[Kobrar44]

Well...
I'm not stupid, but I don't speak English very well...
We've got 3 options:
1. I don't understand that tutorials.
2. They really don't contain information important for me.
3. I can't find tutorials;P


I need to know few things. Well, I've got raw model[ANY model]. No hierarchy, only naked model. In .cob. I've got only TS 7.6 and PCS. Can anyone explain me how to convert model to pof and make it work?
I don't want to know only "What". I want to know "How". Please, guide me step by step. I want to know how to make LOD, turrets, thrusters etc. Everything that model can include. I saw that Bobboau's tutorial, but it didn't help me. Now I know how this hierarchy should look like, but thats all. I don't even know WHAT is this hierarchy;P Can anyone be my master? Or, maybe there is one, good tutorial?

[Galemp]

Ugh, Truespace? Count me out.

[Scooby_Doo]

Go with Blender, it's a lot more useful than Truespace and Vasudal Admiral should be able to help you out.

[TrashMan]

What kind of a model you have? Fighter or capital ship?

ERm...you got to get the Hierarchy right...Get the TrueView plug-in for Truespace, it's useful for that.

Basicely you need to position your mesh/model in the center and glue it to a light and name the new object something like Detail0 or LO0.

Turrets and destroyable subsystems as well as LOD are done in your 3D program and glued to the model.
Everything else (regular subystems, glows, paths, gun points, thrusters) are added in PCS2. It's easy.

[Nuke]

some of my best ships were modeled in truespace. so i can tell you its possible. its also possible to make rock solid stable models by making them in truespace. think is you cant use booleans, ever. of course even in max i dont use them. truespace 7 has everything you need to make a good, stable model, and you dont have to deal with conversion hell.

on the other hand truespace is piss poor inadequate for the kind of modeling freespace requires. i have no idea why the **** they decided to use the ****ing cob/scn format. i do not know why the **** they continued using the format. further more i dont know why kaz keeps axing every format proposed for support in pcs2. is that not why pcs2 was created, to support more formats. madness i say!

[TrashMan]

Everything I did I did in Truespace. And I use Booleans all the time.

Really, check your setting before you use Boolean functions people....

[Kobrar44]

Light? What light? Why light? OK, I think... well... where can I "paint" it? You know, I can paste textures in PCS, but where can I... um... set that areas, where textures will arrive?[I know, my English is terrible]

[Nuke]

Everything I did I did in Truespace. And I use Booleans all the time.

Really, check your setting before you use Boolean functions people....

i recently found some bad geometry in a couple of my old models while converting everything to max. the models worked ingame fine and never gave me a problem, but there were a ton of micropolies around some of my booleans. thats why i like max, because it has attach. you want to stick two primitives together, clear away anything that wont be visible and use attach. thats the way to do it. then you just manually model the seam. the advice you shouldnt use booleans is for beginners. until you have a firm understanding of whats happening, you shouldnt use them.

[Kobrar44]

OK, we've got different situation now. I've got ANY program. Freeware of course;P How I can get rid of UV mapping? I think I can take care of Hierarchy etc., but UV mapping is strange. Is there any good tutorial?

[Herra Tohtori]

OK, we've got different situation now. I've got ANY program. Freeware of course;P How I can get rid of UV mapping? I think I can take care of Hierarchy etc., but UV mapping is strange. Is there any good tutorial?

What is this ANY program you speak of...?

Urgh... technically, you can make the model use texture tiling instead of UV map to project the texture on it, but it's... not advisable, I would say. Using UVmap for texturing is much better for performance and quality of the model than using tiles...

Blender is probably the best, most feature-rich free/Open Source modeling program out there. Wings3D is also out there, and it supposedly has a rather good UV mapping system, but this is just hearsay to me because I unfortunately do not have much experience at all regarding making models or putting them into FreeSpace Open... the most complex thing I'm responsible of was a planet with rings (like Saturn). Or perhaps a certain skybox. It matters not.

[Kobrar44]

Wings 3d. Can I make EVERYTHING there? Not only UV mapping, but hierarchy etc. MAYBE I'll manage to teach myself UV mapping[yeah, my terrible English], but I have to know few things. If I do everything in Wings 3d, TS will see it, yeap?

[Topgun]

what language do you normally speak?

[Kobrar44]

POLISH, of course;P And, what about UV mapping? What is it for? How to make it? Tutorial? GOOD tutorial?;P

[Topgun]

uv mapping is to tell the model what parst of the texture go where on the model. it's different for every program.

[Kobrar44]

And if I want to use wings 3d...
Geez, I've got model with 4600 polygons. I have to... ergh... give them all right shape?