How to recolor custom bat? Help needed

[woopypooky]

Is there are tutorial for this?  Can someone help me?

Basically I just want to change roof color of certain custom bat downloaded.  For my own gameplay.

I only know how to use lot editor to change base texture which are basically the compound and not the building itself.

What tools to use?  Any guide?

[mgb204]

Whilst technically possible, I think you may have underestimated the trouble you'll have to go to in order to edit SC4Models.

All SC4 models are actually in 2D, with some exceptions such as automata. Using a 3D Modelling application such as gMax, a 3D model is converted to a series of simple boxes called LODs and 2D textures. When combined you get a 3D effect that is actually a 2D image, often called "2.5D". Now you can extract these textures, which are in FSH format and edit them, but each model will have at least 20 textures to edit. Making like more tricky, the rendering process skews the texture, so you're working at funny angles with everything. Frankly, you are better off simply making new models or forgetting the idea of changing them altogether.

On the other hand, some (few), creators release the files needed to open models in a proper 3D modelling application. You can then modify things to your liking, but will have to render the modified model from scratch. The problem with this is that very few items are released in this way, not to mention learning to use a 3D modelling application is gruelling stuff. Frankly, if you have any talent in that regard, your time is better spent making new models instead.

[Tarkus]

It might be possible to do if the FSH files are exported and converted to PNG.  One could, in theory, then go into an image editing program, select the roof in each file and apply some processing/filtering to it.  But you're still looking at a lot of work, and depending on the specifics of how the roof is set up and the color you're hoping to instead use, the lighting might end up strange.

-Alex

[woopypooky]

thanks a lot for the info.

i have just downloaded the ilive's reader and fishman to get them working under win 7.

i opened the .sc4model with ilive's and there are many .fsh files inside. i extract them out and reopen them again with fshman. With fshman i converted them into .png files.

But problem is, there are like 50+ images (showing the roof, some are large, some small, some corner shot, some side shots) i got to reskin individually?  If like that, then definitely not worth the effort.

I thought there is just one large image to reskin with photoshop. I dont mind reskin 4 image but not 50+ images.

Is this the only way?

How about any program that can reconvert and open .sc4model? gmax?

[mgb204]

If you see my first post, I've already answered your question.

No editing models is not like editing a lot, it requires a lot of work, abilities with image/texture editing software to get anything like decent results. SC4Model files CAN NOT be opened in any sort of editor, without the original files created in the editor. So you'd need either a gmax or 3DS max file to edit it that way, these are NOT commonly distributed. The SC4 model files simply do not contain anything that you can use to re-assemble the original setup used to create it.

[cogeo]

It might be possible to do if the FSH files are exported and converted to PNG.  One could, in theory, then go into an image editing program, select the roof in each file and apply some processing/filtering to it.  But you're still looking at a lot of work, and depending on the specifics of how the roof is set up and the color you're hoping to instead use, the lighting might end up strange.

Tried this in the past, but unfortunately didn't get satisfactory results, because of two reasons:
- The FSH encoding is lossy, and when converting the (reprocessed) PNGs back to FSH the alphas are affected too, resulting in hard, jaggy edges and a black contour or "halo" (0.5 to 1 pixel wide) around the object.
- It's almost impossible to get lighting effects (shadows, highlights, speculars) right; the model will most likely be looking weird and unrealistic.

And not to mention the sheer amount of work needed. You will have to edit at least 20 FSH images, and possibly even more, if the model is large, as you said. Therefore, the only realistic option is to get the creator give you the BAT scene, change the texture or colour and reexport it.

[woopypooky]

Hi,  want to ask again,  is it possible to add night lights to custom bat?  Some bat I downloaded doesnt have night lights. Probably very old.

I guess I just ask here first,  instead of going merry around
combing old posts for hours.

[vortext]

Nope unfortunately that's not easily done either for the exact same reasons already explained. Rendering SC4Models is a one-way street and besides some minor tweaks it's next to impossible to make any changes afterwards.

[DebussyMan]

It is "possible", but with mixed results. I tried it once with the votivkirche (aviable on the LEX). I had lost the model but already rendered previews of all 4 views at the largest zoom. After a lot of trial and error slicing, resizing and tweaking those images, I was able to make it into a usable ingame model. The nightlights are also photoshopped. But, as already mentioned, there are some graphic glitches, specially at lower zooms.