to run them in a game they are invisible.  All of the weapon firing points and engine glows work fine, but the model itself is invisible.  To test whether or not it was because the model was unstable I made a simple cube in blender and set it up in PCS, then ran a game with it.  It also failed to show up, but everything else worked fine.

Anyone else ever have this problem?

[Warp Shadow]

That's because you haven't finished the texture. Unless you apply a texture to it and have one of the same name in your data/maps directory, the game will read it as invisible. If you want to just see the ship. Make a small (maybe 16X16?) square of a single color, name it 'HappyPants' or whatever you want, apply it to the object in truecrap and then save it as a .pcx in your maps folder. When you go in game, your modded ship should be just the model painted in a single color. I personally use red or gray but other colors might work for you.

[MartyrOfKharak]

I don't have Truespace, can I use Lightwave or Blender?  I tried applying a solid color texture to the model in PCS, but I guess that doesn't work?

[blowfish]

I'm sure you can do it in Lightwave or Blender.  Not in PCS though.

[MartyrOfKharak]

So I've made a texture (16x16 green) called "Fighter_base.pcx", which I've applied to the model in lightwave, converted to .cob, then to .pof and I put a copy of the texture in my maps folder.  It didn't work.

[blowfish]

Go to "Textures" in PCS2 (PCS1 is rather outdated), and select "Fighter_base".  If it isn't there or it doesn't highlight the entire mesh when you select it, it means that something (probably blender) is removing the texture.  If you don't experience those symptoms, try changing it to something other than green (solid green PCX = invisible).

[MartyrOfKharak]

Of course I choose the color that means invisible...

I'm looking in the dropdown box of PCS2 textures and it's blank.  Once I manage to get the name to show up in there I'm good to go?  If exporting from Blender is my problem, does anyone know of a .obj to .cob converter?

[blowfish]

I seem to remember TrueSpace being able to import OBJ.  You probably don't want to use TrueSpace though (trust me ).

[MartyrOfKharak]

I don't have Truespace, is there a place I can get it?

[blowfish]

Right here.  The free version is old though, and its interface is a nightmare.

[MartyrOfKharak]

Filled out the form, getting spam from Caligari, but no download of an installer file.  GG, Caligari.

[Warp Shadow]

Ugh...the spam.

Maybe you should try applying the texture in blender? I do that on my finished texture so I see no reason why it shouldn't work.

[Water]

So I've made a texture (16x16 green) called "Fighter_base.pcx", which I've applied to the model in lightwave, converted to .cob, then to .pof and I put a copy of the texture in my maps folder.  It didn't work.

The Blender exporter does't care what material you have assigned to the model. It does care about the name of the texture assigned to the UV map. So no UV map = no texture from Blender export.

In Lightwave do a simple unwrap, assign your texture to the uv map, and then export to Blender.

[MartyrOfKharak]

I may just be thick, but I really hate Blender and my LW unwrap isn't following the model to a .cob.  I've read every UV Mapping tutorial on the internet for Blender and they all leave out the part I need: How you apply the actual map so i can export it to a .cob.

Anyone out there who uses Blender?

[Water]

I may just be thick, but I really hate Blender and my LW unwrap isn't following the model to a .cob.  I've read every UV Mapping tutorial on the internet for Blender and they all leave out the part I need: How you apply the actual map so i can export it to a .cob.

Anyone out there who uses Blender?

To be honest a Lightwave user should sort it out in Lightwave. 
In Blender (vers 2.45 and earlier -  not 2.46)
Select object - right click
Change mode from Object Mode to UV Face Select Mode
The left window type icon (crosshatch) change to UV/Image editor
Image > Open  ---Select image file
Save and then export.

There is a nicer, less messy way but it involves getting used to the UI and making some changes to have two windows available.

[MartyrOfKharak]

I tried to sort it out in Lightwave, but I don't know why the UV map I applied isn't carrying over.