Now that's cool hilt. Verry nice. :)
^^^
Did you apply the texture to the model in the material editor. Assuming you did is the texture a perfect square (ie, the dimensions 256x256, 512x512, ect)
Yes I did.
Yes I did.
Also could be a problem with texture's filename.
Did you by any chance rename your .tga after copying it in the override folder?
The colors are not as bright I would've liked it, but that will come in time.
I ran into that too, I guess. In the material editor did you set "Shader Basic Parameters" to metal and "Ambient"/"Diffuse" to white? By default it's medium grey and even if it's looking just fine in GMax it will be very dark in game...
HTH
PS: I finally got Kotor1 now (ok, I see why people think it's better than TSL). Are there any differences in modelling to TSL? Is there anything different between modelling a lightsaber and modelling a blaster?
I ran into that too, I guess. In the material editor did you set "Shader Basic Parameters" to metal and "Ambient"/"Diffuse" to white? By default it's medium grey and even if it's looking just fine in GMax it will be very dark in game...
I think so... I'll have to check...
HTH
PS: I finally got Kotor1 now (ok, I see why people think it's better than TSL). Are there any differences in modelling to TSL? Is there anything different between modelling a lightsaber and modelling a blaster?
If there are differences, probably not that much. I'm no expert, but it's the
same engine and all... I've seen that the scripting has changed a bit, but
for modding sabers I'll bet there aren't that many differences... Can anyone
confirm this?
LoneFerret
______________________________
'Harvey, kiss my medulla oblongata.'
John Crichton
Farscape
Did you by any chance rename your .tga after copying it in the override folder?
I think I did (still tired here :zz1: ). But I went in and replaced the texture on the models UVMAP in Gmax with the file with the new filename.
I recon it didn't work... I'm starting to fresh out of ideas here... hmmm
And you say your model shows up in game right?
LoneFerret
I recon it didn't work... I'm starting to fresh out of ideas here... hmmm
And you say your model shows up in game right?
LoneFerret
Still to dark even with the Ambient and Diffuse color (they are connected anyhow) set to white? Do you have a .txi file? .tga is 32Bit-TGA?
Ok, this Thread is about Lightsabers but I think blasters arent't that far away...
I made a new blaster for KOTOR1 using 3DSMax7 and NWmax 0.8. Mapped, "textured", exported, with MDLops replaced... but... Somewhere between 3DSMax and KOTOR the UVMap gets "lost". One can see that the .tga-file is actually used but the texture is f* distorted. One or two polys look like they are textured correctly, but probably only by accident.
Any hints are welcome.
Hey there again..
I know when the polys aren't detached the texture will look weird... This may sound
stupid, did you detach all the polys?
Hey there again..
I know when the polys aren't detached the texture will look weird... This may sound
stupid, did you detach all the polys?
I can't believe that I went into the same trap again... (Damn you Darwin!) The polys were detached but I had to step back to a raw version where they weren't...
Gimme word on how it turns up... :)
LoneFerret
_______________________________
I got nothin'...
Gimme word on how it turns up... :)
Just fine. I'm only making a new iw....tga file now, then the mission will be accomplished...
I recon it didn't work... I'm starting to fresh out of ideas here... hmmm
And you say your model shows up in game right?
LoneFerret
If your questions was directed at me then yes the model shows in game.
I just made a new sword and for the first time everything's working from the start... except a little imperfection: Like in the original file the blade consists of two pieces in the map and at that crossing the shine in game makes a step. I can live with that, but it would be nicer without it.
Is there a low-brain solution for that?
Im having a small problem with the ngon portion of the tutorial... for some reason i go threw the steps word for word and i see that in the pictures the ngon gets bigger but the one i have in gmax dosent i dunno what im doing wrong any clues to what im doing or in this case probably not doing.
please be a bit more specific. Do you mean tha it is still 2d instead of 3d? if that's the proble then you probaably didin't extrude it. To do so, select your Ngon, go to you modifications tab and click on extrude (in the pull-down window) once yu do that, select your Ngon and there should be an "extrude: 0.0cm" option, so you just change that to 2cm and it shoud become "larger".
I'm assuming you right-clicked on the Ngon and and converted it to an editable mesh. So now you click on the modify tab, expand the "edteable mesh" and click on "polygon". This should allow you to select the top poly, then there is a small field (still in the modify tab) named "extrude", then you should change this number to the number of cm you want the object to expand (looks like about 5 in the pic). If you have any more problems, PM and I'll try to help you,
ok, I know this is probably the dumbest question ever, but I'm a noob and cannot be blamed for my stupidity. Anyway, I was making my lightsaber, my first venture into the modding world ever, la la la when (gasp) I realised I was missing something, a button! Yea yea, who cares, it's just a button right? Wrong! Without a button a jedi would not be able to turn on their lightsaber and then where would they be then? They would be space dust or bantha poo doo (or any other sutable star wars medaphore)! Anyway, I was wondering how the heck do you get a circular button on the side of a very poorly made lightsaber? Some help please.
a circular button? np
1)Make a ngon paralel to the z axis, facing the side u want the button to face.
2)Put the Ngon at the height u want the button to be.
3)Extrude the Ngon as the size u want the button to be.
4)Attatch the Ngon to the saber.
Voila, u have ur button:)
btw, its spelled metaphor :p :p
Ok, two questions: how do you make a ngon parallel to anything and how do you attach stuff?
Thanks of responding so quickly and correcting my spelling :) oh and to return the favor it's spelled parallel :xp:
k, to make the Ngon parallel to the z axis, just make it in the "left" or "right" viewpoints, depending on which way u want it to face
Now, to attach stuff u need to select one of the objects u want to attach, and click on attach under "edit geometry" on the modify tab, then hilight all the objects you want to attach (they will appear on a list) and click on attach.
and yes, I know its spelled you, not u :p
You are a life saver or lightsaver or lifesaber, wee! this is fun... :¬: ... *clears throat* Anyway, thanks, I've been trying to do that for at least a day, and now I can move on and get stuck on parts of the lightsaber that are not related to the button. :p
Hello again, I was just wondering, how does one slant things in gmax? For example the lightsaber emiter on Anakin's lightsaber in ep II. I hope you guys know what I'm talking about because I can't for the life of me figureout how to put a picture in a post.
I am stuck on the part where you extrude .5 and bevel -.1. I am having trouble selecting all the required segments correctly.
Try turning on "shade selected faces" its easier to select by face to extrude then trying to select individual verticies. I believe you can do this by going into "edit veiwport configuartion" T7's tut will tell you how to do this in the very beginning. In the veiwport config. there is a box to check that will shade the faces. Make sure you edit the config. for the veiwport you want to use. I usually "shade faces" in the perspective veiwport and then select in another veiw. This way you can rotate in the perspective and see what is selected. Try not to model in the Perspective though, it's more difficult and could have a negative end result.
Hope this was at least mildly helpfull. :>
Fuu
I was being stupid and didn't notice the rotate button. Does any one have the checkers.tga mentioned in the UVWmapping section.
Ill send it to you if you PM me your email. Plz do not post your email.
Fuu
heya guys, i cant seem to find the place to download the free 30 day trial of the software - i click on the link to get there and it doesnt change the page at all - am i being thick? anyways has anyone got the link for where i can download the product from exactly? or have they got the zip files of the original program that they could email me?
heya guys, i cant seem to find the place to download the free 30 day trial of the software - i click on the link to get there and it doesnt change the page at all - am i being thick? anyways has anyone got the link for where i can download the product from exactly? or have they got the zip files of the original program that they could email me?
Nope. Discreet I think has stopped hosting it... BUT Turbo Squid hasn't ;)
Grab it here while you can.. and be sure to download the extras (such as the help files, tutorials, etc.)
http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax/)
cheers chainz your a legend :) is it hard to make lightsaber mods compatible with one another? for example i want to make my own lightsaber/hilt (will prolly make a few) but would still want to keep USM - is that hard to do?
sorry for the double post ;)
cheers chainz your a legend :) is it hard to make lightsaber mods compatible with one another? for example i want to make my own lightsaber/hilt (will prolly make a few) but would still want to keep USM - is that hard to do?
Not too bad as long as you are aware of compatibility from the get-go (which you are thankfully... hehehe)
It helps to know what numbers you intend to use beforehand so that you're not backtracking and making up curse words after you've ran out of them during the modeling process ;)
I urge you (and anyone else) to use those Gmax tutorials... it might not be your saber right from the start, but it's going to save you a ton of headaches in the long run.
T7's tutorial is also a very good step-by-step method, but it will require you to pay attention and be a little familiar with finding your way around Gmax (his pics help immensely)...
As always though, you're in the right place if you ever need assistance. Run into a snag? Use the search feature and/or post a thread asking for help.. we'll try to help out as best we can (and there's lot's of us around here... hehehe)...
Another handy app to keep in mind for compatibility is stoffe's TSLPatcher (
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=149285)... this is by far a lifesaver, compatible mod godsend of a prog and I only wish we had had the time to Patcher-ize the USM. However we had released the mod before it came out and by then I think we were all at our wit's end :nut:
Maybe after we get out of the loony bin, we might re-visit the USM and Patcher-ize it, but at the moment our jackets are a little tight ;)
Hey , I just finished my saber-model , exported and succesfully replaced in mdlops , but I don't really understand why Kotor doesn't want to use my model .
I have made an uti-file cause I want this saber to be an new and unique item .
So what files am I missing ; these I have putted in my Override folder :
- w_lghtsbr_666.mdl and w_lghtsbr_666.mdx
- tga file and w_lghtsbr_666.txt file for the texture
- the w_lghtsbr_666.uti-file
This is in the uti-file : ResRef : w_lghtsbr_666
Tag : w_lghtsbr_666
I have'nt changed anything else in the uti-file
So why doesn't it use my model ????
I *think* .mdl files can only go up to 255, I'm not sure, but there is also a good chance there are other things wrong as well and/or in addition to, unfortunately :xp:
Well I tried with giving everything the g_w_lghtsbr60 and in the uti-file give the saber appearance 60 .
I get a nice white item-icon in game and its a saber but again he doesn't use my model ... I checked if mdlops truely replaced the meshes it did .
I can see my item to in the SaveGame editor but its in RED text so I'm sure that indecates something is wrong with the item ???
I'm pretty sure red text in KSE just means it's a custom item, I have severla red text items, but the best way to test if your model exported/replaced properly is to rename the .mdl and .mdx files w_lghtsbr_001.mdl/.mdx plop it in the override and whip out a saber with a blue crystal, if you see your model, it worked, if you don't, get back to work… so to speak.
Alread I'll try that , I used w_lghtsbr_010 so I didn't follow the tutorial 100%
^^^^
do you have somewhere you can host a file, that way I can download it and see if I can find out whats wrong?
------------[size=0] (I know these are old posts, but I thought I'd post some tips for future reference)[/size=0]
Anyway, I was wondering how the heck do you get a circular button on the side of a very poorly made lightsaber? Someone told you to align a new N-gon to the z-axis, you could do this, but imo it is better if you create a new N-gon, for a button 6 sided is fine, then check the autogrid box that way it will automatically create itself along a face of your hilt.
how does one slant things in gmax?You could select the appropriate polys and use the rotate tool to rotate them into a slant, but imo that is a crude method. I would prefer to create an object using the line tool and then use the Boolean to effectively cut your saber hilt into a slant. Try looking on google for a good Boolean tutorial if there isn't one in the tutorials section. I could make one, but I don't have the time right now.
----
Also, last time I checked the Turbosquid download wasn't working for me, so if you are looking for a place to download gmax try this:
http://www.windyweather.net/WW/max/gmax/) and as ChAiNz said, download the extra files and tutorials, they help immensely don't be ignorant like I was and just jump right into lightsaber modeling.
YYEESSS !!! I got my model in game :) with a little of this forum , and its nice users ;) hйhйhй . I know very slimy hйhйhй .
