Haven't tried giving my maps to others yet but this might solve your issue:
In the file import window, once you have your models imported, import your textures as well. Once those are imported it'll save your textures with the map (and make the map size much larger).
The issue i see happening is it may not save file paths but keep your fingers crossed. Let me know if it works ;)
Thanks for the thoughts guys, thought it was a tough nut to crack. Gonna think about it at a later date, if i find a solution i'll be sure to post it here.
I've got a unit that spawns other units that act as projectiles. I'd like to have it when they explode they heal the shooting unit like a form of lifetap. However i can't figure out through the data editor or through triggers how to pull this off.
In the data editor i could simply add an extra effect to their explosion that heals a specific unit, but there's no way to link the unit i want to heal: the unit that spawned these units who explode. In the data editor it's VERY easy to initiate the heal, but seems impossible to target the correct target. I'm having the opposite problem in the trigger editor.
In the trigger editor it's hard setting up the right event that triggers the heal. I've found a trigger that fires when a unit uses a specific action, but their detonation is triggered by a behavior, not an action. I looked into the event "any unit that dies", but couldn't find a unit condition that would isolate these projectiles, I tried putting them into a unit group, but there's no blanked "unit is from unit group" condition, instead there are more precise "unit is X unit in unit group".
It's so frustrating bouncing between the data editor and the trigger editor. They seem like they should be 2 pieces to the puzzle that fit perfectly, but there's this giant wall between them.
If global variables were usable from the trigger editor in the data editor, this editor would be FAR more powerful.
Pretty jaded right now, spent a long time today trying to figure out many other issues, this is just one of them. Any help is appreciated!
I didn't fully understand your explanation, but I'm taking that as a "no" in regards to my question.
when you select it in max make sure it selects every bit of it. If it's not selecting every piece of geometry go into editable mesh mode, press 5 for object level editing and click the attach button then click on each piece until it's all one mesh.
Where your material ID 1 texture is, change the material in there from "standard" material to "starcraft 2" material. Didn't realize this right away myself.
If you want just an emmisive plug in just your emmisive texture and leave the rest blank, at least I *think* that's what you were asking
Great way to debug your shaders is to cycle shader types in the previewer (S and Shift + S). You can see what you're looking at below, be it emisive or whatever.
Kanaru's correct. As far as modeling and creating the assets you can use whichever software package you're comfortable with and simply export your models as an OBJ (this is the standard for moving assets across modeling platforms). In Maya you may need to enable OBJ export, go to your plugins and scroll through it untill you find "obj export", make sure you enable that. Once that's on select the models you want to put into 3d studio max and choose export (ensure UV's and Normals are enabeled or your UV mapping and modeling wont carry over fully) and make sure you export these assets somewhere that you can find them ;).
Once you've got your exported assets simply open 3dstudio max, go to file and choose import. Choose Wavefront OBJ as the filetype (or all files types) and find your OBJ. Open it up, right click the asset and convert it to an editable mesh. Follow the instructions in Nintentoxicated's M3 export thread and you should have be good to go. A little poking around in Max's material editor and you can have them fully textured as well.
Little complicated but do it a couple times and you'll have the process down. If there's enough interest i can make a tutorial showing step by step how to import an OBJ to MAX, put your textures on it and get it in game.
EDIT: There are forums devoted completely to creating video game art of all types, my personal favorite, polycount can be found here and has nearly a decade's worth of knowledge on all manner of game art. Here's a link to their technical forums:
Honestly, i'm not too certain what the HDR spec does, might use some external texture based on the level tileset to give it a sort of "cube map" effect, it's a cheap way of making something look reflective.
In the meantime speculatiry I would think specularity would be fine set to 1 (I'm assuming it's just the multiplier for spec power), we can just darken our specs in photoshop to adjust the level of spec. As stated i'm not sure what would happen if HDR was set to one, could throw things off, make everything look like reflective metal but i'm not entirely sure.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop and all the hard work! If you don't mind me asking, I'm kinda curious as to what the drive behind this exporter project? You working on a mod NiNtoxicated?, looking to be a technical artist and this is a side project? Always wondered why people spend so much time for cool free stuff we get to use ;) Regardless it's much appreciated!
