Ship textures

posted on June 30th, 2011, 8:52 pm

Ok, one more question. I use paint shop pro to do textures. How do I add the 'light' effect for lighting up the ships reg and name (like on top of a saucer section etc...)?

[Tyler]

posted on June 30th, 2011, 8:53 pm

Last edited by Tyler on June 30th, 2011, 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Add them on to the lightmaps, same as the engine and window glows.

[score1_uk]

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:07 pm

Last edited by score1_uk on June 30th, 2011, 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I dont know how to draw them.

When I make an alpha channel I just select the parts I want to illuminate and while selected click save to alpha channel.

The thing with reg light effects is they fade. I dont know how to add them.

These are what I mean (see how the circled parts fade from white to black):



I can do solid white like for windows and I can do engine glows but if I select the outline for the reg lights they are just solid illumination and not faded.

[Tyler]

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:15 pm

Last edited by Tyler on June 30th, 2011, 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Intrepid and multiple custom ship come with them. Just open the lightmap of those ships, copy the floodlight from them into the new one.

That's how I do it, I even saved multiple into a seperate folder so I have multiple to pick from. That way's probably easier with TGATool, though.

Edit: Added a light you could try using. It may need to be a bit smaller for most ships, though.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:21 pm

Could u send me the file u have with the lights? Im still not sure how to get them or how to add them to a new map.

I dont even know how to save a light map into a sep file. I can load from a alpha channel (this just crops the parts of the texture file that are to be lit, or I can load from alpha channel to a new mask, but thats it

Never been good with lightmaps.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:25 pm

Here's a few, resize them for each ship/station at will.

Use TGATool, a lightmap opened as a seperate image file is much easier to edit.

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posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:28 pm

How do u get the positioning right though? do I copy these and paste them onto the texture file?

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:34 pm

Don't know about Paint Shop Pro, but for TGAtool I use the following directions:

• Open main texture (not the lightmap) and copy it into another MSPaint window
• Open lightmap in TGATool
• Copy the floodlight onto the main texture with the black background transparent and arrange it where you need, then make the background show
• Do the same with the lightmap, except don't make the background transparent until it lines up with the one on the main texture

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:40 pm

okk, I need to know how to make my new black file transparent and able to overlay the original. For the time been, any chance you could add a few 'lights' to just 1 texture file I have? I can add to the light map for all the small windows. Would just need the mail 'light' effects adding.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:43 pm

Sure, just attach the texture to a post and I'll add some lights.

To make the background transparent (in MSPaint), select the Pick Color tool and reght-click the color you need then select the second option for the Select tool automatically used when you paste the image in. Best to copy the image, set the background, use Ctrl-Z to remove it then paste again.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:48 pm

sent, cheers for the help. Please save the lights as a alpha and I will just add to it. I will have another file ready 2mo (the same but for the entd) Ill send it to u and if you get the chance could u add the lights to that? After that ill try to learn how to do it myself.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:50 pm

If that one's the same just for a ship of another name, wouldn't the same lightmap work for both?

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:53 pm

no, I sent u the ent c sauser, and 2mo I will have the ent d saucer.

posted on June 30th, 2011, 9:58 pm

Ah, Ok.

Is this Ok? Just maximize, the Right-Click to save it to the computer.

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[score1_uk]

posted on June 30th, 2011, 10:00 pm

Last edited by score1_uk on June 30th, 2011, 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

thats great, but I dont know how to join that with my texture file? Could u not send me back the TGA I sent u with the lights set as the alpha channel? Im good at making a model and aplying a texture, even light mods to the texture but light maps and bump maps I really know almost nothin about.