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Sinperium
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
+219

Modding: What Have I Forgotten Here?

I think it's been a long time...

February 23, 2020 5:37:53 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

So I am working on a small mod at the moment and am having two primary sticking points

  • Getting my models to display adequately in game.  My old mod models show up fine (these would be pre-Rebellion graphics rework) and I used to crank them out and slap in-game textures onto them with no issue. Now I am getting either flat black models or bright emissive colored models--depending on the texture attached

I'm wondering if it's the XSI model version I am saving to and if I've just forgotten a detail there?

I've got 3d Object Converter and the Softimage XSI Mod Tool which has different versions to save to.  My old models still work but the new ones I am creating definitely aren't working.  Even taking an old mesh and simply resaving it causes the same problem.

So yeah, I'm not creating new textures (just using base ones in the game that are workable) and I'm not in detail fixing tris and quads to any great extent (which I didn't do much before either)--but even stock models I grab from in-game and then re-import with Softimage and hand edits don't turn out right.

Yet my old models still work.   

Any suggestions here? 

I know that there's a specific model version in XSI Tool that I used to have to use (which I have forgotten now) and I never directly exported meshes to the game from 3D Object Converter before  but the ones it creates don't seem compatible.

  • The bin file converters provided don't seem to work in Rebellion (but of course, my old ones still work for older versions of Sins and Entrenchment versions).

Is there a super-specific place to grab the proper convert files from?  this is another thing I used to have no problem with.

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Sinperium
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
+219
Reply #1 February 25, 2020 3:03:02 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

A bump and stuff for fun.

Here's a custom model I have abilities created for that I'd like to put in the mod:

Sinperium's X-boats

P.S.  If you're a Sins Modder and want to use one of my models just ask.  Mention me in the credits is all I ask.

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Sinperium
Hael-sose
Join Date 12/2012
+26
Reply #2 February 25, 2020 12:00:32 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Even taking an old mesh and simply resaving it causes the same problem

Hi. Did you set up the texture references inside SoftImage, or manually? Because if you haven't, you'll overwrite the mesh with empty references. Check the .mesh and see if the material section looks anything like this:

NumMaterials 1

Material

DiffuseTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-cl.DDS"

SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-da.DDS"

NormalTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-nm.DDS"

DisplacementTextureFileName ""

TeamColorTextureFileName ""

Diffuse ffffffff

Ambient ffffffff

Specular ffffffff

Emissive ffffffff

Glossiness 50.000000

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Sinperium
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #3 February 26, 2020 2:34:32 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks for the reply.  I've tried several variations from known, working models on the mesh's and edited with Notepad++.

Now the above is a default Softimage output, right?

I've tried outputting the Tech colony frigate for example and then typing in the mesh data from the original and I still get the same results so far.

I used to edit particles, meshes, etc. all the time so I am not sure what I am missing. I'll experiment some more today and post back later.

 

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Sinperium
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #4 February 26, 2020 8:30:53 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Hael-sose,
reply 2


Even taking an old mesh and simply resaving it causes the same problem



Hi. Did you set up the texture references inside SoftImage, or manually? Because if you haven't, you'll overwrite the mesh with empty references. Check the .mesh and see if the material section looks anything like this:

NumMaterials 1

Material

DiffuseTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-cl.DDS"

SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-da.DDS"

NormalTextureFileName "FrigateVorlonEnvoy-nm.DDS"

DisplacementTextureFileName ""

TeamColorTextureFileName ""

Diffuse ffffffff

Ambient ffffffff

Specular ffffffff

Emissive ffffffff

Glossiness 50.000000

Here's what I currently have for a sample of a model that displays in-game but improperly (I've tried it and others with a variety of textures as well):

MeshData

hasValidTangents TRUE

BoundingRadius 13111.20455

MaxBoundingExtents [ 12961.88505 8044.41225 9500.6874 ]

MinBoundingExtents [ -12961.8881 -8019.95085 -5711.4971 ]

NumMaterials 2

Material

DiffuseTextureFileName "CapitalTechCarrier-cl.dds"

SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "CapitalTechCarrier-da.dds"

NormalTextureFileName "CapitalTechCarrier-nm.dds"

DisplacementTextureFileName ""

TeamColorTextureFileName ""

Diffuse ffffffff

Ambient ffffffff

Specular ffffffff

Emissive ffffffff

Glossiness 8.000000

Material

DiffuseTextureFileName "CapitalTechBattleship-cl.dds"

SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "CapitalTechBattleship-da.dds"

NormalTextureFileName "CapitalTechBattleship-nm.dds"

DisplacementTextureFileName ""

TeamColorTextureFileName ""

Diffuse ffffffff

Ambient ffffffff

Specular ffffffff

Emissive ffffffff

Glossiness 8.000000

NumPoints 0

NumVertices 13850

etc. etc.

Here's the  look from in-game (ignore the giants size and all--just looking at the meshes for now:

Bad Textures In Mesh

d vertices, etc., of course.

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Sinperium
Hael-sose
Join Date 12/2012
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Reply #5 February 27, 2020 3:05:28 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Why do you have 2 materials?

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Sinperium
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
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Reply #6 February 28, 2020 9:50:58 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I had one material and it crashed the game.  Added a second and it lets it display.  No idea why.  I had the number of materials correct in both cases.

But if I drop it down to one material as shown here it mini dumps game. 

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Sinperium
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #7 February 29, 2020 12:44:44 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Got to be something else going on, you can definitely have one material.

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Sinperium
Sinperium
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Reply #8 February 29, 2020 7:12:25 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I'm still experimenting on it. The above is just one of several iterations of this.

What's annoying is I have dozens of models I made and used in the past with no problems.  

I'll try to marathon it sometime this weekend and just trial and error my way through this.

I do recall in the past that one of the versions of XSI that Softimage saves to is not as SoaSE friendly as the other.

I've tried saving to both of them and it seems irrelevant at this point.

Not having a working convert exe for the current version is a big part of this problem for me.

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Sinperium
Hael-sose
Join Date 12/2012
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Reply #9 March 1, 2020 9:37:45 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

If you remove a material block, do not forget to also change NumMaterials to 1. That might explain a crash.

 

 

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Sinperium
Sinperium
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Reply #10 March 1, 2020 10:02:07 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yep—done that. 

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Sinperium
Hael-sose
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Reply #11 March 1, 2020 3:34:28 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hmm. The only other option I can think of, is in XSI to remove all materials, just have the default material left. Then, export xsi, transform into mesh file, manually put the file references into material 1 (case sensitive, so copy paste hehe).

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Sinperium
Sinperium
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Reply #12 March 4, 2020 10:40:07 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Unfortunately, that's my default.  I've never imported/exported materials in XSI.

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