** Tutorial ** - Texturing models in milkshape

Fri Nov 26, 2004 2:01 pm by Mephistopheles

"posted 9/20/2004 15:20 PST Show Profile Email Poster Edit Message Delete this message Post Reply to TopicMephistopheles,

Cannot understand this, I use Version 1.70 and have no problems.. if you check the downloads at Chumbalum you will find there is a graphics patch for version 1.70 that includes a couple of open gl drivers that address this issue Here

I dont use 1.71 as i found that it crashes randomly when you try to regroup some faces, dont know exactly why...

Harrier."

Well, that link is down, and if you mean the mesa dlls, that is for graphics card working... I got those already. I can open the texture coordinate editor, but I see nothing, some things, buttons etc. do nothing, and if I click somewhere in that grey empty field the program usually just crashes. well that's it.

I am doing UV mapping in gmax for now, also it is easier to regroup parts etc., rotate view, hide/unhide stuff etc. really much easier once you know the commands.

What I found out lately is that, even although it shows up correctly in gmax and MS, aprts of textures that are outside the UV mapping gizmo (file gets repeated at that point) will not be shown in FL, but streaks of the color of the texture at the border of the gizmo.

The only solution so far seems to be to remap the parts where this happens, and then make the gizmo 2 times as large, but use the tiling feature to still have the texture mapped correctly, that should do it.
Nt much of a problem to do this. It's just annoying to experience this once your model is finished, all done and in FL you see the problem, and have to go back to gmax and remap... Well, is there any way to uncollapse UV maps in gmax? "Unwrap UV map" sounded like that, but I couldn't find out how it would do the job...
EDIT: It partially allows to edit collapsed UV maps. Using the offset feature for the images I might be able to fix this without redoing the UV maps itself... I just hope it will show up correctly in FL, for some very odd reason gmax placed some, but not all images with some sort of offset into the material navigator (this does not depend on whether it is a square or rectangle from what I have seen!).

Edited by - Mephistopheles on 11/26/2004 2:19:26 PM

Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:54 pm by the_ashened

Hi Harrier, I've been following these tutorial pages for the last week and several others on different pages to get ALL info i can lol anyway.
The texturing part isn't a problem, I'm quite used to using PS7.
The question it seems is this : inverted TGA files
I know how to do this with the pic2pic converter but as to when i'm not sure.
do i apply my textures in milkshape then flip them afterwards so i can do proper mapping etc.
or vice versa: flip them first then apply. I have a feeling it's the first one. but it leaves me with the question then of when you export your ship with CMP, are the textures already defined if they're inverted or not in the mat file?
maybe i'm just complicating myself. thanks for all the time you've put into these and other tutorilas, it's all like a mini soap

I'm probably going to go ahead anyway and experiment though i'm going to convert my textures to dds and hope when i reference them later in UTF or mat exporter that i can get it to point to the dds. I'm all new to this and probably placing squares where wheels should be lol the model looks the biz anyway so ok off again before i ramble thx

)

actually maybe a note for newbies to go down the texture using tga then use your paint program to convert to DDS with a plugin found on the downloads section. seems alot less confusing than flippin flipping lol
they wanted my signature but i couldn't get my pen ink to stay on the screen

Edited by - the_ashened on 12/13/2004 7:58:15 PM

Edited by - the_ashened on 12/13/2004 8:48:28 PM

Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:51 pm by the_ashened

ok DDS worked a treat ship was visible in space when i had my ini's sorted out properly. had a problem with them. Not sure what i done to fix it other than moving my own model off my spare drive and placing it in the DATA>SHIPS folder plus re-referencing the cmp file and mat file in the shiparch.ini.
Ship looks good, although turret from the bottom shows the bottom of the ship perfectly. when i turret from the top onto my transparent cockpit i can see right through into space. I thought a Textured bottom (snicker) would be solid from another angle even if it is black faced inside it. Just working out now how to make my ship visible in the landing/equipment/ship dealers and a not so fixed weapon mount on the front nose. sorry for the meandering lol *rolls eyes*

I hope i'm ok to post this! anyway i searched for what i expected to be a LOD thing so changing that to 0, 2000 in the shiparch has worked fine. still trying to find out how to stop my cannon swinging all over the nose

they wanted my signature but i couldn't get my pen ink to stay on the screen

Edited by - the_ashened on 12/14/2004 10:21:53 PM

Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:13 pm by the_ashened

this sorted out my cockpit problem but i'll have to make a few solid faces for the inside of the cockpit so it doesn't look through to the bottom of my ship !I thought i'd post this here
thanks to this post by Firebase for this info

if you are using a texture on your glass.... make sure that you have an oc entry in your material node...

material
---Dt_name <---- your glass.tga or dds
---Oc <------ 0.800000 in float
0.000000
---type <----- DcDtOcOtTwo <--- the two is optional it just mean two sided

they wanted my signature but i couldn't get my pen ink to stay on the screen

Fri May 27, 2005 4:10 pm by undun357

Just about 2 weeks ago, i found out that i could make my own 3d models and there was FREE software to help you do it. So eventually i went and grabbed up Gmax & Milkshape + a whole lot of Models and textures. My web searching has produced a hot group of original and unoriginal ships. First off, i have no experience in any of this stuff so i took up a quick tutorial on how to make a fighter jet. It was a very simple, boxxy looking thing, but i did it. Now the only problem i have is trying to find an easy way to understand tutorial on adding textures in GMAX. I like milkshape, but i cant seem to be able to use it too well. If anyone has an idea on where i could get a great and easy tutorial, (preferably downloadable) please throw the link out there. I'm hooked on reverse engineering these ships in order to understand how these computer made graphics have such tight detail and vivid color. I'm joansin for model making......

Better late than never........

