Squished ship

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Im new to 3d modeling and watch half a tutorial on how to make an airplane. But I got were the guy was going and made my own instead.

Now for some reason when I export the jet into bz2 it is squished and small =(
I dont know the problem. (Im using blender)

Any ideas?

[XxHAMADEHxX]

update

I messed with some settings and its no long squished but it is upside down and transparent(was always transparent forgot to mention)

[Red Spot]

Rotate the ship in blender, the scale of the model can be altered in the ODF (geometryScale =).
Could give you some pointers on the skin but I'm the last person to talk about modelling, I dont care about how its all named so my explaination wouldnt help you much.

[MrTwosheds]

The (bz2) xsi format uses a different rotation from most modern modeling programs. Normally this means you need to rotate your model so the front is up and the bottom forwards, then the model should appear correctly in bz2.
Transparent...congratulations for discovering how to do this so quickly
There are a number of ways to achieve transparency.
A transparent texture.
Using the __g (glass) frame tag in the xsi. eg a part of the model is named Window__g.
Or by setting the vertex color alpha channel to something less than 1.
I'm guessing that its probably the 3rd option, as the guy who made the exporter said it could do that.
You should be able to find the meshvertexcolors section in the xsi if its there. Any simple text editor can open an xsi.

the scale of the model can be altered in the ODF (geometryScale =).

But really you want this set to 1 and scale your model correctly in blender, otherwise you end up getting confused as to how big different models are in relation to each other and how big to make them.
The actual size is critical for things like buildings and terrain and units must be able to drive between buildings.
Terrain squares are exactly 8.000000 x 8.000000, so any vehicle wider than 16.000000 will be unable to drive through a base. The flat terrain bit around a building must not be less than 8.000000 wide.
7.999999 will cause navigation problems even for tiny units.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Thanks my friend but Im not really sure about the 8 x 8 thing could you tell me how I can adjust that in blender?
Or is it just 8 squares by 8 on the grid?

oh and the transparent thing was an accident XD

@ redspot
Have'nt added any textures yet.

[DarkCobra262]

You're modelling using Blender? I just know how to use 3ds Max, otherwise I feel I'd be more helpful :p

[XxHAMADEHxX]

yes XD max is too spensive

[General BlackDragon]

try looking up GMAX, it's a free, slightly limited version of 3ds max.

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Thought about it but blender requires less steps for battlezone.

Thanks though =D

[MrTwosheds]

Thanks my friend but Im not really sure about the 8 x 8 thing could you tell me how I can adjust that in blender?
Or is it just 8 squares by 8 on the grid?

Don't know about blender, but its fairly difficult to export from 3dsmax and keep things accurate to 6 decimal places. For models where such accuracy is required (terrain) checking and adjusting the xsi itself is usually easier than repeatedly tweaking the model and re-exporting. XSi is a text based format, unlike most others. It is worth getting familiar with the format of an xsi file, many little errors are easily fixed there.

[Red Spot]

Its perhaps interesting to say that if you're just making one model or some alterations to one or two you might be better of asking somebody else to do some manual tweaks before getting it ingame, as you dont learn how to manually manipulate xsi's in an hour or 2.

On the other hand, when you do enough with it, you can make models without software .. as I once made a small drone-like ship with nothing but notepad. (dont ask me to do it again though )

[MrTwosheds]

I'm just throwing bits of info about, so that when he comes across the problems he might remember that someone said something about it. Things like scale and orientation come back to nibble at your toes later if you don't get them right at the start.

[Red Spot]

Oh, I wasnt trying to argue with you 2Sheds. Just saying that if you're not going to persue modelling you'd be better of not spending mountains of time on something that doesnt really create a skill that can be applied somewhere else.
(Like I did, spend mountains of time on something I in the end never really used .. and before I realised it had lost most of the knowledge.)

[XxHAMADEHxX]

Thanks my friends

@Redspot God willing I want to learn 3d modeling (I prefer visuals over text).

I also want to learn programming God willing but I don't like it as much as visual based things,(Drawing, modeling etc...) but I need it.

[Red Spot]

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