Ship Modelling Advice

[Imaginos]

I quick question from a Noob... I've never used Wings3D but I do have many years experience of modelling with 3D Studio Max. Do any of you good people know if it is possible to convert .max files into something that can be imported into Oolite?

[CaptSolo]

Do any of you good people know if it is possible to convert .max files into something that can be imported into Oolite?

I don't see that capability. It can import Object (.obj) files, so check to see if your software can export to that and, if so, you should be good to go.

[Imaginos]

Thanks Capt Solo. Yes Max can export .obj files. I'll see what I can come up with.

[spud42]

Welcome to the dark side... cookies on a tray near the door.

[Tricky]

Oolite actually uses a format known as DAT. You can use a convertor (https://github.com/OoliteProject/oolite-mesh-converters) to get the correct format from OBJ files. Use Obj2DatTexNorm.py

Also need to be able to run Python.

 OXP howto model

[Imaginos]

Thanks Tricky.

[Tricky]

Thanks Tricky.

I take it my advice actually worked.

Seriously though, stick at it, there is nothing more fullfilling than (trying to type whilst my dog wants to play) getting a mod you have created into your Ooniverse.

[spud42]

Thanks Tricky.

I take it my advice actually worked.

Seriously though, stick at it, there is nothing more fullfilling than (trying to type whilst my dog wants to play) getting a mod you have created into your Ooniverse.

your advice usually works.. lol

[Imaginos]

Thanks Tricky.

I take it my advice actually worked.

Seriously though, stick at it, there is nothing more fullfilling than (trying to type whilst my dog wants to play) getting a mod you have created into your Ooniverse.

I've not had a chance to try it yet. I did'n't get as much free time during the Christmas break as I was expecting as my wife ended up have most of the fortnight off too.

[Imaginos]

Here's a picture of the ship that I'm currently working on... the Dolphin MkI...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zmpclz6wycue ... I.jpg?dl=0

I thought that I would start with something basic.

[Imaginos]

I'm not a natural born coder and don't really have much experience with Python.
If I provide a link to the .obj, .mtl & .png used for my model would someone else like to have a go at converting it to a something that can be used as an Oolite OXP?

[CaptSolo]

I'm not a natural born coder and don't really have much experience with Python.
If I provide a link to the .obj, .mtl & .png used for my model would someone else like to have a go at converting it to a something that can be used as an Oolite OXP?

I'll have a go at it.

[Imaginos]

Thanks CaptSolo

Here's the OBJ file...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cc8a22fp02iyy ... 1.obj?dl=0

Here's the MTL file...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wx3hfr769bon8 ... 1.mtl?dl=0

and here's the texture PNG...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r9r9vj26kr13j ... p.png?dl=0

I envisioned the Dolphin as being slightly faster than a Cobra Mk III but with a little less cargo space (8T maybe).

[CaptSolo]

I envisioned the Dolphin as being slightly faster than a Cobra Mk III but with a little less cargo space (8T maybe).

Well I encountered several problems. I imported the object file (Dolphin1.obj) into Wings3d. The outliner window lists the following materials:
01_-_Default
space_frigate_6

These are like two ships stuck together but have not been combined. But that is not a problem really as long as you have two textures applied to the two material. None of them are assigned to your texture file, so it isn't going to work. To state it succinctly, you need two texture files applied as the diffuse textures to the two sections of this model. I tried to import the one texture file you provided but Wings had a problem with it. I then attempted to open it with GIMP, and I got a corrupt file error.

Now for the biggest problem. Even if I could have converted this model into a .dat file, the ship is so huge you could never dock it with a core station in Oolite. It is nearly ten times bigger than a Cobra Mark III. If you want to get this thing into the game you will need to scale it down considerably. I'm afraid that is about all I can do. Terribly sorry.

Question: Did you really model this from scratch or did you acquire this model from another source?

[Imaginos]

I've really messed up here haven't I? I have my units setup set to metric and my dolphin model is around 25 meters long. I've never used Wings3D so I don't know if the unit setup is different. The space_frigate_6 mesh was an old model that I was using as a basic template to create the dolphin as a much simpler mesh (83 faces as opposed to 745). I thought that I had deleted the space_frigate mesh but I had merely hidden it.

As for texture mapping... my model's texture is fine as a .MAX file but when I try importing the .OBJ version back into 3DS Max the texture map is lost.

Oh well, thanks for giving it a try CaptSolo. Sorry to have wasted your time.