Setting up SDT capable plugins

[Billz]

So, I downloaded the SNS Akira pack 2 ages ago.

Installed. Everything works fine. Well, almost. There wasn't a plugin for for just a USS Akira from that pack. It comes with USS Akira registeries and speculars.

Now this pack, is set up to use SDT for swapping registery textures for different ships onto one ship model. So, I tried to make a SDT plugin for the USS Akira. Selected the appropiate textures in the SDT editor in BCUT but I don't think I did it right. The USS Akira appears in the ship selection menu, only the registery doesnt show up anywhere on the ship model ingame.

I have never set up a SDT plugin before.

Otherwise, the model works great ingame.

[MLeo]

Could you attach the resulting plugin.

The texture "name" that you want to swap must not contain the path, nor the extension. This seems to be the most common mistake people make with SDT.

[Billz]

I guess I should've learn't how to use SDT properly ages ago, lol.

Heres the plugin.

[MLeo]

It seems ok.

But I hope you realise that the replacement textures look rather similar to the ones you are replacing?

[Billz]

I just had a look at the textures in QuickTime. They are quite different to a standard Akira. They have NX colours (blue impulse engines, orange bussard collectors) and then off-course theres the Akira registery which starts with NX.

However, all that shows up in the game after clicking USS Akira in the submenu, as a Akira model without registeries, and standard Akira colours (orange impulse engines, red bussard collectors).

I am at a loss.

EDIT: SDT is on in the mutator menu, so every other ship that uses SDT shows up fine with their appropiate textures..

[MLeo]

It's possible that because the resulting names are the same, that BC thinks that the textures are the same, so it won't swap them.
The best way to test this is to use absolutely different textures, say, the Warbird textures. If those work, then it must be that you should pick a different name for your alternative textures.

[Billz]

I tried using textures from a Sovereign pack. Didn't work. Help!

EDIT: Nevermind. Worked it out. Turns out, that I was swapping textures from the SharedTextures folder with other textures from the SharedTextures folder when I should've been swapping textures from the SNSAkira model folder with textures from the SharedTextures folder. Fixed now.

[MLeo]

So it was infact that you were swapping the same textures? :lol:

[Billz]

So it was infact that you were swapping the same textures? :lol:

Nope. I was swapping these set of textures (AdmirableID_glow.tga, AdmirableID_specular.tga, AdmirableNac_golw.tga, AdmirableNac_specular.tga) with these set of textures (AkiraID_glow.tga, AkiraID_specular.tga, AkiraNac_glow.tga, AkiraNac_specular.tga) because I thought that for texture swapping to work, that both sets of textures had to be in the SharedTextures folder.

Where as infact, you need 1 set of blank textures in the model folder, and one set of IDs and specular textures in the SharedTextures folder.

Easy mistake to make for a first time SDT plugin maker.

[MLeo]

The location of the textures does not matter at all.

What does matter is what the initial textures (as the model describes them) are, in this case not the AkiraID_glow, but AdmirableID_glow.

Of course, swapping with the same won't do anything.

But in tests (that is, in BC) I've been able to swap nearly any texture with any other (I haven't tried them all, and some where mostly black).
If a texture can't be loaded (ie. wrong filename), then it won't swap it.

[Billz]

Well, like I said earlier, it only seemed to work the way that I described earlier, and thats good enough for me. Feel free to intiate a lockdown on this thread.

Obviously, I'll be trying it out on the beta of Wileys Kelvin fleet (not gonna release it) to get more practice and to eliminate the need for multiple models of the same ship which were included for some reason.