Oolite Bulletins

Hello all
My first time ever on a forum I am hoping that someone can help me.

I am using Windows XP. I have followed the tutorial on creating a "flying brick" using the Wings3D program, which is great. But I can't make the DAT file for use in Oolite under windows XP.

Thank you all who read this and I hope that someone will be able to help me

Its nice to be able to play Elite again after so many years.

In Wings, export the model to Wavefront (OBJ) format.

Obtain the obj2dattex.py file from the tutorials.

Obtain and install a copy of the Python programming language. I think the website for it is www.python.org. Google it if that's not right.

Copy the obj2dattex.py file and your exported OBJ and MTL files into the Python program folder (usually C:\Python25).

Open a command window (Start>run, then type CMD and press enter).

Type cd\python25 and press Enter.

Type 'obj2dattex.py modelname.obj' and press enter, replacing the word "modelname" with the name of your model. This will create a dat file in the same folder with the same name as your source model.

Job done!

As usual an excellent answer, is this a candidate for a sticky or a FAQ?

Not necessarily.

Ferret wrote that he was following Giles' tutorial on creating a "flying brick". This tutorial actually includes the very step he was asking for here, it's called "Converting to Oolite" and it's (of course) the last step in the tutorial. And as Giles is a friendly tutor, he has even prepared a downloadable ZIP, containing all the files used in the tutorial, also the needed DropObj2DatTex, and linked it twice, at the very top and at the very bottom of the tutorial.

So, in theory, everybody who goes through the tutorial should already be there. The answer in a FAQ could basically say nothing else than "Read the tutorial you're just reading. Read it!"

Commander McLane wrote:

The answer in a FAQ could basically say nothing else than "Read the tutorial you're just reading. Read it!"

Well That's it then.

Commander McLane wrote:

Not necessarily.

Ferret wrote that he was following Giles' tutorial on creating a "flying brick". This tutorial actually includes the very step he was asking for here, it's called "Converting to Oolite" and it's (of course) the last step in the tutorial. And as Giles is a friendly tutor, he has even prepared a downloadable ZIP, containing all the files used in the tutorial, also the needed DropObj2DatTex, and linked it twice, at the very top and at the very bottom of the tutorial.

The problem here would be that DropObj2DatTex is only directly usable under Mac OS X. However, it’s a wrapper around a Python script that can run anywhere.

I almost wrote “I really should update the tutorial to reflect this”, but actually, what should happen is that someone (other than me) should copy the tutorials to the wiki, at which point I’ll change the web site to link to them.

in my case the python scripts produced an error when i ran it, being a bit of a hobby programmer i fixed it...

for solution to this, look here

https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=3474

Hello

I would like to thank you all for your help.

I where I went wrong was that the tutorial was great to follow and it told you where to download Wings3D and the files to make the DAT files but did not say anything about the Python programming language which was needed.

Perhaps a mention could be added to the tutorial.

Thanks again to all who answered my question.

What about Linux? Can´t do it too.

Commander Learner: In cases like this, it's best if you create a new thread instead of resurrecting an inactive one. It can be very confusing reading through something that went on so long in the past, feeling that "something is wrong" and then noticing that the response before the last is like two or three years old.