[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Custom mods, stories, and artwork based on the Evochron / Arvoch universe.
Daedalus
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

I tried to import some basic mesh like a simple cube with differents program like 3dsmax and wings 3D, but i get the same error with the "link limbs in chain sequence at line 534". I asked my friend to try it on his pc, he got the same error.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Like vice said.. The mesh has to be a while part not segmented. You need to export the thing as a one object I don't know how to do this with blender but I know how for 3D S Max.

I used to work with UDK and CryEngine. Never got around to Unity though.

Maybe if I send proof of a multipart mesh in the game you'll let me help import this lol.


I'm after a decent ship designer for the overhaul project to improve the poly count in the existing ships by making frames similar but with more 3D BAKED detail and Texture them. I noticed on the test frame in the sample kit the model was un optimised I removed over 7000 vertices from a civi ship frame....
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

Well you cant get a better whole shape than a simple cube I think.

Give me your email, i'll give you the mesh, it is compatible with 3dsmax. Do you want a .obj or .fbx, or i give you the .blend file?

It tried on unity, it worked fine, I just had to replace the textures since unity doesnt import the packed textures with blend files.

For the mesh if you clean mine with 3dsmax tools it will lose 10000 verts but the whole mesh will be smoothed and the normal map will not be well placed. In blender you sharpen edges by spliting them. The poly count doesnt change but you can double the vert count. I think it work the same way in some other programs.







[Edited on 3-3-2016 by Daedalus]
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Yep you can split the thing in max as well, cleaning helps but you still gotta define the range to clean. You need to have two versions like any modern game one where you make the maps with and second lower poly the maps should work fine just re map the textures after optimise usually you would do that then map the textures anyway.

My emails in my profile mate :).

Just send me either the blend or the obj which ever you think is best.

Include the textures I'll try get it in engine replacing the starter civilian ship just so I can find it lol.

If it works in game would you be able to make improved versions of all the hulls? For civilian.and navy?
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

Yep, I thought replacing the capital ships first would be easier, but I planned to work on all the ships after it.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Well my Email is [email protected]
if you need to send anything my way for whatever reason.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Bump

It has been a while, and I promised you I would attempt to get this in engine. I am sorry it has been a while but I am going to attempt this today, I am preparing the files as I type this.

The reason for delay is I until I started full steam ahead on cockpit mesh's I had no idea how to export a functional .X mesh but I cracked that case sometime ago. I can't guarantee I can get it looking EXACTLY like you posted it here due to the slew of texture files.

Some of which I don't know what they are for, but I know the models need be a whole mesh as in it is fine to have multiple parts grouped in your model editor but on export the mesh has to be single UV mapped mesh. So I see you have multiple parts and I saw some AAO normals.

But the textures need to be in the below format along with the single mesh.
ship1_0[detail].dds = Base texture for capital ship hulls
ship1_0lights[detail].dds = Emissive map for lights for capital ships
ship1_0normal[detail].png = Normal map for capital ship hulls
ship1_0shader[detail].dds = Specular map for capital ship hulls

[Detail] = Game Engine Quality Level, essentially low,med,high texture settings which range from 256x256, 512x512, 1024x1024. These represent the individual texture quality levels used by the game engine. Once the I am done we should have three sets of each of the required images. One for each detail level. .DDS compression is recommended.

However you are much better at models than I am and I have no idea how to map textures to models so my luck with getting your UV mapped may be impossible.

Going to presume this is replacement for the battleship class.

Below is a list of types available.
Capital Ships:
To replace the default capital ships, use the same \\ships folder and the following filenames (sample meshes included with this kit):
ship1.x = Human transport
ship2.x = Human destroyer
ship3.x = Human cruiser
ship4.x = Human battleship
ship5.x = Human command ship
ship2_v.x = Vonari capital ship


[EDIT]
First prob, I see is the FBX file seems to be missing some parts of the ship, the antenna and dish's at front don't exist. Maybe I imported the the file wrong and missed some groups.

