need some modding help

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Tue May 08, 2012 8:11 am

hey modders/mod enjoyers and others.

I have a question..
Im using Blender and im having a hard time with
implanting new ships into the game.

I converted the .3ds files to .x file..
Made the spaceship the smallest it can be..
And still in game it pops up as a massive spaceship without it
textures.. What should is do?

The program i use to convert is Windows ConvertX Util.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Tue May 08, 2012 9:46 am

o/

having the ship in game allready sounds good

trial and error is a good bet.

scale is pretty relative. find out, how to set a rather huge system scale in blender. (meters or kilometers)
while having a rather tiny object scale (millimeters).
the blender gui is driving me nuts. i tryed to research that for you en passant but can't even find the program properties.. :/
if blender can't separate that, go as tiny as you can with the units.

2nd: some of these x-porters have another scale multiplyer integrated. possibly yours too? if your object is to big, find that out. use a 0.x value or make at least sure its set to 1.

a specific texture needs to be applied in blender before you export the mesh. (else the mesh will refer to what ever texture you used, which doesn't work ingame)
it has a specific name which you can find out via the custom kit readme. its .dds format if i remember correctly, so you'll need a program that can handle these, too. XNview handles it as a picture viewer and possibly converter, for the gimp there is at least one script available.
when comping it, you can turn multilayer and alpha off. (or simply convert any jpg into dds. watch the side relations. square. 512x512 etc)

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Tue May 08, 2012 9:59 am

Thanks will do.
But those things i already knew lol.
I figured out how i can import the spacecraft into the game with everything okay.
But keep getting the error "Runtime error 7026 - You must link limbs in chain sequence at line 65110"

How do i solve this?

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Tue May 08, 2012 10:08 am

perfect. (:

multiple meshes where the game demands one? if you have separate pieces, add it into one mesh.
http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9058

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Tue May 08, 2012 7:17 pm

lol, i tried what you said.. but still the game gives me an error.
I even rebuild a ship from 1 mesh.

But still i get the freakin error that i need to connect somekinda limbs.

here's how i work.
i add a cube form it to a ship add textures, remove all items in the project lights, camera and such.

And im using the .x file exporter ( basic add-on of blender)

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Tue May 08, 2012 11:03 pm

join all parts into one large single part.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Wed May 09, 2012 8:42 am

that dosn't seem to work.

gladius: it would be a help if you write down how you actually fixed problems if it was something different then what got suggested.
its interesting for the next person running into the same problem.

the limbs.. can you post your original .blender file (preferably as well an .obj for me, since i suck at blender) and also which blender version you are using?
maybe some blender guy tags along. with the obj i can analyze that thing, too without breaking my fingers +g+
for the export settings: no optimizations, faces: quads

[Edited on 5-9-2012 by ijon]

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Wed May 09, 2012 10:30 am

okay will do.
I'll post a link later. im at work now

[EDIT]
Its only mesh now.
Havent got time to place the textures yet

And i use blender 2.63.

[Edited on 5-9-2012 by Gladius]

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Wed May 09, 2012 6:01 pm

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthr ... 8solved%29
thats the error i get trying to import. so before we run through loads of tests:

i took a look at your mesh with the object viewer i posted.
simply put: its a mess.

the possibility that the game has some issues with that, is given.
some of it may as well be caused by the export into obj. no idea, yet.

beside learning hard surface modelling, (and if the export has nothing to do with the result) what can you do:
start over. well, yes. fixing this probably takes longer than rebuilding it.

or: go for geometry that is inside your 'hull' first and delete it.
check for lost and useless verts.
weld some corners. that whole thing needs more consistency. some of the edges are double, tripple, up to 8 where there is one needed.

thats it for now.

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Wed May 09, 2012 6:33 pm

Thanks Ijon^_^

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Wed May 09, 2012 7:01 pm

no problem.

check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W11bZF9bhb0

i can't judge the workflow since i'm not familiar with the blender tools. the mesh looks clean though and allthough its 'just' a fork, that guy seems to cover most usefull modeling tools, explaining it well from scratch. he is boxmodeling, the best approach in most modeling scenarios.

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Wed May 09, 2012 7:10 pm

yeah i already started over lol.
It was really a mess.
But that was because i was working with lots of clones and stuff.

Now im starting of scratch with 1 mesh and keep it 1 mesh just to
prevend doubles.

So thanks again for pointing me the flaws.
Now i can work somewhat better. Its my first model for evochron so i didn't know
what exacly were the preferences of the game to "accept" the mod

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Wed May 09, 2012 7:25 pm

actually working with clones is smart. structure your scene:

if there is layermanagement: use it.
drag the copies off your original, so you have them beside each other.
make use of names.

see it as some kind of backup - beside 'undo' and safing various states into separate files.
it also makes it more comfy if you want to try and compare different approaches quickly, or need to solve one nasty puzzling riddle.

[Edited on 5-9-2012 by ijon]

Gladius · Post by **Gladius** » Wed May 09, 2012 7:53 pm

cool thanks man,
i'll keep that in mind.
I always work with copies but
i think its time to step my game lol.

thanks for the help you provided =D