Bridge Commander Universe

LC Amaral · Guest

How to create animated maps Cpt?

Well.. here it goes the step by step.
First just some definitions: I got very deep studying the netimmerse format when creating the nebula bridge and i found some nice features it allow us. The most usefull in BC are the animated maps and masked transparency maps (this one i'll explain in other thread), both then used in our borg sphere that should be release just now.
The netimmerse format doesn't support animations in materials using timeline and keyframe. And I'm not sure if it'll support any model animations based in keyframe.. so that's bad to people who want to try moving objects.
To create the animated maps you need to use the 3ds max flip controler file.. .IFL.. but what's that? the .ifl file is not anything more than a .txt file (with .ifl extension) with the names of 2 or more image files.
like this one:
test1.tga
test2.tga

how to create it:
There are two ways. I'll try to explain both.
* USING SEQUENCED FILES
1 - Create a series of maps in any graphic program. it's names must be the same with a number at end.. (test1.tga, test2.tga, test3.tga)
IMPORTANT: You cannot add _glow/_specular behind the number.. it must be the last char. The effects of that will be said later.
2 - Open your max, the material editor, and pick one material.
3 - Get on the map slot you want to use: diffuse, self ilumination, opacity, etc.
4 - Click on it and choose bitmap from the map listings.
5 - the brwose file dialog box will open. click on the first image of your sequence.
6 - notice that the small "checkbox" SEQUENCE will become available. mark it (this will automatically create an .ifl file for your sequence).
7- Click on. The ifl properties dialog will appear. Don't touch anything there or you'll get undesired effects.
8 - Now you already have the animated map.. just need to tune the timing. go up to the material "root" (where the map slots are show). Behind it there's another section called "TIME"
9 - Expand it and you'll find the playback options. the time is by the following form: frames by each image = 1/time.
this means: if the time is set to 1, the image will be changed at every frame.. that's really bad as it's too much fast and doesn't work right.
if the time is set to 0.5, the image will change at 2 frames. for 0.1 at 10 frames and so on.
10 - besides it there's a option of how to playback.
loop
ping and pong
play and stop.
That's it.

*USING THE .ifl FILE
1 - Create the animated maps exactly as said before.
2 - Open the notepad and write a sequence with your graphic files
ex:
test1.tga
test2.tga
testusual.tga
notest.tga
3 - save it with a name you desire with the .ifl extension.
4 - Get on the map slot you want to use: diffuse, self ilumination, opacity, etc.
5 - Click on it and choose bitmap from the map listings.
6 - Now pick your ifl file. The ifl properties dialog will not open (it may open depending of your max config).
7 - follow the 8 to 10 steps from the other tutorial.

CONSIDERATIONS
1 - As when you compile the nif netimmerse will create new named maps _glow/_specular will not work without finding some tricks.
2 - I just can animate the diffuse or the glow using alphas not both simultaneously in one map. Don't know why.
3 - Each file sequence must be just in one object.. if you use this material to more than one object it'll animated just the first object not the others.. so, you may need to attach all your objects in one. Don't know why too.
4 - The map may not show correct working damage textures. so, i suggest not use big animated maps for all the ship.. just use it on small parts.

some things are still a bit unclear about this animations, and it uses lots of video cars processing so, use this wisely. or you ship may turn unplayable.

I hope this help you people
Any doubt contact me
chisholm@terra.com.br

Cpt

Mike Prodanovski · Lieutenant Joined: 21 Mar 2002 Posts: 402

I think this should be stickied, so all the modders know and dont forget.

Magic (tm) · **Posted**: 06-29-2002 01:52 PM

I hope the other modders can understand it now .. the bridge tuorial will be harder but when we understand all things that are nessesary we will also add a tutorial here .. hopes its helps other modders to use this feature .. and hope you see now that we really want to share our knownledge with you and the other modders .. that the idear behind a community Smile

@edited thx Lc Wink

hawkeye

Guest · **Posted**: 06-29-2002 02:06 PM

Hey Magic i think you mean "share the knowledge" not care it.. hehehe

Cpt.

