Topic: Animated Textures.

[I_Mudd]

Is there any way to assign a custom texture to a dummy.mod, such as the Organian ship, suns, plasma and photon projectiles, damsge sparks, and the Doomsday Machines maw?

Before anyone says its hard coded into the game, there was a model done quite a ways back called "the juggernaut" that utilized an animated texture, similar to the Doomsday Machines maw.

I've been wracking my brain on how to get cetain effects into the game, such as a space ameoba, First Federation buoys, Tholian webs, and Ionic weapons. It would seem that the only satisfactory way to get any of these things to work would be withanimated textures assigned to dummy.mods. for that matter, we could have animated bussard collectors and blinking running lights on ships, as well.

Where there is a will, there may be a way. Any ideas, anyone? Taldren?

I_Mudd.  

[Steelviper33]

Know where i can find the Juggernaught?
Ill take a look at it through 3ds Max

[Steelviper33]

Okay, i just downloaded the Juggernaught...I dont see any animated textures or anything of the sort...

[I_Mudd]

Put it in the game.  

The Mod viewer doesn't display the dummy.mods or it's effects, and you won't be able to see the effects in Max, as I believe the dummy is assigned a texture in the texures folder.. I'm pretty sure there is a dummy near it's fore (or was it aft...been so long since I looked at it...) that will be named exactly the same name as the Doomsday Machines maw dummy.

I want to know how we can do this, and make new effects, like a Organian's ship.

I_Mudd

[Steelviper33]

Ooooh...i dont have the game installed...hehe

Mind posting up a screenie?

[I_Mudd]

Sure, after I get home from work around 5-ish.

I_Mudd.

[Klingon Fanatic]

Certain ship textures do give the illusion of animation. For example: Moonraker's FBCH Ulysses Class. The warp engine textures move at certain angles and give it a "power fluctuation" effect. The idea of adding animation has been visited before I *think* WZ45 tried to add saucer lights using lit/unlit LOD files? I'm not 100% sure so WZ45, I apologize up front. However, he has done some research in this area.

We have made some progress on the Tholian web; we now have TWO mod files for it.

Keep going I_Mudd this is a worthy endeavour!

Qapla!

KF

[I_Mudd]

It never fails, when you think you'll be home by one time, you end up working late until another.

I just download the Juggernought from Ghost's site, as I did about a year or so ago when I made the animated texture discovery. I thought I had the original download on disc, but I couldn't find it. The file has been since changed and updated to include Shipedit stats and a couple of FMSE missions. Cool, I thought, until placing it in game, where no animations appear now. I'm not crazy, I know the Doomsday Machine-like animations were there ( I feel like I'm reporting a UFO here ... ).

 I'm going to do a little expiramenting on my own and see what I come up with. The game will support this feature,  as the DM and the Organians are proof, however, it remains to be seen if these effects can be translated to a player model.

I_Mudd.

[Smiley]

The Doomsday and Organian models that you speak of, why can't you just have a look at them and their textures?
I asked about animated textures about 6 months ago and I was told almost point blank by about 3 of the forums' then experienced modellers that it couldn't be done.

Can you use GIFs as textures in SFC3? I know you can use TGAs and JPGs but not about GIFS...maybe an aninmated GIF as a texture?

[I_Mudd]

The DM has an actual model to examine, but the Organian is a dummy.mod, which supports my thinking that there must be a way to assign textures to a dummy.mod. I'm pretty sure, however it's done, it will be much the same as for photons, disruptors, probes and plasma weapons; possibly even phasers-as they originate from a dummy.mod and strike on a dummy.mod; i.e. hardpoints.  

After looking at the textures for the DM maw effects and the Organian, there seems to be a definate connection to the way the Plasma and photons are done. The DM's texture, called pk-maw.bmp, is larger - thus fewer animation 'frames' than the Organian, Photon and Plasma.  The process as to how they animate and how they are assigned is what eludes me, thus far. If indeed they are assigned to dummy.mods, then there must be a file which tells the game engine the difference between an Organian and a type G Plasma.

