I decided to learn about making Celestia add-ons by first putting a spacecraft into orbit. The original model was created in Lightwave and features simple colors -- no texture maps, and no polygonal selections (one color per entity). Converting the model to 3DS with different apps resulted in different behaviors.
Cinema 4D's 3DS export showed up like transparent, smoked plastic in Celestia 1.4.1.
Blender's 3DS export was totally invisible with only a single point to mark the object's center.
Carrara's export showed up solid, but completely black. I've tried altering the SSC file. Increasing the albedo did not help, although borrowing an asteroid texture worked. Can't say that it made the spacecraft look any better.
The model is pretty low polycount (a simple Jupiter 2 saucer) and all triangles. I've also tried flipping the normals. Each of the exports opens fine in all my other apps. Only Celestia doesn't like it. I've also simplified all textures to eliminate reflections and transparency. Only stripping all textures completely allowed the model to show up in Celestia as pure white. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I'm using the Mac version of Celestia 1.4.1, if that makes any difference.
(Forgive me if this has been discussed. A few searches did not turn up anything, and I'm still new to the forum. Hello, everyone.)
Black 3DS - need help
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ElChristou
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cartrite
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Re: Black 3DS - need help
Metryq wrote:I decided to learn about making Celestia add-ons by first putting a spacecraft into orbit. The original model was created in Lightwave and features simple colors -- no texture maps, and no polygonal selections (one color per entity). Converting the model to 3DS with different apps resulted in different behaviors.
Cinema 4D's 3DS export showed up like transparent, smoked plastic in Celestia 1.4.1.
Blender's 3DS export was totally invisible with only a single point to mark the object's center.
Carrara's export showed up solid, but completely black. I've tried altering the SSC file. Increasing the albedo did not help, although borrowing an asteroid texture worked. Can't say that it made the spacecraft look any better.
The model is pretty low polycount (a simple Jupiter 2 saucer) and all triangles. I've also tried flipping the normals. Each of the exports opens fine in all my other apps. Only Celestia doesn't like it. I've also simplified all textures to eliminate reflections and transparency. Only stripping all textures completely allowed the model to show up in Celestia as pure white. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I'm using the Mac version of Celestia 1.4.1, if that makes any difference.
(Forgive me if this has been discussed. A few searches did not turn up anything, and I'm still new to the forum. Hello, everyone.)
Hi Metryq,
The Blender 3ds export script doesn't export uv's. Texture coordinates. That's why it shows up invisible. You would need to reassign the texture somehow. I used to export waveobj and use Anim8or to convert to 3ds.
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Metryq,
Welcome to the world of incompatible export software
There are several people here who use Mac software to create models for use with Celestia, although I'm not one of them (I use a computer running Windows.)
My impression is that Cheetah 3D is one of their favorite 3D design packages.
Welcome to the world of incompatible export software
There are several people here who use Mac software to create models for use with Celestia, although I'm not one of them (I use a computer running Windows.)
My impression is that Cheetah 3D is one of their favorite 3D design packages.
Selden
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ElChristou
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Visible at last!
This is a happenin' forum. I hadn't expected responses so quickly. Thanks for the suggestions -- Cheetah's export worked. I know it's a "low end" app, but I'm not bigoted.
This could be the encouragement I need to start working on a FIREFLY 'verse add-on.
This could be the encouragement I need to start working on a FIREFLY 'verse add-on.
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ElChristou
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- With us: 20 years 2 months
Re: Visible at last!
Metryq wrote:This is a happenin' forum. I hadn't expected responses so quickly. Thanks for the suggestions -- Cheetah's export worked. I know it's a "low end" app, but I'm not bigoted.
This could be the encouragement I need to start working on a FIREFLY 'verse add-on.
Nice! Don't forget to post some work in progress!
Thanks, Fenerit. Cheetah solved my "legal 3DS" problem, but I'll keep that textures tip in mind as I start to work on the FIREFLY 'verse. I hadn't realized that the Alliance worlds were all in one multi-star system, until the movie made it clear. That makes it a little harder to swallow the idea that almost every planet and moon could be terraformed. Then again, FIREFLY was always more symbolic than practical. SERENITY was also the only production in that series to suggest a different spectral class of star. Although I suspect the blown-out, hot light on Miranda was intended more for a creepy effect than anything else. (I liked the "C57D" registration on the crashed research and rescue vessel.)
This was a simple project, but it taught me a few things. I borrowed Rob Sanders' add-on of Rigel Kentaurus A (version 3), since that is where the Robinson family of LOST IN SPACE was headed. The Luna-derived map of Midgard (the planet) was unsatisfactory, so I quickly generated a new map with FlamingPear's "LunarCell" Photoshop plugin.
Iven Connery's Millennium Falcon taught me how to get the glowing engines -- make a two part model and apply the "emissive" code. Next hurdle will be transparency. I've been looking at John Victor Ivan's Valley Forge from SILENT RUNNING. Perhaps my lack of transparent windows is one more 3DS export problem? I'll ask the manuals!
Thanks again for helping me get started.
--Metryq
Iven Connery's Millennium Falcon taught me how to get the glowing engines -- make a two part model and apply the "emissive" code. Next hurdle will be transparency. I've been looking at John Victor Ivan's Valley Forge from SILENT RUNNING. Perhaps my lack of transparent windows is one more 3DS export problem? I'll ask the manuals!
Thanks again for helping me get started.
--Metryq
Are the yellow windows mapped by an external emissive texture or is the color assigned by 3d modeller? In the former case the texture to be 32bit with the semitransparent layer, in the latter case the assigned material's windows to be semitransparent itself. Note: in this latter case is suffice an opaque 24bit texture, because the transparency come from the mesh.
Never at rest.
Massimo
Massimo
The ship's "fusion core" is actually a separate model -- a disc inside the engine cage. The Millennium Falcon add-on did it that way, and made the engine part "emissive" in the SSC. I'll be spending more time with the Celestia manuals and on-line documentation.
The Jupiter 2 project above was no doubt ham-fisted in its approach. I've noticed animation in some of the add-ons, like the Cygnus X1 black hole jets. I'd love to do something like that with the Jupiter 2's engine so that it has the whirling lights seen in the TV show. I'm just a novice. I intend to learn a lot more before attempting the FIREFLY 'verse project.
The Jupiter 2 project above was no doubt ham-fisted in its approach. I've noticed animation in some of the add-ons, like the Cygnus X1 black hole jets. I'd love to do something like that with the Jupiter 2's engine so that it has the whirling lights seen in the TV show. I'm just a novice. I intend to learn a lot more before attempting the FIREFLY 'verse project.