Magic (tm) · **Posted**: 06-29-2002 09:48 PM

can a moderator make this thread a sticky .. at least for a while ?

Captain Data · Cadet 1st Class Joined: 06 Dec 2001 Posts: 86

I hope, somebody find out how to add flickering lights, when a ship collapses - like in Klingon Academy Smile

pentserv22 · Admiral Joined: 15 Mar 2002 Posts: 2111

I'm hoping for two effects from this:

1. When the impulse engine speeds up the engines glow brighter like in TMP

2. The bassard collectors move on the TOS Enterprise that would be damn cool

Guest · **Posted**: 06-29-2002 11:31 PM

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

could some oen put a sticky on this

**NanoByte** · **Posted**: 06-30-2002 12:29 AM

Great Progress.... Your wish is my Command.... STICKY'fied

Magic (tm) · **Posted**: 06-30-2002 07:45 AM

Well Lc the maps can be controlled by events .. well limited but they can. I found some lines in the damage script and it should be possible to use the same code structure how the game adds damage, to add other things .. k this will be hard but I saw with little tricks like the ablative armore which is in detail not more then a trick and started as a bug hehe .. Is just that the moving inner glows are over the damage maps but without glow the damage maps are shining through ..

By the but a real ablative armor like seen in voyage is also posible. The damage script is only link to the filenames and its a random script.. so you can add an armor plate instead of damage map there... The big prob. here is how to use this effect only for one ship .. this would be used for every ship.

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

thanks nano

Guest · **Posted**: 06-30-2002 12:16 PM

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

how did you guys find out how to do this

Guest · **Posted**: 07-02-2002 12:00 AM

Netimmerse 4 technical documentation

The engine for the nif v4 in netimmerse 4 is very similar to the one in the bc nif.

Cpt.

Cleeve · Ensign Joined: 16 Mar 2002 Posts: 128

Has any animated map been sucessfully executed with any ship?

I had been under the impression that animated maps were possible on the bridge, but for some reason not on ships...

Guest · **Posted**: 07-05-2002 12:03 AM

Well.. they worked 100% fine in the borg sphere..
and I'm also using it on the incoming excalibur.

The only thing i really noticed is that it don't work if the map is glowing.
The damage is also a mistery. For now it works in the excalibur but i'm not sure how it'll work on other ships.

Cpt.

Anduril · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 20 Feb 2002 Posts: 531

It is threads like this that keep me coming back here from time to time.

I'm not real clear on how the glows get working but I understand the rest. Time to make a set of sheets for the bussards and play a bit. I've been thinking about making a different secondary hull section anyways and if I get this working it would just be the motivation I need to go for it.

Guest · **Posted**: 07-08-2002 12:36 PM

Tkx Anduril

Anyways, the bad is that the animated maps doesn't work if you glow then.. the only way i can find to it work, is use a glowing half- transparent object over the moving one.. so, the transparent will glow and nobody will see any difference. :-)

Cpt.

Anduril · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 20 Feb 2002 Posts: 531

me thinks this forum has some serious problems with time outs.

anyway.

Going by the theory that the anim textures don't work with the _glows I went and built a series of 3 textures with the vanes, some dirt and grit and the frosting on the outside of the bussard domes.

Looks ever so sweet ingame.

But, here is where a question comes into play. I built an inner dome within the bussard to hold the basic color, lights and such for use with a _glow texture and now I'm asking how you got the animated object semi transparent? I know gif's will support transparance as do .png's. Now that I'm typing this I am wondering if it is when I bring the texture into max I am missing some selection for it to support the transparency since I got the png's to take ingame but they aren't transparent.

If I keep rambling I'll confuse myself further.

Guest · **Posted**: 07-08-2002 11:16 PM

The object that must have the glow is the outer, otherwise the game will not glow, as it doesn't glow obstructed object.

