Exporting problems...

How to create models in XSI and other 3D applications and make them work in Battlefront 1 & 2. Post models, tips for application usage and share anything XSI, 3DMax, SketchUp, etc.

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Agent007

Exporting problems...

Post by Agent007 »

Well when i try to export my custom models with xsi the textures get currupted.

B4 i export them from xsi, i can see all of my textures on my models.

But when i export them to .msh it takes the .psd texture and converts it into a .tga.

But when i look at the new .tga it is reduced to a 1k file.

When you click on the 1k file it gets an error "Could not complete your request becuase the file-format module cannot parse the file"

Can anybody help me?


P.S. this is kinda off-topic, but is there any publicly released sword, bow, or xbow files?
{Ipro}_Ghost

RE: Exporting problems...

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

save your files first to .tga or jpg ex...out of photoshop first don't use the PSD FILES,

1. select the hole object.
2. properties get texture, texture projection, unique UV's
leave pop up open

now at this point you have two options

1. you can put a texture on the hole object, then adjust your UV's to fit it,
or
2. you can now go to ploy mode, select witch polys you would like to apply a texture to, once you have the ploys you wont. press (ctrl L) this will turn your selected polys white.
3 now get texture, image, select the file you made. now you will see just those ploys with a texture.

(do Step 3 AS step 2 if you would like to use only on image for the hole object.)

4. repeat step 2 to add more textures to your object.

5. now place your object in a null. don't ever move the null, this will make you model load properly in BF

(Some people have probably run into seeing the models they have made. When in the zero editor, the object you place in ZE, are not in the same place in the game when you mungie it and play it, Dropping in a null will fix this.)

6. branch select your null. export.


A note: If you apply one texture to your hole object, then decided you would like to use more then one texture. you will find BF will display the hole texture not pieces of other texture on the object unless you assign the sepritly at the begging.

Note 2: if you see through your objects you ploys are reversed and the texture is on the opposite side of the camera
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RE: Exporting problems...

Post by minilogoguy18 »

or you could do something alot more simplistic and flatten the layers of the .psd and save it as .tga under the same name and open the explorer and hit M and delete all materials and drag and drop your new .tga texture onto the model and click yes and then copy the tga to the folder your exporting to and dont let the exporter convert or copy.
Agent007

RE: Exporting problems...

Post by Agent007 »

i did what minilogoguy suggest and it worked like a charm!

thanks again
(whats this, 5th time hes helped me?)
{Ipro}_Ghost

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

well that works for single textures not, multi texture UV's And I'm shore there are a few ways of going about this. and any tips are all ways welcome.
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Post by Qdin »

While we're talking about multiple textures.

Mini' says you can't use more than 1 texture per mesh (even though I've never experienced any problems with it if I use 2-3 .tga's for 1 merged mesh).

It's easy enough to assign a texture directly onto individual faces in Maya, but (I've never looked into it) it seems to me like you just can't select your faces in XSI and just apply your texture on the selected area(s)... :?
{Ipro}_Ghost

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

yes you can use multi textures, but as I explained if you assign the hole object with a material, you then can't add more textures. but if you choose your polys, then ctrl L to make them white, you can make each poly have its own texture image applied to it, and when you export it will create all the texture files,

So thats why I posted such a detail response as most people are unaware that you can do this, I have made models with up to 10 different files I used to texture them, and they work fine,
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Post by Qdin »

Thought so O.o

but still... it SHOULD be more like just applying the texture onto the faces you want :?
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Post by minilogoguy18 »

yeah but making multiple textures per model is such a huge waste when a 24 bit tga already has more than enough detail for any sized model.
{Ipro}_Ghost

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

Qdin wrote:Thought so O.o

but still... it SHOULD be more like just applying the texture onto the faces you want :?
now you've got it, The big problem is if you first UV with one, on the hole object, you can't go back and put more on later the game will show just the fully UV texture.

And as far as using more the One texture, this allows for you to manipulate your textures in other programs like photoshop. with out a lot of masking cropping to get the section of the texture you like to change, and when working with flags, I found if you use separate textures for the polys you would like to scroll and make transparencies work a lot better when It has is own texture for the poly you are flagigng.
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Post by minilogoguy18 »

the only flags i ever messed with was chrome and it didnt look too good and it lagged alot since i made the whole underside and parts of the top of the n-1 chrome. it looked faceted because the chrome shader was applied to each polygon rather than making smooth transitions so you could see all the edges stand out like a sore thumb.
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Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

Thats is because it,s trying to pull the info out of the tga and make a new one with the flagged poly, so when it crops it out, It tries it's best to grab by the nearest pixel method, so i's jagged. but if you use separate textures, for it. this wont happened. It will work with the hole tga. so there is no jagging.
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Post by Qdin »

I'm not sure if that was a theory, a conclusion or just something you said, because it didn't seem like the same as Mini' said.. :?

If you ask me, it sounded like Mini' said that the chrome was applied to each polygon instead of the entire shape. So it would make the corners more sharp - and therefore each pixel.
He didn't mention any texture problems, only some shader problems (as far as I understood. :roll: )
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Post by minilogoguy18 »

yeah exactly
{Ipro}_Ghost

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

but what you missed is the shaders info comes from the tga applied to the ploly, so it nows what to sharpen, So when it does this. it extract the info from your tga. to apply, and since the whole tga is not chrome just the sections of it you flagged. if it did not need to extract it from the tga but use the whole image, associated with the flagging. you don't get the ruff edges bad pix's, And if you start to mess with scrolling textures. or transparencies. you are going to make the whole object transparent in stead of just the flagged. ploy.

this is also why you lagged so bad. as your 24 bit tga. is duplicated and load for each poly you flagged. and you said the whole top and bottom were covered, I would assume you had more then 50 ploys flagged. so that would be at least 51 tga's rapping your object, with 50 hidden texture geometries, you cant see. for One object, now you proly had more ploys then that, but you get the Idea,
Agent007

Post by Agent007 »

Hey, i have another question...do i need to triangulate my models b4 exporting them?
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Post by Rekubot »

Not always, but if you have a small object like a gun polys will sometimes go missing in-game. What I do then is just triangulate the model, though no doubt that's a poly-consuming method. Works fine though.
{Ipro}_Ghost

Post by {Ipro}_Ghost »

right on, the exporter does triangle it on export, but it's a guessing game for the exporter. if you have ing problem like stated, then yes. do it your self for better resaults.
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Post by minilogoguy18 »

the triangulation tool doesnt make it better, your just building the model bad and not giving it a proper poly flow so that when the game does triangulate it the model has a terrible result because i have NEVER NEVER EVER had to triangulate ANYTHING, EVER! like Qdin already said ghost, theres TONS of edges you could get rid of on your models to optimize them and make them use less vertices without losing a single bit of detail.
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