3D modeling

[srr]

I just got Celestia, and I am interested in meesing around with addons and maybe trying to make one. Do you guys know a 3d modeling program I can get?

[ElChristou]

On what OS?

[srr]

Sorry, that's Windows XP

[DonAVP]

I just got Celestia, and I am interested in meesing around with addons and maybe trying to make one. Do you guys know a 3d modeling program I can get?

The file format must be 3ds. This is 3D Max file format. Don't know the price. You can model in any number of programs the trick is getting it into the 3ds format. I use Lightwave $800 and have two programs to convert. Right Hemesphere's Deep Exploration and Okino's PolyTrans. Both of the these are commercial programs and work very will. Price is $200 to $600. There is also Maya, Modo and SoftImage to name a number of other commercial programs. They all do the job but are a little on the expensive side unless you work in the field. You also need a image editing program. This is for UV texture maps for detail on the spacecraft, world or nebula. Photoshop is the defacto leader there is also Paint Shop Pro. Gimp is a free (I believe) Photoshop like program.

Here is Googles Sketchup (I played with the program and am very impressed. It is best for modeling buildings but will do most anything.)
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic ... hlight=3ds

Here is a thread that this subject was asked before and some good answers and leads.
http://www.celestiaproject.net/forum/viewtopic ... t=modeling

Good luck
Don

[exadvent]

You might also want to check out Milkshape. Milkshape is a 3D modeling program made for amatuer modelers who want to make add-ons for games programs etc. It costs $25.00 or EUR 25 to register. The website for Milkshape is:

http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/index.html

[bh]

Please consider Anim8tor...it's free! I did most of the shuttle addons with it and it's pretty good I reckon.

A good intro into 3d in my book.

[srr]

I downloaded anim8or, and was able to make a simple model pretty quick. However, when I export 3ds for use in Celestia, none of the textures show up. They are in the extras folder, and I dont change the path or move the files, I just get a grey shinny object in Celestia.

[selden]

Celestia requires that textures declared within the model be in the folder \textures\medres\

In other words, the folder arrangement should look like this for your Addon:



Your catalog file(s) should go into the folder
MyAddon (or whatever you name it)
Your model goes into the folder
\MyAddon\models\
To see them easily in Anim8or, its surface textures should be in that same \models\ folder.
To see them in Celestia, copies of those textures must be in the folder
\MyAddon\textures\medres\

Of course, you also can work on the model somewhere else and copy the files to appropriate folders whenever you want to view them in Celestia.

[srr]

I set up the folder tree like you said, and it fixed the problem with opening the 3ds in anim8or. Now if I open the 3ds in anim8or, it has a texture on it. But if I look at it in Celestia, it's still a shiny grey. There is a texture file called hull.jpg in my /textures/medres folder, and one in my /models folder. the ssc is in the top folder of the addon. The 3ds is in models. Is there a special export thing I need to do, or maybe I am missing something? I looked at the other addon folders in my /Extras, and they are set up the same way.

[srr]

Checked the console, I get "Texture has non-power of two dimensions." What does that mean?

[ElChristou]

Checked the console, I get "Texture has non-power of two dimensions." What does that mean?

Your texture must have a power of 2 size (32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 etc...)

[t00fri]

Checked the console, I get "Texture has non-power of two dimensions." What does that mean?

Your texture must have a power of 2 size (32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 etc...)

Am I wrong or can this all be read in Frank's great Celestia manual or in Selden's most pedagogical instructions? If yes, I don't see why srr wouldn't take an hour reading before keeping half the forum busy.

If this is not so, I apologize.

Bye Fridger

[srr]

It does mention to resize to a power of 2. I am sorry for wasting your time.

[selden]

It's best to create textures a power of two on a side to begin with. Simply resizing the images will blur them slightly.

Only the very most recent high-end graphics cards can use textures that are not a power of two on a side. 3D software rendering packages can use any texture size, so most people aren't aware of the restriction: they aren't doing realtime graphics.

[Dewbacca]

We should have some detailed patient posts like this stickied to the top of the thread here... that might keep the new folks busy, while the vets discuss more detailed things in other threads.

My reply puts this back near the top for others to find useful as I have.

Thank each of you for your time and participation... now I am off to find Franks Manual... could the poster who mentioned it edit thier post to provide that to future readers? If so, Thank you, Gracias, Danka, Merci bo-cu.

(I mumble those better than I spell them.)

[selden]

Links to Frank's Users Guide are on the main Celestia Web site and on the Celestia Motherlode:

http://www.celestiaproject.net/celestia/documentation.html

http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/d ... ation.html
.

Wherever you downloaded your copy of Celestia should have included at least a link to the main site.