Was gearing up to try some multiplayer testing of my mod when i realized i couldn't simply swap the player variable for triggers based on UI player keyboard input.
Essentially i'd like to update a single variable so the triggers will recognize all inputs by a different player once i copy paste those triggers. Currently i'll need to go button by button and assign the correct player number for every player and every iteration of the mod.
The variable functionality seems to work for player cameras but not UI inputs. Anyone know a solution to this? Am i doing something wrong or is this a bug?
Gave it a go, really enjoying the new auto material path functionality, it works.
Some issues:
Although it's reading the spec file, it's not actually applying any of the spec value to the asset. Specularity and HDR spec multiplier are both at 0 regardless of what spec levels you have set in max. An external input for the script would work fine, even better if it accepted your spec value from max (Specular level doesn't have any functionality, instead it's drawing from specular color which makes sense, just took a little getting used to). Same issue with emisives, it's assigning the texture alright but giving it a value of 0, leaving it with no affect.
Normal Maps:
Normal maps are actually working, had issues with the DDS format, but realized most happily that Targas work fine and are easier to manage than DDS files.
Pic of normals working in engine. (Texture is very preliminary)
Blend Mode:
Currently all textures are set to "Mod", so there's no way to "add" on top of current materials and create more complicated shaders with multiple materials.
Animated Textures:
Not sure if this is possible, but some of the shaders (zerg in particular) pulse in their emisive. Would be great if this animated material functionality could be added as well!
Hope that helps. Soon as spec has working values the art should really ramp up in this forum ;)
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@Cyb3rD3lux3: Go
Haven't tried giving my maps to others yet but this might solve your issue:
In the file import window, once you have your models imported, import your textures as well. Once those are imported it'll save your textures with the map (and make the map size much larger).
The issue i see happening is it may not save file paths but keep your fingers crossed. Let me know if it works ;)
0
@ezbeats: Go
Thanks for the thoughts guys, thought it was a tough nut to crack. Gonna think about it at a later date, if i find a solution i'll be sure to post it here.
0
I've got a unit that spawns other units that act as projectiles. I'd like to have it when they explode they heal the shooting unit like a form of lifetap. However i can't figure out through the data editor or through triggers how to pull this off.
In the data editor i could simply add an extra effect to their explosion that heals a specific unit, but there's no way to link the unit i want to heal: the unit that spawned these units who explode. In the data editor it's VERY easy to initiate the heal, but seems impossible to target the correct target. I'm having the opposite problem in the trigger editor.
In the trigger editor it's hard setting up the right event that triggers the heal. I've found a trigger that fires when a unit uses a specific action, but their detonation is triggered by a behavior, not an action. I looked into the event "any unit that dies", but couldn't find a unit condition that would isolate these projectiles, I tried putting them into a unit group, but there's no blanked "unit is from unit group" condition, instead there are more precise "unit is X unit in unit group".
It's so frustrating bouncing between the data editor and the trigger editor. They seem like they should be 2 pieces to the puzzle that fit perfectly, but there's this giant wall between them.
If global variables were usable from the trigger editor in the data editor, this editor would be FAR more powerful.
Pretty jaded right now, spent a long time today trying to figure out many other issues, this is just one of them. Any help is appreciated!
0
when you select it in max make sure it selects every bit of it. If it's not selecting every piece of geometry go into editable mesh mode, press 5 for object level editing and click the attach button then click on each piece until it's all one mesh.
0
Dunno either, would love to know though ;). There's so much about this editor i just have no clue of and it's getting frustrating, haha!
0
@Cyb3rD3lux3: Go
Where your material ID 1 texture is, change the material in there from "standard" material to "starcraft 2" material. Didn't realize this right away myself.
If you want just an emmisive plug in just your emmisive texture and leave the rest blank, at least I *think* that's what you were asking
0
Woot!
Edit: Don't judge the back no engines or particles in yet!
@Cyb3rD3lux3: Go
Great way to debug your shaders is to cycle shader types in the previewer (S and Shift + S). You can see what you're looking at below, be it emisive or whatever.
0
@Kanaru: Go
Kanaru's correct. As far as modeling and creating the assets you can use whichever software package you're comfortable with and simply export your models as an OBJ (this is the standard for moving assets across modeling platforms). In Maya you may need to enable OBJ export, go to your plugins and scroll through it untill you find "obj export", make sure you enable that. Once that's on select the models you want to put into 3d studio max and choose export (ensure UV's and Normals are enabeled or your UV mapping and modeling wont carry over fully) and make sure you export these assets somewhere that you can find them ;).
Once you've got your exported assets simply open 3dstudio max, go to file and choose import. Choose Wavefront OBJ as the filetype (or all files types) and find your OBJ. Open it up, right click the asset and convert it to an editable mesh. Follow the instructions in Nintentoxicated's M3 export thread and you should have be good to go. A little poking around in Max's material editor and you can have them fully textured as well.
Little complicated but do it a couple times and you'll have the process down. If there's enough interest i can make a tutorial showing step by step how to import an OBJ to MAX, put your textures on it and get it in game.
EDIT: There are forums devoted completely to creating video game art of all types, my personal favorite, polycount can be found here and has nearly a decade's worth of knowledge on all manner of game art. Here's a link to their technical forums:
http://boards.polycount.net/forumdisplay.php?f=43
Use the search function properly and you can find anything could could ever want to know about UV mapping, Texturing, High poly baking, etc, etc.
Great community if any of you have hopes of becoming a game artist or just need to learn a few things to get something working in max or maya.
0
Nice nice, will definitely find some space on our load screen for these ;)
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@NiNtoxicated01: Go
Honestly, i'm not too certain what the HDR spec does, might use some external texture based on the level tileset to give it a sort of "cube map" effect, it's a cheap way of making something look reflective.
In the meantime speculatiry I would think specularity would be fine set to 1 (I'm assuming it's just the multiplier for spec power), we can just darken our specs in photoshop to adjust the level of spec. As stated i'm not sure what would happen if HDR was set to one, could throw things off, make everything look like reflective metal but i'm not entirely sure.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop and all the hard work! If you don't mind me asking, I'm kinda curious as to what the drive behind this exporter project? You working on a mod NiNtoxicated?, looking to be a technical artist and this is a side project? Always wondered why people spend so much time for cool free stuff we get to use ;) Regardless it's much appreciated!
0
Looking forward to this!
0
@SCMapper: Go
Ahh, thanks a ton SCMapper, gonna save some headache down the line
0
Was gearing up to try some multiplayer testing of my mod when i realized i couldn't simply swap the player variable for triggers based on UI player keyboard input.
Essentially i'd like to update a single variable so the triggers will recognize all inputs by a different player once i copy paste those triggers. Currently i'll need to go button by button and assign the correct player number for every player and every iteration of the mod.
The variable functionality seems to work for player cameras but not UI inputs. Anyone know a solution to this? Am i doing something wrong or is this a bug?
0
@stewie-Y: Go
You might try importing the asset, saving your map, then restarting the editor.
0
@NiNtoxicated01: Go
Gave it a go, really enjoying the new auto material path functionality, it works.
Some issues: Although it's reading the spec file, it's not actually applying any of the spec value to the asset. Specularity and HDR spec multiplier are both at 0 regardless of what spec levels you have set in max. An external input for the script would work fine, even better if it accepted your spec value from max (Specular level doesn't have any functionality, instead it's drawing from specular color which makes sense, just took a little getting used to). Same issue with emisives, it's assigning the texture alright but giving it a value of 0, leaving it with no affect.
Normal Maps: Normal maps are actually working, had issues with the DDS format, but realized most happily that Targas work fine and are easier to manage than DDS files.
Pic of normals working in engine. (Texture is very preliminary)
Blend Mode: Currently all textures are set to "Mod", so there's no way to "add" on top of current materials and create more complicated shaders with multiple materials.
Animated Textures: Not sure if this is possible, but some of the shaders (zerg in particular) pulse in their emisive. Would be great if this animated material functionality could be added as well!
Hope that helps. Soon as spec has working values the art should really ramp up in this forum ;)