Issues with Modding/Moddeling

Did you select only part of your model in XSI, instead of the whole object?

That was my first thought, however I have attempted to re save and re convert the model several times. I'm pretty sure that I have selected the entire model each time.

Hey I just tried another model and it's almost like every piece of the model is rendered from the center coordinate, so literally the entire ship is built from the center and it's not assembled properly. Any ideas now?

ok first, I would highly recommend you watch the Noesis training videos available when you first start the program it will help... its under the netview Getting Started with Modtool.

but for now try this...

along the top there is an icon called explorer once its open you will see everything you have created so far.

you have a weird null object called cube delete it, it serves no purpose i can see.

the last thing on your list is DefaultLib_Scene_Material1

delete that as well.

ok now that you have removed the junk...

and if you want to try it out in game save the model as say defiant_001a then do as i would do...

first make sure you have that list of all your objects open still select all of them.

then on the left you should see a button that says mesh, open it and click merge.

this will create a new object in your list called "polymsh" double click it and rename it.

close that window and click on the plus sign on the left of your renamed object I renamed mine defiant,

this will show a series of sub catagories, the first item in that list will be Polygon Mesh double click it.

in the new box that opens you will see a slider called tolerance slide it to "0"

then below that is a button called merge click it.

this may expand the list but find the slider again...

once you have relocated the slider look just above and to the left of it and you will see a delete button.

click it and it will remove all the objects that went into making the single polymesh
called defiant. and it should now be the only item in your objects list.

you may now export as an xsi object, now if you figure out how to make it not be black let me know cuse im stuck there! i can howerver make all the hard points for engines and weapons.

let me know if that works out for yea.


ds

Thanks for the tutorial!    It really helped me out. I did exactily what you said, but now I have a new problem and was wondering if you had a similar one when you first tried this. The image is below. I have this problem on this model and another, despite selecting ALL of the objects, when rendering it leaves objects out.
Any ideas?
P.S. I'm still working on the black model syndrome too.

Update: I have gotten it to work now, it turns out that I had modified a couple of selections during the Merge process. So the whole model is there now. Thanks again!

Still no idea on the black model thing, tho.   

I had this problem too when I first started, and it took me forever to figure it out (eventually I had to ask for help). A) are you applying textures to your model? If not, the default Sins texture is solid black. if you are, make sure the right texture is associated with it's counterpart in the .mesh file, i.e. DiffuseTextureFileName "Color Texture Goes Here.dds", SelfIlluminationTextureFileName " Illumination Texture Goes Here.dds", NormalTextureFileName "Bump Map Goes Here.dds". Make sure they're all .dds's too. C) In the DiffuseTextureFilename Texture, make sure it has an alpha channel. If you don't know how to do this, just PM me and I can help you out.
BTW, yo should totally come over and join my thread!Cool Star Trek Ship Post.

Ezraeil

That makes some sense, I have not applied any textures, I'm just trying to get the moddeling figured out! Thanks for the heads up on that!

I have been monitoring your other posts, between the SoSA thread and the Trek Comming To Sins thread, very enlightening!

Lastly, would you happen to know off hand how to re-scale these ships? I have tried editing properties in XSI, edited the bounding box, edited the ship itself, and lastly tried editing the size text editor and no matter what I do, the darn ship stays the same size.

Just scale your models in XSI, and then freeze the scaling history. You'll have to do some experimenting to get the size right on your first model, but once you do, you can use that to base the sizes of your other models on.

Geeze, I didn't even see that option there. Thank you very much! Just messed it up to the size of a small planet, but, it's better than it was before. LOL!

Thank you again!

glad it helped!

my problem with the black model is that I have no idea how to make the .dds files and how do i make a bump map? i know how to associate them in the finalized mesh file I've modded a few ships in game but i have no ideas how to generate them to begin with.

ds

I hear you, I'm not a texture kind of guy! I'll crank out moddels all day long, but my texturing skills are even more limited than my modeling skills! LOL

Okay, this is pretty easy. First, get a program capable of manipulating .dds files. In my experience, these are generally pretty expensive, so I suggest you get the GIMP as it is free, and as far as I have seen, equally if not more powerful than Photoshop Elements. Then, get a plugin for the GIMP that allows you to work with .dds like the one found here. Once you have made your texture and are ready to add an alpha layer, right click on your work surface or just go to LAYER at the top of your window, and go to mask, apply layer mask. Choose apply as alpha channel. Once you've done that, you are now editing the mask that will be your alpha. Edit this like any other layer, except it doesn't care about colors, it only takes the B/W value of your color and applies it to the mask. The darker it is, the more transparent it becomes. This transparency does not show up at all in your final texture. it is related to other values according to which texture you are changing. If you are editing DiffuseTextureFilname, the more transparent it is, the less shiny it is, and the reverse is obviously true; the more visible it is, the more shiny it is. My DiffuseTextures usually come out almost looking invisible when I'm done editing, but this does not affect visibility in game. If you are editing the SelfIlluminationFilename, the alpha creates a glowy effect where your texture is visible. this only really has any effect when bloom effects are active. The NormalTextureFilename does not use an alpha channel as far as I know. Once you have finished editing your alpha channel, follow the same route as before by either right clicking or going to the top bar, and go layer, mask, apply layer mask. Now go save as, and save as WhateverYouWantToCallIt.dds. It will bring up a prompt for saving as .dds's save it as a filetype with the option RGBA, probably the best is RGBA8. then just put it in your mod, and viola! textured ship.

Hope this helps, even if it is a bit long winded!

Ezraeil

...Well that's a converstation stopper if I ever heard one. LOL
Just kidding. Thanks for the info! I origionally was not going to attempt texturing, I was just going to model, and see if anyone wants to use my models, however, now I think I'll give texturing a shot too.

Can someone direct me to a tutorial, or show me how the material needs to be set up within XSI MOD TOOL. With reguard to assigning the 3 dds images to the material. I have a ship all built, textured and imported into the game successfully. I have the black ship syndrome, but the real problem is all the way back in XSI mod tool with the set up of my material/texture. I know I have to have 3 seperate dds files referenced within the mesh, but I see my material only has a base layer. Getting the DiffuseTextureFileName "Color Texture Goes Here.dds", SelfIlluminationTextureFileName " Illumination Texture Goes Here.dds", NormalTextureFileName "Bump Map Goes Here.dds" part has me pulling my hair out.
the ship I built is the Enterprise C. EzraeilBeatus Ambassador blows mine away, so this is an exercise for me, so I can get something working, then I'll move on to another ship. But this darn texture setup within XSI mod tool for export is really messing with my brain. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Chris.