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Tutorial: MODding rendered SC4Models

Started by Chrisim, March 09, 2008, 03:00:11 PM

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dedgren

Just another example of this technique- in this instance used to scale Chris's (chrisadams3997) RRP ortho culvert to half-size.



Easy as pie, although tedious as h-ll.  When you want something bad enough...


David
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
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I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

jeronij

Hopefully you are aware of Cogeo's Models Resizing Tool current development:
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7553.0
This makes resizing easy as pie, but not tedious as h*ll  ::)  $%Grinno$%  :D :D
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Autism Awareness;  A Father Shares
Mallorca My Mayor Diary


bap

I am trying to add some variety to the game automata by creating different colour versions of Maxis fishing boat. This should be quite simple as there is only one FSH and one S3D file for the model. I followed the instructions in this tutorial and extracted the FSH file, used FiSHman to save a bitmap copy of the FSH file (one for the color image and another for the alpha map), edited the bitmap with my preferred image editing program, and created another FSH file loading the image & alpha maps using the "DXT3 Compressed, with Alpha" option.  I then loaded the new FSH file into my test-DAT file and gave it a new instance ID. The original ID is 0x10870000. I set the modified FSH file as IID 0xB1870000 (I checked, Maxis doesn't use instances 0xB******* for automata FSH files).

Until this point everything is fine. The problem is that I am not able to correlate the new FSH to its corresponding S3D file. I load the S3D file on the reader, click on the Mats tab, and right click on the material id column to replace the FSH instance by the new one. Selecting 'set texture' and 'change instance/name' lead to the same pop up window. If I set the new instance ID in this window, the boat skin disappears in the display window as well as the values in the TGI boxes. If I select 'replace texture' I got an error message "The texture is not in this file". Anyway, the new texture is there, but the S3D file simply does not recognize it.

Has anyone gone thru a similar problem before? Any idea of a way to go around this and make the S3D file to recognize the modified FSH skin?

Thanks in advance.
Bap

jeronij

I guess it is a simple matter of saving, closing the file and opening again... it should solve all these "missing" ID's problems  :thumbsup:
I am currently not active - Please, contact Tarkus for any site related matter. Thanks for enjoying SC4D :D


Autism Awareness;  A Father Shares
Mallorca My Mayor Diary


bap

Quote from: jeronij on May 10, 2009, 12:43:22 AM
I guess it is a simple matter of saving, closing the file and opening again... it should solve all these "missing" ID's problems  :thumbsup:

Right guess, it now works. Thanks a lot (better, thanks a few lots)!
Now I am ready to make some fishing industrial orthogonal & diagonal lots.

When one starts creating modified versions of building & props by tweaking the S3D files, an important question arises: is this considered plagiarism or do the modified buildings & lots constitute new creations? Will permission from the creator of the original building & prop be required for one to make the modified exemplar available to the community? This might become a delicate issue if the modder and the original creator do not have a, say, "friendly" relationship ... I would be glad to hear what people think about this.

Bap

sithlrd98

#25
That's good to know , I was wondering how that would work since reader and texture less S3Ds don't get along :)

Quote from: bap on May 10, 2009, 04:07:18 PM
When one starts creating modified versions of building & props by tweaking the S3D files, an important question arises: is this considered plagiarism or do the modified buildings & lots constitute new creations? Will permission from the creator of the original building & prop be required for one to make the modified exemplar available to the community? This might become a delicate issue if the modder and the original creator do not have a, say, "friendly" relationship ... I would be glad to hear what people think about this.
Bap
I also would like to know...although I was told that even though the IIDs were changed , the props essentially are the same. And since you did not actually create the prop/building,permission to re-distribute would be required.I think that it is kinda,sorta a gray area,but......

Jayson



dedgren

An easy solution to the intellectual property issue- just ask.  Over the past couple of years, I've PMd three folks about making substantive changes to custom content that, in effect. created a new item.  These folks range from currently active to not active in several years.  In each instance, I received a gracious reply telling me to go on ahead.  I think it is very important, in any distribution of such a MODded BAT item, to give express and detailed credit to the original BATter, and describe what has been done to change it from the original.

I'll use this space to once again let folks know that you are completely free to reMOD in any manner any original content I have developed to date so long as you give me a mention if it is distributed generally.


David
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren