Help with models

What format are the models in?

It would be helpful to have a link to one of your models, if you want them tested.

True, I was waiting for someone to say they would. Plus I didn't have time to upload them. I have 2 that need testing, they're in .OBJ format.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/22765894/TestModels.zip

Upload it elsewhere; they can't be dl'd as they are "unavailable".

Dang it...

Okay, try this one: http://www.filefactory.com/file/4i8hja10dlwd/n/TestModels_zip

looks like your comp cant handle XSI mod tool. I imported no problem.

Side note, those download services suck. 1st choice would be Dropbox, 2nd would be ADrive

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/128296003/ArtilleryShip.exp

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/128296003/Destroyer.exp

I would merge the separate meshes into a single one

are you actually trying to import the obj? or just open

I thought that's what it might be. But my other laptop EXACTLY the same as this one, and it worked fine.

I am actually importing them. When importing the model it gets to the last part of the loading bar, and then crashes...Ugh. Thanks for that.

EDIT: Well, upon trying to open the .EXP file, it crashed yet again.

If you can do the textures, I will connect them, add the tangent map and a few mesh point and export to mesh for ya.

Will cost you a karma cookie 

That would be great of you man. Thanks a ton, I will upload the textures when they are done. The cl map is done, but I still need to convert it to DDS, then make the da and nm maps.

all I need is the -cl to start, but the destroyer has mutiple UVs. It should be merged and all on 1 UV

I use photoshops bump map generator and lights are not hard

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hrknu8zaaz0zde/HumanDestroyer-cl.zip

I was unsure of which compression type to use in gimp, and it's been a while since I did the decomposing/editing/recomposing, so I followed the instructions on SoaSE weebly.

Can I merge UVs in Wings3d?

Yarlen, reply 8
For Sins: Rebellion's new skyboxes we also optimized them using AMD's Compressonator tool. It yielded significantly smaller file sizes with fewer compression artifacts/degradation than other tools.
http://developer.amd.com/resources/archive/archived-tools/gpu-tools-archive/the-compressonator

No idea about Wings, I learned on XSI and I will stick with it.

In XSI, I would select all the meshes and merge them to one mesh, when you do that there is an option to merge the UVs, but then you need to reposition those UV clusters as they will be on top of the others.

Sweet, dropbox download link, much simpler 

How exactly does one merge meshes in XSI? I've tried figuring this out to no avail.

Select all the meshes in the Scene Explorer
Model ---> Poly Mesh ---> Merge
Tolerance 0, or it changes the polys to join the points 
Merge Materilials, UVs
Delete Inputs 

Save as SceneName_merged, so you can always go back to the org scene

As you can see, the engine is a separate mesh and not UVed proper yet anyway. Recluster the areas, reUV, then weld points to get rid of the blue lines. Blue indicates double edges and are not good at all for tangent mapping and lighting.

Okay, meshes merged. Yeah, I'm aware that the UVs suck horribly. Does hard/soft edge data carry over to XSI?

That is a very nifty tool. Thanks, Myfist. I can't use XSI for the model though, because it won't open. I'm actually about to test whether or not I could make a model in XSI without a crash...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gm9lvraul2alqy1/Destroyer.zip

@Fred
Make a folder in your dropbox the name of the model and put all assets in there. PM me a link to the folder. The orginal image you made the -cl with so I can make the -nm and -da from the most pure image and not compressed.

No need to zip the folder

@Fred
Perfect Link to assets

Thanks for merging, saves a ton of hassle. Added some meshpoints to get it working. Tangent map is done.
Will work on lights -da soon.

tube texture projection on the tangent UV for the engine so light will wrap nicely

Very cool. I never thought to use different texture projections for lighting. Hmm...

Like I said, I don't know if hard edges are outlined in .OBJ format. So if they aren't, could you make all edges hard edges?

not sure what you mean by hard edges. XSI has smoothing but I don't think that get transferred into the mesh.

The tangent tutorial is very basic, just enough to get the tangent map in on the 2nd UV. Then all it says is Edit as you see fit or something basic.. Not at all helpful for what tangents actually do.

crap, sry double post 

You have to select the edges, then right click and hit "mark hard edge/vertex". I'm pretty sure it does carry over, as it has made an impact on some of my past models.

I could never figure anything out from that Forgetools tutorial reference crap. The tutorials on SoaSE weebly have helped me a lot in the past though.

If I knew what kind of an effect it was supposed to have I might know what you're talking about. Other than that this still tells me nothing. Never used it or know why I would, and could only guess what you wanted marked.

Ahh OK, I remember now.
I don't use smoothing groups which is the only time I ever did that. Without smoothing, they are all hard edges. I remember testing smoothing on an optimized planet for tsop, it didnt carry to the mesh, still blocky. Go ahead and test out a smoothed model and let me know. 

Oh, they're all hard edges? That would explain a few things...Hmm...

Do any of the stock sins ships use smoothing groups?

nope

 Sorry, as soon as I took it out of space dock, Turanic Raiders stole your ship