Custom ship randomly turns white
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OK, i use .dds texture formats for their size and i use the DXT3 encoder, i use the same .mat for several ships and they all seem to have this problem so ill attach the .mat to this post, i didn’t invert the textures in milkshape (at least not to my knowledge), its just a single texture for each ship, the one provided by SolCommand with the models, and i go my a strict naming scheme. So if take a look at the .Mat and see if the problem is in their i would greatly appreciate it
Ozed.
O, too big a file here it is uploaded
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Your textures are probably too large for your current graphic settings. I don’t use more than 1024 x 1024 x 72 but some of you are detail hungry.
2 things…
1. I always save dds textures as DXT1 no alpha like my pal Gibbon, never used DXT3. Remember FL is not 100% reliable with all its functions, some may work sporadically - but keep to the basics and you have a better chance of something working well.
2. Start Freelancer and check the “Game Options” - “Performance” - “Detail” slider, set it all the way to the right. Lowering this setting will at some point result in what you say you are seeing.
If you lower it far enough my custom ships disappear and all I can see is the engines, lights and contrails and weapons hanging in space!
Here’s a tip for those who use dds textures - if you use a .dds picture to make a ship icon that displays at the shipdealer (shipname.3db), you need to invert it before importing it into the .3db file! If you use .tga then keep it right way up, the subroutine in FL always inverts it, whether its a MIPS node or a MIP0 node. This is a case in point of FL functions not being 100%.
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Also remember that dds textures need to be square. If it is an odd size it will not work and will show up white ingame. Also, I have a couple of ships in my mod that have 2048x2048 textures and they work fine.
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Firstly, I don’t know of any ships saved using DTX3 for dds textures. I’ve only ever seen them saved as already mentioned as DXT1 with no alpha, why this doesn’t happen to me lol
Secondly, there is no magic utility needed to square up textures, most paint programs do it. Paint shop pro which is what i use, can be downloaded for free, especially version 7 which is so simple to use it hurts. As Nightstalker quite rightly says, the textures need to be square, even sizes like 256x512 will give problems and can happily cause a ctd in game. I know this because i have this same issue with one of my ships that i forgot to square one of the textures for.
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I never said its magic tool, just i adviced something i use and works fine, doesnt need to misinterpret it.
Having regard to using dxt3 or dxt1, it seems so many men, so many minds, and all of them work properly at least dxt3 works at me, and i dont think im an exception, so it could not be the problem.
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I’ve just tried using DXT1 for the fighter model and am still getting the white ship problem, so i’m thinking that it might be my system that is messing with it. I’m also experiencing other problems such as when i go to jump through a Jump Gate (haven’t tryed jump holes) i go through it but when the tunnel thing comes up it freezes then i emerge on the other side. This occurs on both my modified freelancer and my standard one (which only has jflp added to it.) So looks like i’ve got system related problems, great
Ozed.
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Davis wrote:
Having regard to using dxt3 or dxt1, it seems so many men, so many minds, and all of them work properly at least dxt3 works at me, and i dont think im an exception, so it could not be the problem.Ozed is having problems, we are trying to help by returning him to standards then he can find it.
Here we are offering our advice that we have gained by lots of errors and problems and headaches.
What we are saying is…
Why use a method that standard FL does not use? We already advised you that the FL functions are not all 100% reliable.
So if it works for you and some others then great, but please don’t insist, DXT3 is not correct in this instance and it may not work for everyone all the time.
Ozed:
I don’t like to download files from a site that pushes porn onto my screen, don’t do this again please, I will not download your mat file.
Have you checked your Options - Performance - Detail slider is all the way to the right as I advised above?
And are your textures square - 1024 x 1024 x 72?
I would not advise 2048 x 2048 until you are sure 1024 x 1024 x 72 works.
If your mat file is too big for this forum to upload, even as DDS, then your texture is wrong.
Once you find the problem you can put back the things you want one at a time, including those DXT3’s and 4096 x 4096 x 128!! if you want.
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I don’t like to download files from a site that pushes porn onto my screen, don’t do this again please, I will not download your mat file.
Sorry to hear that, i will make note to remember for next time, i hadn’t noticed it when uploaded it so it never occurred to me that it would become offensive :oops:
Have you checked your Options - Performance - Detail slider is all the way to the right as I advised above?
Yes and to no effect, it seems to be happening at a 50/50 chance when maxed or when its on minimum.
And are your textures square - 1024 x 1024 x 72?
I would not advise 2048 x 2048 until you are sure 1024 x 1024 x 72 works.
Yes they are square as SolCommand Provided them, i have just resized it down to 1024 x 1024 to no effect.
If your mat file is too big for this forum to upload, even as DDS, then your texture is wrong.
Not sure what you mean buy wrong (its a bit too general) but i use this MAT file for four separate ships all with 2048 x 2048 textures (all of which suffer this problem).
I’m going to be downloading newer codecs in the hope for a solution through that. Thanks for all the help so far, i appreciate it.
Ozed.
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sigh… just finished installing drivers for graphics card and still had a white ship, i resized the texture again to 512 x 512 to no effect either. I even tried playing the game in a variety of resolutions and at 16 bit colour to no effect does anyone what both the ship and the MAT to test on their machines? maybe we can find the problem in their?
Ozed.
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Oh dear, sorry you still have the problem.
If you can try again to upload your .cmp and .mat and .sur here in a .zip we’ll (at least I’ll) be happy to check it out for you?
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Thanks!
I’ve uploaded the file to rapidshare.com, at least this time their isn’t any porn coming on your screen, sorry about last time. This includes both a normally textured version and a Detail Mapped version to look at. Both experience the problem, ignore the wiredata file, it was part of my feeble attempt at getting the Wire frame working. the v2 file is the Normally textured and the v3 file is the Detailed one.
So here’s the link
Thanks again.
Ozed. -
OK, got them.
Immediate problem without opening them yet: Your .mat file is 27MB!!!
I’ll take a look and get back to you soon.
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I am yet to optimize the textures yet so ignore the massive file size (their are two 2048x2048 textures for each ship so i definably can cut back on the pixels) Let me know how the ship comes up at your end.
Just a question on the side, when i was investigating detail maps i found something quite peculiar, in solar\ast_fragments.mat in detailmap_planet_frag the Bt flag is 80, 0. I’m not sure what any of the flag entries mean but my guess is that it tells the engine what sort of data is in the file (64 bit?) if so what could the extra 16 bits be used for? Just something thats been puzzling me.
Ozed.
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Ok, I found some of the problems at least.
HardCMP v18 does have problems loading the .mat file, first time was OK but repeat opening the same cmp file and after one or two times it is dull grey and no textures are loaded. I also opened the v3 cmp file and had problems every time.
I opened the .mat file in UTF Editor v1.4 and the byte length of almost every field in the Material Library node is incorrect. And the Dt_name and Bt_name fields also were almost all incorrect.
How did you make your .mat file? It is faulty.
I checked each field one by one and copied the contents so I can show you. This is because when I fixed one field it changed the contents of other fields. So I read them out for you first and fixed them all at once after.
I also dumped the .mat file to XML (text) using UTF2XML project before and after the changes so you can see the difference using UTF2XML.
It is strange, UTF2XML is showing the Type field as a combination of “DcDt” or “DcDtBt” + the Dt_name field contents for each material node! This does not match UTF Edit v1.4 - it should!
So here are the problems found in the .mat file using UTF Edit v4:-
**Material Library
cobra_fighterv2_map
Type = “DcDt” (4 byte)
should be “DcDt” (8 bytes)
Dt_name = “cobra_fighterv2_map.TGArary” (23 bytes)
should be “cobra_fighterv2_map.TGA” (24 bytes)detailmap_cobra_interceptorR_map
Type = “DcDtBt” (6 bytes)
should be “DcDtBt” (8 bytes) - fixed by Edit - Update
Dt_name = “cobra_interceptorR_map.TGA
” (26 bytes)
should be “cobra_interceptorR_map.TGA” (28 bytes)
Bt_name = “cobra_interceptorR_detailmap.TGA” (32 bytes)
should be “cobra_interceptorR_detailmap.TGA” (36 bytes) - fixed by Edit - Updatedetailmap_cobra_bomberR_map
Type = “DcDtBt” (6 bytes)
should be “DcDtBt” (8 bytes)
Dt_name = “cobra_bomberR_map.TGAap.TGA” (21 bytes)
should be “cobra_bomberR_map.TGA” (24 bytes)
Bt_name = “cobra_bomberR_detailmap.TGA” (27 bytes)
should be “cobra_bomberR_detailmap.TGA” (28 bytes) - fixed by Edit - Updatedetailmap_cobra_bomber_map
Type = “DcDtBtbomber” (6 bytes)
should be “DcDtBt” (8 bytes)
Dt_name = “cobra_bomber_map.TGA” (20 bytes)
should be “cobra_bomber_map.TGA” (24 bytes)
Bt_name = “cobra_bomber_detailmap.TGA)” (26 bytes)
should be “cobra_bomber_detailmap.TGA” (28 bytes)detailmap_cobra_fighterv2_map
Type = “DcDtBt” (6 bytes)
should be “DcDtBt” (8 bytes)
Dt_name = “cobra_fighterv2_map.TGA” (23 bytes)
should be “cobra_fighterv2_map.TGA” (24 bytes) - fixed by Edit - Update
Bt_name = “cobra_fighterv2_detailmap.TGA•” (29 bytes)
should be “cobra_fighterv2_detailmap.TGA” (32 bytes)material count = “5, 0” (8 bytes)
should be “5” (4 bytes)**I have uploaded the fixed .mat file and the two xml.txt files in a zip here…
http://downloads.rrjds.com/oZed Fixed CobraMat.zipSorry but I can’t comment on the flags, I have only seen 64,0
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Thanks a lot, just want to say when i was looking through the MAT for the errors you say i couldn’t see any of them with UTF 2.1, so i said thats strange, so looking at the MAT in UTF v1 and what do you know their are errors galore. I’m surprised it worked at all with the amount you found.
Sigh this means i’ll have to go through all my MAT files for errors.
Thanks for the help
Ozed. -
OK, it’s UTF Edit v1.4, the latest one.
But how did you make your mat file?
I always use only MilkShape and msMATExporter01.dll
Did you download the zip OK? I changed the server, the one I tried first stopped working!
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I manually created mine through UTF 2.1, which as you saw gave buggy strings. I downloaded it fine and everything seems to be working great. I’ve tried using the MAT exporter with milkshape but never got a working MAT (probably my fault). So lessons learnt i will be using UTF v1 for now on.
Ozed