Fri May 27, 2005 6:08 pm by harrier

undun357,

If you are looking for tutorials for milkshape try Chumbalum, if you get the help file for milkshape from there (if you dont already have it) there is a built in tutorial for a simple ship shape that shows all the basic modelling..

There is also a very good site Here that goes into a LOT more detail for milkshape.

Harrier

Edited by - harrier on 5/27/2005 7:11:06 PM

Sun Jun 05, 2005 1:19 pm by MaliceOrdain

Hello guys,

I'm new to modding and am currently working on a ship that has preseanted a problem. I cant texture the glass canapy. I'm trying to texture it with a "glass texture", i.e. transparent (not of which I even have yet). I've had no luck in my past attempts. Could someone please help me?

Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:16 pm by bulahaw

@harrier

ei there, just hoping you could help me have a bat wing out of the shroud in freelancer... hope you could tell me how to change the color to black, or if u plz give me a mat file for the shroud to look like a batwing??

thanks!!!

may the FORCE be with you...

journey in peace... -BULAHAW

Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:10 pm by harrier

@MaliceOrdain,

A glass texture does not necessarily need to be transparent, transparency can be set by editing the .mat file (or .cmp - where the textures are included), with utf.. and setting the transparency manually.. there has been a new texturing thread started Here , where Argh goes into some detail in setting opacity/transparency for glass, it should help you..

@bulahaw,

In the header for this thread there is a link to the "Kasdias Texture Guide" and while it is now a little dated it will tell you how to export, change the colour/style and re-import new textures.. If that doesnt help you will need to go into more detail as to exactly what the problem is.

Harrier

Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:26 pm by newbee builder

I migth need some advice

I am not very good at all this building thingey, and thougth I have read the forums I cannot seem to make any sense of it.

my situation: I have created a craft in "MilkShape 3D 1.7.4" (I am pretty happy about it too

)

but what next? (seems I need a step by step advice, one that explains the things that all others do so easily that they are not even explained here)

I have Photoshop, but how do I skinn my craft? what programs do I need?

sorry if this seem too ignorant, but I kinda need the advice
thanks

Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:47 pm by harrier

newbee builder ,

There are a couple of sticked threads on texturing in this forum, I suggest you go read Argh's tutorial.. It will take you through the basic texturing steps, and explains fairly simply one method of texturing your ship.. Photoshopis perfect for textures and methods are also explained, there are also a host of textures available as texture packs in the downloads section.. but you will need to look for them.. there is no short way of learning texturing.. as the creation of complex 'skins' can be very time consuming.

Once you have textured your ship you need to add hardpoints.. there is also a blank .ms3d file in the downlaods section that provides the pilot and hardpoints..

Once your model is hardpointed it is then scaled and exported, the .mat file created (or imported into the .cmp..) and then you can replace an existing freelancer ship with your model.. there are tons of threads on this but you have to look for the stuff you want..

Harrier.

Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:09 pm by Howardtm2

well, I'm off on my way with this model, I have it in MS now working on textures, I've stumbled so many times so far I think my nose is broken..I do, however,(again) have need for the expert advice from you...some things, i.e. the windshield frame, is basically flat black, rather than developing a black pic and applying it as a texture, can I just use the palette in MS to simply "color" it and have it go into FL, or does EVERY color/surface need it's own file in the .mat? Thanks. PS. You people give a whole new depth of respect for the "nerd"

Tue Mar 14, 2006 9:17 pm by harrier

Howarddtm2,

in answer to your first question.. no.. the palette in milkshape will have no bearing on the colour of the model in fl.. they will come out grey...if ya lucky invisible if not.. so that surface must have a texture, however.. this leads to your second question and again no this is not necessary.. hmm.. Lets say your ship consists of two colours.. eg.. blue and black. All the 'blue' bits can share a common texture and all the 'black' bits the same.. now lets say at the end of mapping you have 7 'blue' groups and 8 'black' groups that all share the texture.. these can then be regrouped into 2 groups.., the 'blue' group and the 'black' group.. largest group first,, normally given an unique name e.g. 'the model name'.. example the first group for the 'mystere' is named mystere the second may be called fuse_group101.. to give it a unique name.. that way you minimise .cmp confusion.. the groups then follow in order from largest to smallest (vertex's) with hardpoints last.... and I ALWAYS (now) try to give each group a unique name either by and prefix and or a number.. gets a bit hard after the first 20 or so models to come up with stuff tho.. its the reason I now use numbers as there is not a lot of names for 'cockpit, wings' etc..

Hope this helps..

Harrier

Edited by - harrier on 3/14/2006 9:19:41 PM

Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:01 am by Howardtm2

Thanks Harrier...don't mind me, I'm just wiping the tears outta my eyes...I'm am "old dog" trying to learn new tricks...kinda like ice skating uphill (while pulling a 500pound sled) So far, the "NightStalker" is pretty bland looking, a far cry from what I've seen here, but I'm trying. What I've seen of most tex's here, they seem a bit "gaudy" and really unrealistic ( as if anyone really knows what "unrealistic" is in space fighters), but mine right now is mostly greys..brushed alum and such..so what I need now is "glass" and some COLOR (along with a huge amount of a thing called "talent". Also...I found, in another tut last night, something about 24bit .tga files NOT working in Freelancer..if thats true...will someone just shoot me now. If I'm correct, as for the glass surfaces, I could use..say a blue "skin" and adjust the "transparency" setting. And on a lighter note...when speaking of "flipping" a tex to get FL to "see" it...just what does that mean...I drive for a living so to me the term "flipping" has a completely different meaning. and one last request, fully off thread, could you link me to a gun making tut? I don't need pics of it as they are internally mounted. Thanks. Howard.

Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:04 am by Howardtm2

OOPs...Didn't know NightStalker" was already taken...will try to come up with something different...

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