Yeah, I thought about a size multiplier initially. But after spending two days turning FL upside down and inside out looking for one and getting nothing to show for it, I have come to the conclusion that such a scaler either doesn't exist or is *extremely* well hidden. Anyway, problem solved... using a larger .tga was the key. Thanks harrier.

I've got another question though:

>>Why does every custom model (large objects like capital ships are particularly susceptible) disappear when a certain percentage of it goes offscreen? I mean, there's obviously some sort of parameter (independent of LODranges) that prevents this from happening to stock FL .3db's/.cmp's/.sph's (why FL uses three formats instead of just one is beyond me still) - for instance, replacing "type = PLANET" by "type = NON-TARGETABLE" for any of the planet solars in solararch.ini reproduces the behavior, but adding a PLANET type to a custom solar does *not* counter it.

Nephilim,

I too have wondered about that and I think (my opinion only) that the practice of using 0, 99999 and multiples of same for custom ships is flawed. These ranges mean that a custom ship should be able to be seen from 99999 units of distance away (99,999 meters) or almost 100k ........ "fine?" for large ships but impractical for small fighters, and appear to me to be using unnecessary resources.
If you look at any of the stock freelancer lod ranges they vary from ship to ship and usually consist of 4 or more variables like: 0, 40, 80, 1000 (drake), or: 0, 80, 120, 200, 300, 1200 (Rhino), 0, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, 20000 (liberty dreadnaught) with the bigger numbers for the larger ships. using 20000 as a guide 20 k for a battleship seems about right......

I have experimented with lod ranges for my own ships and have got most of the fighters to function very well on lod ranges of: 0, 400, 800, 1000 tho this is not always successful in all cases (mainly larger vessels).

I also suspect that the way the freelancer mat files are done using .dds format also has something to do with this as they also provide levels of detail for distance viewed - Tho I would dearly like to know why they are labelled .tga.... Only speculation here but separate meshes used by the freelancer ships may also have something to do with it. If you look at the standard ship files in freelancer they are a deal more complex than custom ships generally and a lot of those values mystify me and I cant find any explanation for them .... and btw have no training in this area.

This is pure speculation on my part..... some of which I have been able to verify using a process of exchanging cmp files and comparing the results but I have not been able to stop them dissappearing completely.....

Maybe someone know why and I would like to know more about this as well.

Harrier..





Retreat[![! ---- I'm too badly messed up now[![!

HELP!!!!!

I have make a ship in milkshape and i what to export but than milkshape crash,
I have put the .dll in de file where the .exe is but no use.

Please help

-did you label your hardpoint correctly?
-does all ship parts have textures?
-do you have CMP import installed?

Hardpoints are good
all is textures
fl importer and exporter are good

But i have a question about de hardpoints, when i look here on the forum i see that by the Hp/Fixed/HpEngine01 <Mat: antioc....
What is the maening of that?
I can't find the mat. for that.
And what is HpConTrail?
I have put it on the end of the ship is that good?

The textures are on the outside of the ship so i think that is good.

I have the Fl im- and ex-porter put in the map where the .ddl's are for milkshape.
The importer is working good but the exporter is not working good why?

Thanks for helping:

Hunter D

Hi there!!!!

The exporter is working

And now i have some problems whith the .mat file and the game.
I have don what you show in this forum but it dont work.
what can i do? have try everything.

Have a question about utf.
What must i do by the material library and the node's?
By the texture library, i have only by MIPO import used for my .tga file.

I'm forgotting something?

Hunter D

-"antioch" is actually the name of my own texture for that ship. Yours should show mat: "<yourtexture>"
-contrails are the streamers that trail from the wingtips of the ships in-game. For example, take a look at the patriot in flight and you can see contrails.
-what kind of problems are you having with your .mat file?
-it's not MIPO it's MIP0 (zero)
-make you mat file so that it looks like the pic of my mat file. There are further explanations below it.

Thanks! And Hello!

And for the DcDt got making my self or can i get it somewhere?
When making myself how do i do it?
I have change the mipo in mip0 and i have flip my texture up side down and import it by mip0.
The .ini file is good i can fly my ship in place for the partiot but i can't see my ship.
I have finhesd to scale and the weapons on my ship so that is good.

O ya, when i go in ms3d and texture my ship it almost dissapear i have look for the faces but no use and when i click on draw backfaces it not change why?

Thanks for helping me out.

Greatings Hunter D

Edited by - Hunter-D on 06-11-2003 14:02:46

-for DcDt, you go the the leaf you want it in, interpret data as string, and hit edit. type in DcDt and hit update
-if you can't see your ship, have you tried to change the LODranges to 0,9999?
-for the milkshape problem, are you applying a texture that is transparent?

Hello there!!!!

-I have the dcdt string good.
-I can't find where i can chance the texture transparent.
-I have chance the lodrangs in 0,9999

i can see the ship now in the game so its good now, but what is DcDt?
thanks for helping me out

Hunter D

no problem
Dc and Dt seem to be tags to specify texture properties

omg its sticky!
No wonder I couldn't find it.

Edited by - Imagine on 14-11-2003 08:14:43

First I would like to say thanks Imagine for such a great tutorial it's helped me out a great deal. I've been working on this model for two weeks now trying to get it in game but I think that I'm having about the same problems as Hellraisermike was. I exported a model from homeworld and was trying to get in game I finally was able to get it there without the game crashing but I can't see it I could see the weapons and other equipment that was on the ship but no ship. I tried resizing the image in Milkshape but all that seem to do was move the weapons if I made the model bigger you couldn't see the weapons at all and if I fired the weapons it seemed to be coming from over my head. But if I sized the model down I could see the weapons again but still no ship.

Thanks for any help you can give me


Edited by - pcxgamer on 16-11-2003 06:07:13

Hi and thanks!
Check the LODranges first, and then make sure your .mat has no errors. If you're not sure, you can email the .mat to me and I'll check it. The only other reasons I can think of are that your tga is not the right size/color resolution, or you didn't texture the ship at all in Milkshape.