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Note: Please read this
section over very carefully before you begin to texture your model.
There is some very important information that must be followed in
order for your texturing to work correctly. The majority of the
problems with modeling have been with getting the textures to display
in FRED and in the missions themselves. I'll try to explain how
to do it in an easy manner, but you must make sure to follow the
instructions. You still may get your textures to display using another
method, but doing it in the following way will let you display the
textures on the majority of video hardware.
I've tested this texturing technique
on an ATI 264-VT (hardware DirectDraw, no hwd Direct3D) under Win95
with directX6, a Matrox MGA-G200 running on Windows NT4 (openGL
only), Diamond Viper V330 (directX5), and a 3dfx Voodoo3 (directX6,
hardware acceleration, and Glide) on Win95, and all of the textures
display properly.
All of the screen shots in this
tutorial were made on the computer that has the ATI 264-VT video
card. This card has no Direct3D hardware acceleration and does its
rendering via software mode.
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Now the fun begins. Ten pairs of armed Drones will...
oops, wrong lesson. Let's begin by deciding what textures we wish to use
for our model. They can be made from any graphic picture we have, or we
can use the one's that came with the games. We will need to convert them
into the proper formats, one for use with Truespace, and one for use with
Freespace. Also, if we decide to use Volition's original graphics, we'll
have to extract them from the *.VP files.
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install01-04.pcx
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For our model, I've decided to use install01-04a.pcx
that is part of the Freespace.vp file. I used VpView32,
a utility that is part of the Descent Manager Freespace Kit,
to extract the texture.
I've created a subdirectory in my directory
where I installed Truespace named Fs-mods. I like keeping
all of the textures and models within this subdirectory, just so
I don't have to go looking all over my hard-drive to find them.
Also, when I convert the textures to the Freespace format, I'll
put the *.pcx files in this directory and make a copy for the Freespace/Data/Maps
directory. It makes it easier to locate the textures when you need
to convert them between the two different formats.
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Use VpView32 to extract this texture and save
it into your work directory. The file will be in *.pcx format,
and we will have to convert it into *.bmp format, at the
proper color depth and size, before Truespace can use it.
I use PaintShopPro6
to convert the picture formats. I'll load the install01-04a.pcx
file, and immediately save it as a *.bmp file into the same
directory. Examine the BMP file, and make sure it has a color depth
of 256 colors. Since we've used one of the textures that
Volition supplied, it's already at the proper color depth. If you
decide to use textures from other sources though, you may have to
modify it for the proper number of colors. Check your paint program's
instructions on how to change color depth.
Freespace1 and FreeSpace 2
will only correctly display textures that have 256 colors. If
you do not have a 256 color texture then the image will look all wrong and
pixelated. In the .pcx image format, you can index the textures to 256
colors with a good paint program. Stick with 256 colors, and your textures
will work with both programs.
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Original cargo01a.pcx
texture from freespace.vp
(128x527 pixels)
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While we have the texture loaded into our paint program, check to make sure it is 'square' in size, either 128x128 or 256x256 pixels. If our custom texture (the ones we have placed in the Freespace/Data/Maps directory) is not one of these sizes, Freespace seems to automatically resize it, so it does not display the way we want it to, if it displays anything at all.Why it does this, I don't know. I once tried using the texture cargo01a.pcx for one of my models, directly from the freespace.vp file. I was using it as is, and only extracted and converted it to bmp format for use within Truespace. The model textured properly, and was visible in FsView, but would never display within Fred or within mission when I used it with the ATI video hardware. Trying the model out on the computers with the Viper 330 or Voodoo3 card, it would not display in Fred or the tech. database, BUT displayed OK in mission! All I can figure out is that something within the cob2fs program or the installed video drivers effects texturing, and if the texture is not sized properly to begin with, will not display properly. 3D hardware acceleration may have something to do with it also. If you have any information or discover why this may occur, please let me know.
Size your textures to 128x128 or 256x256. Check your paint program's instructions on how to do this.
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cargo01a.pcx cropped and resized to 256x256 for my custom model
(image not to scale)
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the custom model with texture applied
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If we've sized our texture correctly, it will display properly in mission...
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but if not, we'll get something like this
(note the banding on the model in the lower left box)
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