Since this isn't getting any attention in my WIP thread, I'm bringing it here.

I've run into a texture problem I can't wrap my head around. I've made the texture white (to match the Tantive halls) in GIMP, but it always produces a grey both in ZE and ingame. I've tried munging the texture as other colors, so I know the changes to the texture are being saved and munged, but this grey still turns up whenever I use white. In fact, the color I'm using is even more white than the actual Tantive textures.

To be specific, the white I'm using now is hex code ffffff, but it still shows as grey ingame, and in ZE. I'm using a reskinned prop door from the space assets, if that's relevant. I've already checked the layers in GIMP, and there's only the one which has the new texture. Since skinning is not truly a strong point with me, pointing out even basic ideas might help. Just don't get so basic as to ask if I saved, etc.

A quick response would definitely be appreciated. I have much to do that may hinge on the answer, and I don't want to skip this to find I still have a problem later.

What you can do, is add a alpha channel.. Just a thought..

(Layer>Transparancy>Add Alpha Channel(or something like that ))

Good luck

Apparently, it already had one. However, I was just looking at several Tantive textures, and they don't have one.

So, I removed the alpha channel, but it had no effect.


Here's a pic to further illustrate the problem I'm having.

It's possible that Pandemic could have embedded color into the msh file itself before it was exported, what is the name of that object in the assets?

I believe it's cis_fedcruiser_door1.

did you copy over the cis_fedcruiser_door1.msh.option file also? The door utilizes vertexlighting. So if you didn't copy over the above mentioned file do so, if you already have try editing the file and remove the -vertexlighting part.

To correct an earlier statement, it does show as the color I assign in ZE. Also, to be clear, I'd made a "new" door from the existing assets, and both exist in the project folder. AceMastermind sent me a new msh and texture, which I'm now using. For some reason it works fine on Ace's computer, but the problem still exists on mine. Of couse, I hex edited the msh to accept a new texture name, but this shouldn't be a problem. At least, I hope it isn't, in spite of this being one of the few things that hasn't changed throughout this whole process.

Ok, so I removed the vertex lighting portion from the option file, and even manually cleaned to ensure the change was munged. It's still a no-go.

Just for something fun to do, save a copy of currently used tga to somewhere so you can go back to it, then add some color to the tga that is being used just to see if any thing from the tga is showing up at all. If the colors aren't showing up then it is obviously something with the tga file. If the colors do show up are they like what you added or are they "greyed" out as well.

It seems to happen with any color I use. I'd tried this once before with the whole texture, but I'd convinced myself I was seeing things. Even trying it this time I had look at it more than once. With black and blue, it didn't seem to have any effect. I only really noticed when I looked at the yellow mark I'd made.

Does it have anything to do with the diffuse color of your material? Check the ambient color as well, although I've seen negligible effects from them.

...

Ah wait you're reskinning, you'll have to look in the binary mesh file. Find the MATD's (= materials) and after each MATD is a DATA chunk of (well data)

Look here: http://personal.riley-man.com/swbf/edit ... f-msh.html (at the MATD --> DATA)

The first part is R G B of the diffuse, which are float-type integers. If you go into your hex editor --> data inspector and put the cursor on the first byte of the float, you will see it on the data--- well I'll just go ahead and look for you, I have time.

Results:
It appears the cis door has a hex ambient color value of 1,1,1 whereas the tantive props have a value of 0,0,0. It's the only thing I can find. It may not even be relevant, it may not even change anything, but it's worth a try. I'm attaching the hex edited door which switches the ambient color to that of the tantive, tell me if it works.

http://files.filefront.com/cis+fedcruis ... einfo.html

Sorry for the jumble, that's just my train of thought. (no pun to trainmaster).

Well, now there seems to be some progress. This does affect the color, though it didn't have the desired effect. It appears to have made the color a darker grey than before.


Edit: Now, I think I understand it. You've changed the ambient, but I think the problem is the diffuse. It just hit me. Looking at a model from this end threw me off. Am I correct in thinking the "?" acts as a separator?

Here is a question, on the reskin was the door detail still suppose to be there? cause don't see any.
If there was supposed to be and you are not seeing any it is possible, just possible mind you, that you are seeing the collision mesh for the door.

No, there's no detail. Since I'm not great with that sort of thing, I went with a plain texture.

MercuryNoodles wrote:Well, now there seems to be some progress. This does affect the color, though it didn't have the desired effect. It appears to have made the color a darker grey than before.


Edit: Now, I think I understand it. You've changed the ambient, but I think the problem is the diffuse. It just hit me. Looking at a model from this end threw me off. Am I correct in thinking the "?" acts as a separator?

I changed to diffuse to all white and it made only a lighter grey, not white. I don't know what's going on. I even went through and deleted the vertex lighting chunks.

Well, when I looked at the diffuse portion in XVI, it was 333333 (a grey), not ffffff, and I believe the ambient is black as you said you'd made it in the previous post. So, are you saying you changed it again since you linked me to that file?

Yeah I did, and I believe the diffuse/ambient colors are not RGB, they are a float number like .700 etc. It goes between 0-1. I changed both diffuse and ambient to 1, and it still appeared grey

That part I don't quite get though. It seemed to me that I was looking at hex color codes.