A note on fixing the envmapbasic.mat and envmapglass.txm warnings reported in FLSpew and FLSpit...

It's because FL doesn't like the Cube Map DDS format that the textures are stored in in these 2 files. Which is amazing as they came with the game.

Anyway, after a few hours of work at it (mainly finding and downloading editors and utilities that didn't work!!) I now have a fix.

I don't know enough to know if it's the right fix though, but here's the quick version of how to do it:

BEGIN_PROC - just my little joke, start of procedure!!

1. DATA\FX\envmapglass.txm - save a copy first, it'll be your problem if you don't.

Open the file envmapglass.txm with the Freelancer UTF Editor - Can be downloaded Here - and export the CUBE node as envmapglass.old.dds.

Open envmapglass.old.dds in a VERY good image editor - it's a single 384x64 pixel image which is the six 64x64-pixel sides of the DDS Cube Map that FL doesn't support.

Select and crop out the 3rd 64x64-pixel side (start from x=128) and save it as envmapglass.new.tga. It is the bit that looks like a white hot-spot.

(I had to use both DXTBMP and IrfanView together to do this, IrfanView's DDS plug-in didn't display the DDS image properly and DXTBMP couldn't help me crop the image. Any suggestions or link to a single editor that is absolutely magic for all of this?)

Open envmapglass.new.tga again in your VERY good image editor and make sure the Alpha Channel is all white (or whatever your editor sets the back colour to). If it's not then edit it and make it so (clear out all colours and shapes from it)! Save it (envmapglass.new.tga) again.

Go back to UTF Editor (re-open envmpaglass.txm if you closed it) and rename the node CUBE to MIP0. (Just click on it, wait 1-2 seconds and click again and rename it, then click somewhere else and it will be done).

Import the envmapglass.new.tga image into the MIP0 node and save the file as DATA\FX\envmapglass.txm.

2. DATA\FX\envmapbasic.mat - save a copy first, it'll be your problem if you don't.

Open envmapbasic.mat with UTF Editor, select the CUBE node and export it to envmapbasic.old.dds.

Open envmapbasic.old.dds in your VERY good image editor - it's a single 384x64 pixel image which should be the six 64x64 pixel sides of a DDS Cube Map.

Select and crop out the 1st 64x64-pixel slide (start from x=1) and save it as envmapbasic.new.tga. This one is just a matt grey square, this is what we need for this fix.

Open envmapbasic.new.tga again in your VERY good image editor and make sure the Alpha Channel is all white (or whatever your editor sets the back colour to). If it's not then edit it and make it so (clear out all colours and shapes from it)! Save it (envmapbasic.new.tga) again.

(Edit 31-7-2007 - This time I used DDS Converter 2.1, it's ideal for this step...)
Open envmapbasic.new.tga in your VERY good DDS-capable editor and select convert to DXT3 DDS format, enable MIP-map generation, number of mipmaps = automatic. (If your editor doesn't have this option use DDS Converter 2.1 'cos I have no idea what else to set it to ).

Save it as envmapbasic.new.dds ensuring it is in DDS DXT3 format.

Go back to UTF Editor and rename the node CUBE to MIPS. DON'T name it MIP0 please. We need this one to be a DDS image so it must be MIPS

Import the envmapbasic.new.dds image into the MIPS node and save the file as DATA\FX\envmapbasic.mat.

PROC_END - just another end-joke, end of this procedure!

No more warnings for me, and hopefully none for you either.

I haven't seen any side-effects at all from doing this, neither good nor bad. If it's not the right way then do please let me know here asap, I know very little about textures or material files.

StarAvenger
RRJDS Guild
Roleplay: - the art of self-deceipt!

Edit : link to UTF Editor inserted ..

Edited by - harrier on 4/12/2006 4:42:48 PM

Thanks for the edits and links guys, great.

Edited by - StarTrader on 7/31/2007 5:23:04 AM