Still a minor problem about the texture , he doesn't want to use it . I've changed it in the exported txt to my own texture name , but I still have this flat white saber-hilt ??? So when do you guys at the texture to youre model ???
YYEESSS !!! I got my model in game :) with a little of this forum , and its nice users ;) hйhйhй . I know very slimy hйhйhй .
Still a minor problem about the texture , he doesn't want to use it . I've changed it in the exported txt to my own texture name , but I still have this flat white saber-hilt ??? So when do you guys at the texture to youre model ???Well, I add a basic texture to my model in [g]max that way when I export my model it already has my "mavhilt.tga" as it's texture and I don't have to mess with the renamer function, from there I can edit the texture as I please without editing the model. For any texture you need 2 files though, you need the .tga and the .txi, the .tga is the basic texture (should have an alpha channel and a be saved at 32-bits) the .txi should be of the same name as the .tga, the .txi file effects how your texture looks relative to the games engine, so to speak.
ow well I added my texture/material in MAX ( I use 8.0) and then exporteded but
the name of texture I gave the model doesn't show up in the txt file and where can you get a tutorial on this txi-file , I read some where you need that for that nice shinny-metal look ( shader ?) .
Sorry for this nooby behaviour ;)
thanks for the help !
I'm sorry, I don't know what .txt file you're referring to since I don't use any .txt files when I model, as far as .txi yes that can apply shader effects as well as other things. the shiny metal look would be "envmaptexture CM_baremetal" you can find more information about .txi files in the re-texturing tutorials in the tutorial sections
Well when I make an extraced mdl-file to ascii , mdlops makes a textfile , in it is something like this : w_lsabreblue01 and w_lghsbr_001 . So when I do the replacer I get a txt-file to , in it I change the last line to my texture-name , ( I thinkk the first one about the blade coleur ) . then I copy this file to my desktop and change its name to : TexSabG2.txi and put everything in the Override folder
It worked !!! I got my model with a texture , but I'm sure this is not the way to do it right . :( I'll follow youre directions , cause I extracted an txi file with Kotor Tool and opened it with textpad , and yes theres alot of mip mapping and all ...
thanks for the help ;)
well, the txt file that MDLops produces is just sort of a reference to tell you what textures are being used by the model. You don't really need that file at all, it's just a nice reference I suppose. What you will need is, if you apply "mytexture.tga" to your hilt before you export it out of max, then you will need "mytexture.tga" as well as "mytexture.txi" in your override folder and your skin should work fine. You said it worked so you probably did it right, because there are several ways to do this wrong but only one way to do it right.
Hey , well in a way I did 99% ok, without knowing it . But i found a nice tutorial about the txi , alpha channel and texture's in Kotor .
So now everything works out fine , just one question more, its bit a of topic , but is it possible to open a module / area / level in MAX or better to make a total new one ???
nope not possible right now, as far as I know
greetings all,
As my first foray into TSL modding I wanna modify Exar Kun's saber from the original game (making it a 2 handed saber), but haven't the slightest idea what the file name is. Does anyone know ??? Eventually I want to scratch build a saber like the M2 from parks sabers.
Also are the goodies for GMax available for 3DSMax 3 or 7, or do I really need GMax ??
Thanks in advance, oh and great thread !!!
<edit 9-11-06> Never mind I found it. I believe the file name is 'k39_itm_cersaber' ,which appears to be short saber #7.
OK, I've followed the tut's, unchecked the 'weld to nearest cm' box in the sanity check rollout, but I still get like 100 weld errors on the sanity check report. Is this normal for a 'stock' model that only has a few moved verts in it ?? I get the same errors on export with an unaltered stock model. Is MDLops not exporting the welds correctly ??
And is it normal to get an error while exporting: 'The animroot for the 'powered' animation doesn't exist. Press 'yes' to set the animroot as the auroraBase of the model; press 'NO' to simply print a warning to the Listener Window and continue. If you press 'Yes', you must save the scene before exiting.'
I assume this is because of I renamed the aurorabase object, but I don't know if it's something I should worry about
Here's a pic:
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8154/mdksab01pa7.jpg)