Have you got the latest version of the tutorial, because in that there is a mistake that has been fixed, it should be Dt_name and not Dc_name

Yes I am using Dt_name I have to version with the little updates notes at the top 1.3 i think. I have been looking a little further, downloaded some other peoples mods to look at them and one thing I am finding is the .sur files, but I can't find any info about them on these forums, about to look somemore any finger pointing in the right direction is helpfull


Update: I have read the thread on .sur file possibilities

Edited by - LAG on 2/15/2004 3:02:13 PM

Well have a look in the Drizzt tutorial thread, some problems are addressed there

There is no objective truth other than schplurg,
Everything is relative to schplurg

not sur files - can be other things - like LOD ranges. Level Of Detail ranges. Custom ships won't be able to have LOD = 0, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 ranges - it only needs two 0 and 2000 for fighters or more (use 9999 if in doubt -means viewable at 9.9k - which fighers aren't but massive capships might be ). That is one reason why

Thanks for the advise playing with LOD ranges now will post an update

nope LOD didnt fix it, the guns and everything i have mounted on the ship is there you can see it, and its all spaced about right from my design, its just the ship itself that is invisible has anyone ever encounterd this before?

Edited by - LAG on 2/15/2004 5:47:37 PM

check your spelling, typo's sometimes ruin everythinmg.

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Lots of people. There WAS a thread in general editing about exactly the same problem. You'll have to find and dig. Otherwise look for posts with Firebase/Harrier/Wanderer/ and other ship modelers in, as they will likely visit threads they post in, and thread hijack is okay

Thanks, found that thread and tried it, here is where i am at now, when my .mat file save correcly, that is whith all the info game shuts off, when the .mat file save basically as an empty file, i get an invisible ship


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Ok it is the .mat file creator, i used a .mat from a downloaded mod, set the textures ect to be the ones in the mod and it worked fine. I checked my .met 100 billion times and re did it 1/2 that many so as to rule out user error.Seeing how there has been trouble with this program in the past, is there a more stable program out there besides utf_edit.exe to write the .mat files?

Edited by - LAG on 2/15/2004 9:16:54 PM

ok so you got the problem fixed? can you tell me exactly what it was in detail? i think you already have but IM SO BURNT OUT!!! lol

i would like to hope that this is the same problem some others are having with my tutorial... and not more typos and errors on my part.

The problem was with the .mat file editor. it sometimes does not write the .mat file the way you make it, as soon as you save it, if you open it back up it is sometimes blank, or there is some stuff missing out of it. I still have not been able to get my ship to work with my textures, but when I use the .mat file from another ship, then go into ms3d and change my texture names to the one in the .mat file I am using, the ship appears like it is supposed to. I have another question now though, in the MIP0 is the "0" a zero or the letter "O" you cant tell in the tutorial

its a zero.

btw, one problem i found myself having was the fact that i wasnt adding nodes to the main tree, i was adding them outside the tree, so when i saved it and reopened it, they had gone....

There is no objective truth other than schplurg,
Everything is relative to schplurg

Thanks all for the help I have gotton the problem corrected, and now on to a new question. Is there a specific format for the tga texture files. I found 24 bit uncompressed just give you a rainbow , so i tried 8 bit and 16 i get the colors, but I only get flat plain colors the actual textures still are not showing up. if its a grey metal texture for instance, then i just end up with a flat grey on my ship any help on this one?

hmm ive always used 256 or whatever that equivelent is... and ive never had a problem with it... once again another coment i might need to add to the tut...
when i finished a metal type texture as a jpg... thats what i always used... i just converted the jpg to a tga and left the degaults in pic2pic... if i remember right that was either 248 or 256 but i can never remember what that number actually is... (do you see how fried i am??? lol)

I am not using pic to pic I have paint shop pro and it converts anyhting to anything with any setting allowed by that format, and there are about 6 different things you can do with .tga hehe. However, I found my problem it the texture mapping I wasn't doing it so it was all screwed up, today I am now learning how to use the texture maping window in ms3d everything seems to be working so far, and as for the color, I am going to use the max colors again now that I have the textures mapped and see what happens I will post again to let you know.

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Ok I am not sure yet if it the amount of colors or the size of my "256X256" .tga files that are giving my trouble. Is there any specific size or ratio that must be kept to make em work right?

Edited by - LAG on 2/19/2004 10:52:07 AM