[LtNarol]

Stupid Question #1:  How many texture maps is too many for a fighter?  Bomber?  Capitalship?

Stupid Question #2:  How do you designate where the squad patches go?

Stupid Question #3:  Is the shield mesh for a fighter a separate model or just applied through a program like pcs?

[Kamikaze]

#2: I think I can answer this, I believe this is included in the pof data, so can be edited using one of the editors (?)

#3: I'm pretty sure the mesh is actually a part of the model, I opened a FS model in TS and I think it showed the shield mesh... not sure though

don't take my word for anything

[untouchable]

#1: As far as I know, there really is no limit to how many texture maps that you use for and FS2 model, but if it is, its because I have some models that use 15 different maps

#2: Logo location is added with a POF editor

#3: A shield mesh for the fighter is a model that is imported with the POF editor after the fighter/bomber has been converted.

[LtNarol]

1: does it lag the game with more maps, if so, does it do so significantly?

2: which one?

3: how do you make the mesh transparent until its hit, and how do you make it look the way they do when they are hit.  Also, is it really 4 models because of the shield quarters?

[WMCoolmon]

3) I think that you can color it a certain shade of green and then it would be transparent, and I believe that the engine computes which quadrant is damaged. Finally, I'm pretty certain you have to give it a special name such as "shield" and make it a child of the main model in TS...

[Wildlife]

concerning 1)
yeh the more texture maps a model has, the less efficient it is. and will make the game run slower on older machines.
But with todays computers you wont really notice a difference in performance.
you want to try and stick as close as possible to how many texture maps Volition used for the fs2 models tho, for texture efficient models.
 
At least i think, i'm not 100% sure

But it doesn't matter too much.

[CP5670]

I would like to know how to do #2 as well. Could someone who knows post an explanation for the rest of us?

BTW if you are texturing a fighter, I would recommend cramming all of the textures onto one or two big maps, as was done in the official models; this system is efficient and works well.

[LtNarol]

well, im not good at mapping it onto the ships, so im just making the textures for others to use.

[DTP]

I know for a Fact that there where a limit to how many textures you could put on a ship in the First Versions of Cobtopof2, but I’m not sure what the deal is with PCS or the Cobtopof2 with high limits.

[Nico]

1) As far as I know, if there's a limit, it's very high, my harlock Arcadia uses about 30 maps, I don't think any regular model will use up to half this...
2) it's set up in PCS, but I think you also have to make some submodel for it too... really not worth the hassle, if you ask me (I've been told it really was not easy to make them)
3) yeah, definitively a model. it's a subobject ( just like a LOD or a turret), called shield. It's the only subobject you can add w/o a modelling program tho: you can import a shield mesh from any other existing pof with the latest version of modelview. What is left is just to pick up one of the good size and shape

[Setekh]

One of Max Sterling's Veritechs had like 12 maps - it was really old and was only a fighter. So the technology should be much better now.