Phong Lighting/Lightmapped Textures

[Rifraf]

Thanks Majestic. I had a couple more questions. Sometimes using the scaleSOD command has no effect at all. Sometimes a stations will absolutely refuse to change size. What causes this?

Also, referring to the "MS3D material settings" thread that's stickied in modding/editing, I tried !translucent_xxxxxxx and the texture doesn't go invisible as is questioned in the notes in your first post. Reason I'm asking is on the mining stations they all have the rotating beam of light when unloading dilithium. Redoing the phong lighting on those removes the animation and I now want to make the beam of light invisible as well so you don't see it. Is there a way to do that?

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Majestic. I had a couple more questions. Sometimes using the scaleSOD command has no effect at all. Sometimes a stations will absolutely refuse to change size. What causes this?

Also, referring to the "MS3D material settings" thread that's stickied in modding/editing, I tried !translucent_xxxxxxx and the texture doesn't go invisible as is questioned in the notes in your first post. Reason I'm asking is on the mining stations they all have the rotating beam of light when unloading dilithium. Redoing the phong lighting on those removes the animation and I now want to make the beam of light invisible as well so you don't see it. Is there a way to do that?

For your first question check out this thread: http://www.msfc.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=5023

As for your second, just delete the light beam groups and textures from the MS3D file.

 

[Rifraf]

Thanks for the link however, I've always had my value set to 1.0 for the strategic view scale. In this instance though that doesn't seem to be it. Specifically it's the federation turret and turret2 that I'm trying to change and when using the scaleSOD command they absolutely won't change size in over head view. I can use a value of .5 or 5.0 and they are always the same tiny size. It seems something is preventing them from changing size relative to other stations?

I'll take an extra close look and make sure that I'm actually seeing what I'm seeing though.

 

[Rifraf]

So, in messing around in ms3d I clicked the h_scene root in the joints tab which highlites every node/joint/hardpoint and then at top click edit and then delete selected which removed all those points. Is that what deleting the hardpoints means? I want to make sure I get the terminology right.

Then following a tutorial I click the model tab and then joint and place my first joint at the center of the model, x-0, y-0, z-0. Is there a way to get it exactly centered? I zoomed in on the top down view as much as possible, but the closest I could get is about x-.002, y-.000, z-.003 before naming it h_scene root in the joints tab. I'm beginning to experiment with learning how to hardpoint and such and just want to make sure I'm starting off right.

 

[CABAL]

There should be a snap to grid option on the right hand panel with the tools.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
Yes, Cabal is right, use the "Snap to Grid" option, that way you can get not only joints to be more exact, but that option will also help you a great deal with any shapes as well, so they are easier to match with each other and t omake more exact edits of any mesh aswell .

 

[Rifraf]

I have another question on a model that is giving me fits. If I add !phong_ to the beginning of the material name and save to SOD, in game the ship looks like parts of it are missing. Conversely, if I leave the SOD as stock (without phong lighting) and just lightmap the textures it still looks like parts of the ship are missing and I can see inside the model.

I unsure as to why this is happening as adding phong lighting to other models and light mapping their textures has worked just fine?

 

[Majestic]

The most likely issue is that something could be up with your hardpoint map. Have you referenced all group groups with m_meshname and attached it to the main joint?

 

[Rifraf]

Well, it's actually one of Major Payne's releases that I was trying to add phong lighting to and light map the textures just like I do to other older stuff I've used, but in this case it just will not work at all for some reason. I went ahead and just left the model and textures alone so I may have to revisit this particular ship later. Thank you though.

I keep reading ms3d tuts over and over, but just don't get it all yet. Would be nice if I could sit down next to someone and watch them work on a model and hardpoint it and such and go from there.

 

[Majestic]

If it's Major Payne's work no doubt it's in A1 sod format which doesn't support lightmaps.

I keep reading ms3d tuts over and over, but just don't get it all yet. Would be nice if I could sit down next to someone and watch them work on a model and hardpoint it and such and go from there.

Well if you lived in Australia I would invite you over.

 

[Rifraf]

Ah, I see said the blind man as he spit into the wind. I had actually emailed MaP and he said it's probably in A1 format which I didn't understand what that meant as to my problem. Seeing what you said clears it up. Thank you. So his sod is in A1 format. How come loading his sod into ms3d and exporting it as A2 format doesn't make it work for that format?

I guess on that same question, how come I can put it into A2 and it plays and displays properly if it's in A1 format?

 

[Majestic]

A1 format was compatible with A2 and when A2 first came out many modders still exported their models into A1 format as many people still modded and played the original game even when they bought A2 and found A1 a better game (*puts hand up* I was in that group). Many modders wanted to allow people to use their work in either game and exporting it to A1 format allowed this. Back then not many people knew about lightmaps or how to do them. A totally different time it was 12-13 years ago.

I am not sure why re-exporting it to A2 isn't working. I would recommend deleting the hardpoint tree and re-doing it using one of your A2 hardpoint maps/trees.