More as I figure this out,

I_Mudd.

[Smiley]

Can you please send me this DM and it's textures so i can have a look too?

[I_Mudd]

Check your email smiley. There's a planet killer in there.

I_Mudd.

[Smiley]

Got it, thanks

[Smiley]

Hmm, how very boring and unrevealing!

All of the models' hardpoints are in the "maw" of the mesh. None of them have unusual names, simply Hardpoint1 through Hardpoint10.

No objects other than the 3 LODs - nothing to reference the pk-maw.bmp file in the textures directory under the model's directory.

Tis a mystery that one can only assume about. It must be a sprite ingame that is loaded by the script or something. Anyone tried playing as the Doomsday device in a non-scripted mission (i.e instant battle) to see if the animation works there too?

[Pestalence]

has anyone tried making an animated *.gif file, then going and renaming the file manually to *.bmp, then attaching it to the model?

to me I think it would work as it tricks the game into pulling an animation in under a *.bmp disguise.. Since I can't model worth a flip.. could someone test this out using a renamed animated *.gif file?

thanks
 

Edit : I'll try this using a current Gif of mine and seeing how it works in game..

Thanks

Edit #2 : Well, I just tested this theory.. and it don't work... however it would be cool to get Animations in on the ships.. I have been wanting an Organic ship in the game, using the damaged textures to animate like damage is being repaired...

[I_Mudd]

hmm. Just got an idea.

SFC only likes TGAs(?), BMPs and PNGs. Windows 95-98SE used a Logo.sys file (or something like that...) which was nothing more than a 'sequential BMP', with a file extension change. If we don't change the name, it's still a BMP. Now, how the heck do you build a sequential BMP?

I_Mudd.

[Captain KoraH]

I was ble to make SFC3 use translucent textures, they can be seen on my Klingon carriers. But not sure how to make animated ones.

I believe that somehow  the animations are created by taking an object and  changing the texture on it. ie: the texture for a torpedo is one big bmp file with multiple images on it. The way 3D models in SFC use textures, this means that an object is being constantly re-textured with the set sequence of textures in the big BMP file, and the game is just re-drawing the textures that are being re-mapped to the next image on the BMP file at a very fast rate.  

[I_Mudd]

Yeah, I am tending to go that way on it too, rather than re-invent the wheel, so to speak. ( or in this case, re-invent the nacelle ...   )

The DM doesn't have anything special about it to reval how it's maw is animated. I looked in Max, too. Interestingly, however, when a dummy is imported, it is pretty much invisible, yet can be selected from element to verts; Summery info revielled little - except for materials called: dummy_Material (Multi/SubObject) and Generic (Standard). It certainly does sound like it was created to be textured, but not in a traditional modelling fashion.

I am checking over the shiplist.txt to see how hardpoints are mapped for the Organian and the DM, for any clues.

 There must be a 'file' or entry somewhere that tells the engine what texture is assigned for the same dummy.mod that is used and re-used for various effects, as there is only one dummy.mod in the whole 'Models' folder.

I am starting to fear that information may be hardcoded, but it's really too early to tell, at least for me. I'm not ready to cop out on this yet. The possiblities that keep coming to mind ... TNG phaser strips that animate like the TV show, spinning Bussard Collectors, Flashing running lights, even crew motion behind windows would be theoretically possible ( think subtle, like in the opening of TNG,  just before Enterprise D goes to warp ) ... none of this is essential to gameplay, but - man - sure would spice up a game and re-awaken a community into realizing how great this game truely is!

Okay ... enough dreaming ... back to the dillithium mines!

I_Mudd.

[Steelviper33]

People have made custom start-screens for Win98. If we can find a person who made one, and asked them how they did it. i think we might have ourselves a winner.

[Smiley]

Bridge Commander uses animation for textures. Maybe we can ask one of those guys how it works for them?