Help for getting ships in X3:TC

[Topcross]

going to wait for the test results, as I myself can't really read all that lol:p

[Anubitus]

didnt work.. damn.. im either rly stupid or this is only doable by a pro..
i rly dont know what im doing wrong here..

1 import a model
2 import a x3 model
3 place cameradummies/weapons/etc
4 texture the model with the x3 mats
5 callaps and reset the xform for each ship part
6 check the pivots
7 rename all parts to the correct names for the x3 game
8 export the body part
9 export the scene
10 open the body file and correct the mat entries by replaceing them with the ones from the original entry in the x3 ship body file that was used to get the textures from
11 make a entry in the TShips file with use of the scene file
12 try ingame

what am i doing wrong here..?

[Topcross]

Oh, going with vanilla textures now? thought you were going to use your own.

Ok, this might sound stupid but, are you sure you named the body object correctly in the scene, in other words, the same path and name as the body file you export and where you place it?
Also, did you export the body as body, and the scene as scene?
Does your ship body excist of of only one object, or multiple objects?

[killerog]

What went wrong ?

If you want you can upload the file somewhere and ill take a look at what you are doing wrong.

Oh and don't worry about it taking a long time. Took me 3 years to put my first ship in (first few days of x3 till some time during TC) as I could never get the textures to work. Always got some one to do that bit for me. Very inpatient when I was younger.

Just take a look at some of my old post in the X3 forum for how much help I needed.

[Anubitus]

Oh, going with vanilla textures now? thought you were going to use your own.

yep, ill try that first, if i can get those working, ill start with my own textures..

Ok, this might sound stupid but, are you sure you named the body object correctly in the scene, in other words, the same path and name as the body file you export and where you place it?
Also, did you export the body as body, and the scene as scene?
Does your ship body excist of of only one object, or multiple objects?

body is placed "objects\ships\anubitus\corvette_body" and the scene "objects\ships\anubitus\corvette_scene"

as you can see in the following image, the names are correct in the CAT/DAT package in my game folder as they are in the TShips file and in the max scene..

[ external image ]

they are correct arent they..? starting to doubt just about everything by now..

i did export the body as body and the scene as scene, yes..
the body exists of one object..

[TrixX]

Anibitus, the first thing to do is make the body (save as a .bod file using the body export function). Then create the Scene which contains all the effects. the ship itself isn't actually needed in the Scene file, however my theory is that the ship model is actually the collision box, hence when omitted the suicides rise

[Anubitus]

Anibitus, the first thing to do is make the body (save as a .bod file using the body export function). Then create the Scene which contains all the effects. the ship itself isn't actually needed in the Scene file, however my theory is that the ship model is actually the collision box, hence when omitted the suicides rise

i have no idea what you just said..

i imorted a homeworld ship, textured it (or so i think) with the textures from a imported x3 ship (in this case the argon titan), added a cameradummy, exported the body as a body, selected the body together with the cameradummy and exported them as a scene..

thats what i was told to do, so thats what i did..

is this wrong..? what do you mean with "the ship itself isnt actually needed in the scene file..? shouldnt i select the body mesh together with the special parts to create the scene..?

"hence when omitted the suicides rise" i have no idea what this means.. my english is ok, but not that good..

[TrixX]

Right well the scene file describes effects that the body has added to it, like the little burst of thrusters on the Elite, as well as defining weapon hardpoints and engine effects (trails lighting etc...).

The actual mesh of the ship isn't needed in the scene file to have a functioning ship ingame however I believe the mesh in the scene file actually defines the hitbox ingame so it's good to leave it in there.

What actually occurs is the mesh from the scene file has the name of the body file in 3DS MAX. This makes the game import that mesh into the scene as needed. This is why a lot of the 3rd party ships have collision issues as they use an untextured box to make that call instead of the actual mesh (or a placeholder mesh of the same size).

When the hitbox of a ship is too small it is unable to autopilot properly and ends up suiciding into the side of a structure or another ship.

[Anubitus]

ahh i c.. but i used the acual body mesh in the scene, so that should be alright then i guess..

[Topcross]

ahh i c.. but i used the acual body mesh in the scene, so that should be alright then i guess..

It is no problem to use the actual mesh in your scene, no need to use a dummy there. In fact it is a lot easier to use the actual mesh to place turrets and camera's in the right spot than using some kind of dummy. So the easiest way is to include it. No matter how you do it, there should always be an object in your scene that defines the body file used, or you'll end up with flying turrets and camera's without a body at all.

Also, I'm sure this isn't it as I don't think it is case sensitive but you named your folder ships\Anubitus and your files in your scene ships\anubitus. But don't think it's that, doubt it is case sensitive, just saying.

Lastly, just thought of something, I once had a similuar issue, not sure how I fixed it though, just exported the whole thing again and it ended up working. But, is your ship there and just invisible, in other words, can you still shoot it with a laser? Or is the body not there at all?

[Anubitus]

i can use the ship just fine, the interceptor i imported had working engine emitters, a working turret and a working laser.. also the cameras where placed correcly..

i didnt think it was case sensitive but ill give it a try.. just in case..

[Topcross]

Myes, doubt that is case sensitive myself, but you never know.

That's not what I ment, what I ment was, can another ship still damage you, or is it impossible to get hit? Just spawn one, and try shooting it with another ship, or shoot where it should be, and see if the ship gets hit or not.

[Anubitus]

if i shoot it, i hit it..

[ external image ]

missiles cant hit it tho, perhaps the hitbox is to small for them to hit it..

btw, it dont matter if its Anubitus or anubitus, its still invissible..

