Falklands War 40 Year Project
I have started a project to develope PS/Flight/scenery objects for a helicopter flight to celebrate the people who took part in this war especially the rotary wings of the Navy, RM, Army Air Corp and RAF personal.
Initial idear was the landings at San Carlos (plenty of ships to land on etc) a flight taking in the well know battles and ending in Port Stanley.
Anyway FGUK has alot of the helicopters and some of the ship already plus the ships already in FG, but I need two floating dock assult ships L10 & L11 HMS Fearlesss & HMS Intrepid, I found a very detailed FSX mdl but struggling with adding textures to the model. I have included the project files so far.
Does anybody have a easy guide on how to make FSX textures to ac3d models.
Currently using AC3d, blender, MSX, GIMP
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmRcwtiRJxd97lxp1XlSl5QjV2WY?e=62bSNA
Any help guidance I would be grateful for (aim would be for me to be able to UV map and texture myself)
Comments
I have HMS Hermes mostly converted over
I have the Wessex helicopter ( for years ) but unable to get anyone to texture it.
Thanks for the reply
I have a HMS Hermes from XPlane and various other some good to go and others needing textures adding correctly.
Will do a proper list later
There ya go
Once again many thanks
Hi Oly,
I can't put together a tutorial about UV maps for you that works for you via the forum. It would work if you sat next to me at the computer and I could show you all how it is possible to create UV maps for different 3d models. But you're not sitting next to me.
The only thing I can do for you is this link. Andrew Price explains very well how to create UV maps. However, I would unwrapping the anvil differently, there are several ways to create good UV maps. I often use....Project from View....and sometimes some other options (it depends on the 3d model and how I want the textures on the 3d model).
That's a learning curve you'd have to go through if you enjoy it.
The easiest way is Warty's example, which gives you a full textured 3d model.
Or that you are looking for ready-made free textured 3D models on the web and maybe there's something there for you that you can use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scPSP_U858k
Hi Eagle
Thanks for the reply, I would like to learn to do UV mapping myself (also have AC3D), I have found alot of ship models which all need texturing.
I few months ago I did try to do UV Mapping using Blender (partical success) and Warty corrected my first model.
Since then I have to start again (new pc, lost all previous settings etc) and has I have not used Blender for a few months I forgotten what I had learnt.
The Collada version (HMS Fearless.dae) was already mapped - just that they were flipped vertically. Maybe the same for your other models? Worth a try.
A common problem with imports to FlightGear is that other formats use differing XYZ axes, map flipping and even scaling. A unit in an .ac file is a metre - other formats, not necessarily. X-Plane models are rotated 90 deg from above and are limited to one image per .obj file (mostly) But with those with multiple parts (wings, cabin, gear etc) you can generally open each one in AC3D and they will stack up. Then just rotate the whole lot together.
This is a feature of AC3D but can also be a bug to the unwary. If you have "model.ac" already open, then double clicking it loads it again. Twice the size, twice the vertices and much harder to edit. If you save it and repeat that - guess what? I think that's probably why your tower got so big.
As Eagle hinted, experience is the best teacher. And reading the manuals helps a lot.
I am exporting the orginal .mdl files using MXC in Collada format, openning in Blender rotating to the correct orientation which open fine in AC3D.
Some models come with one or three texture files or loads of bmp files which only visable using DXTbmp program and saving as a DD file.
I have experimented in creating a 2048 x 2048 file in GIMP and copying the various seperate texxture files into a single texture file which is closer to the fully textured models. Tried the uv mapping function in ac3d and it created a very complicated uv bmp file.
Ok, that's enough experience for the time being :o) I think you're heading way off track. Send a .zip of the .dae and all accompanying graphics - .dds .png .bmp or whatever - and I'll look at it. If it's the same issue as the last one it will be an easy fix and I'll explain how to do it.
Hi Warts
This a nice example I found of the 1982 version of SS Canberra (with helipads)
I so far have got 30+ships (RN and merchant navy) so guidance on creating a UV mapping or making the existing models+textures work correctly. When adding a single texture file is covers the wrong areas so help would be useful.
OneDrive link to files for SS Canberra
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmRcwtiRJxd971EsegiwF7hjqHnZ?e=E68B93
It's not looking so bad now:
Though the Wessex05.dds file is blank so I put the specular file Wessex05_Spec.dds there instead.
First issue with this was that although each 'node' is texture mapped they weren't allocated a texture. So go to Object mode, pick one and then use Object - Texture - Load texture to pick one
Each 'node' map then needs to be flipped vertically (some might need moving slightly):
using Tools - Texture coordinate editor...
All those ships could be converted to AI with full wave motion, and some may be also suitable for Player captaining too.
Hi Warts
Many thanks for your help, I will have a proper go myself (the help for AC3D is very limited compared to the help tutorials/videos available for Blender, but Blender is more complicated to use and remembering how to use it if your have a break from it).
Hi Stuart
Alot of the models I found from FSX/XPlane are pilotable and some are just Ai static models. I am only trying to gather enough correct (the actual ships) initially to represent the 25th May 1982 the landing day in San Carlos sound.
I have now many ships models ready which look acceptable in AC3D but when placed in the scenery the textures revered to be not correct.
Example of SS Canberra in AC3D and in FG, some of the other ships are even worst.
What I am doing wrong?
Ive seen this happen. Somehow the textures get rotated 90 derees on some converted models
oooh is that a Leander I spy there?
SS Canberra &_HMS Andromeda Falklands 1982