Texturing in 3dsmax

[=ArA=DeathFromAbove]

thanks Fook, im following it now.

Having problems reinstalling my 3ds max 6 on my new win 7 system.

I think the xp mode will be a work around for it, but not sure. Ill give you some feedback once im up and running with bf tools for max.

Question 3 was concerning putting a video image on terrain. Previously someone said they saw videos played out on the ground. My question was how do you localize the image.

[fo0k]

I'd recommend getting max 7 rather than 6... theres a few copies out there.

In order to get it running smoothly with windows 7 you need to make a couple of tweaks.
This will avoid the dds errors that often arise.

After install you need to goto the stdplugs/dxplugins folder in the main installation directory. Now move dds.bmi and dxDDS.bmi 'up a level' so they are now just in the stdplugins folder.

This will give you a couple of errors/warnings when you start max but just select no/ok to them and you will find you have no issues at all anymore with dds errors / failed to initialize device etc etc..

I posted a vid of a custom video detail texture once.. although this was map wide.. if you want something more specific like the underwater effect you need to grab the rexmans 3dmax tools from the mod tools download area on this site.. then you can use that script to import the heightmap to max. once you have it.. just 'cut out' the bit of mesh you want.. texture as normal... and then place it in game, on the terrain.. it should fit perfectly.. however you will get inevitable z buffer problems with essentially two identical meshes on top of each other. I adjusted the underwater mesh to only touch the terrain at the waters edge.. after that it lifts away from the seabed to avoid this issue. What are you intending to do on the terrain?

custom detail:


animated terrain (fake heightmap layer effect):

[=ArA=DeathFromAbove]

Argh Epic fail.

Maybe its a BFV thing...I simply took a painting from the game, renamed it, and pointed the object.con and geometry.con files to each other and then the geometry.con to the mesh so the file names are correct. I left the name of the texture the same as the original and updated the pathway and changed the skin from a .dds to the suggested pathway with the .bik file as the new texture. I called my movie the same name as the original texture.

All I see is a white picture.

I went into max hehe to see if i could add the video as a texture in the material editor and of course I could not select .bik as the editor did not accept that extension - just for giggles. In any case because I used all the same orignal names its already mapped, and it should work from that perspective.

I checked my .bik was in the movie folder, (note this is just a custom BFV map in BFV, not a mod, nevertheless the .bik file is in the movie folder).

So my object is o_painting01_m1, my mesh is o_painting01_m1. I changed it to o_HELOpainting01_m1 for both object and mesh, pointed the mesh to f_overgrowth_city which was the original texture name and name of my movie.

In other instances I have changed skins on signs and names of objects/meshes without going into Max and it worked. In that case I changed the texture using Photoshop and simply resized it until i was satisfied.

Any ideas on where I could be going wrong?

EDIT: I put the actual texture for the painting in the movies folder and no matter how far i go back ../ or the various pathways suggested here, the texture never appears...

[fo0k]

hmm renaming is certainly not the way to do it.. It does work in some instances but you either should rename with max or use a hex editor to rename the shader within the sm file..

that said..

for a test.. why not just take a very simple static.. add it to your map as a custom.. and just change the rs file for the object to the 'movies/texturename' path. just use one of the existing EA/DICE movies within that folder already.

that way you can at least do a sanity check that the principle works?

[Apache Thunder]

You may be getting the path wrong in your RS file.

Here's how I pathed to the BIK file currently used on the river mesh in my BFH'42 mod:

Code: Select all

Mods/bfheroes/archives/video/Creek

(note that as with all other normal RS texture assignments, you do not need to specify the extension. In fact, doing so may brake the texture path)

If you path to the movies folder, you must include the path to your mod, otherwise it will be expecting your BIK in the movie folder at the game's root and not in your mod's version of the movie folder. And yes you can put a subfolder in the archives folder like I did above. Just don't put subfolders in the levels folder, that's one place BF42/BFV will puke on.

I've never had to hex edit the SM file. the SM file only stores the material IDs and RS material names. Unless your trying to apply a BIK video to a TreeMesh?

Also, a BIK with a non 2x2 resolution (like 256x256 for example) will still work, it just won't be applied to the UVMap correctly.

[=ArA=DeathFromAbove]

I actually pulled an object, mesh and texture from the PoE mod and put the texture in the movies file and I could not get BFV to run the texture from the movies folder.

I was able to run it if the texture was mapside in the texture folder i set up, but nothing would work in movies folder, all the ../ did nothing, all the pathways illustrated didnt work either.

Im concluding if it wont run a .dds then it will never run a .bik file as a texture.

[Apache Thunder]

Don't use the "../" in the RS files. It's not needed and also causes CTDs. (in BF1942 anyway).

When pathing to something outside an RFA file, always start with Mods/(name of your mod/" Then go from there. If it's something in a RFA file, then the path starts at the mod's root folder.

Also since it's BFV, you can try packing the BIK file in the texture RFA. (in BF1942, this doesn't work. But in BFV, it might?) I've never tried BIK textures in BFV, so for all I know BFV could handle BIKs in RFAs. Old versions of BF1942 used to, but a patch they made down the line broke it.

[=ArA=DeathFromAbove]

Thanks Apache, i think this must be a BFV issue, since I tried your path, and do understand your comment re the path once out of the map rfa.

Unfortunately BFV doesnt play .bik files from within the rfa either, although something tries to happen because the load screen stutters again when the map is loading.

Looks like no videos in BFV other than load screen.