An experiment with models and textures

[APODman]

Hello, I do not know about 3D StudioMax, Blender, and others. (though after reading this thread I felt compelled to learn something, at least enough to create what you got)

The Starry Night software has several models to .3ds to many planets, moons as well as ships like Voyagers, Apollo, and others.

I wonder if it would be possible to use these models in the US2. If so how should I do ?

Attached are two models with its textures.

[] 'S

[Laura]

Hello, I do not know about 3D StudioMax, Blender, and others. (though after reading this thread I felt compelled to learn something, at least enough to create what you got)

The Starry Night software has several models to .3ds to many planets, moons as well as ships like Voyagers, Apollo, and others.

I wonder if it would be possible to use these models in the US2. If so how should I do ?

Attached are two models with its textures.

[] 'S

Hi
US2 accepts .3ds directly. It's the texturing that is the problem. Most of these 3D spacecraft consist of myriad pieces rather than one solid object. So, the objects must be turned into one object, while preserving the textures/materials. Next, the texture mapping coordinates must be flattened so that no faces overlap. Then you can render a 'baked' texture which will map perfectly onto the solid object once you export it.
You need a 3D modeling platform of some kind. I can only offer good help with 3D Studio Max, really.
Whatever platform you get, you're looking at days or weeks of head-scratching before you get that far.
If I'm in a position to help, that could be shortened somewhat

Anyway, I took the liberty of converting the two models you attached to be usable in US2.
First, a couple of pictures. Models in the posts below.

[Laura]

Mars Global Surveyor model and texture.

[Laura]

Spitzer model and texture.

[atomic7732]

I'm gonna put one of these on my Jupiter Orbiter if that's okay... Which one should I? Any suggestions?

[Laura]

I'm gonna put one of these on my Jupiter Orbiter if that's okay... Which one should I? Any suggestions?

Well, Spitzer is a telescope. Mars Global Surveyor is a mapping instrument. Which fits the bill best?

[atomic7732]

I think Cassini was the one all along... A telescope isn't going to do the job THAT well... The surveryor is passing by other objects, so I think Cassini.

[APODman]

Thanks by the tips Laura !!  I will try ( I installed the 3D Studio Max ), try  ! 

Attached are the entire folder of models of Starry Night, there are many models !

[ ]´s

[Laura]

Thanks by the tips Laura !!  I will try ( I installed the 3D Studio Max ), try  ! 

Attached are the entire folder of models of Starry Night, there are many models !

[ ]´s

Hmm... are those models public domain?
We don't want to violate any intellectual property rights here.

Btw, there's no attachment.

[APODman]

Thanks by the tips Laura !!  I will try ( I installed the 3D Studio Max ), try  ! 

Attached are the entire folder of models of Starry Night, there are many models !

[ ]´s

Hmm... are those models public domain?
We don't want to violate any intellectual property rights here.

Btw, there's no attachment.

Hmmmm, I suppose not 

Anyway , I forgot include the attachment.

[ ] ´s

[Laura]

They might be... try to find out
The models in Celestia, for example, are not protected as far as I know.

[APODman]

I made a model in Blender of a asteroid following the steps of this tutorial:

- http://www.davidjarvis.ca/dave/blender/tutorial-21.shtml

Here is it in Blender:



Then I select Export-> DirectX (. X) and exported the model in this format.

Than I edit the appearance file and the simulation file than I run the simulation with the model but it does not appear physically in the simulation even at the highest magnification:



What's mistake am I making?


Attached are the files of the simulation

[ ]´s

[Laura]

Hmm... well, I see no mistakes in the .xml files, so the problem must be elsewhere.
The .X file must be in the Media directory of the US2 install directory - not the Media directory of your US2 user directory under My Documents.
The texture file can be in either of those two places.

Nice model

EDIT: There is something wrong with the model file; it doesn't show up in the DirectX SDK viewer. Do you get any options during exporting?
I see that your .X file is in plain text format. It must be in binary format.

[APODman]

The .X file must be in the Media directory of the US2 install directory - not the Media directory of your US2 user directory under My Documents.

Ok, it´s only in the system folder of the install directory

The texture file can be in either of those two places.

Ok

Well, change the view point of the simulation a I noted a "ghost" of a asteroid shifted of the trail:

Nice model

Thanks,

I'm anxious to see it in the US !

