Phong Lighting/Lightmapped Textures

[Rifraf]

Hi all. Was hoping someone could assist me with some questions I have. Aad Moerman has allowed me to redo the phong lighting on all his work that is featured in the next version of my mod. The tools I have are GIMP and TGA Tool and MS3D v1.8.4 with the sod importer/exporter. The one that only allows you to import "stock" sods.

Aad kindly provides most ms3d files so it's easy to edit the phong lighting and save a new sod. Some ms3d's he doesn't have though or only redid the texture keeping a stock sod in place.

1. Why does importing a "stock" SOD into ms3d and changing a material name from !lambert_materialname_!noalpha to
!phong_materialname and saving to new SOD result in the texture being invisible in game?

2. Another "stock" SOD has !phong_materialname_!noalpha and yet Aad Moerman only redid the texture with alpha
channel and it reflects lighting in game. How is this possible with the !noalpha tag on the material name?

3. Why does making any change at all to materialname in a "stock" SOD result in only some "stock" SODs crashing the
game?

4. Aad Moerman provided a SOD in a release. Is there any way to convert that SOD to an ms3d file so I can redo the
phong lighting and re-export to A2 SOD while keeping all groups, materials and joints intact as originally
released? I'm guessing this is called reverse converting and it dumps the hardponts when doing so?

5. Aad Moerman provided a new ms3d file that has nothing under the joints tab (but there are entries under the
group and material tab.) Does that mean the model needs re-hardpointed?

 

[Majestic]

Hey Rifraf I'll try and answer your questions some I don't know but many I do.

1. Why does importing a "stock" SOD into ms3d and changing a material name from !lambert_materialname_!noalpha to
!phong_materialname and saving to new SOD result in the texture being invisible in game?

Does the texture have lightmaps? Is it saved in uncompressed targa?

2. Another "stock" SOD has !phong_materialname_!noalpha and yet Aad Moerman only redid the texture with alpha
channel and it reflects lighting in game. How is this possible with the !noalpha tag on the material name?

Phong has nothing to do with alpha's, it's an ingame Storm3D engine ability to reflect light such as weapon glows. As long as you have the !phong tag it will reflect the light. !noalpha just tells the engine that there is no alpha channel for the texture so the game won't show any alpha channels from the texture on your model.

3. Why does making any change at all to materialname in a "stock" SOD result in only some "stock" SODs crashing the
game?

This I am unsure, what I would do is merge the saved ms3d file into a new ms3d file, delete the hardpoints and re-hardpoint it. This would probably solve your issues. Re-adding the material might also help to solve this issue. Trial and error would be the best way to figure out what the issue is. Do one at a time and test. I'd probably start with the texture.

Alternatively if this is for A2 I think if your file goes over a certainly amount of characters it can mess things up. I know A1 had I think an 8 character limit not too sure about A2. Keeping your names shorter and not excessively long could help solve this.

4. Aad Moerman provided a SOD in a release. Is there any way to convert that SOD to an ms3d file so I can redo the
phong lighting and re-export to A2 SOD while keeping all groups, materials and joints intact as originally
released? I'm guessing this is called reverse converting and it dumps the hardponts when doing so?

It is if you have the non-stock converter. Due to a big community issue a number of years back it's only given out privately to trusted individuals. Unfortunately some less than honest types do have it now and have abused it. My suggestion is post the sod file in an attachment and one of us will convert it to MS3D for you, attaching the texture too will help as well.

5. Aad Moerman provided a new ms3d file that has nothing under the joints tab (but there are entries under the
group and material tab.) Does that mean the model needs re-hardpointed?

Yes the joints are the hardpoints and that means you need to re-hardpoint it. Alternatively you could use a trick taught to my by Syf and make up a hardpoint map on a blank ms3d file and then just merge it to a model and move the points to where you need them. I can supply my hardpoint map if you like. Though it is set-up for FO and so you'll need to delete all the glows if you plan to use it for stock A2.

 

[Rifraf]

Thank you Majestic. In asking all these questions it may sound like I know what I'm doing so I apologize for any misleading on my part. I only learned how to add phong lighting last week and change the material names, but that is the extent of my abilities for now. I thought it'd be a piece of cake in redoing Aad's stuff and that's when I discovered the joy of stock sod issues, not having ms3d files issues etc... I have no idea how to hardpoint (yet, as I aim to learn, but didn't want to tackle too many tasks at one time while working on the next version of The Classic Mod.)

See link below to the file (25MB) of the only remaining materials that need to have phong lighting on the model. I believe all textures are lightmapped however, can someone instruct me how to simply tell if a texture is lightmapped? In GIMP the button under layers has the add lightmap grayed out so I assume that means it has it. The only ones that may not are the cupgrade and cyard2. I've included where possible the sods, ms3d's, odf's, max files and textures.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0wrahc9rkh4x74/Need Phonged.zip

All I am after is to have phong lighting on the model and make sure the textures are lightmapped (with hardpoints intact of course.) If anyone would like to help I would be most appreciative. If anyone feels I need to learn on my own that point is well taken and I will save these files for down the road once I learn. Any credits for assistance will be noted. Aad has requested that anything of his that I (others) redo the phong lighting, he be sent the new ms3d and sod and I will zip them all up for him once done.

Notes:
cupgrade is from Major Paynes Borg Incursion VR. He reverse converted the sod and sent me a new ms3d however it now needs re-hardpointed.

cyard2 is from Achilles' Art of War. He allows modding of his work with proper credits and this yard was done by he himself for his mod per his credits.

cresear2 sod by Apoclaydon/blade (I as going to email him for the ms3d, but hadn't gotten that far)

rupgrad sod by Thomas Bernardy a.k.a. Tommygun (I was going to email him for the ms3d, but hadn't gotten that far)

Aad Moerman noted to me that for things with animations like bmining and fmining he only had the sods and ms3d won't do animations. He also noted that for the research stations all pods stood all facing forward. Adding rotating joints didn’t help.

When I added !phong to the materials tab on kresear it threw off the build points of the pods. When I added !phong to the kupgrade it just flat out crashed the map editor when that station is placed. On some of his stuff I got the error in ms3d of "couldn't match a mesh node with a mesh.

The stock sod rresear2 pops up an error in ms3d that it's a mad doc sod of an older version or something like that and won't import.
The stock rresear.sod when redoing the phong makes the textures disappear in game (Aad kept the stock sod, but redid the textures)
The stock ryard.sod will let me change phong settings, but the new sod crashes the map editor.

Again, thank you anyone who chooses to take a look. Any help with anything is hugely appreciated by me, but no hurry or obligation. I know you all have your own things going on.

Regards, Rifraf

 

[Majestic]

I'll look a doing a few today, I will upload them to here when I have completed them.

I have done the first one, let me know how it goes.

 

[Rifraf]

Thank you Majestic. To start I just plopped your included SOD in game and the station appears as a white spider box in the editor. So then per your instruction in ms3d I deleted the h_null09 joint and re saved to SOD and it still is a white spider box in the editor. I do still have all 5 original textures in the RGB folder too so not sure what's wrong?

 

[Majestic]

I re-hardpointed as I realized while doing my YY models some of my older HP maps no longer work. Maybe they got corrupted or something. Anyway try this one out.

 

[Rifraf]

Awesome, thank you so much. I lightmapped the textures and it looks great. I couldn't figure out why it crashed when I tried to build a research pod, but then realized I had to look at all your new hardpoints and change them in the odf to match the new ones. Fantastic. Thank you again.

 

[Majestic]

No problems mate happy to help. Also if you delete the model and textures from the MS3D file and save it as a new file (hpmap.ms3d for example) you can in future just use the merge option (under file I'm certain) and merge it onto a model that needs hardpointing and then all you have to do is move the hardpoints to where you want them and export the new model to a sod.

There are no FO glows, emitters and lights in that hardpoint setup however. I don't often use lights and I removed the emitters to keep it simple for you, plus I haven't been using them of late myself either. Hardpoint rotation is a real pain in MS3D. I haven't even done it to my YY models yet.

 

[Rifraf]

I have a couple of questions.

Emitters are for the venting of plasma and smoke correct and use the emitter sprites? Can they be added later if one wishes? Just curious.

Also, you state you can move hardpoints in ms3d. I have a kyard I'm using that the build hardpoint shows directly on the center line of the station however, when a ship is built in game it's slightly off center of the actual station. That would just be a simple act of moving the build hardpoint and re saving to sod?

 

[Majestic]

I have a couple of questions.

Emitters are for the venting of plasma and smoke correct and use the emitter sprites? Can they be added later if one wishes? Just curious.

Also, you state you can move hardpoints in ms3d. I have a kyard I'm using that the build hardpoint shows directly on the center line of the station however, when a ship is built in game it's slightly off center of the actual station. That would just be a simple act of moving the build hardpoint and re saving to sod?

Emitters are the plasma and smoke vents and can be added to the hardpoint at a latter date. You need to assign the plasma to the engines hardpoint parent and the steam/smoke to the life parent. But to have them vent correctly (in the right direction) you need to rotate hardpoints and that becomes a little more complicated.

In most cases yes moving the hardpoint and re-saving the sod should fit that. But before you do check the odf and make sure there isn't an offset command for the buildhardpoint.

 

[Rifraf]

Now that I actually look closely, and it's hard with all the other hardpoints obscuring the view, I can see that the "build" hardpoint is actually slightly off center.

There isn't a mention in the odf of an offset so I'll try just moving it and re saving. Here goes

 

[Rifraf]

So sorry for double post, but it actually took me a minute to figure out how to move a hardpoint, but it worked and looks much better. Thank you again.

Can you merge this post with the above? Don't kill me

 

[Majestic]

Double posts on MSFC are those that are done within the edit timeframe, after that timeframe if you post again it's not considered a double post. We also don't have issues with necroposting aka reviving an old thread. They are left there for that very reason and we believe it's a bit silly that other sites get upset over it. If they don't want it to happen. delete or lock the thread.

You're most welcome. I am glad I was of some help. That's why I am here, to help out where I can. No point hosting this site, or doing my own project and ignoring everyone else now is there?

Hardpointing is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. Rotating hardpoints is the hardest part at least it is for me. That is only because you need to attach another joint to it and move it to where you want the hardpoint to face, export it, then delete the second joint and then re-export it again. A bit of messing around to be honest, but it's the only way that works for me in MS3D and I have tried various methods over the past decade and that is the only method that has worked for me.

I also use the merge method with a hardpoint map that works.

 

[Rifraf]

It's a bit overwhelming to learn all this, but baby steps right? I'm all like I moved my first hardpoint YAY Some more questions and I hope I get all the terminology right.

1. So to add phong lighting to a model can you only do that in ms3d or other programs like 3dsmax and such? Is it just that some prefer ms3d and some 3dsmax and whatnot?

2. If you don't have an ms3d file you have to reverse convert a sod to ms3d (using that "special" tool ) which wipes the hardpoints in every single case?

3. In the files I uploaded that you're helping with, if Aad provided an un-hardpointed ms3d all you have to do is hardpoint it right? (not meaning to make it sound simple.) Are you looking at the included odf to see where he originally had them or are you just doing what you think will work/look best? How do you know where they are supposed to go?

4. Does having an un-hardpointed ms3d file mean you can basically do whatever you see fit as far as putting hardpoints wherever you want?

5. I understand the principal of having to map a texture to a model however, if I lightmap a texture that never had a lightmap, how come in some (most/all?) cases in game the textures are basically invisible? Did it mess up the mapping?

6. Aad stated that for models with animation he couldn't provide an ms3d file, they require 3dsmax or whatever. Do you have to add phong lighting in another program then convert it to ms3d then re-hardpoint?

7. If you decide not to have a station animate that original did, do you just work as normal in ms3d and then when you export to sod it's just a non-animated station or whatever?

I have a couple of Major Payne's ms3d tutorials that I've looked through, but haven't tried anything yet except moving the a fore mentioned single hardpoint. It's so hard to see all the hardpoints on the model when there's 50 of them all jumbled together.

 

[Majestic]

Baby steps are right. I first learned to hardpoint and convert from other games like SFC3 and BC. Later I learned to kitbash and then modelling and finally texturing. Keep in mind this was like a 7 year process all up. But there is nothing saying it wouldn't take others that long.

As for your questions.

1. Yes only in modelling programs. MS3D and 3D Max v4 and v5 are the only ones that have the sod exporter available. You can technically do it in other programs but with no exporter you won't be able to convert it to game use.
   
   
2. Using the non-stock importer keeps the hardpoints intact.
   
   
3. Yes you only need to set it up for sod format. Which means hardpointing it, changing it's texture settings for lightmaps and adding the texture name stuff (!lambert_texturename_!phong for example). As for hardpointing it, I do it the way I want to. If it's someone else's model and they include an odf I just adjust it to my hardpointed version. But it's down to personal tastes like anything else in modding.
   
   
4. Yes for personal use you can do whatever you want with it, for public use and it's just hardpointing it, if you get the ok from the author to alter it you can do whatever hardpoint set-up you want. Many convert A2 models to Fleet Ops and add the FO glows for example.
   
   
5. In that case it could be as simple as a texture setting/name. I would re-check that. Failing that make a new material in MS3D reassign the texture and start from there, reapplying it to the group that it original came from in your model. I hope you understood that. If not let me know and I'll try to explain it better.
   
   
6. Animations are tricky. You really need to use 3D Max for that as the MS3D exporter doesn't correctly export the animation. So you really need to do all the work including the hardpointing in 3D Max. Importing it to MS3D will kill the animation and the scaleSOD command in odf files buggers up the animation as well.
   
   
7. Yes, importing it into MS3D will kill the animation off, but if you don't care about the animation treat it as a standard model as that's all it really is now.
   

As for selecting hardpints, use the joint tab and double click on the joint (HP01 for example) that you want to move etc. It will highlight in the window views red and no longer be blue until you deselect it.

 

[CABAL]

Double posts on MSFC are those that are done within the edit timeframe, after that timeframe if you post again it's not considered a double post. We also don't have issues with necroposting aka reviving an old thread.

Yep, if you have something to contribute then by all means, post away. I personally like to start my necroposts with, "Arise necrothread, I command thee!"

Rotating hardpoints is the hardest part at least it is for me. That is only because you need to attach another joint to it and move it to where you want the hardpoint to face, export it, then delete the second joint and then re-export it again. A bit of messing around to be honest, but it's the only way that works for me in MS3D and I have tried various methods over the past decade and that is the only method that has worked for me.

The bizarre thing is that you can just rotate the joint with the rotate tool, but it won't export as rotated. I suspect that the MS3D exporter was somewhat unfinished when it was released.

1. So to add phong lighting to a model can you only do that in ms3d or other programs like 3dsmax and such? Is it just that some prefer ms3d and some 3dsmax and whatnot?

Yep, both are usable for lighting models and it's mostly a matter of preference. I think they handle the tags differently, though.

2. If you don't have an ms3d file you have to reverse convert a sod to ms3d (using that "special" tool ) which wipes the hardpoints in every single case?

It doesn't do that when I use it.

6. Aad stated that for models with animation he couldn't provide an ms3d file, they require 3dsmax or whatever. Do you have to add phong lighting in another program then convert it to ms3d then re-hardpoint?

Hardpointing should be possible in 3DS Max as far as I know so you shouldn't need to swap between the two. The problem is that the MS3D exporter doesn't support animations.

7. If you decide not to have a station animate that original did, do you just work as normal in ms3d and then when you export to sod it's just a non-animated station or whatever?

Animated things don't seem to import with MS3D for me at all. Something about a version error.

EDIT: Ninja'd by thunder-stealing Maj.

 

[Majestic]

EDIT: Ninja'd by thunder-stealing Maj.

My bad!

 

[Rifraf]

LOL. I seriously appreciate all of your/everyone's help. Cabal is working on some nice new race specific GUI's for the mod and it looks great so far. I was saving stuff for a surprise, but no one but me probably cares anyway so.....

In talking with Freyr he's effectively retired from modding so he offered me to take over the unreleased next version of the Upgrade Project including the name. I accepted and am tying some of the work he did into my mod and will also change the name to something with the Upgrade Project in it for the next update and break off from the Classic Mod name. He and Medafusion were working on omni directional lighting (which they termed The Lighting Project years ago, but never released separately) so I'm adding that into it as well. Nebula's already have their own lighting which I'm adjusting and making more prevalent as do pulse and photon weapons so I'm drawing down the lighting on every single map, adding phong lighting to models and lightmapping textures so that you'll see light reflect off the hulls from all that stuff.

I'll also be adding omni lighting to things like wormholes and dilithium moons to add to the pretty light effects. I've already edited every map twice (instant action and single player, once to fix stupid mistakes I made the first time) before talking to Freyr so doing it a third time is a bit of a drag and is losing it's appeal. However, I press ahead. I'm also going to tie in Freyr's work on The Improved Single Player Campaign mod to improve game play/map layouts and I continue to follow in his footsteps with my work with the AI and how it plays.

So, I've got a lot to look forward too and am still having fun modding the game. You've all been a great help with advice and assistance so thank you so much again.

