[Galemp]

I also want to take this time to thanks each and everyone of you for stepping up to bat and give me some help on this journey! Honestly you guys ROCK! 

We reward and encourage hard work with excellent results like yours. As you've already noticed your talents are quite in demand.

As for that gap... TrashMan, why don't you fix it the same time you add the insignia?

[Jadehawk]

OK I got my Red and Blue layers. When I went to convert it to Grey scale using the Grey scale feature in Paint Shop Pro, my Red turns the same color as the background. I was able to change the Red to Yellow and that worked of I use the Emboss. But how do you get that normal map in Mauve color with them reds and blues?

[Galemp]

Ah, that's a special Photoshop plugin. You can get the same effect using Crazybump. When it asks, tell it to load the Heightmap and pick your grayscale drawing. I want to emphasize that you need to feed Crazybump just the grayscale line drawings, it shouldn't be embossed at all. When you're done save it as a DDS with DXT5n compression.

If you're having trouble converting the red and the blue to dark and light gray, just go to your layer's saturation and lightness controls to desaturate then lighten/darken the layer.

[Jadehawk]

OK, I got a Normal map file that I ran through that Crazybump thingy. It's currentrly a .jpeg file, I believe I need to save this as a DXT5 dds file. Once I do that, what do I do with it? Save it in the Maps folder as EzeC01_NRM?

[blowfish]

EzeC01_NRM?

ezec01-normal.dds

[TrashMan]

I also want to take this time to thanks each and everyone of you for stepping up to bat and give me some help on this journey! Honestly you guys ROCK! 

We reward and encourage hard work with excellent results like yours. As you've already noticed your talents are quite in demand.

As for that gap... TrashMan, why don't you fix it the same time you add the insignia?

No problem. As soon as he makes the files avialable.
HOWEVER, given that that gap is in a sensitive place, it's best to deal with that BEFORE exporting it to pof. It can be done later, but that face will require UV mapping once fixed.

So Jade, send the 3ds or .cob file over so I can fix that gap for you. Or you can fix it yourself.
 
Assuming you don't re-scale the Ezechiel,  I can make insignias for it now (I don't need any file from you to do that).
Then I can supply you with the ezechiel_Insig.pof file, and all you have to do, once you finish making the fighter and export it .pof, is to open your new .pof with PCS1 and import the insignia from my .pof and save.

[Jadehawk]

Crap! I cant get the normal map to show up in the POF editor and even in Fred is wont show up. After I ran it through Crazybump and saved it as a .tga file, I opened it up in Paint Shop Pro and then saved it as a .dds file making sure I selected the DXT5, Generated MIP maps and Cubic filter. Then saved it as EzeC01-normal.dds and when I placed it into the Maps folder, I get nothing.

I'm about to stick my head into a metal box and scream LOUD! 

I pulled up other normal maps in my collection and mine is the only one that has MIP maps. But other than that, they are the same. I'm starting to think the Ezechiel.pof file is just not setup to take a normal and shine maps? I'm totally clueless here. HELP!

[TrashMan]

Be worried only if it doesn't show up in-game (techroom).

Make sure that you have normal maps turned on too.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Did you save it as a DXT5_NM format? When you open it up for viewing you should see it as a green or gray map, with more information in the alpha channel. It shouldn't look like the more common mostly blue normal maps do in other games.

Currently the only thing that can view these normal maps is FS itself. Open the game and in the mainhall press F3 to go into the ship lab. On the top left corner, expand on the 'ships' button and find your model. Select the LOD/detail level you want and it should appear like a giant tech room image that you can rotate and zoom in on. Also up the top you'll find render options where you can stop the rotation and turn various aspects of the maps on and off.

[Jadehawk]

Guys, thanks for the help,  I saved it as a DXT5, not sure what you mean by a DXT5_NM? the Nvidia plugin I got only has the DXT5 selection as shown in that one screen shot of the panel earlier. I'll try the stand alone version and see if I can get it to work that way.

[TrashMan]

Wait, how did you make the normal map? With Crazybump from a heighmap?

If so send THAT file over to me (preferably a .tga) and I'll convert it to DTX5_NM

[Jadehawk]

Wait, how did you make the normal map? With Crazybump from a heighmap?

If so send THAT file over to me (preferably a .tga) and I'll convert it to DTX5_NM

Yup, I did.  OK Will send asap

[TrashMan]

Weird...I just positioned and added insignia to the normal Ezechiel, saved the object and wanted to export with PCS1. Stock overflow.

I replace the ezechiel mesh with a BOX. So the object is a box with the insignia subobject (two planes, bot far away from the box). Again stack overflow. Too many polygons in the same average location.. Eh? EEEEEHHHHH?? The thing has 20 polygons total!  

[Jadehawk]

Oh wow! Spooky stuff and it's getting close to Halloween.

Sent you the .tga file and will also send you another email to show my normal map I made so you can see where I'm at.

[TrashMan]

Erm..slight mistake.

You sent me the heightmap.
You were supposed to send me the normal map (tga format) CrazyBump generates from the heightmap.
Then I'll convert that normalmap into a .dds DTX5_NM normal map.

At least that's the way I've been doing it and it works.

[Jadehawk]

(slaps skull) DUH me, hang on.

SENT!

[TrashMan]

converted and sent back. Try it out.

[Jadehawk]

Got it and tried it out. I still do not see anything. If you see it on your system, then I'm thinking I do not have normal maps turned on. If so, then where do you turn it on at? I need to make sure it's on before I yell in that metal box!

[TrashMan]

Shows up by me.

In the Launcher, under Features - enable normal maps.

then in the F3 techroom, under render options - if you have trouble seeing it you can turn off the diffuse map. But it's there.

[TrashMan]

Here's the insignia for the Ezechiel, ready for PCS1 importing.

You don't need that green faces with 01 anymore. You can just delete them.

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]