Frustrated... what the hell am i doing wrong? help

[Mulgrim]

so i've been doing a model using ms3d, and used this as the texture

http://cdn1.gamepro.com/global/radar/blog_images/103124-3.jpg

this is what i did:

1. Opened Wc3 Viewer, and converted texture from .bmp to .blp, error, something about the pixel size, or something, i went to GIMP, and saved it as "16 bits/ R5 G6 B5'', then went back to Wc3 Viewer and converterd. "Succesfully converted as .blp"

2. Exported model from Ms3d, saved as .mdl, opened with Notepad. Switched Model name from "Milkshape Exported" to custom name "Ashbringer". Switched texture from

Textures 1 {
Bitmap {
Image "Textures\white.blp",
}
}

to:

Textures 1 {
Bitmap {
Image "ashbringerstexture.blp",
}
}

3. Saved, and used MDLX file converter to convert from .mdl to .mdx

4. Opened in Magos' and it shows this

Please, please help me, i'm on the edge of frustration i don't know what i did wrong, but that's what i did step by step.

Thanks in advance.

 

[NhazUl]

A texture's dimensions must be equal to 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 512. It can be square (128x128, 256x256) or rectangle (128x256, 256x512). Otherwise it is not counted as a BLP texture.

I recommend that you resize this in Paint to 256x526 (using Stretch/Skew and the set Attributes). 512x512 is too large for just the Ashbringer.

 

[Mulgrim]

ok thank you, but just so i don't do anything wrong, you mean "Resize and Skew"? and there are 4 options for those

Resize - Horizontal: ___ %
Resize - Vertical: ___ %

and below

Skew - Horizontal: ___ degrees
Skew - Vertical: ___ degrees

where do i write 256 and 526?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Your skin/texture has an invalid size, that's mostly it. I recommend you crop the height to 256px (should be doable if you get rid of some of the wasted blue space) and add up so it makes 512px wide. This way you won't have to resize the sword itself. However, I doubt the model has enough polygons to be worth a full 256x512 dimensioned skin, so fitting it into even as small as 128x256 should work out fine.

You'll have to redo the wrapping (afaik) for this to work though, in order to make sure the correct parts of the texture are used on the model (I guess you already know this).

Also, converting without an Alpha-channel (ie .bmp) to .blp is generally a bad idea. Ideally, use a Targa file for the skin (.tga) and make sure it has an alpha channel (even if there's no alpha on the texture).

The viewer usually shows a model as white or black when it does not have a texture (ie can't find it or fit it).


EDIT: NOT 256x526! I believe he meant to write 256x256. Otherwise, I can't help you with paint.

 

[Mulgrim]

i don't know much of anything about skinning, what's an alpha layer? and how to add one?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Sorry, I wrote wrong. I meant to say Alpha-CHANNEL. Though I suppose you don't know what that is either.

An alpha-channel is responsible for the transparency of a model- for instance; team-colour.
It is created using more advanced tools than Paint, I believe it is possible in GIMP, and I will check it out right now to confirm that and tell you how to do it. (I chose GIMP because I saw you mention it, thereby I assume you've got it.)

Stay tuned..

 

[Mulgrim]

thank you i will give +rep and credits to both.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Yes, it can be easily done in GIMP and I will show you with a screenshot.

1. Make sure you have a window with your layers, (the title of the window is usually 'Layers, Channels..')
- if not, go File>Dialogs>Channels (in the main GIMP window)
2. Select the channels tab (as shown on the screenshot)
3. Right-click* in the list of channels (usually there's Red, Green, Blue already- and if you make a new image with a transparent background in GIMP, it will automatically add the Alpha channel) and click 'New channel..'
4. Name the new channel Alpha and make sure it is completely black (unless you actually want to Alpha something out of the skin- not the background, this isn't used by the model and does not need to be removed with Alpha)
5. Save the image as a .tga (can't recall the bit-format that .blp files and the converter prefers, but that is probably easy to find in one of the tutorials on this site)
6. You're done (given you already have done the other things I mentioned; resizing and defining a new wrap for the model)

*If there already is a channel named Alpha in the list, you do not need to do anything.

 

[Mulgrim]

excellent ! thank you both so much,+rep and credits to both, i'll try it when i get on my computer. also, out of curiosity, why does it need an alpha channel?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

The .blp has an Alpha channel (sort of), and in-order for the conversion to work smoothly it is best that the to-be-converted-type is as similar to the target-conversion-type as possible.

As for what the alpha-channel does; add team-colour (not glow) to units, remove certain parts of the skin.

 

[chilla_killa]

Just make a new with Gimp or Photoshop with the size 256*256 pixel, fill in the texture save it as .tga and convert it to blp. That will work perfect.
By the way, we don't call this skinning. This is texturing. Skinning is something about modelling and bones.

 

[Mulgrim]

is the texture size on paint supposed to end up really tiny? that's 256x256?

 

[Vosty]

Yeah.
Use some other square size. Try 512 x 512. That's a reasonable size (For size. If you like high detail get bigger, but your map will be larger.)

 

[Deleted member 157129]

That looks about right, yeah.

Chilla_killa, the WC3 Community has always referred to texturing as 'skinning', although the term is wrong, it is the tradition among WC3 Modders. I guess it's because someone started calling textures for 'skins'..

EDIT: @above, there's no need to waste the size of a 512x512 for a damn weapon.. you barely see it on skins (textures), so why the hell bother with a weapon (unless it's high-poly and large in-game)?

 

[Mulgrim]

well, it doesn't look high poly, but not very low either, i haven't checked... will a 512x512 increase the file size?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

About double the filesize.

 

[Mulgrim]

damn, ok.

i'm going to sleep now, i'll try in the morning *yawn*

EDIT:

ok i made a new alpha channel... filled opacity to 100 to make it all black and the whole texture turns black aswell, also there is another below the alpha channel, what is it? it says "selection mask copy"

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Hmm, something looks odd, 'cause the thumbnails etc are supposed to be aligned. Might be because it is a .jpg image?

Sorry it's a bit early in the morning for me, I'll try to get you an answer later.


The alpha-channel itself is supposed to show up black, but no layers should be black. Have you tried selecting a layer again for example?

 

[Mulgrim]

ehh no, hehe. i'll just do that...

by the way... isn't there an option in Wc3 Viewer, in bmp/tga to blp, right before it's converted... sometimes it asks something about the texture and if you want to add an alpha channel y/n.

can i just do that?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

If it asks about adding an alpha channel, sure then that will probably work.

 

[Mulgrim]

ahhhhh

/facepalm

EDIT: it worked! thank you, now do i have to add an attachment point or something?

 

[Deleted member 157129]

To add the sword to a unit in game? If you mean to get the skin to actually fir around the sword-- I wouldn't know, that's something modellers do and not texturers, you could try the models board.

Sorry for not thinking of that before, by the way, I wasn't aware WC3Viewer had a BMP->BLP converter.

Good luck with your sword.

 

[Mulgrim]

already uploaded it here thanks a lot

 

[Vosty]

Can I see a link?
I almost was about to tell you thaqt wc3viewer has that, but I held back, cause I thought it didn't look good for .bmp's. I just use .jpeg's.