Building colors

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snoopy55
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Building colors

Post by snoopy55 » Mon Nov 05, 2007 9:53 pm

In doing editing on a building, the Brewery, I changed the names to Coffee Plant, aand edited the Coffee_Plant_DIFF.dds to the colors I wanted. In looking at it in NifSkope, it looked fine, correct colors and all. In putting it into the map and playing it, it showed up as purple.

Ant ideas what I did wrong? I've done train car color changing, but I did full image color adjust and added lettering on those. On this it was changing the colors of sections or pixels.
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I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

Tijer
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Post by Tijer » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:41 pm

In what format did you save the DDS? DXT1 or 3? That could be the problem.

snoopy55
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Post by snoopy55 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:00 am

I hope it is...... I used DDS Converter 2 to change from DDS to TGA, edited the file with Paint Shop pro 7, then chenged it back to DDS with DDS converter 2. I have no idea how to control the changing.

OOOps, just checked the program..... DDS is set for nVida, DXT3, Build mpmaps and Save alpha (if any). It will do S3 or nVida, DXT1c / DXT1a / DXT3 / DXT5. Can also 'Add dithering' (?) and 'Fast compress' (?).

DDS Converter 2.1 is free and has worked great, up until this 1 building. I've used it to do the Dock and other editing of DDSs in this game.

Attached is the Coffee Plant building and NIF/KFM files. There are 3 different versions of the cofee plant. Have a look....


:twisted:
Last edited by snoopy55 on Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Star Ranger4
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Post by Star Ranger4 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:35 am

I'm whistling in the dark here.... but if this is the first time something like this has happened to you, I have to wonder if maybe the model as exported had a slightly purple tint to it?

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Warll
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Post by Warll » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:50 am

Star Ranger4 wrote:I'm whistling in the dark here.... but if this is the first time something like this has happened to you, I have to wonder if maybe the model as exported had a slightly purple tint to it?
No.
Image

snoopy55
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Post by snoopy55 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:12 am

Ya, what he said....... :P

The attempt was done in at least two ways. The first was to outline the main roof part, copy it, paste it into a new window, do a 'Red/Green/Blue' adjust to it, copy it and paste it back into the same place. The same was done to the other parts of the roof, adding an Alpha Layer and erasing anything I didn't want affected.
The second way was to select a shade of Red from the roof, select a shade of Green from the matching spot on the first attempt and do a Replacement on all the roof parts. I went thru and repeated it for the rest of the Reds.
First, no Purple was involved, and second, only the roof was changed in one of them, yet all three attempts were Purple. The only common thing was the NIF and KFM files, but if I use the Brewery DDS files, they turn out fine.

Now, if someone can suggest a way to deal with this, I'd be very happy. If someone could suggest a different building, one that has smokestacks, or add smokestacks to the Factory or Warehouse, I'd be grateful.

Any takers???


:twisted:
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

Tijer
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Post by Tijer » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:02 pm

As a guess, I would as that you are not picking up your tga files or maybe a conflict. In review of the file posted, I see what may be some unnecessary data like the the CofPlnt Files, also I see line 40 make reference to a a ddsery extension instead dds. Everything else looks normal but still looking.
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snoopy55
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Post by snoopy55 » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:32 pm

Oh Great and Powerful Tijer, I Bow To You!! :D :D :D That was the answer!!!

How the last 3 letters of Brewery got there I couldn't tell you as I only highlight and change the first part. But hey, I try not to be perfect all the time, it makes others look bad......... :wink:

As to the unnecessary DDS files in there, each was a different set, the CofPlnt being the one I wanted and the others being variations in the DIFF version of the DDS files. Also, when I make changes in graphics using TGA and other types of file types, I tend to leave them in the folders in case someone else wants to either see how it was done or wants to do thier own variation of it


:twisted:
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Kenster
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Post by Kenster » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:32 am

Hmm...
Did you use "1-4a Rename" on those files? Just wondering incase we need to look out for this if I ever get a chance to use it.

ps Those files I downloaded all look to be good.. Thanks Snoopy :wink:
Ken

Tijer
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Post by Tijer » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:49 am

So is the world of computers. Do everything right and it still wouldn't work. First time that I have heard of a computer making up it's own file extension though. My guess is that you have spent to much time on the project, and have become blinded by it. Not the first or the last time, I'm sure.

