3d cockpit model not showing up in game

[Dimebag]

I have been working on a cockpit model for a formation flying team I am a part of over the past few months. I have the model pretty much complete, animations complete, textures about 50% complete.

 

I am at the stage where it would be useful to see what it looks like in game for testing purposes, and have attempted to do this by exporting the model as a .lom file. The cockpit will take the place of the su-27, so I renamed the .lom file Kabina-su-27.lom, and placed the applicable textures in the temptextures folder, as well as created a Kabina-su-27.skins file to get the textures sorted out. The problem is, nothing is showing up in game, only the shell of the external model. I have noticed that in modelviewer, the .lom file is visible, however when I switch to cockpit mode, it is not, and I thought this might have something to do with it, as in the standard .cmd cockpit models when you switch to cockpit in modelviewer it positions your head correctly as it would be in game. In 3ds max the 0,0,0 position is where the pilots head would be, and therefore it should give a good view of the cockpit position wise.

 

I am currently scratching my head as to how to get the cockpit to show up. I am aware that you need textures for the model to show, but do you need everything textured before anything will show, or if only some things are textured will they only show?

 

Another thing is I am not sure if my .skins file is correct, or if there is something I have missed which may stop it from being displayed:

 

models

{

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27", 800000};

 

}

 

skin

{

value = 1.0;

material = {"Master instruments", "Standart", "Master instruments.bmp"};

material = {"Engine fuel panel master", "Standart", "Engine fuel panel master.bmp"};

material = {"Panels", "Standart", "Panels.bmp"};

material = {"MFCD", "Standart", "mfcd panel.bmp"};

material = {"panels 2", "Standart", "panels 2.bmp"};

}

 

If anyone can shed some light I would really appreciate it, because I am becoming a little worried that all my hard work and countless hours of modelling and texturing might go to waste.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Dimebag

[SVKSniper]

I think here is problem:Rename original cmd file: Kabina-Su-27-1.cmd

 

And here is skins file:

models

{

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27-1", 800000}; (this is orig. file cmd in shape folder)

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27", 800000}; (this is new lom file in shape)

 

skin

{

value = 1.0;

material = {"Master instruments", "Standart", "Master instruments.bmp"};

material = {"Engine fuel panel master", "Standart", "Engine fuel panel master.bmp"};

material = {"Panels", "Standart", "Panels.bmp"};

material = {"MFCD", "Standart", "mfcd panel.bmp"};

material = {"panels 2", "Standart", "panels 2.bmp"};

}

[Dimebag]

I think here is problem:Rename original cmd file: Kabina-Su-27-1.cmd

 

And here is skins file:

models

{

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27-1", 800000}; (this is orig. file cmd in shape folder)

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27", 800000}; (this is new lom file in shape)

 

skin

{

value = 1.0;

material = {"Master instruments", "Standart", "Master instruments.bmp"};

material = {"Engine fuel panel master", "Standart", "Engine fuel panel master.bmp"};

material = {"Panels", "Standart", "Panels.bmp"};

material = {"MFCD", "Standart", "mfcd panel.bmp"};

material = {"panels 2", "Standart", "panels 2.bmp"};

}

 

I tried your suggestion SVKSnipier, however my cockpit still doesn't show up. What this did do however was show just the hud and mfd displays for the su-27. Any other thoughts? Appreciate the help.

[OldCrow]

I think you miss something in the .skins file. Try this:

 

models

{

lod = {"Kabina-Su-27", 800000};

 

}

 

argument

{

argument = 180;

skin

{

value = 0.0;

material = {"Master instruments", "Standart", "Master instruments.bmp"};

material = {"Engine fuel panel master", "Standart", "Engine fuel panel master.bmp"};

material = {"Panels", "Standart", "Panels.bmp"};

material = {"MFCD", "Standart", "mfcd panel.bmp"};

material = {"panels 2", "Standart", "panels 2.bmp"};

}

skin

{

value = 1.0;

material = {"Master instruments", "Standart", "Master instruments.bmp"};

material = {"Engine fuel panel master", "Standart", "Engine fuel panel master.bmp"};

material = {"Panels", "Standart", "Panels.bmp"};

material = {"MFCD", "Standart", "mfcd panel.bmp"};

material = {"panels 2", "Standart", "panels 2.bmp"};

}

}

 

I believe Value = 0 in arg 180 is daytime textures and Value = 1 is night time textures. Might be the other way around.

 

Also try to avoid having spaces in your texture names. So instead of "panels 2.bmp" you could use "panels_2.bmp" or "panels-2.bmp". To be on the safe side, you could do the same with the material names.

If you wish to have the mfd and hud displayed aswell, you can add in what svksniper said aswell

Edited October 13, 2011 by OldCrow

[Dimebag]

Ahh, that could be it Oldcrow. I will try that first thing tomorrow. Regarding argument 180, which from memory was the lights on/off animation, do I need to created a visibility based arg under 180? I hope not, as this would be very time consuming to select each object and create such an argument. I wish there was a way to only display the hud, is there any way to place my model in front of the mfd or does it get rendered on top of everything?

Thanks

[OldCrow]

Yes, you are right regarding the 180 argument, it is activated when you turn on your cockpit lights. Luckily there is no work needed in 3dsmax for this animation to work. You just make the changes to the textures (basically making 2 versions of each texture you want to be affected) and put the non lit one under value 0 and the lit one under value 1. The game takes care of the rest.

 

If you want to only render the hud, you could look into this script:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=75896

 

It allows you to move the hud and mfd displays around, rescale them etc. I haven't used this script myself, so it might be possible to choose not to include the mfd's as well.

 

 

Hope this fixes it for you :thumbup:

[SVKSniper]

I use this metod OldCrow: first rename original file, second use new lom a last i delete Kabina-xxx-glass.Lom. If i delete this i see my new model.

Here is my work for VNAO:

http://www.virtualnavairops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2529

[OldCrow]

ok, good to know ;)

 

Unfortunately I could not see the screenshots in the link you sent

[SVKSniper]

You must logged into vnao forum..:)

[Dimebag]

Well I tried what you suggested Oldcrow, however unfortunately there is no change, the model still does not show up. :( I will try changing the spaces of material names and textures.

 

Just out of interest, when people view their model in modelviewer, are they able to see it when you switch to cockpit view in the menu's? If so then it must be some issue with the model itself, as I don't think modelviewer even takes textures into account.

[Dimebag]

Just changed the scale of my model, as it was in inches, then had to rescale the whole model, and it now appears in game :). Sadly this rescale has thrown out the animations of several instruments which use arg based positions. But atleast now I can see the model :). Thanks for the help guys.

[OldCrow]

EDIT: Good to hear you got it working. A note about the animations, you might be able to save them if you group everything before you scale, and then scale the group. Though with possition animations, it might not work, but worth a try

[Dimebag]

Thanks for the tip Oldcrow, not sure if I'll need to do that as most animations are actually intact, just a few I need to fix up. Also I have a problem when I close the canopy my instruments which use animations disappear. I remember reading some other thread that had a similar if not the same issue so I will check that out. Its good to see it finally working in game.

[OldCrow]

I have encountered the same problem myself, in my case I tracked it down to the graphics.cfg

 

I had a scenery mod that changed some values in this file, more specifically the near_clip and middle_clip values. When I changed these back to default, the problem was fixed.

 

Default values are:

 

near_clip = 0.2;

middle_clip = 5;

far_clip = 140000;

 

 

You will find them under the camera section. Theres 3 sections after that, low, medium and high. I believe those stands for the scene setting in the graphics options of FC2. There might be other values here that can fix it as well, but changing the above to the default fixed the issues for me.

[Dimebag]

I tried your method OldCrow by changing the graphics.cfg options for clipping, however that still didn't fix it, but then I thought to copy the canopy itself and delete the old one. Low and behold, this fixed the disappearing instruments, however if I clone an object after I do this, that object will disappear. So I think the disappearing has something to do with cloned objects which somehow disappear when a certain animation is run, in this case the canopy one. Thanks for the help though.

[snowbird2]

Yet another bug I came across while doing the CT-114 Tutor cockpit for the VSB mod.

I solved this disappearing textures by creating a small part and applying a glass texture with the Lomutils.

This was the very last item I created before exporting the .LOM

Once I did that the parts no longer disappeared.

Go figure...

 

Racer

[Dimebag]

Ah, thanks snowbird2, I'll remember that one in case I need it.