Topic: Break models and glows

[Futurama_Guy]

#1 I've been organizing my model collection and I have a number of models that do not have break models, what do I have to the original model to make it a break model?

#2 I was resizing some of the above mentioned ships to canon sizes, and when I was playing them in the game the glows were not with the rest of the ship, they were floating several "in-game-meters"  from the ship in play and I wondered if there was somehting I could go to adjust that problem other than obviously just removing the glows??


Thanks....

[Khalee]

Get studio max or milkshape to make them. About the glow thing I have no idea.  

[Rod O'neal]

Are you talking about the light textures (if so I have no idea what's causing that), or are you talking the Hardpoints and damagepoints? If it's the latter then it's because they don't move when you resize the model. They are still in the same location that they were before you changed the size of the model. I don't have a "real" 3D modeling program that I use. CV can redo the HP/DP though as well as resize the models. First you resize the model and then you move all the HPs, etc. to where they belong.  

[DestinyCalling]

You cant do break models in Milkshape.... You can break a model up but it wont fly apart..  

[Khalee]

Ok did not know that, abotu Milk shape, Maybe people who use it can bug him for that feature, he seems to listen to what users want. he added mod support I think because people asked him enough times.  

[MajorRacal]

I'm assuming you're taliking about the glow groups for SFC3.  There is an SFC3 Tool Kit available that allows you to adjust the glows - colour, inensity and locations...  JOKER has also got a rather good tutorial on how to create break models using Max.

If you wish, I can forward you the toolkit.  There are some rather cryptic instructions included, but if you're stuck drop me a PM and I'll help you as best I can.

If you do not have Max, please advise how many models you need broken.  If the numbers are not prohibitive, I could possibly assist you in that regard also.

MajorRacal  

[Futurama_Guy]

Thanks

I think I have quite a few breaks, for th e most part they are converted from BC. Say like the new Miradorn Raider and Vulcan Surak (Ent)....

As for the glow thing...is the actual glowof the nacelles and hull lighting and so on.   The weapon points seem to be okay if not really oversized.

I would be interested in that tool kit, actually waht is it called, I migh thave it in my file folder and just not installed.

[Captain Ron]

Break models can only be done in Max there is a tool there to help you do it.

Light maps are off because they are at differetn resolutions. Make them the same size as the main texture will fix that problem, though they may need some cleaning up. In some case this was done to get a glow effect that would normally not be easy to do with a texture.

so if the main texture is 512 and the glow is at 256 this could be the issue. One other reason this was done was size of the zip

textures
1024x1024  3,073k in size
512x512   769k in size
256x256  290k in size

Light Maps in black and white (in colour use the above sizes for kb)
1024x1024  1,026k  in size
512x512   258k in size
256x256  66k in size

in a zip file this is the difference between a 2.5 meg file to a 6-8 meg file

[Rod O'neal]

Sorry, I didn't know that you were talking about SFC3. I guess that I shouldn't ass-u-me.    

[Futurama_Guy]

The sizes of the glow file and associated texture files are the same, I went through and set them to 256x256 so my computer could digest the game better but that didnt seem to change it any.

Yes, sorry, SFC3....

[Captain Ron]

then it is caused by the resizing.

when you resize textures from 512 to 256 thngs that are 4 in height become 2. Thingsthat are 3 in height become 2 and pixelated and this causes that glow to be off. Even if you manually adjust it to 1 it still doesn't look right. Normally to fix it you have to go up in size and some times realign them. then fix the size to even numbers of pixels and reduce them.

So the only way to stop it is if they both started off at the same size and stayed that way. The difference between colours and black and white is enough to screw them if you shrink them.

Guess the real question is how many ships are you talking about, and if only a few which ones?

[Captain Ron]

Also there is a tool in max/ or that Taldren tool that can adjust glows or that haze that surrounds areas of the ship.

[Futurama_Guy]

Okay, so I think I might be able to figure out the sizing issue on the glows, if not just get rid of them....sure they are cool, but II'd rather have none than a ship with an angelic glow  

As for the breaks, why if you distort the original model and name that as the  _brk model, why doesnt that work as the break model in the game?   And as far as what I would like to have "broken", its moreless the canon models (liek the 2 I mentioned above) that were made for Bridge Commander but of course no break is involved in that game to convert.  

[MajorRacal]

Check your mailbox...  

[Magnum357]

Wait a minute!  I thought you could not make Breakmodels with Milkshape.  Are you guys saying that you can make a MS model, break into peices, and name it a break model file, but it won't fly apart when a ship is destroyed?  I would be happy if I could do this if possible, even if the parts don't fly off into space.

[Captain Ron]

You can make a ship all broken up in Milkshape and call it model_brk and yes it will work it will just be exactly as you modelled it,

[Scorpion]

I am a milkshape user and I have tried over and over to make break models that explode in game but it just doesn't work.  I think that it's because the Assimsoft .mod exporter I have for milkshape names the parts of the ship according to the corresponding names of the textures and not names like <shipname>_brk_1 and so forth.  Whatever the reason is, I've tried many times and I have tried different things and it will just not work.  I usually end up copying the original model and saving it as a break model when I post my ships online but they don't explode.    

[Captain Ron]

Ok let me clearify this once more.

If you make a brk model in milkshape it will look exactly like you modelled it, period. The game will load it as a brk model though so you have to make missing pieces to it and apply damage textures to the broken areas.

[Wolfsglen]

If anyone needs a basic brk model done on a finished model, drop me a PM, i can help out if ya need.  

[Futurama_Guy]

Quote:
Check your mailbox...  

What am I supposed to be checking for?  I haven't received anything...  

[MajorRacal]

You should've had them by now  .   However, you can download the SFC3 Moddeling Tools I mentioned from here http://www.nightsoftware.com/downloads.htm#STARFLEET%20COMMAND  

[Futurama_Guy]

thanky!