Well.. now to the transparent..
Ok. Create a aplha channel to the diffuse texture. White for opaque and black for transparent. Apply this tecture to the diffuse map, and leave "Alpha channel" enable.
and then add the same map to the opacity channel (the opacity button in the map editor).
Just change the output rgb slot from "RGB Color" to "Alpha channel" on this map.
It'll make the dark areas transparent.

Cpt

Anduril · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 20 Feb 2002 Posts: 531

I'll probably forget what the hell I did by tomorrow but maybe this will help me to remember.

First I did the inner dome with the animated vanes and the outer dome with the bussard texture and set it's opacity down so I could see thru it. This resulted in the dome being almost transparent when viewed from the side. And I could see right into the warp engine since there is no back to the dome. I then made an inner dome to block this using a basic texture to simulate the inner workings of the bussard collector. I wasn't really fond of the results because the more you increase the opacity of the outer layer so the animated vanes become visible the less you see the glows and details of that layer. And of course the opposite resulted in the vanes becoming less visible.

So I wacked the outer dome with the _glow and went with the inner dome and the animated outer layer. After playing around all evening I have an illuminated inner layer with a rotating set of vanes over it. I need to make changes all the textures to make them beautious but it looks killer already.

Kev_M · Guest

Its times like this i'm glad i'm not a modder, That just confused me completely,
ok, so I'm guessing all that means your on the right path. which is cool.
Really amazes me you guys can work all this stuff out. great going.
makes me wonder why totally games and activision pay the people they have when they should be paying you guys to do it.
Smile

JanewayRules · Lieutenant Joined: 06 Apr 2002 Posts: 479

For the people who aren't rich and can't by 3D Max how would you do this in other programs like GMAX

Guest · **Posted**: 07-25-2002 12:51 PM

Well.. gmax has an engine based on the 3dmax one.
Althought it's very simple some features from max were kept in gmax. Probably gmax also supports the ifl files (2nd option).

I don't have gmax installed on my computer now, so i cannot check it for you. So if you can check it and post the feedback it would be some nice.

Cpt.

CaptArcher · Vice Admiral Joined: 05 Mar 2002 Posts: 1765

ok now will the coomputer automaticly use the other image as long as it has teh same name but like a 2 by it?

saxman · **Posted**: 09-17-2002 12:48 AM

thanx alot guys,

its all printed out and ill try to add it to some of my futur ships

NinjaDriver · Lieutenant Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 431

Ok guys, I'm having some problems getting transparent or semi-transparent textures to work, namely, they're not working at all, they are completely opaque no matter what I do.

Amaral -- You're mini tutorial for getting the textures to be transparent is rather vague (i.e. there are a couple of different places where you can check Alpha vs RGB -- and do I make my own alpha channel for the texture that is going to be transparent???). There also seem to be some contradictions in it (i.e. the alpha channel colors, white-opaque black-transparent, then at the bottom you say the white parts will be transparent). If you could please clear this up or give a few extra steps in the middle it would be VERY APPRECIATED.

Anduril -- You're technique of playing with the opacity levels just doesn't work once I've got the ship exported into BC. Am I missing a step here too??? Once again, any help here would be appreciated.

Sorry if this sounds hostile, I don't mean it to be that way. This is just coming from someone who's rather frustrated in getting a texturing technique to work properly. I'm even willing to zip up my .max file with the textures I'm using so you can see what I'm doing, if you feel that's necessary.

Thanks for any and all help

Guest · **Posted**: 09-18-2002 03:41 PM

ok, the contradiction existed.. it was my fault... it's fixed now.

darker areas are transparent, not white.

hmm.. if you try the slots in the bitmap parameters you'll see that they have different ways to work.
the one at the bottom right selects the type of output, from the rgb color (normal) to the alpha channel applied as transparence (which is the alphas real function).
the one at the top left selects which will be the color output, if the image will display the rgb color (normal) or the alpha channel (as it was the normal).

that should clarify a bit things to you.

Cpt.

NinjaDriver · Lieutenant Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 431

ok..that sounds a little better, you are using R3.x 3DSMax right?

I don't want to pull the rest of my hair out if we have a version conflict..