I believe this is correct. All the depth elements should end up in the normal map which can be converted to dds format for applying the depth in sins.

Here is one I putinto sins with the burned bump map.

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad356/ZombiesRus5/FrigateNephilimLight.png

my first object i ever finshed( almost gonna add a back gun later,to sleepy lol)
i did this in 1 night.

ok , top view

side view ( auto smooth)

tell me what you think!@

@ ZombiesRus5 I am not sure what you mean by burned bump map. The normal map I have no problems with, but the original Sins textures do not rely on the normal map alone to give the depth effect. Here is a clip of part of the cl file from the Halycon which shows what I am after. See how the top side of the grooves is lightened and the bottom side darkened.

Does burning a bump map into the cl file give this effect? Previously I have drawn this in, and was thinking seems as 3DCoat does a lovely job of this, simply by painting with depth, there might be some way to transfer it to the dds- cl file.

@SuperZERO0 Trust me I'm no expert. But if you look at the nm for the Halcyon you will see where the depth is applied for this image. It was my understanding that sins uses the nm for depth and the cl for color. Additionally when you paint with depth in 3dcoat the lights and darks for raise and lower are exported into the normal map. The depth in the image I had above all came from the normal map.

Corresponding depth in CapitalPsiCarrier-nm.dds:

I've almost got it figured out, by overlaying a layer with the normal map in it, but may-bee your right and I am just wasting my time trying to get these details in cl file when the nm does it all anyway IDK. I just assumed since the Sins cl files are done like this, that was what was needed. I guess, but don't know for sure though, that if you use very low bump effect settings then these little details may become important.

My first ship:

Explorer for B5 mod

Jupiter for BSG mod (it's based on ship I still work)

Boomer class Baseship for BSG mod

And some more, but not all: (many still WIP)

Here's two pics of a new model I'm working on currently

Here's the same model as before but almost complete, just need to triangulate the polys, though it's a bit big poly count wise

that is SWEET!@#!@#@

in case your wondering... I did that model today... er... I should say yesterday hahaha

im maknig ramdon turrets. big guns. anti fighter/bomber guns. huge guns. a few fighters / bombers

Note that both planes are different. one is fully smoothed. other one is half and half and dose not have a bottom tail wing like the other.

THE BIG GUN

THIS is a modified version of my first ship i made......as you can see....big changes. did all this in about 6 hours =p

poly count in triangels is um.....24952

lot more highly detailed I can say that... it is triangulated polys right? lol though that many polys it would be unwise to use in Sins. maybe a game that doesn't crash with such high poly models could take it lol

Yep, that triangle count is getting pretty high.

Verts are more important anyway (and don't lie to you if you use non tri polys).

Are you able to expand on this. I was thinking about posting in myfist0's thread but if you can help that would be great. I've seen some general statements in this regard but would like to know more.

Expand on what?

Verts: you can have 500 polys on 1000 verts or 100 verts, the polys arn't really used in code much, the vertex positions are moved around to translate (move/rotate/scale) meshes thus the more verts the 'slower' that is (but that hasn't been slow since 1990).

non-tris: polys are polygons, as in multiple sided shapes, if that shape has 10 sides its still only 1 poly. If you convert it to triangles (the most common 3D game mesh format for speed I think - not a 3d programmer). If you make a mesh out of quads it will double the poly count when used in game but the vert count wont change.

Did I help? lol

ok

i can take triangels out. and it be about 12k polys

Well... you made a statement, I asked you to expand on it. Which you did.

Must everthing end with lol now?

yes. lol
everything must end with lol now. lol
its the way fo the lol. lol


LOL! lol

I use lols instead of smilies.

Just like I do in real life (as in I say "lol"). I hope I never get overheard by a non-werido...

which is basically 60% of the population

This is the first model I made in blender (after losing 2 previous tries by shutting down the program at the wrong moment...)

It's an LRM frigate of my own creation, called "Nova Disintegrator", which fires large blobs of antimatter from the central muzzle. The 3 knobs on the back are the engines

Front view:

Back view:

I don't have any textures yet, and I have no idea how to import it into Sins, so that will have to wait.

So, what do you think?