[EL SE] Changing Hangar Mesh

[TraderDan]

I seem to remember you could change the mesh for the hangar at the loading screen but I cant remember where I saw it and I had earmarked it as a future project to work on ... well that day is today but I don't remember what to name my .obj or where to put it. Thanks in advance :-)

[TraderDan]

Adding hangar.obj to the media/ships folder produces this error:

[Vice]

Details sent via e-mail along with a revised test build to resolve the issue you encountered.

[TraderDan]

Thanks Vice, I can't believe you got back to me so fast and on Christmas Eve no less. :-)

[TraderDan]

[TraderDan]

I drew my model further back just to make sure my orientation or scaling was way off but it only seems to be projecting a silhouette of the model

[Vice]

Looks like it may be untextured and/or may not have normals. Size could also be mismatched. A difficulty with replacing the hangar mesh is it will also need to follow the same basic structure/layout to match the lights, mist, and ground hologram effects. So there are a lot of elements that need to be accounted for to accommodate that particular modification. For the basic mesh though, it may need adjustments to texturing, normals, and/or scaling.

Here is a list of the textures associated with the hangar environment:

\ships\hangarlightglow.png - interior lighting glow
\ships\hangarfloorlights.png - floor hologram lights
\ships\dust2.png - mist effect from ceiling (optional)
\ships\hangar-[detail].png - diffuse texture ([detail] = low, medium, high, veryhigh)
\ships\hangarnormal-[detail].png - normal texture ([detail] = low, medium, high, veryhigh)
\ships\hangarshader-[detail].png - specular texture ([detail] = low, medium, high, veryhigh)
\ships\hangarlights-[detail].png - emissive texture ([detail] = low, medium, high, veryhigh)
\ships\normalspec-detail4.png - detail texture (use blank white for no effect)

[TraderDan]

Thanks Vice, I'll start playing around with it later this evening I was thinking the same thing. I assumed that the textures from in game models would be applied in the absence of player created ones as with capital ships but perhaps that's not the case

[TraderDan]

And Merry Christmas by the way :-)

[Vice]

The default textures will apply, but only if there is UV data to map it. They likely won't look correct anyway since the mapping will be very different or if absent, not applied at all. A white surface like that suggests no UV mapping/blank textures and/or no normals. Merry Christmas to you also.

[TraderDan]

I've made sure the model has a UV map assigned, created generic diffuse and normal maps just for testing. So far the result is the same the model is just a white silhouette. I've tried creating simpler models and importing known good models even importing the hangar model into the ship viewer. There doesn't seem to be anything on my end that I can figure out that is causing it .. should I send a copy of the model for you to inspect?

[Vice]

Sure, I'll take a look.

[TraderDan]

here's the model I'm working on along with my test texture and normal maps: https://discord.com/channels/9811579106 ... 6700332113

[Vice]

The textures are not in a compatible format (maybe due to something Discord did to them? they download as HEIC images) and the model itself seems to lack needed data for texture projection, lighting, etc. There's a huge list of material names with 'color' descriptions, but I couldn't get Blender to display any actual UV data, which may be one problem. What I'd suggest initially is porting the model to X format, making sure normals and UV data is applied, then try loading again. Or at least take all UV data and consolidate it into one index on the mesh in OBJ format. The layout being used doesn't seem like it would be compatible for some reason. Nothing seems to be applied to the model from UV projection to lighting normals, so it seems to be missing those core details or they are getting lost along the way somehow.

When I port it to X format and drop it in the game, then things seem to work fine with the default textures appearing on the mesh and lighting applied: https://discord.com/channels/9811579106 ... 5362900008

[TraderDan]

ok thanks Vice that helps a lot

[TraderDan]

I've tried a few variations of what you described still not having much luck

[TraderDan]

Added some shuttle craft, not sure what changed but it's looking better but the ceiling isn't rendering for some reason

[TraderDan]

The texture maps seem to applying to the elevator that picks you up into the stations docking ring during system checks

[Vice]

Yes, the collar (base1-lift.x/obj) is a component of the hangar, so it shares the same textures and by default, much of the same shape/structure. It just has a dedicated mesh for the option of changing its structure as well.

Another possibility is we are looking at a very large size for the mesh you are using, so it keeps getting clipped by the haze/fog of the scene, causing its color to bleach out to the color level of the fog by being so far away from the camera. This could be giving the impression of no surface data when it's just the size that is pushing the structures out into the fog limit. So another step you could try is simply reducing its overall size to bring it more in view and closer to the camera.

[TraderDan]

I'm going to experiment a bit more later today, since I mirrored the ceiling I'm wondering my normal projection is only projecting up hence the transparent ceiling

[TraderDan]

So both the hangar and collar have separate meshes but share the same texture map?

[TraderDan]

It's coming along

[Vice]

So both the hangar and collar have separate meshes but share the same texture map?

Same set of textures, yes.

[TraderDan]

Hmmm ok I'll have to get creative, once I texture the hanger no telling what the collar will look like lol

[TraderDan]

Lol so you finished my model the way I like it now it's doing this again:

I have no idea what I would have done it's uv mapped and all the normals are facing the right way

This is with a .x and an obj. Just produces a white silhouette