[TEC] Ship skinning...

[tater]

It is a total nightmare?

I wanted to try and make some more commercial looking merchant skins. The top rectangle looked to be the hull.

I made the top very dark (on Nagara), the bottom very light, and I put ABC in black in the light area middle, and DEF in white on the dark. Checked the skin.

The black and white areas were ALL OVER the ship, the letters were forwards and backwards and different sizes. So is the skin mapping super crappy in SH4, or what?

tater

[FooFighters]

It is a total nightmare?

I wanted to try and make some more commercial looking merchant skins. The top rectangle looked to be the hull.

I made the top very dark (on Nagara), the bottom very light, and I put ABC in black in the light area middle, and DEF in white on the dark. Checked the skin.

The black and white areas were ALL OVER the ship, the letters were forwards and backwards and different sizes. So is the skin mapping super crappy in SH4, or what?

tater

I know the merchants are worse, but also try a subskin :down:

[tater]

It looks to be pretty much impossible to do, sadly. The nagara's hull texture also forms her decks, and all the 1/2 walls along the side of the superstructure as well as the masts. It would be totally impossible, for example, to give her a black hull, because the rest of the ship (superstructure) becomes maybe 2/3 black when you do.

tater

[FooFighters]

It looks to be pretty much impossible to do, sadly. The nagara's hull texture also forms her decks, and all the 1/2 walls along the side of the superstructure as well as the masts. It would be totally impossible, for example, to give her a black hull, because the rest of the ship (superstructure) becomes maybe 2/3 black when you do.

tater

I 100% agree, but it would be great to see combat and merchants without all the rust.
The aircraft carriers looks like it's been underwater for 50 years.

[SlimDuce]

I couldnt agree more!!! The stocks ships are modeled great but the skins are just awful.

[tater]

It's not just that they LOOK awful, the merchant skin I looked at was so horribly organized that reskinning Nagara is impossible.

I guess I need to look at others.

I wanted to try my hand at skinning, but unlike any aircraft I've messed with to skin (Il-2) they used the same texture for so much of the ship... ugh.

tater

[tater]

Am I right in thinking that with such nightmarish, awful skin templates the only way to do this will be to export the model, and rebuild it with a proper texture map?

tater

[tater]

Some are easier than others, Mwhahaha.

tater

[tater]

There is the T file, and then there is the O file.

The O file seems to have shapes to represent the various hull areas to be skinned on it, but it's largely transparent. Oddly, some of it lines up with the T layer, while other areas clearly cannot since they cross things.

Anyway, if you look at Mutsuki (or Fubuki, can't recall) the hulls are plain, yet in game they have dazzle paint. Turns out that's on the O layer... The merchants have very much more complicated O layers and I don't see anything like the hull.

Clearly I can just work on the T at some level, but they use blocks over and over instead of having a good separation of areas.

tater

[FooFighters]

There is the T file, and then there is the O file.

The O file seems to have shapes to represent the various hull areas to be skinned on it, but it's largely transparent. Oddly, some of it lines up with the T layer, while other areas clearly cannot since they cross things.

Anyway, if you look at Mutsuki (or Fubuki, can't recall) the hulls are plain, yet in game they have dazzle paint. Turns out that's on the O layer... The merchants have very much more complicated O layers and I don't see anything like the hull.

Clearly I can just work on the T at some level, but they use blocks over and over instead of having a good separation of areas.

tater

The O's are a big pain in the ass..
I had some big fights with them to get the skin to look nice and clean

[Digital_Trucker]

[Slightly off color and possibly obscure comment]

They have the Ts paired with the wrong thing. Ts are supposed to be paired with As.

[/Slightly off color and possibly obscure comment]

Seriously, it sounds like skinning these beasts could be quite a :damn: experience. Thanks for the heads-up, I, too, was thinking about giving it a whirl.

[tater]

O files show us where things go, I made a white T file for nagara, then painted some of the forms colors (labeled for up/down/mirror) and now I know what is what.

tater

[tater]

I want stuff like:

inset image
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/asakasanmarumod.jpg

http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/hokokumarumod.jpg
(8 X 5" shielded guns!)

http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/nakomarumod.jpg

etc.

[tater]

Someone shoot me.

argh.


OK, take the simple little Taihosan Maru.

The T01 file is easy enough to understand. Color parts and you find that the top part that is clearly the hull is used in dribs and drabs elswhere. Fine. The middle of the ship has the same texture starting going in 2 directions. So if I wanted a meatball flag, I make a half a flag, put it in the right spot... and it works. At a certain distance I see a line in the middle though.

So I look at the O01 file. A bunch of shapes that represent the different parts of the ship. Better! I color a few in, look at taihosan, and the middle of the hull is one bigh contiguous section in the O file! So I add a flag. No dice.

So close. The people who skin this crap need to get a medal. What a nightmare.

[SlimDuce]

Would it be possiable to esport the model it something like 3Dmax or something and work on it that way? I would to see a project started to start replacing the stock models in the game if it is possiable anyways.

[tater]

Do you know how to do such stuff?

I sure don't, but I'm more than willing to help anyone who does with pictures, research, etc.

:yep:

I can get a few simple ship skins done to add some variation, but the complex stuff I was gonna have a crack at will be VERY difficult. Take Nagara. The hull is in like 6-7 sections in the O file (the only way to do dazzle paint is in the O file, IMO). The problems are, one, that the sections are all over the O file, so making a contiguous line in multiple sections is hard. Two, some adjacent sections are rightside up, some upside down, some mirrored, and some a combination of two of those. My head spins looking at it.

tater

[SlimDuce]

Sadly no I dont. Wish I did thought. I can remember years ago trying to do something like that in Starfleet Command and the textures were the same way. Made no sense to me at all. I used to say that was the best modding community around until I found this place. Surely someone here know how to do this and I offer my help as well if anyone wants to take up the task.

[FooFighters]

So close. The people who skin this crap need to get a medal. What a nightmare.

I don't need a medal, just some 12 hours lasting patience pills
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: