10 Steps to cloning models

Xarian_Prime

It occurred to me… a few hours ago… that there’s not much, if any Information on how to use the Model Cloner. Also… Vista wont open the help file (doh!) so I’ve taken the liberty of writing a quick 10 Step process on how to easily use this great tool as it comes in handy when dealing with CRC conflicts between shipmats (for those that don’t have ms3d)… here goes…

==// Step 1 \==

Move designated ship to a temp (workfile) folder

==// Step 2 \==

Open Model Cloner and load shipmodel (.cmp) into program

==// Step 3 \==

Scan for .mat file (file menu)

==// Step 4 \==

Begin to rename as example follows (using “clone.” just for example!)

–----- VMesh IDs -------
testship.Hull.lod0.vms
<to>clone.testship.Hull.lod0.vms

------- 3DB (VMeshRef) Names ------- (if any)
testship.Hull.3db
<to>clone.testship.Hull.3db

------- Material IDs -------
Maintexture
Subtexture
<to>clone.Maintexture
clone.Subtexture

==// Step 5 \==

Making shure all the ticks are green… file/“Export new model”
Leave Model Cloner open for now…

==// Step 6 \==

Open UTF (1.0.0.4 prefered) and load the .mat file for the ship

==// Step 7 \==

Rename the texures in “texure library” with your prefix ie:clone. eg,
testshipmain.tga
<to>clone.testshipmain.tga

==// Step 8 \==

Rename your “material library” main nodes to match your “Material IDs” eg,
Maintexture
Subtexture
<to>clone.Maintexture
clone.Subtexture

==// Step 9 \==

Rename/Update your “Dt_name” nodes to the renamed textures in “texure library”
this can be done via selecting “string” and clicking edit

==// Step 10 \==

Export the updated .mat file then use HCMP to test if it worked
If all went well… you should see the ship with its texture all nicley in place
and ready to be altered via UTF without conflicting with existing CRC’s as long
as the name you used is new/Unique</to></to></to></to></to>

FR

Or you import the model into MIlkshape
using the Milkshape 3D CMP Importer v2.7

Rename all materials and atleast the group listed on top
to something unique after you got it in.

And you’r done and ready to export the clone.

Forsaken

That would require you to rehardpoint it.

Xarian_Prime

True & True… and re-hardpointing isn’t very fun if you nailed it down the first time nice and tight… :evil: or someone else has…

Just thought I’d throw that info out there… I basically wrote that for myself (for my vista PC) due to the help file not being V compatible…
as I was clicking “save” I had the thought others may have been stumped by this proggy and decided to load it here as well

F!R’s method works exactly the same… and is possibly what could be called the “right” way, especially if the model is still warm out of the oven… before all that delicious HP icing is added…

But… how many of us have gone and yahoo’d our way through nights of model conversion… only to find out latter… we fudged our texture names, or in my case for about my first 30 conversions, had no clue (lol) about CRC texture confilcts…

even better… and i just love this one…
Your flying in (testing) your mod… and all of a sudden… NPC’s that should be in another (custom) ship, are now flying the exact (custom) ship you are flying… great cause for a mighty “WHAT THE &@*#”

Both ways work great… depends what stage the ships at really, always better to do F!R’s method in the first place, but as i stated in post 1 not everyone has ms3d… & its nice to have a another option if stuck for a fix