Help with lights

[Guldknol]

Anyone who can help me????

I resize a car... lost lights even textures why?? and how to repair it??

[Pizzaman]

Would be hard to tell, as we don't know what you resized and what you did it with.

But the textures, if you do it in any 3D program, are bound to the vertexes so should be there.

[Guldknol]

I resized a Ford GT 40 MKII ...... lost both headlight and taillight ... the "FORD_GT40_TAILLIGHT_GLOW.GMT"..."FORD_GT40_HEADLIGHT_GLOW.GMT" appears without textures...... it looks very very green and there are no lights at all....

[Guldknol]

..ooo sorry used 3dSimEd......

[Pizzaman]

Then in 3Dsimed you should get a message that it missing the textures, right?
You will then have to find the textures and throw them in the car folder.
Then it will find them again.

You can also edit the textures, and then you can see if they are really missing.

[Guldknol]

no I don´t get any message about missing textures... presume the texture files are named FORD_GT40_LIGHTS00.BMP and FORD_GT40_LIGHTS01.BMP... but this files are not availlable can´t open them in 3Dsmax.... don´t know any other way to connect gmt and texture files.....

[Guldknol]

by the way... if I resize one (for example left headlight glow) of the "glow" files.... I lose all the other to..

[Pizzaman]

Well I guess they are all mapped to the same spot, eh.
So one will affect the others.
Like wheels they also have the same texture for all four wheels.

Hmmm... interesting problem.
But you should be able to connect those textures with 3DsimEd, too.
I'd have a look at how they are connected in other cars.

This is one of those things that one GMT hass different textures, depending on state.
It's like with wheels, they also have different tex deopending on roll.
You can't really do that in Max I guess, and it has to be done in 3DsimEd.

However, I don't know how exactly, so you should open the original ones (with 3DsimEd) and have a look.

[Guldknol]

I hsve looked at some other cars... and I get the picture .. you shall have two different texture files... one for no lights on and one for lights on..... but how to control it with a push on the button???...

[Guldknol]

I hsve looked at some other cars... and I get the picture .. you shall have two different texture files... one for no lights on and one for lights on...right?.. but how to control it with a push on the button???.

[Guldknol]

or a foot on the brake pedal??:?:

[Pizzaman]

Oh, I guess that differes which game you have.
I know they will not work unless you have the correct names.
It is the same with the cockpit which will not work unless you have the proper manufacturer.
But I do not know which name you have to give to the texture.

The rest is controlled by the game (brake or lights).

[Goresh]

I'm guessing you resized the car model to be bigger, if so my guess is the lights still work but are now buried inside the car model. To verify comment out the chassis model in the cas file, ingame you should now see the working lights.

[Guldknol]

I resizised just the X-axel... so if I don´t touch the lightfiles at all, they work properly... but they are to close to each other, there should be more space between them... thats no problem just move them with the translatefunction in 3dSimEd..... BUT... and here are the problem When I move the "glow" files with the 3dSimEd they lose the texture connections and appears very green in the game and ofcourse no working light........ well then I convert the glowfiles to 3ds so I can work with it in the 3DsMax... the right texturefile are unluckely not availlable so I did one myself named it just like the original...I connect the 3dsglowfiles with the new texture file by the modefy tab meshselect and then material editor and bitmap....it works all the way even in the game.. no very green ...but.. I can only get the light off or on depending on which texturefile I choose.....can`t control it with the light button or the brakepedal in the game...........hope ju understand what I talking about:-) sorry for my english

[Guldknol]

by the way...nice logo Goresh :thumbup:

[Goresh]

Can you upload the repositioned lights with the original textures, not the new ones you made and I'll have a look at them. Changing a models location in 3d space will have no effect on its mapping, this stays tied to the model. I'll be able to tell you whats wrong if I can see the files.

[Pizzaman]

I can only get the light off or on depending on which texturefile I choose.....can`t control it with the light button or the brakepedal in the game...........hope ju understand what I talking about

From what I understand, you have assigned the textures with Max.
You need to assign the textures with 3DsimEd, in that program there are options to assign multiple textures to one and same mesh.
Don't aks me what/how though... I'm not yet THAT far.

[Guldknol]

that whold be very kind of you Goresh....but I am ashamed to tell that I don´t know how to upload it:-)

[Guldknol]

well... come to think about.... when I import the glow-file to 3dSimEd the texture already are lost...the texture files FORD_GT40_LIGHTS00.BMP/FORD_GT40_LIGHTS01.BMP are coded..... is that why they don`t goes with the glowfile??

[Pizzaman]

Coded? I don't think they are coded...
It's sometimes a bit weird how they work, but GTL has no coded bitmaps.

[the brace]

well... come to think about.... when I import the glow-file to 3dSimEd the texture already are lost...the texture files FORD_GT40_LIGHTS00.BMP/FORD_GT40_LIGHTS01.BMP are coded..... is that why they don`t goes with the glowfile??

I think you will find that although they are called *.BMP they are in fact *.TGA. This has caused me problems in the past when messing with GTL lights.

[Pizzaman]

So, the encoding is probably the Alpha layer...
...which explains the green.

It always happens too when I mess up the (TGA) icons.

[the brace]

So, the encoding is probably the Alpha layer...
...which explains the green.

It always happens too when I mess up the (TGA) icons.

I use PSP, and I believe you do too. I haven't had a problem with *.TGAs so far, but have you tried working in *.PSD and converting to *.TGA with DDS Converter? Don't know if it will solve your problems, but it might be worth a try.

[Pizzaman]

Yes I have PSP (9) too. But somehow TGA will not really work with my XP and the dual core...
I do all conversions to TGA with paint.net, which gives a better quality (32 bit as PSP gives only 24 bit).
Pitradio fixed me up with a good plugin for PSP for the DDS stuff, as DDSconverter always gave problems too.
Probably it is my ATi card... well it works fine in GTL, that's the main thing, haha!

I have used DDSconverter a lot on my old rig, and that was fine for both TGA and DDS.
But it took me a few months to get my new rig fully functional.
The plugin for PSP would work, but not give me a choice of how many mipmaps in DDS.
Which sucked as sometimes I got 24 and nothing could be done about it.

[Guldknol]

Thanks a lot guys.... you solved my problem....just renamed the *BMP files to *TGA and it all worked out very nice...:-D

[the brace]

Thanks a lot guys.... you solved my problem....just renamed the *BMP files to *TGA and it all worked out very nice...:-D

No problem :-)

Glad it worked for you

[ravenmorpheus2k]

Just for further reference, if anyone is interested I maybe able to shed some further light on the problem.

It seems to me that 3d Simed has a habit of re-writing the data for materials. I.e. where the texture files are .bmp files 3d Simed will save the material on the related gmt so it looks for a .tga file instead.

But when you first open the gmt the material is ok.

I was finding this with GTR Evo and cars I've converted to it.

The way to solve it, other than renaming the .bmp to .tga is to hexedit the material back into the gmt after you've edited the position of it in 3d Simed.

Hope that helps.