help with converting opts and textures

[obi-wan_kenobi]

I got this bright idea of trying to convert the cap ships from XWAU and DSUCP for use in rebellion. Well, I used the utility over on Darksaber's X-wing Station to convert the opts into .3ds with all of their textures. I used conv3ds.exe (thanks for helping me find it, btw) to convert the corvette to a scale of "-s0.000165" which almost perfectly fit the original corvette of rebellion (according to that microsoft 3d viewer). I installed the .x file and everything was wonderful... except it was totally untextures. The ms 3d viewer had textures on the .x file, but in game, it was not textured. Please, some one help me figure out how to get the 30+ .bmp textures in the folder of the .3ds of the converted (from opt to .3ds, that is) corvette into one .bmp file which can be converted into a .bin. I go into lith and open the corvette .3ds (which is the unscaled version) and I see this crazy web of lines and color. Do you go to file > uvmap > save? I tried that and did the whole .bin conversion and installed everything, but it still was untextured. Please help me. I perceive that the answer is right under my nose, but I'm new to basically everything concerning model editing. Thanks.

[Trejiuvanat]

Try mask's modelling tutorial that should be in the Downloads Section or in Mask's Webpage.

That should help, there are here in the forums some other tips mask has given out, try looking for it.

[obi-wan_kenobi]

I studied the tutorials very intenly, but it really doesn't address this issue.

[Trejiuvanat]

Then it's somewhere in the Forums, look for it. The procudure was pretty hard, IIRC. Mask I think had linked a site to one tutorial he had found.

[obi-wan_kenobi]

Thank you for the help, do you know what part of the forums it would be in? Probably model editing. That makes sense.

[obi-wan_kenobi]

Sorry for the double post, but I looked all through the model editing and only caught one reference of The Mask talking about converting opts to use as reference. I want to totally convert the opts and use their textures in-game. Possible?

[Trejiuvanat]

Here is the thread where mask answered a similar question about Uv mapping and such

http://www.swrebellion.com/postt831.html

and another

http://www.swrebellion.com/postlite705-opt.html

[obi-wan_kenobi]

Thank you for all your help. I tried the method posted by Mask, but got stuck and confused more than once. If I takes moving and rotating every face of the .3ds (of which there could be hundreds or thousands) then I guess it isn't worth it. Arg. But thank you again. The untextured models don't look that bad.

[the_mask]

Woa, easy now.

 

You can also select several faces, that make up a hull plate for example and apply a texture to that. Give it a try

[obi-wan_kenobi]

Hey Mask. I didn't mean to insult you or anything. I am totally new to gmax and really don't know how to do much. I get confused where you have to "flatten the cake". I just started selecting faces and moving them away and then rotating them with the mouse. It was kinda difficult and I thought "there's no way I can do this in 30 or less minutes" so I just gave up. If you would be willing to assist me, that would be awesome, but like I said I'm new to all this. But I'll try selecting multiple faces and rotating them, I'm just not sure.... about what order they should be in and what arangement.

[the_mask]

With easy now I meant, that you shouldn't give up so fast

 

Have you read through my second modelling tutorial (on my site, link's below) ? There's another method described there, that might be more appealing to you

[obi-wan_kenobi]

I looked through the spline modeling and the 2.0 tutorial, but my problem is texturing more than modeling (I think?). I was unable to extract from your excellent tutorial how to, well, convert the textures of a 3ds that has 40+ textures to one texture file which can be converted to .bin, which finally can be put into Rebellion. I'm sorry if I'm a little hard to work with. I'm kina frustrated but am still trying to figure this out.

[the_mask]

That's the spirit and don't worry, it's not hard to work with ya

 

Getting the textures into one map, well I'd create a new material in Lith and assign it a pic, where you put all those textures in (with a graphics prog, of course), that you want to have from the single files.

Then you individually assign the faces from each material to the part on the map, where that texture is. You might have to scale the faces to fit, but this is how it will work.

After you're done, you can delete the old materials.

 

Btw, I just read your initial post again: be sure to have the permission of Darksaber and the guys at XWAU before you upload their models for the public. Doing this without their knowledge would be rude and they'd surely be disgrunteled.

[obi-wan_kenobi]

I fully intend to ask their permission, however, I just want to get these to work for me first. I'll go try what you said.

[obi-wan_kenobi]

Ok, I created a bitmap with all of the textures. I've added the new material and assigned it a bitmap file (the one I created of course). I'm not sure how to assign the faces to the various parts of the new bitmap. Oh, I used MS Paint to put all of the textures in. And in lith, the new material with the "bitmap map" that I created is clearly displayed, except there is some distortion in the colorings, whereas, the original textures with faces attached are not distorted at all. Hmmm. help?

[the_mask]

No idea what the distortion could be, except from the used palette of your pics and the one in Rebellion.

 

In Lith you can select the material and that will also select the attached faces. Then you select the new material, move them over the right area and assign it to the texture map material.