Weapon Hardpointing(Using Milkshape)

[dEjavU']

I was wondering if there's is an easier way to position weapon hardpoints more accurately when using milkshape other than blindly moving each joint to where you think is the right place? Is there anyway to show the ships texture's?

[elevatormusic]

Right clicking any of the 4 views should allow you to switch between a wireframe, flat shaded, smooth shaded or textured view.

[dEjavU']

Thanks but I'm only getting partial textures whenever I select textured, despite choosing the different materials available..no phaser strips on the saucer section.

[starfox1701]

Have you tried seting the ship too colored groups. Also try vewing the ship in the selection editor in the tools window to get a better veiw of her in 3D

[Amateur]

Plus, if the ship has lightmaps - then it'll only show the sections marked to glow. Try copying the original textures into the A2 folder, then editing the ones assigned to the model so that they have no lightmaps.

I'll do a little diagram (sort of)

C:\modding\myship has three texture files (a, b, and c for ease of use)

Copy a, b, and c into the Armada2\textures\RGB folder

Back in the 'myship' folder, delete the alpha channel from all textures

Then, in MS3D, re-assign the texture's to their materials

That should do it (I think)

Hope this helped

[pepperman]

I beleive you can also play with the slider bar under the emissive button and get the textures to show up (i.e., the ones with the aplha channels). slide it all the way to the left and then back again all the way to the right

if sections of the ship are completely white then you'll need to check on the material name and physically find the path to the actual texture file when the sub window pops up

[Flash525]

I don't quite think I know what you mean. I find adding weapon hardpoints as easy as adding any other hardpoints. You have the 3D model in one view, and then alternate between the other three views as textured showings.

That way, you can place hardpoints where you'd think they'd be, and then check on the 3D window if they're in the right place.

[Achilles]

use 3ds max, easy as click and... no that's it, just click.

[dEjavU']

A million thanks everyone! I got it. Amateur, your absolutely right about the alpha channeled textures(thank you)I guess I'm going to have to do precesion weapon hardpointings this way from now on. I tried sliding the bar under the emissive botton but all it did was made the partial texture dim more off or more on(it still doesn't show the entire texture)thanks anyway. Starfox1701 I'll get to using that selection editor feature but something tells me you won't be able to move the joints ones there however as I get more into modding I'm sure I'll use it eventually. Achilles, I have 3ds max 9 here(for the time being)just collecting dust now as I tried starting off with this program before but seeing all those options in the main interface just made my eyes cross so for now I'm just ganna mess around with my milkshape until I get more aqainted. You see Ash everytime I switch from wireframe to textured to view the model for weapon hardpointing this was all I saw.......



....however now that I have a non alpha channeld texture assigned to the mesh groups, I'm getting a much clearer result......



....well as you guys can see I have ALLOT of phaser joints to add so I better get to it..again, thanks allot you guys!!

[starfox1701]

You are right the selection editor won't let you place hardpoints but its the closest thing that milkshape has to a scene renderer and it will show all of a model with lightmaped textures. So you can get a feel for how it looks in a more game like seting. You can also select faces one at a time without grabing faces behind them.