[midnightjoker]

Hi. I am helping out on a FS mod for a game called Sins of a Solar Empire and we are having issues with getting the textures into 3ds or XSI mod tool.

I was wondering if any one would have their 3ds projects for the FS1&2 ships with textures setup and if they might be willing to share them?

If anyone has a 3ds project all setup it would save us a bunch of time.  Your also welcome to join us and help build a great FreeSpace RTS.  http://fs2modproject.invisionplus.net/

even just a few helpful pointers on getting the texts to go into 3ds properly would be great.

thanks.

[colecampbell666]

Are you using the retail or SCP stuff?

[midnightjoker]

im using the SCP material.  i have converted the textures from .pcx to .bmp.

[Getter Robo G]

Let me guess, your extracting pof files into .3ds but the models are blank yes?
Please be specific on what's holding you up.

[midnightjoker]

Im converting the .pof to .obj using deep exploration when it doesn't crash.  then importing to 3ds and yes the model shows up fine but wihtout textures.  i have the external path to the BMP textures setup.  i have tried merging the model with a export into .max from DeepX and that brings in one or 2 textures.  i will keep at it.  i dont know why deep X crashes though.  maybe the models are too complex?

EDIT: ok not 5 mintues after posting this  i got the textures workign for the Aeolis in 3ds in a Render, so i aussme that means its working although they dont show up in the perspective window.  so i guess now i need to figure out why Deep X crashes when i load something like the colossus with textures. 

EDITEDIT: i have narrowed the crashing problem down to when DeepX loads certain textures for ships.  why i dont know.

[Getter Robo G]

I don't use deepX i use the more earlier version 3dexploration and never had a problem with fs2 models.

If you want, make a list of models that you are having trouble with and I'll make them 3ds files for you.
NOTE I mean .3ds, NOT .max files as I cant do crap with .max format.

[colecampbell666]

I would very much like to help with this mod, what do you need done? I am learning to model, am mildly proficient with GIMP, and can do a bunch of other stuff with varying degrees of skill.

[midnightjoker]

thanks for the help all.

i have also tried 3d exploration and it crashes in the same spot on the same texture.  maybe i would have better luck importing the original models opposed to the hi poly ones in the open source?  this is so frustrating to be so close but have this weird bug keep me from moving along.  maybe if i gave you my deepx you could do the export to max?  did you have any special setup/configuration for 3d ex?  do you use .bmp textures?  maybe my conversion of the textures from pcx to bmp did something weird to them? i can view and edit them in paint fine.

will the .3ds carry all the texture info?  its pretty much every ship.  i've only been able to do the Aeolis so far.  i have only been trying cap ships.  no fighters.  they might all work.

Thanks for the offer.  i could email you my edited pof/cob files with a bunch of the LODs removed already.

i have also been looking into lithunwrap but the exports dont seem to work very well.  im probably just not using it proper like.

and to join the mod go to our forum and apply. 

we could use any and all help in modelling and texturing and probably in other areas as well.  we will also probably have to create a few new strucuters, possibly some new particle effects for weapons.  i hope to grab as much music, voice and sound as possible from the original games but we may need some vasudan voices and possibly have to come up with something for the shivans.

[colecampbell666]

For Shivans, I'd suggest something like the quantum pulses you hear in the Iceni-Nebula missions.

[midnightjoker]

hey thats not a bad idea.  i will have to dig them up and have a listen.

[colecampbell666]

They're not actual speech, just sort of modulating tones.

[Getter Robo G]

Sounds more like grunt work. Do you need every ship done? I'm more than willing to do it, just make sure you make a list (of which ever is shorter) of what you want done or NOT DONE. So you want every FS2 ship Terran Shivan and Vasudan?

[Note] If i do this, someone will have to upload this so no one ever has to do this sort of thing again and we have a resource people can download......

I've already taken on another job that's closely related to my projects for this weekend, so if I get around to this I won't even begin for a week or two...

If I do it, it will be raw .cobs with .bmp textures converted to .3ds

[midnightjoker]

Getter Robo G, man i will take what i can get and that sounds pretty darn good.  i can figure out how to get the LODs out later.
And i think we could host this data on our forum but would need to verify.

i will put a list together, thanks man.

[Spicious]

Have you tried using Collada?

[Mashew]

Hello all
I too am on the team doing the Sins of a Solar Empire mod for FS. Getting the textures working for the ships would be a HUGE help and would be DULY noted. If there are any artists out there that would like to help with making loading screens or portraits we would be grateful fo the help. Our idea is to start in the FS1 era and go from there, either via the tech tree or perhaps more along the lines of the FS games with another version of our mod. There are LOTS of openings for help so please come and check us out.

[midnightjoker]

Getter Robo G, i have attached the list of stuff we'll need.  if you could do this that would be awesome.  the list isn't small so do what you can when you can and we'll appreciate it.  if possible, could you start with the fenris(cruiser01.POF) and cain(cruiser03.POF) cruisers and send them over when ready.  we can get started on those and figure out our next steps, get a teaser out, etc.

thank you big time!

and yeah i did try collada a bit but basically have the same problems.

EDIT:  ok hold on a bit there Getter G. i just had a 'breakthrough' with deep exploration.  i re-did the conversion of the pcx to bmp textures and now they are all working properly in deepx so i think i will be able to get them into 3ds now.  what ever batch program i used must have bunked them.  anyway i think i will try this out and let you know how things go.  there may be some that this still doesn't work for.  thanks again.

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[Getter Robo G]

Congrats! The key is to have the textures as BMP in the same directory you save the model in. For some reason if it's not there it strips the association half the time...

Let me know if you need me to try any later on then.

Hoping for continued success for your project!

Maybe I'll see you over at your forums soon, I've been thinking about SINS but I got my hands full ATM...
 

[varsaigen]

Im converting the .pof to .obj using deep exploration when it doesn't crash.  then importing to 3ds and yes the model shows up fine but wihtout textures.  i have the external path to the BMP textures setup.  i have tried merging the model with a export into .max from DeepX and that brings in one or 2 textures.  i will keep at it.  i dont know why deep X crashes though.  maybe the models are too complex?

EDIT: ok not 5 mintues after posting this  i got the textures workign for the Aeolis in 3ds in a Render, so i aussme that means its working although they dont show up in the perspective window.  so i guess now i need to figure out why Deep X crashes when i load something like the colossus with textures. 

EDITEDIT: i have narrowed the crashing problem down to when DeepX loads certain textures for ships.  why i dont know.

I know where your failing. You need to add the textures in the modeling program. I prefer Milkshape for modeling and it works beautifully!