 

[Majestic]

If you're following in Freyr's footsteps you should have a great career ahead of you. He was one of those modders that did different stuff to the rest of us. His Upgrade Project was revolutionary for example.

While I have little interest in stock A2 anymore, gone to a FO modder, I still support all modding for this game. It's a rather dead community unfortunately. A2files has kind of gone downhill, the bugs have driven a lot of people away. AFC while receiving a new update has been in worse condition with members since the majority of us who had problems with some of the staff left and created MSFC. MSFC isn't in the best condition either, needed an upgrade (going to be around April/May unfortunately) and a lot of members busy with other things these days.

But still as long as people still hold an interest, the game will continue. It's a shame there hasn't been an Armada 3, even by another name. Fleet Ops have announced they will eventually be moving and making their own game, being a freeware game due to not having the Trek licence we might see a resurgence in Trek RTS play, not seen since the days of A1 in what is known as the golden years.

 

[CABAL]

But still as long as people still hold an interest, the game will continue. It's a shame there hasn't been an Armada 3, even by another name. Fleet Ops have announced they will eventually be moving and making their own game, being a freeware game due to not having the Trek licence we might see a resurgence in Trek RTS play, not seen since the days of A1 in what is known as the golden years.

With a new Upgrade Project, FO progressing to v4, and even getting a new engine somewhere along the line, plus all the odds and ends innovation that's happened, I'd say we're already building up to something of a Golden Age, just with a smaller community. We are still exploring the limits of the engine and finding new ways to innovate, not to mention what FO allows us to do. I personally like to push the bounds of A1 from time to time. I joined at the tail end of the 'good old days' and even I, a relative newcomer compared to the greats, have seen much creativity and progression since I joined.

 

[Rifraf]

Hi Majestic. I wanted to ask if you had done any more work on these? If not, hold off for a bit. I think I've decided to not worry about the ones with animation like mining stations and some research stations at least for now. I like the animations here and there, but if they are static stations it's not that big of a loss and I can just redo the phong lighting on those real quick.

There are only a couple that really puzzle me and that's the ryard, rresear and rresear2. They are stock sods (Aad only redid the textures) and every time I try to edit them and save a new sod they crash/freeze the map editor so I'm not really sure what the deal is with those? The rresear2 won't even load the stock sod as it says some error about it being a maddoc sod of an older version so I'm not sure there's anything that can be done with that one? The ryard has a material set to red, but I again I can't change it to white (I think it's the emissive one). Those 3 are really the ones that are giving me a heck of a time.

Because of this I'm considering just using someone elses models for those three?

I have a question though in that if I lightmap a texture on a model it messes up in game and becomes invisible. However, if I add phong lighting to the model first and save to new sod then lightmap the texture it works perfectly. Can anyone explain the technical reasoning for this behavior?

 

[Majestic]

Sorry I haven't had a lot of time recently been travelling to Sydney a lot these past couple of weeks. Getting up 2am on those days which isn't a lot of fun.

I should have some more time in a couple of weeks.

As for your issue I am not sure why it does that. I assume you have the right settings for everything. Maybe it's just the exporter. Do you have any textures assigned to the secondary texture/material slot? There shouldn't be any.

 

[Rifraf]

No apologies needed. I hope I didn't sound like I wanted you to hurry up. I was just checking as I wanted to you to hold off for now. I've narrowed down what I need now to only 4-5 stations total which I'll post later. Some of the other stations I decided not to worry about the animations and just redid the phong settings (which wiped the animations) and won't have the moving parts like fresear2 and such.

Maybe down the road at a later date I can do an update that restores the animations on the model, but for now I decided that having the model reflect light was more important than having some part of the station animate.

 

[Majestic]

No apologies needed. I hope I didn't sound like I wanted you to hurry up.

No worries mate, just wanted to explain why I haven't been active much. Been too tired to work on models, YY included. Just been reading books and playing games.

 

[Rifraf]

No problem. Like you and KJC I too have reached critical mass with my mod I think and have been getting the itch to fire up a different game. Finishing that one last thing keeps me pressing onward.

I usually read during the winter and have a stack of books that I haven't started yet, but just haven't been in the mood to read. Got a couple Dean Koontz and a couple Clive Cussler waiting on me. I read "The Passage" by Justin Cronin a couple years ago and was excellent, and late last year started his next one in the series "The Twelve" however, lost interest about 1/4 the way through so should get back to it.

