Ruining the classics (screenshot heavy thread)

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:29 pm

That really is very impressive. You've captured the original look perfectly whilst bringing it bang up to date.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:49 pm

And Griff the Almighty does it again!

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:29 am

That's very kind, thank you guys. The vipers textures and model are really quite simple though, the shaders and especially the bump mapping really add a lot of polish to the ship.
I was really pleased with how the normal mapped cobraIII turned (out by sticking fairly closely to the original model) that i thought i'd repeat the trick with a different ship, actually ramon, it's your amazing Anaconda model that i've been stealing modeling ideas from, i hope you don't mind too much!

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:48 am

That's okay, I'm stealing the Config from your Viper as we speak! In fact, my normal map looks totally different to yours and I've completely forgotten how to convert the obj-dat - everytime I use Python it creates a 0kb dat file - which is what happened the very first time I did it all those years ago (!)

Here's my bump map

until i've converted my model I won't know if it's right. Do you use windows or mac Griff? Or can anyone else remind me of the (probably very simple) task of convert obj - dat?

EDIT: just did a search, found this https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... ht=obj+dat
probably will help

EDIT AGAIN: Nope still can't do it. I've noticed I have Python24 not 25 so I'm going to download the newer version now and see if that works.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:37 am

Hi Ramon
I'm using nvidia's normal map plugin for photoshop, i've got it set up like this:

I think i ticked the invert Y axis option, as i'm sure without that selected the 'dips' are 'bumps' and the 'bumps' are 'dips' if that makes sense
I think Scarecrow had a lot of problems converting his models to dat format recently, i can't remember how he solved it, are you running the obj2dattex.py script using the windows command prompt? i don't think it works properly if you just drag your obj onto the obj2dattex.py file in windows. i always run the script on an obj file that's been freshly exported out of wings3d, i dunno if it makes a difference but wings and the script seem to get on really well together!

Wiki pages · Post by **Thargoid** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:44 am

His problems were that he had python 3.x (the script is for 2.x, it's incompatible with 3.x) and that he was running it from a python prompt rather than a dos prompt (under windows) - as you say it's not drag and drop.

Under XP with Python 2.5 it works fine for me. It need be you can get the Obj2Dat and Dat2Obj scripts from my box.net area (I shared them there before and never got around to taking them down). Those are the ones that work for me.

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:44 am

yep, that's the same then. The file griff_viper_normal_map.png just looks like two small blue dots on a white background.

Also, still trying to convert my model, does this error message ring any bells:

Code: Select all

Ramon_AnaBody.obj->ramon_anabody.dat
going to open material library file: Ramon_ANaBody.mtl
Traceback <most recent call last>:
   File "C:\Python25\Obj2DatTex.py", line 66, in <module>
       if <tokens1[0] == 'newmtl'>:
IndexError: list index out of range

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:49 am

hmm, i haven't seen that error before, how many materials are there in the model ramon, i never use more than 1 although 8 are supported i believe, i've never worked out how they work so i make sure in wings that the entire model is only using the 1 default material
the viper normal map looks odd because i've stuffed a greyscale illumination map into it's alpha channel, i'll post up what it looks like without the alpha in it:

the illumination map (which is in the alpha channel) looks like this:

what a waste of texture space for just a few dots!

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:31 pm

I'm using a diffuse map:

a specular map:

and the normal map (slightly changed since about an hour ago)

I might try and do an obj with just the Diffuse map first and see if that works. And I think I'll convert them all to 512x512 too (there's no need to be as big as they are is there)

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:58 pm

woah, that looks stunning! what shaders are you using ramon, the cobra ones? they have some stuff in them you might not need, i can write out some details about how they work if you want or we can customise them so they work in a way that suits your oxp better

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:26 pm

that would be helpful. I'm just looking through your Viper oxp at the moment.
I don't know why I can't convert the obj to dat for some reason. Do you mind if I pm you the OBJ (it might be that I'm just converting it wrong?)

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:02 pm

Hi Ramon
by all means please do

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:44 pm

Hi Griff,

I've sent you a pm - well quite a few now by the time you read this. I've realised there is definitely something wrong with my model and not the way I've been trying to convert to Dat. (I went back and converted one of my old simple models and that converted first time).

I've got a feeling I went overboard with the materials in StudioMax. I think I should only use one map and add the specular map and normal map after (using the config.pplist). I'm probably wrong though, it's only 8:40pm and it feels late. I think I'll look at this with a fresh pair of eyes tomorrow....I'm guessing I'm going to have to go back to basics and create a square box first - make sure my shaders are working then go back and re-model some more originals. Bagsy the Asp

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:26 pm

ramon wrote:
I've got a feeling I went overboard with the materials in StudioMax. I think I should only use one map and add the specular map and normal map after (using the config.pplist).

Indeed, the converter scripts assume there’s just one texture per material (the diffuse map), although I would expect them to just ignore extra ones.

ramon · Post by **ramon** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:36 pm

I've found out its the way StudioMax 9.0 converts Obj files (gw::object (whatever that means)). I've still got version 8 so I'll revert back to that for the time being.