I agree with DrkLazarus
i am still having trouble texture when I regroup as on so it is al seen in freelancer I losse all textures

Texcuring for dumbies needed

don't bug me if I can't spell
coerct it if you want

Mr cliss,

There are several ways of doing what you want...you can open the .cmp file with the utf editor and cahnge the turret values so it will fire forward.. (but it may appear to fire through the ship,,) or, using the same method rename one of the spare hardpoints to a turret hardpoint.. there are tutorials on tlr for doing that.. I have never tried it myself...as Always wanted to make my own and was not muchinterested in the native freelancer ships for the reasons you mention on copyright etc...
The model can be imported into milkshape using the .cmp importer - the problem is all hardpoint and textures information is lost (I'm told they are still there - stuck in a corner somewhere but the importer does not read them) The ship then has to be reset up from scratch....

Dk Lazarus, wearwolf 2500,

Have you assigned the textures in milkshape? do they appear in your Materials list? I did a tutorial on texturing in millkshape Here
It may help....There are also some very good basic texturing tutorials on the milkshape forums at chumbalum :http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/ copy and paste that into your browser window... pus a basic "skinning" tutorial is here: http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft ... eadid=3003

Harrier


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

oxay i understand it but how meny groups should there be when your done the model and ready to export

don't bug me if I can't spell
coerct it if you want

wearwolf2500,

The best way I have found is this:

1. take all the groups that are using the same texture and group them together, with the largest group being the first listing in the groups window... name this group after the name of your ship.. lets say your ship is called the "Hunter", then name your first group "hunter". This gives it a - UNIQUE NAME - and therefore a unique identity to Freelancer. Failure to do this can result in "ship swapping",, that is two ships will look the same, (at certain times) as they share common part names i.e. 'body' or 'cockpit' as the first item in the .cmp file.

Follow this by the second largest and so on .. so that you can bring all your groups down to as few as possible.

2. LIST YOUR HARDPOINTS LAST!!! in the .cmp file..... Again, failure to do this can and often does result in problems getting ships to display.

Starting out this way is the best and once learned means no going back and correcting cmp files.. as I have had to do.... B-)

Harrier



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

I cant believe this... im crying... i had no idea what-so-ever that you guys would still be using the tutorial. im all better from my accidenti... but now i have another problem and I'm constantly battling to keep my faith in God... yes im christian.

a couple weeks ago the house i was renting burned down... taking my computer and all of my programs on cd... it left me with nothing besides me and my wife. Then the american red cross stepped in and payed our move in costs to an appartment complex so we would have a place to live... i tell ya when fate has it out for you there just aint any getting out of it... then 3 days ago i had another car accident in which no one was hurt but it forced me to sell my car for a thousand less then i would ave liked!

and on top of all this i have you guys reading my tutorial and keeping me in your thoughts... Right now im using my computer at work to write this so... im still unable to continue until first notice.

God bless you all... and thanks a million harrier for steppin in for me.

Sorry to hear about your losses Drizzt, sounds like you have run into a spell of bad luck. Just hang in there and all will come out right in the end.

Ive been using your tutorial for creating a mod or a cylon ship from the new battlestar gallactica. However, I have given up and decided that the best thing to do would be to mod a mod, so I can learn more before I dive in and create a whole ship on my own. So, I have a ship that I edited in gmax and I exported it into milkshape to add textures and hardpoints. However, when I did this my ship is all over the place, it looks nothing like what it looks like in gmax. I can e-mail anyone a file if they are willing to take a look at it and help me out. Thanks.

Good luck Drizzt!

Drizzt,,,
Np my pleasure.. happy to help.. sorry about the slow reply.. I dunno if i help at all.. but am happy to try.. you just get sorted..and fast.. lol..

JackFrost,

I have never used gmax.....however.., similar problems exist with doga models.. try exporting from gmax in .dxf (if that is possible) then import the model in dxf fornat to MilkShape.. maybe that will work..

