Custom ship randomly turns white

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.

Do all custom ships with dxt3 turn into white, or just couple of them?
To avoid non-squared textures (if you have some) i advise to use dds converter 2.1 as it doesnt allow to convert non-squared textures from tga to dds.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 - Update

detailmap_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 - Update

detailmap_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.zip

Sorry but I can’t comment on the flags, I have only seen 64,0

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!

Nope!

Use v1.4 !!

I’ve not seen 2.1, only 1.3 and 1.4

Sorry, no help for this specific problem, but after writing a texture viewer for UTF Editor, I have some things to say.

“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.”

“Also remember that dds textures need to be square.”

The vanilla DDS textures contain everything -
16-bit RGB (e.g.: SOLAR\PLANETS\DETAILMAPS\detailmap_ocean.txm),
16-bit RGBA (e.g.: SOLAR\PLANETS\DETAILMAPS\detailmap_city.txm),
24-bit RGB (FX\rtc_scene02_e.txm),
DXT1 (e.g.: BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_bizmark_equip.cmp - everything except that mentioned below),
DXT3 (e.g.: BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_bizmark_equip.cmp - the doubly-named textures) and
DXT5 (e.g.: SOLAR\PLANETS\earthlike.txm).
There’s also one set of rectangular textures (BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_bizmark_equip.cmp - germaneqvip_0*).

The Targa textures also contain a bit of variety -
24-bit color-mapped (e.g.: BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_01_bizmark_cityscape.cmp - animation),
16-bit RGB (e.g.: FX\animated.txm - sparks1anim_0_0),
24-bit RGB (e.g.: BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_01_bizmark_cityscape.cmp - dtl_grid_tile) and
32-bit RGBA (e.g.: BASES\RHEINLAND\rh_01_bizmark_cityscape.cmp - snow_dirty).