Problem My mesh textures don't show up

[OrbitalJoe]

I was (attempting) to make a vessel with my own mesh, but have run into trouble with the textures. I've followed all found instructions but my textures just don't show up. Instead, the model is just silver all over. I've probaly made a mistake somewhere along the line, so here is exactly what I did:

1. I made a model in anim8or. I applied 'materials' in that program.
2. I exported the model as .3ds format. A folder where I saved the file was created, which contained textures in .jpg folder.
3. I converted the .3ds format model to .msh using 'Msh_Maker'
4. I put the .msh file in the meshes folder in the orbiter directory.
5. I used the program 'paint.net' to open the jpg textures from anim8or and saved them with new names in the orbiter textures folder as .dds files.
6. I changed the .msh file's texture index to the new names.
7. I wrote up a quick config vessel file for the vessel, with the mesh's name in.
8. I loaded up orbiter and used the scenario editor to load the vessel in and BOOM it's all silver! No textures.

I've been over everything again and again and havn't got anyway, so any support would be appriciated.

-OrbitalJoe

 

[orb]

What are dimensions of used textures, and their file sizes (to check if they are 2^ and DXT)?

Did you save them with DXT(1,3,or 5) compression?

Can you check if a textured mesh group has 8 numbers a row for definition of vertices (the best is just to check the first line below GEOM of a textured group)?

 

[martins]

Check if the problem is with your texture or mesh: Modify one of the existing (working) meshes to load your texture. If it shows up, then the problem is with the mesh, otherwise there is a texture problem.

If it's the texture:

• make sure that the width and height of the texture are multiples of 2
• make sure that the dds compression is DXT1 or DXT5. Those are the vanilla compression methods used by orbiter, and should work. More exotic compression methods may not be supported by your graphics card

If it's the mesh:

• start out with a default (working) orbiter texture in your mesh, just in case there is a problem with both your mesh and texture
• make sure that the mesh group definitions contain the correct TEXTURE tags
• make sure that the texture coordinates are ok

Edit::ninja:

 

[Hielor]

5. I used the program 'paint.net' to open the jpg textures from anim8or and saved them with new names in the orbiter textures folder as .dds files.

Did you actually save them as the .dds format, or did you just change the name to be .dds? It looks like Paint.NET needs a plugin to save as .dds (google for it).

 

[OrbitalJoe]

Ok, I did what martins said and have confirmed this is a mesh problem, not the textures as they work fine on other meshes.

I'm going to need a little help sorting the mesh out, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'texture coordinates' and 'definintion of vertices'. I'm new to all this and it's, to be honest, a scary page of numbers that I'm going to need guidance to understand.

 

[Kendo]

If the mesh itself shows up in Orbiter, I woudn,t worry too much at this stage, it,s probably a simple mistake somewhere. If the mesh has the correct texture names at the bottom, and the textures are in the textures folder, then it should work. Sometimes if the textures names are in capitals, it may cause problems. I would re-check your texture names and the texture names at the end of the msh. file.

 

[JEL]

This is what anim8or looks like to me when adding textures. I don't know if it is any help:

 

[orb]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'texture coordinates'

UV-map.

and 'definintion of vertices'.

Doc/OrbiterCfg.pdf, page 29:

MATERIAL <i>
TEXTURE <j> [b]- mandatory in your case[/b]
GEOM <nv> <nt>
<x[sub]0[/sub]> <y[sub]0[/sub]> <z[sub]0[/sub]> <nx[sub]0[/sub]> <ny[sub]0[/sub]> <nz[sub]0[/sub]> <tu[sub]0[/sub]> <tv[sub]0[/sub]>
...
<x[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <y[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <z[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <nx[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <ny[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <nz[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <tu[sub]nv-1[/sub]> <tv[sub]nv-1[/sub]>
<triangle definitions * nt>
...

where:
    <x> <y> <z>:  vertex position 
    <nx> <ny> <nz>: vertex normal
    <tu> <tv>:  texture coordinates - [b]mandatory in your case[/b]

When you open the mesh with notepad (or other plain text editor), you should see 8 numbers a row just below GEOM for a mesh group which has defined TEXTURE. If not any group has TEXTURE, then no texture is applied to any part of your mesh. If you have only 3 numbers a row or 6 numbers a row there (don't confuse them with triangles, which are defined just below vertices), you have no texture coordinates defined (the UV-map). In any case, a white mesh (or in other color if material definition changes ambient, diffuse, specular colors) will or may appear.

 

[OrbitalJoe]

Ok, I did what everyone said and still no result. So I decided to redo everything (re-export in Anim8or, re-convert with mesh maker) and voila, the textures showed up. I have NO idea what caused it originally, but it's fixed now. Thanks for your support

-OrbitalJoe

 

[martins]

I have NO idea what caused it originally, but it's fixed now.
-OrbitalJoe

There are usually two possibilities:

• your software hates you
• you made a mistake

but without more information it's impossible to say which applies in your case.