[EDIT2]
Okay mesh loaded and I didn't miss anything importing it so I guess it is just a fault of the mesh you gave me maybe an older mesh?

Anyway I clean the mesh and I am about to export it and setup the thruster placement, would be nice if you could guide me on where the thrusters SHOULD be for the model but until you reply I will just put them where they seem fitting.



[Edit3]
Okay so... We can't use your textures. Talked to Vice as I enquired if the engine was capable of individual ship texture replacement. It's not, all ships use a uniformed single set of images one set for civilian, military, capitals. I'll have remove the UV map and make a new one based on the capitals texture set after I figure out where these joints are im getting errors about.

[Edit4]
Just got a email from Vice, sent me a test build which allows individual ship textures using the ship ID to replace just that ships texture set.

[Edited on 3/28/2016 by Misunderstood Wookie]
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Marvin »

From post: 187063, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote:[Edit4]
Just got a email from Vice, sent me a test build which allows individual ship textures using the ship ID to replace just that ships texture set.
:cool: Where else can you get service like that?
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

From post: 187071, Topic: tid=12363, author=Marvin wrote:
From post: 187063, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote: [Edit4]
Just got a email from Vice, sent me a test build which allows individual ship textures using the ship ID to replace just that ships texture set.
:cool: Where else can you get service like that?
Absolutely no where, thats why I make effort for this game.
Funny thing, I replied to confirm if the this change was just shipXType.dds (Type=normal,shader,light, X=shipID) or if it was the same as before using the -[detail] tag to define the level of detail required for the texture to work.

He said currently it is just the shipID and is a global texture for all detail levels but said it would not be hard to incorporate the standard detail level method for this individual replacements. So that was cool.

There isn't really a difference between that and now except the current method allows for 'shipXType-[detail].filetype' where detail is 'low,medium,high' so you can have three sets of textures one for each performance level in-game. The currently tested method is a global and works for any detail level which is fine :) but it won't decrease in quality to save VRAM.

A quick email as I said and Vice is going to sort it in the final build.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Marvin »

From post: 187076, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote:A quick email as I said and Vice is going to sort it in the final build.
:cool: I think you mean the next build. I doubt it will be the final build. ;)
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

From post: 187077, Topic: tid=12363, author=Marvin wrote:
From post: 187076, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote:A quick email as I said and Vice is going to sort it in the final build.
:cool: I think you mean the next build. I doubt it will be the final build. ;)
Well yes technically it would be next build. I worded it the way I did because I was meaning the final integration of the feature. Sorry I am used too working on mods and small games where the dev cycles usually last until feature complete with bug fixes.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

hi! Stunning work!Sorry I didnt follow your work recently, i was busy on another project. I didnt get all the post but we can speak of it on skype this week if you want.

I didnt get the issue with the normal maps. I can work on my textures to fit with the engine but i need to know want I can and cant do with the former one. I was so used to work with unity that working with others engines and getting errors leave me with incomprehension.

You said that Vice sent you a test build? We definively have to speak about that :D
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Well I don't use Skype for anything other than interviews, but I use Steam for PC a lot and I don't have a mic atm either so... but we should speak about finishing this up.

You may have read but yes Vice sent me a test build which has support for a global texture replacement which will replace individual ships textures. The next build Legacy will likely have this feature along with detail level but for now I am working with global replacement so if I replace say ship ID 105 (Human battleship) the texture sizes will be for all graphics quality settings in engine, the future builds will likely change this to work as they currently do allowing for low medium and high to be attached too the filename with reduced texture sizes for the lower end of things.

What I need to know from you however is where exactly you wish the maneuvering thrusters and main engine placed this is done via a text file and it will place those components at the positions defined in such. So all you need to figure out is what rough position on the model you want them to align with (ROUGHLY) the game will take care of everything once the text file is created with the position info.

