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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Creating planets

I searched for the answer for days before posting this

September 15, 2011 6:52:54 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

If the answer exists I couldn't find it. My question is:

What is the scale for planet mesh files?

I have Google Sketchup which is a very simple and easy to use program. It Exports to .xsi and the files load without a problem into Softimage.

The problem I'm having is determining the size to make the sphere mesh.

Radius or Diameter, doesn't matter but if anyone knows it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

modding
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tarokahn
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #1 September 15, 2011 7:36:47 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Try using the scale tool in softimage, but remember to freeze everything afterwards. Otherwise there is a community .mesh resize tool floating around here somewhere...

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tarokahn
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
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Reply #2 September 15, 2011 10:39:27 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting GoaFan77,
reply 1
Otherwise there is a community .mesh resize tool floating around here somewhere...

I can't seem to find the DL link on myfist's weebly, though if nobody else has it, I can upload the version I got.

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tarokahn
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #3 September 15, 2011 11:19:51 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Lavo_2,
reply 2
I can't seem to find the DL link on myfist's weebly, though if nobody else has it, I can upload the version I got.

Requiem already has it uploaded.

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tarokahn
harpo99999
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #4 September 16, 2011 5:33:02 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

as has harpo

harpo

 

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tarokahn
myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #5 September 16, 2011 11:38:26 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

There are 2 Tools pages on the weebly. Most modders are not modelers so the pages are separate 

Modding Tools

Modeling Tools

Pretty basic if you ask me 

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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Reply #6 September 17, 2011 10:26:51 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks.

Found the resize tool, it seems to work however I have run into a very curious issue...

When testing planet wraps I temporarily replace the original textures with the new ones I made to see how they look. Every time I do the new "planet" has a huge sun spot, and the wire frame edges become visible. 

I convert my tga to dds and replace the -cl -da dds files for Ice or desert etc. planet I want to look at and every time, huge bright shiny sun spot.

It's driving me crazy...

The ice planet has no sunspot when I use it's normal .dds files.

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tarokahn
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #7 September 17, 2011 11:50:12 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Are you sure your textures are set up just like the Sins ones? And could you post a screenshot, I'm unsure what you mean by "Sun spot".

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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Reply #8 September 18, 2011 12:24:54 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

ok setting up a photobucket account is a real pain when you're blocking their cookies =P

http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee393/tarokahn/SunSpot.png

So there is an example I renamed my .dds files to

PlanetDesert01-cl.dds

PlanetDesert01-da.dds

PlanetDesert02-cl.dds

PlanetDesert02-da.dds

I didn't change any other settings or files in this instance. The same thing happened when I used the identical dds on Ice Planet.

It's driving me crazy... Unless I'm already crazy.

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tarokahn
myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #9 September 18, 2011 1:00:48 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

That looks like the glossiness level in the mesh. The suns reflection. 
Open a txt version of a stock planet and under the materials you will see it. Default is 50 and I think Sins planets are around 15 0r 20 

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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Reply #10 September 18, 2011 3:05:58 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Didn't think to check the mesh files...

I haven't modified any of the mesh files previously, considering there is no "sun spot" when usind the standard dds files I didn't think I would need to.

The standard un modified material portion for

Planet_Desert_0.mesh:  Planet_Desert_1.mesh:

are the same

Material
  DiffuseTextureFileName "C:\PlanetDesert01-cl.dds"
  SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "C:\PlanetDesert01-da.dds"
  NormalTextureFileName ""
  DisplacementTextureFileName ""
  TeamColorTextureFileName ""
  Diffuse ffffffff
  Ambient ffffffff
  Specular ffe5e5e5
  Emissive ff000000
  Glossiness 5.000000

 and Planet_Desert_2.mesh:  Planet_Desert_3.mesh

are the same

Material
  DiffuseTextureFileName "C:\PlanetDesert02-cl.dds"
  SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "C:\PlanetDesert02-da.dds"
  NormalTextureFileName ""
  DisplacementTextureFileName ""
  TeamColorTextureFileName ""
  Diffuse ffffffff
  Ambient ffffffff
  Specular ffe5e5e5
  Emissive ff000000
  Glossiness 5.000000

 

Planet_desert_home.entity refers to

meshInfoCount 3

Planet_Desert_0.mesh:  Planet_Desert_1.mesh:  Planet_Desert_2.mesh:

so not even sure why Planet_Desert_3.mesh exists...

I will try playing with :

Specular ffe5e5e5
  Emissive ff000000
  Glossiness 5.000000

 I find it odd that they refer to C:\ *.dds  None of the other .mesh files I've looked at have had a path designation...

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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Reply #11 September 18, 2011 3:45:07 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

ok so changing

Specular ffe5e5e5
  Emissive ff000000

to various settings didn't make a visual difference

Changing Glossiness 5.000000

to 0.000000 Made the entire planet completely white

changing it to 100.000000 Made the wire frame show and focused the "sun spot" on every junction of the wire frame, so the planet no longer looked spherical. I tried several other numbers, 2 : 15 : 25 : 50 : 75

While it did get amaller with higher numbers it never went away.

I also tried copying the values from gas Giant

  Diffuse ffffffff
  Ambient ffffffff
  Specular ffffffff
  Emissive ffffffff
  Glossiness 5.000000

Since it doesn't have a sun spot, but to no avail

Very odd.

 

Thanks for any other Ideas

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tarokahn
myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #12 September 18, 2011 5:08:30 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Then its probably the specular channel of the -da

http://soase.weebly.com/texturing.html

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tarokahn
ZombiesRus5
Join Date 02/2009
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Reply #13 September 18, 2011 7:42:11 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting myfist0,
reply 12
Then its probably the specular channel of the -da

The -da is the darkside texture for planets.

The alpha channel in the -cl is the specular. The areas in the -cl's alpha channel for the planet that are more white will be highly reflective (i.e. sun spots). The areas that are more dark will be less reflective.

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tarokahn
myfist0
Join Date 01/2010
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Reply #14 September 18, 2011 8:19:35 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Ah yes, Z should know coming from the dark side.
I WILL NEVER JOIN YOU 

 

Hehee, Thanks again for clarifying. 

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tarokahn
tarokahn
Join Date 09/2011
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Reply #15 September 18, 2011 5:35:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

ok I have uploaded the images in .png since photo bucket doesn't see tga or dds as valid image files...

Tho they aren't quite finished I need to do some texturing still and probably resizing to compensate for stretching that occours once they are wrapped onto the mesh...

Here is the da http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee393/tarokahn/NewPlanetda.png

 

^^ It's really hard to see but there are "lights" on the da, they show up in game just fine

here is the cl http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee393/tarokahn/NewPlanetcl.png

So normally I save them as tga then convert to dds with DDS Converter 2.1

Replace the cl da files in the textures folder and start the game.

On a side note: I use Paint shop pro 7 and/or Adobe Photoshop 7.

In this instance I only used PSP.

 

I guess I should have stated that I am still having the sun spot issue and that it is still making me crazy...

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