Problems with the Mesh? Help!

Convert the mesh to plaintext and copy in the first few lines here.

Is it glowing any particular color? Can you take a screenshot?

TXT
MeshData
    hasValidTangents TRUE
    BoundingRadius 1796.717773
    MaxBoundingExtents [ 191.949997 147.080002 1795.170044 ]
    MinBoundingExtents [ -191.949997 -116.525002 -866.215027 ]
    NumMaterials 1
    Material
        DiffuseTextureFileName "Carrier-cl.dds"
        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName ""
        NormalTextureFileName ""
        DisplacementTextureFileName ""
        TeamColorTextureFileName ""
        Diffuse ffffffff
        Ambient ffffffff
        Specular ffffffff
        Emissive ffffffff
        Glossiness 32.000000

Screenshots is above, in the first Post.

The Glow is always in the same Color, the Mesh's Color is (without Bloom) Dark Green, the Glow (with Bloom) is Orange/Yellow.

The alpha channel in the cl.dds is either missing or all white.  If it's missing, somewhere along the line it gets automatically filled in/read as being all white.  That will cause your model to glow solid in your teams color once in game.

To fix it, simply add an alpha chanel and have at least 1 pixel non-black in it.  I've seen all black alpha channels seen as not being there before (and hence you get the all white fill in) and having even a single pixel anywhere in the channel prevents that.

-dolynick

Hi,

Thanks for the help.

Is this right?

Link to the DDS File: http://rapidshare.com/files/213490355/Carrier-cl.dds

The Alpha Channel is Black, and one Pixel ist "Dark Grey".

But however if i set another, working, Texture (other Ship Textures, example the Texture from the Kol), the Ship glows too.

Try setting

        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName ""
        NormalTextureFileName ""

to

        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "Black-da.dds"
        NormalTextureFileName "Black-da.dds"

And see if that fixes it. Alternatively, set the data map to another ship's.

Ok, it works now...no glow!

But...now the Ship has a Gold/Green Texture...

http://img43.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=30489_ScreenShot_1_122_151lo.jpg

This Colormap has no Alpha Channel set, the "Background" is Black.

The other 4 Channels use the Black-da.dds as Texture.

EDIT:

If i use a another, working Texture, the "Main" Color of this Texture is Green/Golden too.

Could it be that it have something to do with the Tangent Map or some "Settings" in XSI?

It looks like the colormap alpha channel is all-white, since that controls the amount of team-colouring. The one in the file you uploaded isn't correct, the alpha needs to be completely black so the image looks completely transparant in an image editor. Are you using Gimp, Photoshop or another program?

For this Texture i used Gimp, but it's my first time i use it, so i dont know really how i could set the Alpha Channel and the Color for it.

If used the Alpha Map from C4D and load it into Gimp, than i paste the Texture Map in a new Layer over the Alpha Map and delete the "Empty" Space between the UV's and save the complete thing as TGA File.

But, if i use only Ironclad Textures (from the Kol for example) the Ship has a "Green/Golden" Groundcolor in Areas of bright Textures.

For gimp try going to colours - decompose - RGBA and decompose to layers. Then bucket fill the alpha layer with black and go to colours - recompose.

If the Ironclad textures are doing it too though, it could be because you have multiple materials applied. Or it may be if you put black-da.dds in DisplacementTextureFileName and TeamColorTextureFileName. I've never seen those as anything but empty so that could be it.

Ha! It works!

Thanks for all your help!

http://img206.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=39759_ScreenShot_2_122_254lo.jpg

Now i can modify the Modell, correcting some failures and adding more Datails, and retexturing the Modell.

Hm, whats about the Data Map?

Can i use Colors there?

On the Screenshot you can see the "Landingfield" and near the Hangar some Light Spots...but this Spots should be Blue and not White.

Or have i to "define" the Color of these spots on the Color Map?

And need the Data Map an Alpha Channel, too?

Because, on the Screenshot, i had disabled the Bloom Effect, because the Ship glows a little bit with Bloom ON.

The data map is like 4 different greyscale textures saved as a single file. The red, green, blue and alpha channel control specularity, reflectivity, self-illumination and bloom respectively. Like the color texture if the whole ship is glowing it's because it has no/a white alpha channel.

As for the lights, are the lights part of the texture or are they flair lights added using a marker?

Ok, thanks.

Now the Textures are alright, but now i have a problem with the Flair Points.

I have set ~93 Points (Exhaust, Weapons, Flairs etc.) but some of the Flair Points are not visible in the Game.

Only the Flairs on the right side of the Ship and the Bridge Flairs are visible, the Flairs on the left side are invisible.

The Coords are alright, i think, the flairs on the left side are the same as on the right side, only the X Coords are negative.

And...one of the Exhaust Point is invisible too. :/

In XSI the Points all on the correct position and the name of the points are correct too.

Is there a limit for the Points?

It could be a limit, I've been avoiding going over 30 on my models, but that limit may just be for weapon points which tend to be buggy. Do all the flair points show up in the .mesh file? Are you also converting the mesh file to binary, as that can sometimes have strange results. Having all those lights on the runway seems excessive though, you may want to try baking/painting them onto the texture instead.

If there is a limit you may be able to get around it by using new .particle files, so that you can control several flairs with a single marker.

The "Spots" on the runway are on the texture map, i dont use any flairs for this effect.

The Number of Flairs Points is ~15, not more, only 8 on both sides of the ship an 2 over each bridge.

Edit:

Heres a Screenshot with some of the Flairs:

http://img259.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=93858_ScreenShot_8_122_247lo.jpg

I have converted the mesh to binary, but nothing changes.

And sorry, its the left side of the ship, not the right side.

What are the other ~78 points being used for it only ~15 are for flairs? I think it must be just too many points.

Do the coords also show up correctly when you open the .mesh in notepad? It could be that they're exporting badly

The other Points are for the Weapons.

I used more than 1 Weapon Point per Turret on the Model.

Yes, the Coords are correct in Notepad.

I'll try to delete some Weapon Points and look what Sins says.

Ok now it works.

There is a limit for Flair Points, so i have to delete a few of them.

But its ok, looks nice.

And now...can anyone tell me how to add the ship as a "new" ship class?

ATM i used the Sova Carrier Slot for it, but i want build the other capital ship too.

I tried to edit the PlayerTech.entity, GalaxyScenario.def, and the String Files and put a renamed copy of the sova entity file in the GameInfo Folder with own Names and IDs inside.

But everytime i get an error if i try to start sins.

Cya

MfG Cas

Start small - copy the Sova Carrier file, then change the mesh filename and rename the new .entity file, add it to the list in PlayerTech, then test, then do everything else. Don't do everything at once. A hard crash usually means you forgot to increment the capital ship # in PlayerTech.

The Game crashs only if i use the modified PlayerTech.entity.

It works fine with the modified GalaxyScenario and the String files.

Here are the modfied Files that i use:

CAPITALSHIP_TECHFLEETCARRIER.entity <- the Copy of the Sova Entity with own IDs and some different settings

In the GalaxyScenarioDef i added this Lines:

planetItemType
    designName "Tech:CapitalShip:FleetCarrier"
    entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHFLEETCARRIER"

The Lines in the String Files, the String Numbers i change too:

StringInfo
    ID "IDS_CAPITALSHIP_TECHFLEETCARRIER_NAME"
    Value "Fleet Carrier"
StringInfo
    ID "IDS_CAPITALSHIP_TECHFLEETCARRIER_DESCRIPTION"
    Value "A hightech Carrier specialized in providing advanced strike craft support."

The PlayerTech.entity + change the Count of the CapShips:

            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHFLEETCARRIER"

Is there a Limit of 5 CapShips per Race?

Have adding the new Entity File for the Fleetcarrier to the "entity.manifest", adding 2 IDs + counted the ID Number up in the String File and adding a new Line to the PlayerTech.entity and set the Count Number to 6.

But if i try to start sins, the game crashes.

Any Ideas?

Ah, I wouldn't know because I don't do Entrenchment stuff. Sins past 1.1 has supported up to 9 caps though.

Hm ok it doesn't work to add the carrier as an extra buildable capship.

However... i have some ideas for the abilities for the ship.

1. Jumpable Squadrons (new jump squadrons, slow but good armor)

2. Minefield ability for the carrier

3. Arcova build ability, to detect hostile minefields

4. direct jump to another system (cost 100% antimatter)

But i have a question:

is it possible to set a "stay on max weapon range" for ships?

the carrier has 3 weapons: 1. Med Laser against ships (5000 range, low damage), 2. Light Laser against fighters (5000, very low damage) and 3. missiles against ships (12k range, med damage).

but the carrier has very low hitpoints and shields, so i want that he stays on max range of the missiles and only use the other weapons if any hostile ships come in his range.

Yes, below all the weapons there's a weaponindexforrange or something line, set that to the # weapon (0, 1, 2) that you want to use as the range. So if the missiles are the last weapon (Weapon-2) set it to 2.

Thanks, works fine!

I've tried to set there the max range not the id of the weapon.