Harrier


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

hm..... i downloaded your tutorial and built a ship in gmax.... but i cant go further because i haven`t got the export-tools.... the links are still crashed.

can i get the export-tools from somewhere else?

would be great if you can give me a link.....

___________________________________________________
sry for my bad english... if its bad.... i`m from germany =)

Hey guys, I have a problem. Maybe I'm repeating somebody but if I didn't read wrong, the first 4 pages don't have this:

I model my ship, give it textures (is Sphere map allowed?), export it to cmp and mat without any errors but the ship itself is invisible on the planet (I've put it on Pittsburgh). It looks like all hardpoints are combined in one single point because what I get is a strange looking drone-like structure with an Afterburner, an engine flame and alle the turrets concentrated in one point. After leaving the planet in MP, the server crashes tho (It's my own server).

Any mistakes in texturing? Anything important? Maybe something about file names? I have no idea! Please help me! <:'-(

Check the LOD distances, it may be that at long range while on a planet for example, it it trying to use a non existant variation, or using too small a variation hence collapsing the entire model down to a single imaginary point.

Anyway, thanks big time for the tutorial - Freelancer's mod community is a pretty small one, and in such small communities it can be difficult finding the tutorials needed to pick up the export process for a game - you cna be sure your effort writing this tutorial's gonna get paid back with quality models by me ^_^.

first sphere mapping in milkshape doesn't work,
second, lods have nothing to do with the hardpoint, if there was such and extreme distance the thruster and such would be invisible not shrunk, the reason's everything is compressed to a single point is because your scale is too small for your milkshape model when exporting. Right at the time of export, take your ship and scale it to fill in the viewpoints when zoomed as far back as they go, then after that scale your model by another 3-6 times, that should make it the right size (it should be so large in milksahpe you can't easily edit the ships mesh anymore)

This will fix your scale in freelancer, but if your trying to do something like sphere mapping your texture then odds are you might need to work on your uv maps. And always make sure to use a compliable texture format, either targa or directdraw.

I'll try that. Another question: Do the hardpoints have to be a part of a texture? I made them small triangles floating over the ship... Guess that's wrong...?

edit:

Yowzer! That's BIG now. And it's turned in the wrong direction, too (yeah, left wing is my cockpit, I hate reality) Thanks for the help!!!!!

Edited by - X-Heiko on 7/13/2004 1:21:57 PM


edit:

OK, everything solved, three questions:

1.) Tractor Beams take unlimited time to tractor
2.) What's the bug-less Hitpoint border? 5 billion = bugs, bugs, bugs!!!
3.) My engine (max speed 450) jumps! Up to 800 for 1/10sec. That looks sucky!

What to do, master?

Edited by - X-Heiko on 7/13/2004 1:38:13 PM

X-Heiko,

Your hardpoints should not be part of the texture.. in fact your hardpoints should not be textured as this makes them visible in game...

Something that I have been using of late is the Freelancer pilot model (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\EQUIPMENT\MODELS\PILOT\ship_pilot.3db) Import that model using the cmp importer.., merge the two files in milkshape...then use that model and scale your ship up or down to the pilot in milkshape .. then simply scale it by 100 times prior to export and it should be pretty close.. pretty simple too...

NOTE: dont forget to delete the pilot figure before you export it (it adds about 450 poly's to your mesh)...... although it can be retexed and used as a co-pilot .. except that he never gets to get out of the ship.....

If you use the normal (older) version of the .cmp exporter then your ship should be setup in milkshape prior to export - upside down and facing you in 3d view, (this has been posted many times), as Freelancer flips the model....... a good practice is to get used to using this as your modelling method...

Your last three questions ... the first and last appear to be file related (ini's)..
I dont understand your second question..... Hit points are the amount of damage your ship will take before it is destroyed

Harrier



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

File related?
Well, after I set the Hitpoints back to 1 billion, the tractor bug is OK. But what about the engine thing?

Yeah, I know what Hitpoints are, only that if you take too many of them, it causes bugs.

And your ship cannot shoot with more than 32 guns/turrets... damn limits!

What about the engine bug?