Quick Base Plate Question

[DarkCobra262]

Just wondering why this occurs... there is a terrain__h and a terrain.. the terrain is linked to terrain__h and yes the collision mesh covers the base plate, it's like there is 2 base plates or something.. but when it's built, it only shows one (no clipping ofc):

[MrTwosheds]

Never seen that, looks like your terrain is half the size of the terrain__h.
Are they all completely flat? with y value 0.000000

[DarkCobra262]

That fixed it.. one of the base thingies was slightly higher than the other (so they weren't completely flat or w/e)

Edit: Second Question (and then I'll stop buggin' you guys :p), see-through glass, my replicated GT is on the right (black glass or w/e) and the 1.3 is on the left:

[MrTwosheds]

Find Frame frm-c_screen {
In the original ibgtow model
go down to
SI_Material {
0.700000;0.700000;0.700000;0.500000;;
this last value 0.500000 is setting the opacity of the mesh.

Not sure if the c_ is also doing the same thing, it might be.
Best idea is to copy the whole SI_Material section over to your own model, so you are not making a new material.

Note;
Tags like c_ or __e or __2g do not make a material unique in bz2, the other material values & texture names do. Using tags can cause weird stuff to happen that you won't even notice until a fresh install is made and all your tanks turn dayglow.

So when using such tags try to ensure that the Material is either unique or exactly like an existing material that uses that tag.
DO NOT set these tags on stock materials that do not already use them. Or they may end up being propagated to places you did not want them.

[DarkCobra262]

Find Frame frm-c_screen {
In the original ibgtow model
go down to
SI_Material {
0.700000;0.700000;0.700000;0.500000;;
this last value 0.500000 is setting the opacity of the mesh.

Not sure if the c_ is also doing the same thing, it might be.
Best idea is to copy the whole SI_Material section over to your own model, so you are not making a new material.

Note;
Tags like c_ or __e or __2g do not make a material unique in bz2, the other material values & texture names do. Using tags can cause weird stuff to happen that you won't even notice until a fresh install is made and all your tanks turn dayglow.

GBD had said that:

{=XA=}FMarBlackDragon: build transparent model pieces in 1.3 PB4a
{=XA=}FMarBlackDragon: TA5 DX9 move broke mesh builder's ability to make transparent pieces in XSI
{=XA=}FMarBlackDragon: so, use BZ2 1.0 - 1.3PB4a to build that XSI mesh
{=XA=}FMarBlackDragon:

he's been right about practically everything so far so... I'll try that tho

[MrTwosheds]

Materials are a "dark art" for modders, its so easy to mess things up without noticing you have done it.
I have not seen any problems with making transparent meshes...

[DarkCobra262]

Materials are a "dark art" for modders, its so easy to mess things up without noticing you have done it.
I have not seen any problems with making transparent meshes...

Hehe, I just edited the value on my tower and still didn't work, so I'll just copy and paste and see what happens as well as test what GBD said.

[General BlackDragon]

I noticed that setting the transparency in the XSI file no longer works when the mesh is built. Found it when I was fixing a ship, and the cockpit was no longer transparent.

Any stock model that's had it's mesh built since TA5 has this issue, but not many people pay attention to the little black cockpits on the stock ships, so it's not really well known.


The alternative, ofc, is to give that piece a texture with a semi transparent alpha channel.

[MrTwosheds]

Just did a few tests, any object using __g or material transparency, that has a NON transparent texture will not be transparent.
Without the texture the mesh is transparent. So It looks like the texture overrides the material settings in the xsi when a mesh is built. The obvious solution is for us to replace the "stock" glare.dxtbz2 with a transparent one, for the next release. Presumably this will make the existing msh even more transparent though.
Modders might like to use their own transparent texture in the mean time.
A dark art indeed...

[General BlackDragon]

Well BZ2 1.0-PB4a worked fine, so it's likely in the pile of DX9 Graphics bugs that GSH hasn't hit yet, Like lightning forcing sky.ambientcolor to 0, 0, 0, and skypointsarepoints = false rewrite.

[MrTwosheds]

I expect the sky.ambientcolor thing is linked to sun.ambientcolor not functioning quite right either.

[General BlackDragon]

When i typed sun.ambientcolor it says its 65025 65025 65025 ?

Thats bright...

[MrTwosheds]

And you cannot save a new setting, so it always says that.

[Red Devil]

hmmm, hadn't noticed sun.ambientcolor before this, so i'll add that to the day/night cycle in g66.

[Zero Angel]

a mid to low sky.ambientcolor combined with a high-ish sun.color or sun.ambientcolor is the best way to ensure that lighting effects show through. It seems that lighting isnt really good at showing through when the sky.ambientcolor is maxed out.