Sins of a Solar Empire TEC ships

[Villain]

Just a tiny little thing I've been messing with to make sure I fully understand what is to come.

Someone was saying about the SoaSE ships and how great they are (And I agree), so... I ported them as a test. Who knows where it may lead? Planning on using the Light Frigate to experiment with at least basic hardpointing and using custom sounds while I finish up the stuff for the back of the Runabout set and venture into texturing.

Unfortunately, they don't have spec maps separate, so I need to work out how I'm going to do that.

Apologies for the crummy quality of the screenshots, my PC isn't all that spiffy!

I'd say C&C appreciated as always but... There really isn't much to give at the moment, I figure.   How about: Hints and Tips appreciated?  

[Bones]

Holy Shi........t I love TEC capital ships  awesome

[tiqhud]

LOOKs very very good.

[sovereign001]

looks great man!

[limey BSc.]

Aeries will love you for this

The textures might need a bit of a rework, they weren't really designed to be seen from close up. The models look good though.

[Villain]

Yeah, with the zoom the game had they looked amazing, but at the moment, I'm still very beginner-esque with texturing so... It may be a fun learning experiment.

And yeah, I had a discussion with him a long while ago about it, only recently got the means to do the conversion. I dunno about scale or balancing yet, but I'm thinking the Phase colony ship might be gargantuan. It IS a city-ship after all!

[limey BSc.]

And yeah, I had a discussion with him a long while ago about it, only recently got the means to do the conversion. I dunno about scale or balancing yet, but I'm thinking the Phase colony ship might be gargantuan. It IS a city-ship after all!

You can only really scale and balance them against themselves. Port the other races as well

[Villain]

Oh I intend to add the other races, once I manage to get over the hurdles of HP'ing and all.

As for the scaling... I like ships to be relatively believable in terms of size, can't really do the traditional window method, so I'm thinking I'll scale them against a Type 6. Not like scaling is hard work or anything. 

[Aeries]

You're going to come across a significant problem with these. That being, that the SOASE models are... well, HARDLY unified meshes. Additionally, do you have full permissions to utilize Stardock/Ironclad's models? I'm not sure what permissions are needed since they released them with their modding tools, but it may be worth dropping a line in the modding forum over at www.sinsofasolarempire.com (Also, make sure you ask about textures... I have a gut feeling they weren't included in any modding tools for a reason but I may just be paranoid on that one)

Edit: If you need help separating the maps and sorting all that out, I'm sure I could lend you a hand. Myself and my other half are both quite skilled and familiar with the soase textures and their layouts. I'm certain it wouldn't be a problem converting them for STBC, provided you have your permissions sorted.

Edit2: Villain, when did we ever talk? o.O I have no recollection of ever having a conversation with you! XD CURSE MY MEMORY!

[Villain]

*Is USS Prime*

Yup, I had made sure of permissions being out of the way, proper credit will of course be given, so that's all green light.

So far the ships I have converted into a usable format for myself have all been fine, and the ones I've put in for a test (The two shown above) damaged well from what I could see. My only convern is the lack of a separate specular map. The only maps I know of that are separate are illum and normals.

[Aeries]

My only convern is the lack of a separate specular map. The only maps I know of that are separate are illum and normals.

SOASE textures are split into three separate texture files: Diffuse, Data, and Normal maps. The Diffuse map contains the, of course, diffuse map, in all the standard channels: Red, Blue, Green. Team colours are stored in the diffuse map as well, in the Alpha channel. If you open up the Data map, it'll have the following in these channels: Red channel is the Specularity map, Green channel is the Luminosity map, Blue channel is what I call the "mirror" reflectivity map, and the alpha channel is the bloom map (usually the bloom map is pretty much just a luminosity map with a gaussian blur applied to some areas), and the Normal map is... well, just that... so you don't need it at all for BC.

If you take all this into account, it's actually painfully easy to separate all the maps into separate files. All you have to do is copy + paste the channel you need into all the other channels so that it's the only one in every channel, then save a separate file, and do it all over again from the beginning using whatever channel it is that you need.

Or, you could just ask me nicely.

[limey BSc.]

SOASE textures are split into three separate texture files: Diffuse, Data, and Normal maps. The Diffuse map contains the, of course, diffuse map, in all the standard channels: Red, Blue, Green. Team colours are stored in the diffuse map as well, in the Alpha channel. If you open up the Data map, it'll have the following in these channels: Red channel is the Specularity map, Green channel is the Luminosity map, Blue channel is what I call the "mirror" reflectivity map, and the alpha channel is the bloom map (usually the bloom map is pretty much just a luminosity map with a gaussian blur applied to some areas), and the Normal map is... well, just that... so you don't need it at all for BC.

Wow. That's quite a set up.