A few questions to help a noob >.>

Kronous

I am VERY new to modding expecially freelancer modding, and i am trying to help a friend out by UV mapping and helping with the texture aspect of the mod we are working on. what i need help with is i need to remap the cargo pod textures for use in game so that they do not reuse the same small texture on the ends and under side. Generally i need some pointers for uv mapping as i have very little knowledge of it at all (other then what i have read up on it and its practices and from a project i did a long time ago). Any info would be helpful.

Thanks Kindly
Kronous

StarTrader

Hi Kronous. There used to be good resources on the EOA website but it’s gone at the moment.

Here goes for some initial help, others can add to it, and just ask when you need specific help…

Textures (“materials”) for FL models are kept in .mat files. Note that some modders have been putting them in the .cmp file – I don’t recommend this, it is not standard FL.

There are also .3db files which have the materials stored in them too.

You can use UTF Editor to extract the textures and also to import them. When you extract, save in the correct format by adding the correct extension - MIP0 nodes are .tga so add .tga to the filename when you export. MIPS nodes are .dds so add the .dds to the filename when you export.

Basics
1. After applying a material to a part, I use MilkShape’s built-in texture editor (Window… Texture Coordinate Editor, or Ctrl+T) to move the mapping of each model group onto the texture. It takes a bit of practice and trial and error, but it does a basic job. The mesh overlay is often confusing and wrapped around itself, but it has some good quick features.

2. You can create your own textures in your favourite image editor or paint package.

3. Save it as .tga (original format for FL but makes large files) or .dds (smaller files but there are some size constraints – almost all textures must be square, e.g. 512x512, not 512x1024). Remember that .tga textures are flipped upside down around their horizontal middle, to be right-way-up in the game.

4. Some .dds creation plugins are unreliable and sometimes create .dds files that FL does not work with. Photoshop’s plugin is fine, GIMP’s was unreliable, and PAINT.NET’s was also unreliable. I don’t know if they have been fixed in more recent releases.

5. You can use high resolutions, up to 2048x2048 although I prefer to stop at 1024x1024. Some blokes of course have used higher successfully – down to them, in-game performance is slower the higher you go.

6. Remembering that textures must be square for almost every use (there are exceptions but I can’t remember where, and square always works but rectangular can be bad looking), there are times when you need to work with a rectangular texture, e.g. for planets. In these cases, make your texture as 1024x2048 so it looks correct, and then resize it to 1024x1024 before exporting the .dds.

Advanced
Blender is an excellent free modelling program (I find it hard to use but didn’t spend much time on it), and it has good UV mapping and many tutorials.

Blender: http://www.blender.org/
Blender UV Mapping Tutorials:

If you have it, 3D Studio Max has superb UV mapping built in, and there are many good tutorials for it.

3ds Max UV Mapping Tutorials:

General UV Mapping Info and Tutorials:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2071/uv_mapping_tips_and_tricks.php

There are some excellent free UV Mapping tools out there too:

UVMapper Classic: http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html
UVMapper Classic tutorial: (http://www.uvmapper.com/tutorials/tutorial_classic_win.html)

LithUnwrap: http://www.gamefront.com/files/5145194/LithUnwrap.zip/
LithUnwrap Tutorials:

You need to put in some groundwork now, then come back and ask specific questions.

Don’t forget to learn your way round the downloads and tutorials sections, there are a lot of tools and good info there.

It’s just a mess at the moment and difficult to use (has been for a long time - hint, hint admins).

Kronous

Well thank you very much you have provided me with a sturdy starting point and a bunch of tools. i appreciate it very much.

I now have a few questions after watching a few of those tutorials and browsing the wiki on this site, i couldn’t seem to find any answers i was looking for.

As you can see from my image i have the tools needed to open FL models up in Milkyshape, as well as the materials in PS, now what i am looking to do is have that cargo pod have a texture that is not just echoed all the way around it. so for instance, one design on the front of the pod, one on the back, one on the sides, and one on the bottom. so that we could add emblems for the companies and factions on the sides, caps on the front and back of the pods, and a blank bottom with just the texture not the design. Any help with this would be appreciated.

StarTrader

OK.

So if you export and open the current texture, let’s assume you want to keep that for two sides perhaps.

Now double the size of the canvas (if it was 512x512 make it 1024x1024), and you can see that the original texture will take the topleft quarter of the canvas (move it if you need to). That will now leave room for 3 more textures of the same size as the original.

Oh - by the way - make your textures resolution 72 pixels per inch), e.g.1024x1024x72

So create your 3 new textures, being sure that each one is the same size as the original, and fit them into each quadrant of the canvas.

When you are happy, export the new texture as .dds, import it into a copy of the original .mat file with UTF Edit, and if the node was MIP0 rename it as MIPS. Save the new .mat file.

Remember to copy the new .mat file into the model folder. Re-open the model in MilkShape and see how the new texture looks.

Use MilkShape’s Texture Coordinate Editor to move each face of the container to align it on the correct texture.

For best results it’s better to separate each face of the container into a single separate MilkShape group if it’s not already, I’ve not looked. To do that, copy the whole group first, then select the copy, rename it, and delete the bits you don’t want. Select the whole group again, copy it again, rename it to suit, and delete the bits you kept in the new group, so you don’t have duplicates. Keep the whole group until you have done this for all faces, then delete the groups you don’t want.

It’s not too hard.

When you move on to curved shapes you will need to use one of the more advanced UVMappers.

Let us know how you get on.