textures in BAT

[jkon]

Hello Everyone,I'm in a spot of bother with Bat.I downloaded it and started a very good tutorial on the stex by philippbo.I got to the texturing stage and found his texture pack not available anymore so figured i'd open some packs from my plugins folder to see if i could use any of them instead.Unfortunately i have absolutely no idea how to get them open.Do i have to unpack the dats first?and how? I cant find anything about this in the forum.I'm sure the answer is staring me in the face but my brains already fried from trying to figure out the bat(never done anything like this before).Could somebody please point me in the right direction.


yours desperately Jan.

[Chrisadams3997]

Always good to see new people learning to BAT.  To start off with, GMax (the BAT) uses standard image files (.bmp, .jpg, etc.) for texturing models.  By contrast, the textures packs you're referring to(textures used as base and overlay textures for lots in the game) are stored in a compressed type of file used by SC4 called a .fsh file, which can't be used by Gmax, and even if they could, they are generally too low in resolution anyway.

So all you really need is an image file(of any of the common types) of decent resolution that meets the needs of the surface you are trying to texture.  A good place to start looking for textures is This topic, as it contains links to a number of different sites that host images useful for model texturing, though if I were to suggest one site to start looking it would be http://www.cgtextures.com/.

Of course there is a lot more to making a good model than just slapping any old texture on to it, as issues of scale, color, etc. are all important, so I'd suggest after you get the handle of the basics(or even before ) that you open a BAT project thread here to get feedback and help from people as you learn.

Hope that helps a little

Chris

[jkon]

That clears alot upfor me chris,thanx .If i could trouble you with one more question?Is it possible to have a lot change function ingame.what i'm thinking is,If i design lets say a high rise R$ and set it to take 2 years to build,could it be an I-m for those 2 years with timed construction props providing I-m jobs and revert to residential after the 2 years.I dont think construction really falls into The C or M categories and this concept could add a new dimension to the game,but i dont want to embark on it if its known to be impossible.

[Chrisadams3997]

No, unfortunately there's no way to make a lot change function, or function as more than one zone type.  There's been a number of investigations into the idea over the years, but never with any success to my knowledge.

Chris

[jkon]

Pity,It would be nice to have a whole construction category.i could put the peg leveler and terrain raisers in there too,Always seemed out of place where they are.Got a few textures from that CG site already,that link list goes in the treasure box.thanks again Chris

                                            Jan.

[Chrisadams3997]

Your welcome