uss voyager / intrepid class ship

[fdinasty]

First of all hi to everyone on the forum. ^^v

The request i got, and hopefully it's ok to ask you for that,
if someone could probably convert the voyager mesh made by Sarod,
into an .ASE model format with working textures (well,...it would be ok if most of the text. would work)

(-for further use e.g. in star trek voyager elite force-)

The reason why i ask, is that i already tried to do this on my own with different programms and so on, but since i started about 3 months ago and used different tutorials, still couldn't get it working.

Hope you can help me with that,...
and in advance for your help...Thank you very much

wfG.
fdinasty

PS: i'm sorry if my english probably sounds a bit rubish,
but don't often get into the situation to use it for a forum post.

[andyp]

have you tried
http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/


this is a site for all things elite force
due to the fact that most programs dont know how to import/export the .ASE format,
its basically next to impossible.

[fdinasty]

sure,...i've tried effiles and i also had one plugin that could export into .ase,...but as i already said....nothing usefull happened.
i wasn't able to do any changes in the file itself...

but if there is nothing that can be done to use the mesh as a .ase or maybe .md3 model in e.g. EF1,...then its not bad at all.
as i sometimes say,..."you can't have everything you want" ^^v

[andyp]

ok i'm gonna ask for some more info to try to see if i can help you better
what program are you currently using,
and what is the converted model going to be used for?

[fdinasty]

well,...that might be the problem, but i used 3dsMax 2007/08 and yes, it was the usual 30-day trial...
although i heared that there are several more programms that could probably convert meshes into e.g.: .ase
i decided to use 3dsMax, because everything i ever red since then about this program, sounded very promising.

ok, about the further use of the converted model...
the intention was, to use it in a map im currently working on,
for star trek voyager elite force's rpgx-2 mod...
to e.g. make hull-walk possible, like there already was one, on a map for/with the enterprise-e...
but more important then that, to create a map where the player can experience the interaction with the outside of a starship to make it look more "realistic" in some way, instead of being always inside of it, what in my knowledge only a handfull of maps can do.

ok, i give in,...that maybe sounds not very reasonable...
but as short as i could explain, that's it so far.

about credits to give,...
that's something i think, what goes without saying.

greetings and thanks for help

fdinasty

[andyp]

ok well the 30 day trial thing might be the issue if you are having errors exporting it.
try using blender 2.45
and then get the .ase export script from here, i havent tried it but it may work
http://www.katsbits.com/htm/tools_utilities.htm

sorry if its not much help

[fdinasty]

that's no problem...i'm thankfull for every help to get.
i gonna try that as soon as current pc problems on the hard drive are out of the way.

thanks again.

greetings
fdinasty


EDIT: I've just tried Blender and the given plugin for .ase export...but the voyager mesh by Sarod couldn't be imported because Blender is not capable of doing that with .max files.
Already searched for a plugin to import .max meshes, but -nothing-...

Maybe i should go and buy the full version of 3dsMax07/08, so that wouldn't be a problem anymore.

[fdinasty]

Ok, here it goes.
I downloaded the latest 3dsMax version 2009, and could also registrate it.
Gonn try now to work on the mesh topic.

[fdinasty]

Ohh,...something i forgot to ask.

There are some downloads in the download section, where the textures are missing.
e.g. the slipstream mesh,...i can render the mesh itself, but can't find the textures in the .zip download.

don't got an idea how to find them.

[andyp]

as far as max
you cannot import it into any other program,
try .3ds .lwo(lightwave) or .obj

as far as the slipstream i believe it uses max specific particle effects, not textures
or at it uses textures within the max program

there is a .blender format of sarrods voyager on star trek: blender's site
http://stblender.iindigo3d.com/
but just to warn you
i downloaded sarrods voyager the other day, and it doesnt have textures except for specularity maps

[fdinasty]

thanks for the tip...
well i already saw that there are only the specularity maps for the voyager...
but hey,...there's also the possibility to use some selfmade textures ^^v

and one question at last,...
i guess that in case the programm uses textures withing max,
that there is no way to extract them right?

greetings
fdinasty

[andyp]

ok i am confused now
the voyager mesh would not use max specific textures for color or anything with max

each program has specific textures that, like clouds, vonroi, noise generators
and in the case of the slip stream it uses these max specific textures,
which cannot be recreated outside of max.

[fdinasty]

Hi again.

Well,...till now i could successfully convert the model by Sarod into .ase via 3dsMax2009...but.
As expected, the GtkRadiant1.4 couldn't handle the model itself while compiling and stoped the process with MAX_MAP_DRAW_INDEXES ...because it had too many polygons and triangles...

Anyway, there is one thing i would like to know...
Is there actually any mesh/model available of the intrepid class/uss voyager on the internet, that "can" be used in EF1 after converting it...or is that something that doesn't excist till now?

[andyp]

to my knowledge, there is none for either EF

[fdinasty]

the bad thing is, that even if i delete some parts of the mesh by Sarod which could be replaced with brushes later,...the model itself would have still too much polygons...

well,...i guess that noone would spend time in making a quite good looking intrepid class model for Star Trek Voyager Elite Force...
even if someone would ask for that...