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Taldrenites => Starfleet Command Models => Topic started by: Smiley on January 12, 2007, 12:13:23 pm

Title: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 12, 2007, 12:13:23 pm
Hi People,

Please can someone back me up on this thread? http://www.stlegacyalliance.com/showthread.php?p=1404&posted=1#post1404

The guy that I am trying to explain .gf files to is very wrong!!!

Ta
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: manitoba1073 on January 12, 2007, 01:27:02 pm
Well to help id have to register there. not sure which one you are there.

 But the .gf files deals with arcs and not the actual  position of the hardpoint in the model. Which is also the same as the defaultcore.txt file.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: ModelsPlease on January 12, 2007, 01:31:05 pm
Well to help id have to register there. not sure which one you are there.

He's Daniel5042 a.k.a. Smiley  ;)
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Greenvalv on January 12, 2007, 01:45:07 pm
Well, just gave my two bits...
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 13, 2007, 01:12:06 pm
Thanks Guys :)
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: ModelsPlease on January 13, 2007, 02:09:21 pm
Hey Smiley, that Excelsior and Drydock in your sig............did you ever release them ? They look pretty cool  :)
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 14, 2007, 04:25:55 am
Hey Smiley, that Excelsior and Drydock in your sig............did you ever release them ? They look pretty cool  :)

The Excelsior isn't mine, it's from a screenie that someone did of my Dominion Cruiser that they took while playing BC - the drydock is a model that I made for Armada 2, I'm not sure that it's up to other games' standards!
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Sapharite on January 14, 2007, 06:14:08 am
Hmmm Drydock is indeed very good one :)
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: ModelsPlease on January 14, 2007, 09:59:27 am
Hmmm Drydock is indeed very good one :)

Yes I concur ........... send it on over and I'll port it for ya and get it posted to your page  ;).
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Wicked Zombie on January 14, 2007, 02:02:51 pm
That's the Terran Empire version of the Relentless, MP.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 14, 2007, 03:24:41 pm
Hmmm Drydock is indeed very good one :)

Yes I concur ........... send it on over and I'll port it for ya and get it posted to your page  ;).

Alrighty! I want to make a few tweaks (the current model uses an alpha channel for transparency in places - SFC can't do that) and then I'll send over the model and textures. What format is best for you MP?
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: ModelsPlease on January 14, 2007, 04:31:52 pm
Hmmm Drydock is indeed very good one :)

Yes I concur ........... send it on over and I'll port it for ya and get it posted to your page  ;).

Alrighty! I want to make a few tweaks (the current model uses an alpha channel for transparency in places - SFC can't do that) and then I'll send over the model and textures. What format is best for you MP?

.MOD or 3d is fine  ;)
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 15, 2007, 01:43:40 pm
SFC3 can do transparency :P, its quite a flexible game to mod

Pah! On a scale of 1 to 10 of moddability, based on current Star Trek games that we can mod, SFC isn't exactly high up that scale - especially when it comes to the models themselves :p
Anyway, can it use an alpha map to do transparency? I was under the impression that you could have a partially transparent material, but that the transparency or rather the opacity was constant across the material.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: intermech on January 15, 2007, 02:29:40 pm
SFC III can use alpha maps for varying transparency. I have used this method for everything from windows, to running lights, to buzzards and grills. The alphas are limited to 256 grayscale color scheme.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 15, 2007, 05:58:44 pm
SFC III can use alpha maps for varying transparency. I have used this method for everything from windows, to running lights, to buzzards and grills. The alphas are limited to 256 grayscale color scheme.

*Confused!*

The objects that you describe sound more like items that you would want to be illuminated rather than transparent. Have you got a model uploaded anywhere that uses this at the moment that I can take a look at please Interstellar Machine?
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: GotAFarmYet? on January 15, 2007, 08:41:08 pm
That's the Terran Empire version of the Relentless, MP.

Thanks WZ was wondoering where I saw that one before.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: ModelsPlease on January 16, 2007, 12:08:23 am
That's the Terran Empire version of the Relentless, MP.

Thanks WZ I thought it looked familiar.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: intermech on January 16, 2007, 06:06:20 am

*Confused!*

The objects that you describe sound more like items that you would want to be illuminated rather than transparent. Have you got a model uploaded anywhere that uses this at the moment that I can take a look at please Interstellar Machine?


I personally do not have any published that use this effect, but I think that there is an Asguard ship out there and also a TOS style Miranda that use it. Here are two example of transparency being used for non-glowing applications:

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163369043.msg1122733239.html#msg1122733239

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163361677.msg1122744573.html#msg1122744573
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 16, 2007, 02:01:09 pm
Ok, next question:

How do you get Max to recognise the alpha channel for transparency instead of using it for illumination?
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: intermech on January 16, 2007, 02:13:53 pm
I am not a max user, so I may have to defer. Also, I am not sure if you are asking for Armada, or SFCIII.

For SFC III, you just export your ship like normal, with a texture, and a light map. Then, the SFCIII engine always uses alpha maps for tranparency or translucency. "Transparency" is best used in the main texture. Alphas in lightmaps or damage maps are sorta pointless.

In Armada, I believe you have to tag your texture as "addative_texturename" to get it to be translucent/transparent based on the alpha. But I am not sure about that. I use Milkshape for both games and I always have to refference the Armada pluggin readme to get it right.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 16, 2007, 03:05:14 pm
Right - I've got a test model ready for someone to try out - it has no hardpoints atm - but it does have damage, specular (can't remember if SFC can use these or not), illumination and the last map (the only tga map) is for the part of the model that is transparent. The transparent object is a separate mesh and uses only the tga texture!

Any volunteers?
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 18, 2007, 06:40:05 pm
Right - I've got a test model ready for someone to try out - it has no hardpoints atm - but it does have damage, specular (can't remember if SFC can use these or not), illumination and the last map (the only tga map) is for the part of the model that is transparent. The transparent object is a separate mesh and uses only the tga texture!

Any volunteers?

Please can someone try this out in-game? I don't have the games installed and I don't really want to do that just to test whether this model using illumination and transparency works.
Let me know, or I'll stick it back in archive!
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 19, 2007, 03:03:17 pm
go on then, i will be online tomorrow about 6pm GMT send it me then and i can test it and send you screenies

Emailed you the files. Cheers buddy.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 19, 2007, 06:13:19 pm
Crikey it works! The transparent bits are umm...how to describe where they are?!

Easier to show - highlighted in blue (roughly)...:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/daniel5042/index.jpg)

Ok, so I'll scale it, give it HPs, create a break model, etc. Oh, can SFC3 use specular maps? Or bump maps?
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Vipre on January 19, 2007, 06:34:25 pm
Smiley that thing rocks. Really sweet.
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 19, 2007, 07:30:59 pm
Available for download: http://www.battleclinic.com/docks/files/dist/index.php?file=c58cbab755a25c3d92a991386b383006.zip

It's 3918 polies. Thanks for all those that like it! Let me know what you all think! I would love to see it being used in-game. Please ignore the uploaded render - it's got the wrong textures on it in the render :-/
Title: Re: A little help!
Post by: Smiley on January 20, 2007, 07:07:14 am
is is scaled now?

Yes