[Topcross]

Hmm, its a problem with the textures alright. I once had that the body of a ship wouldn't show but then I couldn't hit it, so it wasn't there at all.

Tbh, I'm also out of ideas and if you want to upload the files somewhere I'll have a look at them too, like killerog offered.

[TrixX]

Two things:
1) are the faces inverted?

2) apply a flat texture to the entire ship and see if it shows up in game.

3) I know I said two things but, are all your textures in dds format in the dds folder?

[Killjaeden]

Code: Select all

MATERIAL6: 5; 0; NULL; 149;149;149; 149;149;149; 229;229;229; 0; 0; 10; 0; 0;0;0; 100; NULL;100; NULL;30; NULL;100; NULL;100; NULL;0; // Material #1727

This one is borked

1 import a model
2 import a x3 model
3 place cameradummies/weapons/etc
4 texture the model with the x3 mats
5 callaps and reset the xform for each ship part
6 check the pivots
7 rename all parts to the correct names for the x3 game
8 export the body part
9 export the scene
10 open the body file and correct the mat entries by replaceing them with the ones from the original entry in the x3 ship body file that was used to get the textures from
11 make a entry in the TShips file with use of the scene file
12 try ingame

not sure why you do 10, normally the dbox material export should be ok. At least i'm sure that it is with the latest dbox version in max 2010, 32 and 64bit

You do know that you textured your model with a lattice texture? That means parts of it (i.e. the blue stuff) are transparent

[Topcross]

not sure why you do 10, normally the dbox material export should be ok. At least i'm sure that it is with the latest dbox version in max 2010, 32 and 64bit

I'm using max 2011 and for some reason it doesn't always seem to work correctly if you don't replace the texture entries.

[Anubitus]

Two things:
1) are the faces inverted?

2) apply a flat texture to the entire ship and see if it shows up in game.

3) I know I said two things but, are all your textures in dds format in the dds folder?

1) i got no idea.. im a newbie.. what does this mean, how can i check it..?

2) i tried with just the glass dds texture from the game all over the body and it didnt work.. what would you suggest..? wich texture should i try..?

3) they should be, since i use the game's vanilla textures for now..

Tbh, I'm also out of ideas and if you want to upload the files somewhere I'll have a look at them too, like killerog offered.

i have uploaded it on Rapidshare and PM'ed him the download link..
for those who want to take a look at it, here is the link..
it can only be downloaded 10 times.. (should be 9 left)

http://rapidshare.com/files/419884222/3 ... scene1.rar?

Code: Select all

MATERIAL6: 5; 0; NULL; 149;149;149; 149;149;149; 229;229;229; 0; 0; 10; 0; 0;0;0; 100; NULL;100; NULL;30; NULL;100; NULL;100; NULL;0; // Material #1727 

This one is borked

yes i know, i havent used that texture on my mesh, i only used entries 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6..

not sure why you do 10, normally the dbox material export should be ok. At least i'm sure that it is with the latest dbox version in max 2010, 32 and 64bit

i didnt know that.. i have been following most tutorials to the letter.. and the one here " http://www.xwiki.chaos.net.nz/How_to_bu ... class_ship ", by Deadly, said i had to replace the textures with the ones from the original file.. so i did..

it said:

In the text editor, select the MAT6 entries at the begriming of the file then save them as a text file (it should only contain the MAT6 entries). (The Argon M2 multi-texture that I often use has 48 MAT6 entries.) The resulting text file is what I call the "template", and it should be an exact match of the multi-texture you saved earlier. 4. Then, when in 3dMax, you can load the X3 multi-texture you saved, and apply it to whatever mesh you wish. 5. Once the mesh textured to your satisfaction, export it using DBOX (always remember to keep Data Handling and Comparability set to X3). If you were to look at the MAT6 entries in the BOD file you just exported using a text editor, and compare them to the MAT6 entries in the X3 BOD file for the ship you selected, you would see that they are "broken". 6. So, the final step is to correct the MAT6 entries in your exported mesh by opening the BOD file in a text editor, as well as opening the "template" you had previously saved, and then using the copy & paste functions to replace the "bad" MAT6 entries in your exported BOD file with the "good" MAT6 entries from your template.

and a bit lower:

That said, there are a number of steps required to get your ship flying around in the X3 universe:

Updating the MATERIAL6 texture information:
1.If you look at the part files exported by DBOX in a text editor, you will see a number of lines at the front of the file starting with the word MATERIAL6. Each of these lines describes an X3 texture.
2.If you then look at the stock Teladi ship used to grab the textures for your ship and compare the MATERAL6 entries, you will see that they are different. So... the MATERIAL6 entries need to be the same.
3.The easiest way to do this is to simply fire up your favorite text editor, and copy the good entries from the Egosoft BOD file over the top of the bad entries in the BOD files for the custom parts for your ship.

I'm using max 2011 and for some reason it doesn't always seem to work correctly if you don't replace the texture entries.

i am using max 2011 aswell..

You do know that you textured your model with a lattice texture? That means parts of it (i.e. the blue stuff) are transparent

no i dont know.. i have no idea what a lattice texture is.. pls tell me..

thanks for the help..

[Topcross]

i have uploaded it on Rapidshare and PM'ed him the download link..
for those who want to take a look at it, here is the link..
it can only be downloaded 10 times.. (should be 9 left)

http://rapidshare.com/files/419884222/3 ... scene1.rar?

I'll have a look at it tonight, no time atm I'm afraid.

[Anubitus]

take your time mate, im just happy you are willing to spend time helping me..