 

[Rifraf]

So another problem question. I'm just trying to work through all this stuff and have read through Major Payne's ms3d tut and working on Aad's kresear2. He provided the ms3d file which I open in ms3d. in the group tab there is this: kres2gr <Mat: kres2map_!phong>

In the materials tab is : kres2map_!phong

Now in the joints tab the only m_XXXXXX entry is m_KRESEARCH. From what I've been learning that m_name has to be the exact same name as the group name correct? In the instance above it should then read m_kres2gr right? So in joints tab I double click m_KRESEARCH and rename to m_kres2gr and save to new sod. If I put that new sod in game I can place the station in the map editor then cntl-A to go to real game and click the research button however, as soon as I click a button to research a particular item the editor crashes to desktop. I'm not understanding what would cause this? Any ideas from what I described above? How does changing the name of the node to match the group name cause a crash?

 

[Majestic]

No problem. Like you and KJC I too have reached critical mass with my mod I think and have been getting the itch to fire up a different game. Finishing that one last thing keeps me pressing onward.

I usually read during the winter and have a stack of books that I haven't started yet, but just haven't been in the mood to read. Got a couple Dean Koontz and a couple Clive Cussler waiting on me. I read "The Passage" by Justin Cronin a couple years ago and was excellent, and late last year started his next one in the series "The Twelve" however, lost interest about 1/4 the way through so should get back to it.

I normally read during summer, the Aussie summer can get really hot. This is my first year with an air conditioner and so I can run my computer a lot more. The last 5 years I haven't be able too and so I read book after book. I generally I can get through a book a day like that.

So another problem question. I'm just trying to work through all this stuff and have read through Major Payne's ms3d tut and working on Aad's kresear2. He provided the ms3d file which I open in ms3d. in the group tab there is this: kres2gr <Mat: kres2map_!phong>

In the materials tab is : kres2map_!phong

Now in the joints tab the only m_XXXXXX entry is m_KRESEARCH. From what I've been learning that m_name has to be the exact same name as the group name correct? In the instance above it should then read m_kres2gr right? So in joints tab I double click m_KRESEARCH and rename to m_kres2gr and save to new sod. If I put that new sod in game I can place the station in the map editor then cntl-A to go to real game and click the research button however, as soon as I click a button to research a particular item the editor crashes to desktop. I'm not understanding what would cause this? Any ideas from what I described above? How does changing the name of the node to match the group name cause a crash?

My suggestion is to just re-hardpoint the model. I don't know what program Aad uses, he could be using 3DMax and it hardpoints differently to MS3D. That is the first thing I would try, delete the hardpoint and merge in the one I gave you on the other model. I normally re-hardpoint others models anyway so I know it is done right for me.

 

[Rifraf]

Well, good news is that I finally got this last troublesome station sorted. Turns out is was apparently some node misnaming under h_crew and with a material name change all is good now. I went ahead and redid the few stations with animation like mining and a few of the research stations which wiped the animation when I redid the phong lighting, but will worry about possibly fixing those later down the road. Thank you for all the help though Majestic.

I have to see about rotating a few hardpoints on some of the research stations, but other than that I am done with all of Aad's ships/stations and can focus on working on finalizing all the maps so they have proper lighting. Thank you again.

 

[Rifraf]

So I had another question regarding scaling of ships/stations in ms3d. I notice in the model tab there is a scale button. If clicked it brings up a scale option section with X, Y and Z sizes set to 1.0 default I guess. Is it good practice to set everything to 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 as a base and then use the ScaleSOD command if you want to adjust their size further or do you do it all in ms3d as a general practice?

 

[Majestic]

So I had another question regarding scaling of ships/stations in ms3d. I notice in the model tab there is a scale button. If clicked it brings up a scale option section with X, Y and Z sizes set to 1.0 default I guess. Is it good practice to set everything to 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 as a base and then use the ScaleSOD command if you want to adjust their size further or do you do it all in ms3d as a general practice?

What I do is scale it via testing in-game to what I want. Normally I import a FO stock model (though an A2 stock model that doesn't use the scalesod command would work just as well) and then when I get the scale right I scale all ships off that then hardpoint them all. The scalesod command does mess up animations and to be doesn't always work as intended. But this is just a personal choice, I know many who just use the command. It's all up to you.