HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial

HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial; support/discussion/questions

Moderator: thunderchero

User avatar
thunderchero
Site Administrator aka Fleet Admiral
Site  Administrator aka Fleet Admiral
Posts: 7849
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:00 am
Location: On a three month training mission, in command of the USS Valiant.

Post by thunderchero »

UE has no control of how many textures are use it only reads the data from the hob file. If you view the hot file from the model I bet it only lists 4 textures. If so you will need to go back to flt or 3ds file and find where texture was lost.

thunderchero
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

Cool, I reconverted the model and now the five textures show up. I really got get on it with that Connie, I think Dr Breen is really demanding something amazing. Maybe I'll put a little window on top so he can see Kirk on the bridge, lolz.
Dr_Breen
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 889
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Dr_Breen »

Are you sharing textures between the Connie, ptolmey and akula? i think 5 textures for just 1 model would be quite a lot (even tough it is possible without problems)
Public BotF / EF2 Teamspeak 3 Server: 83.169.13.55
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

. Ive just chane the Yea I use one for engioneering one for top anther for bottom and one miscellaneous. Since the hulls look the same just about I've been making them all look simliar. I just foulest get some of textures to look good when I shrunk them down to one texture. The fun will come when I work on some tmp era stuff, not much reusable textures there.
That's why I started with TOS era, I can focus on my modelling and not work zoo much on textures right now. Plus I've always wondered why we didn't already have a Fed ship pack.
For anyone waitng on that Fed pack it will be laired while I am in the hospital just wished I had brought my laptop
Im really glad you guys showed me this stuff. I am really enjoy doing this.
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

Quick question about the shading options in the Creator. Are Flat , lit objects, and Lit Gourand for shaded objects our only options, or can you use say Lit and Gourand for a lesser lighting affect like the one on the registration numbers on the TMP Connie, how they have the diffrent letterings on the model look like thay are being lit up with a light?
Dr_Breen
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 889
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Dr_Breen »

i don't know if i got you right.

In newer games we'd use alpha channels of course but botf does not support that

if you want to light up say a registration number you can simply place the texure containing that number on a Pollygon and then make the whole pollygon being shaded different than the other pollygons around it.
Public BotF / EF2 Teamspeak 3 Server: 83.169.13.55
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

yea, thats what im talking about. But in the modifiers option in creator we have the option of four types of shading, is BOTF limited to just lit gourand and flat option or can we use the other two, lit and gourand. I noticed the others give a smother looking light. A little less bright.

Also what could cause a model that I have seperated and made into a good ship pack once, I change some textures and reseperate it, and now it has missing polys in game?
Dr_Breen
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 889
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Dr_Breen »

about 1: Givi it a try, now i'd like to know as well.

about 2: hard to say. so you took the same 3ds file you converted and packed successfully before, edited it's texture and then after packing it there was missing pollygons ingame? I usually had missing pollygons when i add the phasers the wrong way, but not when editing the texture.
Public BotF / EF2 Teamspeak 3 Server: 83.169.13.55
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

The only change was the texture and I extruded the glowing area of the nacelles so they wouldnt combine with another face during the combine faces part, but other than that nothing else on the model was diffrent from the first time I seperated and played with it in game.

I will try it some more diffrent ways to see if maybe I changed something. I dont know, I will also try it on a less complex model.
User avatar
robert_defore
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 141
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:00 am

Post by robert_defore »

Would you like to give seperating this a try so I will know its not just me. I have done this the same way every ship I have made and just followed your guide lines in g hte tutorial one more time, and still I have tones of missing polys, some dont even go where I located a phasor slot.

I did get a good seperation earlier on a blank, just the model no phasor slots, no shading, no rotating, just scaled it up to thirty and seperated it. It looked beautiful in combat. The thing is , this is just an new version of a ship I already have released on the forums in a ship pack. The origional uses the same model with just minor texture diffences, so I know this should seperate right!

"KHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!"

Whew a little releaf. :twisted:
Dr_Breen
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 889
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Dr_Breen »

yeah i can give it a try separating it. i sent you a pm with my email.
Public BotF / EF2 Teamspeak 3 Server: 83.169.13.55
Dr_Breen
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 889
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:

Post by Dr_Breen »

Improvements To Do:
astrotrooper wrote: Here are a few things:

You need to give reference as to which way is forward in BOTF - this came to light above. CHECK (added an example picture to the topic)

You can show people which way a model should face when you hit the "T" or top wiev in Max, or since many people use many different programs which way it should face when you import into creator.

You don't need to bring the phaser slots to the front it's better just to leave them where you paste'em - bringing them to front and pasting them was one of the things that messed up my model. (I put them into the bsp area)

Now you probably bring them forward to avoid separating them -too but you can separate right after importing - you don't need to do it at the end. I separate at the beginning because once I increase the size of the model it won't separate - so I separate right after I import - also I check for and recheck for transparancyes at the beginning - which results in alot of tedious back and forth between creator and max. CHECK (separating before scaling produces flickering models, so i won't recomend that)

Should mention the necessity of having the scale part added in the conversion protocolls (-s10scale) - without it you get a ship that is 0.0 size. CHECK (was already mentioned in the forum post)

Register their text first, than bind it to hob, than export the hob and reimport in 3 parts (a,b,c)

You should tell people to use the name of an existing modell - ie. cl 2 - and replace it - that makes finding and editing it in hex and exporting the ship into a ship pack a lot easyer.

It's adviseable for new-bies to use a specific model at all times and one which has known hexes - I use cl2 cardassian because it has 8 phasers, and - now I know what hex numbers I have to change for it - the 06 for the damage textures, and the 8 01's. So I just use that for all my ships.

Using one specific model as point of import and describing the exact procedures for it in hex makes things a lot easyer for people who know very little about hex editing.

Give clear specifics as to which hexes have to be changed. CHECK (added a phaser editing section to the topic)

That's about it -
Public BotF / EF2 Teamspeak 3 Server: 83.169.13.55
User avatar
brianmcfa
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 134
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:00 am
Location: Concrete, WA

Re: HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial

Post by brianmcfa »

Has any shareware or freeware been developed that would create ships? The more I get into this, the more I want to learn how to do it all. I just don't want to have to spend money to do it.
User avatar
anjel
Past Administrator
Past Administrator
Posts: 666
Joined: Thu May 08, 2008 2:00 am
Location: Bs As - Argentina

Re: HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial

Post by anjel »

brianmcfa wrote:Has any shareware or freeware been developed that would create ships? The more I get into this, the more I want to learn how to do it all. I just don't want to have to spend money to do it.
just to create ships i´m afraid not, nope that i am aware of

regards
User avatar
brianmcfa
Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Posts: 134
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:00 am
Location: Concrete, WA

Re: HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial

Post by brianmcfa »

Successfully reskinnned my first ship... I think. I'd meant to change the Sheliak transport from green to the Ferengi orange but it came out more of the Cardassian brown. I can deal with that though. My question for today is how do you change the icon that shows up in UE's screen? I'd like to make the icon match the ship but I don't know how.
Post Reply

Return to “HOW TO: make new Botf 3d Designs, the Video Tutorial”