Currently I am trying to figure out why I am getting errors related to extra joints in the mesh, I grouped all the meshes before export as a single binary file soo maybe you can point me in the right direction as too why there are extra joints.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

For the extra joints, I have no idea, I've passed several days trying to put a simple mesh from blender to the ship viewer, but even the default cube would get an error with extra joints.

For the thrusters, the main ones are the 4 rounds thrusters behind the mesh, and the manoeuvering ones... Never thought of it, but I can quickly draw some one the texture, just say howmany thrusters there are on the Z and Y axe.

You can mail me your steam id, we will work fasted in the steam chat i think.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

From post: 187084, Topic: tid=12363, author=Daedalus wrote:For the extra joints, I have no idea, I've passed several days trying to put a simple mesh from blender to the ship viewer, but even the default cube would get an error with extra joints.

For the thrusters, the main ones are the 4 rounds thrusters behind the mesh, and the manoeuvering ones... Never thought of it, but I can quickly draw some one the texture, just say howmany thrusters there are on the Z and Y axe.

You can mail me your steam id, we will work fasted in the steam chat i think.
I would not worry about messing about with the texture for thrusters, you will not see them in-engine. The thrusters meshes are taken care of by the engine, these are the thrusters you see when you steer the ship around and not using the throttle or afterburner. The text file just tells the engine at were on the mesh to place them :).

Now the best way to figure that out is by trial and error using the viewer which is what the tool is designed for in the first place. (previewing custom meshes and component placement)

I am sure it is safe enough to give out my steam Id here http://steamcommunity.com/id/MisunderstoodWookie/ isn't anybody on here who would pester me too much, I run a pretty tight ship privacy wise but anything anybody can find on the internet I consider public knowladge such is the life of my steam account :P, considering you could just search me up using my forum name.

Will wait for you add me on Steam to continue discussing how to solve these these pesky issues. Once the model is loaded into the viewer it should in theory work in engine might as well tweak what needs tweaking now before exporting to engine though.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Marvin »

From post: 187085, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote:I am sure it is safe enough to give out my steam Id here ....
It's even safer to do it via a U2U.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

From post: 187086, Topic: tid=12363, author=Marvin wrote:
From post: 187085, Topic: tid=12363, author=Misunderstood Wookie wrote:I am sure it is safe enough to give out my steam Id here ....
It's even safer to do it via a U2U.
This is true, though there is no personal information on my steam account that's public.:P
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Rafastyle »

From post: 186281, Topic: tid=12363, author=Daedalus wrote:I tried to import some basic mesh like a simple cube with differents program like 3dsmax and wings 3D, but i get the same error with the "link limbs in chain sequence at line 534". I asked my friend to try it on his pc, he got the same error.
transform nodes appear to count as a seperate part.
in the exported .x file open it up and remove everything apart from the first line and the mesh{} (keep everything inside the mesh section including sub {}'s )

it should work then
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Swede »

That's good to know. I had to use a separate program that had the option to export as a single mesh.
Would be nice to be able to eliminate a program from my conversion system.
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by matchbox2022 »

That would be cool. Over on steam people have been complaining about the single mesh thing.
Can't wait to see this ship! It's mind oglingly nice Daedalus!!!
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[MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Misunderstood Wookie »

Maybe I need to take another look into this, I just ran into the limbs issues constantly no matter what I did unless i removed one of the whole parts.
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Re: [MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by matchbox2022 »

is this officially dead? :(
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Re: [MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Scavenger4711 »

matchbox2022 wrote:is this officially dead? :(
I hope not, it looks amazing! Just looking at the screenshots made me... change my pants afterwards ^^
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Re: [MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by Daedalus »

Well I tried one more time to import my mesh, but with the same result. My mesh is done but I just cant import it correctly.
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Re: [MOD - WIP] Capital ships replacement project (again)

Post by matchbox2022 »

maybe vice could help you? Sounds like its basically some small issue stopping the end result, which looks amazing
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