Question for Tolwyn

[Bob McDob]

How do you merge materials?

See, it seems Freelancer won't take models if they have six or seven materials on them, which is bad for ships like Banshee or Arrow which have that many. I really don't want this work to go to waste, since I don't have a 3D modeling program and spent several hours seperating the mesh into texture groups by hand. On the other hand, I've seen ships made out of one or two materials - ships like the Thunderbolt, Vindicator. How do they do it? I'm sure the mesh is made up of more textures than that ...

Oh, and TC, if you're reading this, the Razor you sent me only has five textures, which means that the entire side is missing. Help please?

 

[Spectre[SD]]

Lightwave 3D

Try using Lightwave 3D. You can find out the exact list of what you need on the Freelancer Site: http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/

 

[TC]

Remind me later and I'll look at it.

 

[Spectre[SD]]

Remind you when?

 

[TC]

I wasn't talking to you

 

[Tolwyn]

How do you merge materials?

See, it seems Freelancer won't take models if they have six or seven materials on them, which is bad for ships like Banshee or Arrow which have that many. I really don't want this work to go to waste, since I don't have a 3D modeling program and spent several hours seperating the mesh into texture groups by hand. On the other hand, I've seen ships made out of one or two materials - ships like the Thunderbolt, Vindicator. How do they do it? I'm sure the mesh is made up of more textures than that ...

Oh, and TC, if you're reading this, the Razor you sent me only has five textures, which means that the entire side is missing. Help please?

I told you that before, I tell you this again... you have to split the mesh into separate models, each of them should have a SINGLE texture IF applied. If you have any problems with that send me the mesh and I'll prepare it for conversion.

There is one other thing: Believe it or not, I want this game completed more than anyone but we should not release a buggy, boring and visually lacking product. (*hint* current release) Otherwise give me the magic formula for creating a huge game like this in a 3 months with a team that is on a part time schedule.

You must understand: we shouldn't release a game that is not even finished up to 10%. And I think that the whole team should decide WHEN we make the mod available to people not related to the project. That's why we should have a bunch of beta testers. I do not want that this mod ends like Fleet Action and I do not want to release unfinished models.

Best Regards Tolwyn

Update: Razor. Hmm, perhaps you ask me? I'm sure I have something for you... perhaps even with a single texture *hint*

Believe it or not, but I have over 150 models on my hard drive related to wing commander.

 

[Bob McDob]

I told you that before, I tell you this again... you have to split the mesh into separate models, each of them should have a SINGLE texture IF applied. If you have any problems with that send me the mesh and I'll prepare it for conversion.

Yeah, like I said Freelancer enjoys crashing when more than five materials are applied to a model.

You must understand: we shouldn't release a game that is not even finished up to 10%. And I think that the whole team should decide WHEN we make the mod available to people not related to the project.

I wasn't even aware we still had a team before today

That's why we should have a bunch of beta testers.

Indeed ... anyone want to become a beta tester?

I do not want that this mod ends like Fleet Action and I do not want to release unfinished models.

The problem with Fleet Action was more that it was never finished, not that it released alpha builds. I've become rather cynical when dealing with these sort of things and I felt nobody would believe it existed otherwise.

My intention was to organize this somewhat along the lines of a Freelancer mod, where everything is shared among modders, the entire public playtests it, and updates are periodically released. The FL community is very different from either the WC or FS community (and the lack of storyline modding makes any sort of real plot impossible at the moment). And let's be honest: more FL players are WC fans than WC fans are FL players.

Also, there's nothing "unfinished" about them, at least from a technical point of view.

Update: Razor. Hmm, perhaps you ask me? I'm sure I have something for you... perhaps even with a single texture *hint*

Believe it or not, but I have over 150 models on my hard drive related to wing commander.

That's good to know ... because I also need textures for the Ferret, Talon, and Demon. (The other models are relatively simplistic texture-wise, but they'll do for now).

 

[Spectre[SD]]

I wouldn't mind being a beta tester for Wing Comander / Freelancer

 

[TC]

Bob, it might help if you make a post explaining exactly how you want beta testers to apply, what you'll need them to do, and anything they'll need before they'll be able to help... and the like.

 

[Bob McDob]

Well, like I said, I generally prefer open distribution, have people download the mod and make suggestions, that sort of thing. That's the only kind of beta-testing I consider feasible - I mean, how big is our audience for this, really?

 

[TC]

I know nothing about the Freelancer community... I know I might play it if you bug me about it... or if it looks really neat and Tye sets up a server.