Converting and Importing Help, Starting Again with my own stuff!

[Cyberleader]

I have some lightwave files, Biturn converter and jonwil's scenery importer.

Could someone tell me (in a turorialistic way) how to import these into the game.

VERY simply please! For instance I don't understand what 'alpha texture' means. You get the idea, just tell me what to do.

[Potter]

Cyberleader,

Steps to convert the model to ASE can be found here (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6497106&postcount=3)
After you have the ASE, you can use jonwil's updated tutorial (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=486388&highlight=tutorial) to import the model into the game

[Cyberleader]

I can get as far as texture, and mesh, I haven't got a clue what to do here, it won't let me save it, and none of the tutorials explain exactly what to do, i keep getting an error when i try to save scenery ovl. Help!!

[2005]

whats the error?

[Guybrush_47]

If they are other peoples models you do need their consent before putting the files into the game. Can't stress this enough, otherwise they can sue you. So be careful.

Put down the errors your having and we'll talk you through the solution.

[2005]

Some models are available free for non commercial use, it would probably be ok to use them.

Remember often those models are very detailed. You might be able to import them but that dosn't mean they are suitable for the game. And its likely you won't get the textures to look right. Better to make your models, even if you base it on another design.

[Cyberleader]

I'm just doing this for a personal test, these files were posted free. I will still not release them without the creator's (http://www.interocitor-media.com/tardis/) permision. The error message is 'No meshes to export'

[2005]

did you open the .ase???

much easier to build your own models and test them.

Trying to convert existing models that were made for something totally different is just asking for problems...

[Cyberleader]

yes i did open the .ase I see in jonwil's tutorial that it tells you to set a texture for the meshes, but it doesn't tell you how. This is my problem, I think.
What I'm importing is very simple and I'm just doing it to try and get the hang of the importer so I dont have any problems when I create my own scenery (hopefully, I haven't got a program for it yet! Any cheap suggestions? (I'm in the UK) I don't want to spend too much)

[Phil]

Well the importer tutorial was very helpful to me. Yes it may not tell you everything about what you are doing, but just keep trying and make sure to read the tutorial veyr carefully. Also, I found out that exporting as a .OBJ and then using biturn to covnert to .ASE is a VERY stable way to do it. I found .3DS doesn't work half as good while converting. Hope that made sense.

[Cyberleader]

Right, my importer just crashed. This is in the turorial -
If you do not want the mesh to be imported, press "dont import mesh" (meshes called root are automatically set to "dont import mesh")
Select which texture and texture style you want for the mesh as well as any other settings you want to change.
Once you have done this for EVERY mesh, go to the file menu and select "save scenery file". Save the .scn file. If there are meshes that DONT have a texture and texture style, there will be problems.
Now, press "save scenery ovl" and save the scenery ovl file.
The bits in bold are the bits I am confused about

[2005]

you load textures into the importer first.

These will be loaded into the file later when the .ovls are created.

Two (or more) meshes can share one texture.



After you loaded all the textures, you can assign textures to meshes. you want double click each mesh in turn. Your'll see a menu pop up and you can select from the loaded textures which you want for that mesh, and the style. You can ignore the other stuff for now, leave it blank, but setting the texture and stlye is a minimum.

[Phil]

Are your models UV mapped? Are the textures in 256 bmp format? Are the extures 256x256? All these factors count in to whether it will work or not.

[Cyberleader]

Okay, here is a pic of the lovely thing I'm trying to import
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6651/whatimtryingtoimport7vk.jpg
Right, so, I do all the normal things.
I upload my ase file, then I go to texture
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9982/texture4sj.jpg
I think this may be where i'm going wrong. This is the texture i'm trying to use, it's 154x154 and a BMP
http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/4126/blacktexture3ta.png
Next, I go to mesh flags
http://img417.imageshack.us/img417/1038/meshflags0is.jpg
I save my scr file the try to save the ovl
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6871/savingovl5qm.jpg
I do this and -
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1792/crash9ym.jpg
:cry:
Also, Froggee, I haven't got a clue, I don't understand anything you said, except the BMP format stuff. You can see your answer from this ^^^

[Cyberleader]

can anyone help me?

[Phil]

www.uvmapper.com

Download the classic version. First export or convert your model to .OBJ and then open it in the uvmapper. Make a map that you want to make and then customize your texture to fit the UV map. Then save the model using the file menu and then also save the map, which will give you a bmp of the map and the size you want. If your image editor allows you to resize pictures (Such as photoshop.) then you can make the map really big to work on then resize and save. Make sure it is a 256 bmp with 256x256 dimensions. Then with your new .OBJ file with UV coordinates, change that to .ASE and import into jonwils importer with the new .ASE and new Texture.

Hope this helps.

[marnetmar]

Cyberleader, Before you save the ovl file try clicking on the texture name in the box on the right to highlight it also. I circled it in red in the pic below, see if that works for you. I'm not sure if it's necessary, but I alwaus highlight the model & texture before saving.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8296/meshflags0is2ee.jpg

[Phil]

Dunno if thats any problems but I solved all my problems with the crash by using the techniques explained in my above post. I am guessing the importer doesn't like models without UV co-ordinates.

[Potter]

Cyberleader,

As Froggee had said, I think the issue is that the model might be without UV mapping. Since, I guess that you are new to 3D modelling, you might find the links 'what is UV? (http://www.royriggs.com/mapmagic.html)' and 'lightwave mapping (http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/LightwaveTuts/LWPages/LWUVStart.html)' useful. Check them out.

The problem might be that the models that you have might not have a texture or UV maps done. This is a must even though the model's texture is not used in the resulting ASE. Importer uses the uv cooridnates to do the mapping internally for the texture BMP that you give in the 'create scenery' window.

And, I guess that texture BMPs might be better be in powers of 2, like, 64x64, 128x128, etc. In the early stages, all modelers were using such sizes and had no issues.

so, try out these two suggestions and come back to tell us whether it is working :)

[Cyberleader]

This was getting too complicated, and as it wasn't my own model, I didn't know all of the info about it.

I've downloaded Anim8or and created a sphere.

I've exported it as a .3ds and .obj files, and would now like to know what to do, do I UV map it? Or just convert it and go straight to the impoter?

[Phil]

Follow my instructions.