On the subject of other materials, I follow what you are doing but issue caution with that since this game comes apart at anything. Not only that, the program could actually use them and really cause confusion. Now back to work, since many are waiting to play what ever map you are building.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600@2.4GHz
2 GB PC5400 DDR2 Ram
MB nVidia nForce 680i LT SLI
GC GeForce 7300GS 256MB PCI-E
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snoopy55
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Post by snoopy55 » Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:18 am

Kenster wrote:Hmm...
Did you use "1-4a Rename" on those files? Just wondering incase we need to look out for this if I ever get a chance to use it.
The affected 'thing' was the file 'inside' of the NIF. "1-4a Rename" didn't touch those.


What may have happened is I have a copy of the part I want to change ( coffee_plant ) highlite the part I want to change (Brewery ) and paste . Sometimes because of my unsteady hand (old age you know.... :wink: ) the highlite flicks the other way. I may have thought I caught it and rewrote it, not getting it all.

Tijer - ya, sometimes I do spend to much time on it. Sometimes I get interupted and loose my train of thought. For some reason if i try to click on a NIF file from my on-board video (I use 3 screens, 2 card, 1 on-board) it locks up the whole computer. Ain't figured that one out yet, and I'm not always paying attention to which screen I working from. Then I may have lost 1 of my 4 year old 160 Gb drives and everything on it because I was using it as my VM drive. This game overworked it I think. I have a 8.4 Gb drive strictly for that now, and plan on getting a <5 Gb drive for it.

Well, back to the Mods aand Map..... :P


:twisted:
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....

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Lowell
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Post by Lowell » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:42 am

The easy way to change colors...and the only way that I know that will work 100% of the time is to...
First take the DIFF.DDS file for your model and convert it to a DIFF.TGA type file.

Next take the TGA graphic file you made into Photoshop or Corel's Paint shop pro or one like them.

Use your color change tool inside your graphics software...I even add signs to the buildings as a "roster layer" with a transparent background.

When you have finished doctoring up your diff.tga file in your graphics software...convert the diff.tga back to a diff.dds type file.

Then all you need do is go inside the Niff and Kfm files and make sure all your entrys have the same model name and you're done.

Changing the colors inside the Nif file may "show" your color change...but when the game drapes the texture map (diff.dds file) over your color change...well you might not like the result lets say. The DIFF.DDS file holds the TGA color map for your model...change all colors etc inside it.

Free stuff you need...
PakBuild .......... to extract building model files.
Image Convertor Plus ....... DDS to TGA and back to DDS ...etc.


You will need an editor for the graphic files...most are free for 30 days.
Corel's is around $70 - $90 and will do anything that Photoshop will do...Adobe is real proud of Photoshop...it's around $300-$400, depends which set you buy.

Also...you should not be having trouble clicking on a nif file and have NifScope fire up and show the model. Sounds like you may have anouther problem not related to the software...NifScope is a small squirt program, however you do need certian Dot Net and C++ files installed inside Windows for it to run properly. Inside NifScope you can add shadows, lights, effects to all models...even animation sets... ie. smoke, turing wheels. Oh...there is also a "new" version of NifScope out...it plays the models animations and stuff where the old version won't. Download the newer version of NifScope then get the updates for your windows and see if it runs better.

EDIT//Warll is right...I forgot all about Gimp...and I even use it :roll: ...'course...I have too many apps to keep up with them all.
Last edited by Lowell on Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:15 am, edited 6 times in total.

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Warll
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Post by Warll » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:03 am

Corel: $70
Photoshop: $300
GIMP 2.4: Priceless

For everything else theres Mastercard.

Seriously just get GIMP.
Image

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Star Ranger4
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Post by Star Ranger4 » Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:44 am

I have to second that. GIMP has been my primary... hoek, only image editing software for at least 2 years now....

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