[ ]´s

[Laura]

The reason for the shift is that the model in Blender was exported while not centered in the coordinate system. Move it to 0,0,0. I don't know what's causing the ghost effect, though.
Possibly it the inability to render the material.
The material does not need to be included in the .X file, since you're applying a texture in appearance.xml anyway.

[APODman]

The reason for the shift is that the model in Blender was exported while not centered in the coordinate system. Move it to 0,0,0. I don't know what's causing the ghost effect, though.

Ok, I will make this change.

[ ]´s

[Laura]

I can't even import asteroid08.x into Blender.
Maybe its DirectX model support is flawed?
I suggest you try using the .3ds export format instead. US2 is set up to handle that as well
It might work better.

[APODman]

I can't even import asteroid08.x into Blender.
Maybe its DirectX model support is flawed?
I suggest you try using the .3ds export format instead. US2 is set up to handle that as well
It might work better.

Exist some way to export DirectX model from 3D Studio Max ?


[ ]´s

[frankdepinte]

Have been playing with textures also .
Here's a modified Earth texture ....

[Laura]

Exist some way to export DirectX model from 3D Studio Max ?

Yes, with this free plugin: http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/Files/3dsmax9/PandaDirectXMaxExporter4.9.63.0.zip
It's what I use, and it works perfectly

What I meant, however, was for you to try exporting from Blender into .3ds format, since US2 supports that format, and Blenders exporter for those might be better than for .X

[Laura]

Have been playing with textures also .
Here's a modified Earth texture ....

It's the Earth on Andy Warhol

[deoxy99]

Have been playing with textures also .
Here's a modified Earth texture ....

It's the Earth on Andy Warhol

Are you sure it's Andy Warhol and not LSD?

[frankdepinte]

Are you sure it's Andy Warhol and not LSD?

After taking a good shot of Liquified Surface Deformation I saw to my surprise the following :


Edit : this texture was made by swapping the RGB colors of the original texture in a different order .
fi : the blue amount in the pixels becomes red , the green ones become blue...aso   

[APODman]

Exist some way to export DirectX model from 3D Studio Max ?

Yes, with this free plugin: http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/Files/3dsmax9/PandaDirectXMaxExporter4.9.63.0.zip
It's what I use, and it works perfectly

What I meant, however, was for you to try exporting from Blender into .3ds format, since US2 supports that format, and Blenders exporter for those might be better than for .X

Well, I surrendered to 3D Studio Max, and it worked!

My first model of asteroid in US:


.


Thanks for the tips and patience Laura.


[ ]´s

[Laura]

Well, I surrendered to 3D Studio Max, and it worked!

Thanks for the tips and patience Laura.

So much easier, isn't it?
That is a perfectly good asteroid.

[APODman]

Well, I surrendered to 3D Studio Max, and it worked!

Thanks for the tips and patience Laura.

So much easier, isn't it?
That is a perfectly good asteroid.

Much more !!

Now I only need to know how to make some craters. You know some good tutorial Laura ?

[ ]´s

[Laura]

The general idea is to create the greyscale heightmap of a crater-like structure. You can go about that in a number of ways. I've attached one made from scratch in photoshop using white circles that were subsequently blurred to create a gradient-like effect. Below that, a photoshop file which is ready to be turned into a custom brush, making it easy to apply the effect to a larger image multiple times. To make the crater bumpmap for entire texture, make an image the same size as the texture, fill it with black, and use the brush to place craters.
Then, to make the craters appear on your texture, save the new bumpmap as a .psd, use the texturizer filter of photoshop, load the new bumpmap into the filter, and adjust lighting and how much relief effect you want. The size parameter should be 100%.
At the bottom, I've attached a simple example of having used the crater brush on a simple noise map.

This is not meant to be the final word in crater making; it's just one way. You should experiment

EDIT: In case you meant how to make the craters as part of the 3D mesh, that is generally not advisable - it requires a lot of polygons to look good, and polygon count should be kept relatively low for realtime 3D applications such as US2.

[APODman]

Thanks Laura, it´s really more easy than I supposed !


[ ]´s

[Laura]

Glad to help

[deoxy99]

Are you sure it's Andy Warhol and not LSD?

After taking a good shot of Liquified Surface Deformation I saw to my surprise the following :


Edit : this texture was made by swapping the RGB colors of the original texture in a different order .
fi : the blue amount in the pixels becomes red , the green ones become blue...aso   

LSD is a drug....not Liquified Surface Deformation. I was using the term that meant the drug.