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TFL BigBANGtheory
TFL BigBANGtheory
Join Date 02/2007
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noob questions be charitable its Xmas

December 12, 2007 3:27:41 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Context: All questions are related to SoaSE modding...

1) How do the DDS 'skins'/textures get created and mapped onto a 3D surface/mesh given when you view the DDS in Paint Shop Pro it appears as 2D? I have seen there is a plugin for 3DSmax for DDS...

2) How does a mesh file in SoaSE know which DDS textures to apply?

3) When models are exported out of 3DStudioMax e.g. as a .3DS or .OBJ are the textures as defined in the material's editor saved along with it, or do they need to be saved/exported as a seperate file in order to build the DDS files?

4) Other graphical options for textures such as reflectivity I assume are meaningless unless the SoaSE game engine supports the effect within the 3 DDS files described by Major Stress's excellent thread?

Thanks in advance...

modding
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Thrawn2787
Join Date 03/2007
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Reply #1 December 12, 2007 3:31:26 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Ummm...

1) this didnt need to be a new topic

2) Major stress helped me alot (coding earth as we speak), but he may not have time to help more people.
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kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #2 December 12, 2007 8:42:53 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
1) When creating the model in a modelling program, you do UV mapping, where you flatten the model on a 2d surface and arrange it to fit the texture (or probably more commonly, you create the uv map first and use it a guide to draw the texture on). Here's a sample of a UV map from a quick google:

http://www.davidikeda.com/zscripts/images/uv_map.jpg

You can see there it's a body, with the head, back, front, and the sides of the arms and legs all spread out so that they can be textured.

The UV data (texture coords) are stored in the model itself. The DDS file is just a plain image.

3) Generally the texture filenames and the UV coords are exported with the model, though that can vary by format and options.



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TFL BigBANGtheory
TFL BigBANGtheory
Join Date 02/2007
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Reply #3 December 16, 2007 5:15:19 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Thanks Kryo that really helped me piece things together and make some progress.

I'll answer the other two question for the benefit of other novice modders:

2) The mesh file contains the file names of the DDS textures (which the game expects to find in the \textures folder) in the following order -CL (colour), -DA (data), -NM (bumpmap). You can use a TXT editor to see this on existing meshs and troubleshoot new ones.

4) Details I imagine are under NDA, common sense simply suggests Yes.

New question....

5) Does anyone know if SoaSE will handle animated textures? I can't say I have seen an example yet though reflectivity (-cl alpha channel) does work and provides a nice dynamic effect.
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TheGreatEmperor
Join Date 06/2006
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Reply #4 December 16, 2007 1:07:53 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
These arent really noob questions, but then again I dont know that much about modding.
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RonLugge
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #5 December 16, 2007 9:43:27 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

5) Does anyone know if SoaSE will handle animated textures? I can't say I have seen an example yet though reflectivity (-cl alpha channel) does work and provides a nice dynamic effect.


I sure hope it does -- can't do shadow / vorlon ships without 'em!
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Major Stress
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #6 December 17, 2007 1:23:08 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Sins can handle animated textures from what i hear, but i dont know how the mesh's utilize them yet, and i dont know what kind of performance hit the sins engine will take from using alot of animations. There is a reason why sins turrets aren't animated, but that is mesh animation not texture.

Rest is like you said under NDA.
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TFL BigBANGtheory
TFL BigBANGtheory
Join Date 02/2007
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Reply #7 December 18, 2007 3:35:52 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Planet textures appear to move, and some asteroids do rotate so there is definately hope.

Personally I'm not that fussed about the turret issue I think you do spend 99% of the time viewing ships from a distance where you wouldn't notice them anyway. Unless of course a mod changed the whole scale of the game where the ships became a more dominant feature as in say the Homeworld look & feel.

New question...

6) At what point does a mod venture into copyright infringement? e.g. I can't imagine a star wars modder creating their own sound effects for laser fire they WILL have copied it from somewhere (Lucasfilms, LucasArts).
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Yarlen
Join Date 01/2005
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Reply #8 December 18, 2007 10:23:19 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Well, I think it's actually the model the texture is on that's spinning?  Animated textures are resource hogs from what I've been told.
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RonLugge
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #9 December 18, 2007 10:47:34 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Animated textures are resource hogs from what I've been told.


Bah! We can handle the resource hogging... at worst, just tone the texture quality down a notch or two
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Prezo
Join Date 09/2007
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Reply #10 December 20, 2007 5:00:51 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
well there IS a folder called texture animations but maby thats just textures for animations not animated textures

copyright infringements for mods are genraly done by their owners for instance Games workshop says that anyone can make a mod of any of their IP but it canot include anyone elses IP in it so you cant have the Imperial navy vs. the Vasari or the Empire
so realy depends what mod you are moding it to
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