try exploding the mesh first as a .obj, .lwo, or .3ds file in Rhino first (it will preserve tex coords), if you want to edit it...
or just import straight into Milkshape...
Then the fun starts:
- click on the first tab, click "Select", choose "ignore backfaces" and or "by Vertex" as you desire. You will gradually learn the pro and con of each option.
- go to the menus at top > select Window > Show Viewport Captions. These are the view names + scaling boxes. the 1st number is a scale factor, the 2nd 2 numbers are the mindist and maxdist that is shown in that viewport, like a "range"
- right click in 3D window > uncheck "draw backfaces" > check "Textured"... you will alternate between Textured and Wireframe views. Use Textured to check your progress after you assign a texture.
- use other 3 windows to select the faces of your ship you wish to texture > click GROUP tab > you can also select any pre-made groups here, unselect them, hide them, etc...
- if the polygons you have selected are not already a group, or are a new/seperate part of a group... select >Groups > Regroup > then rename this new grouping... type in the new name in the box then hit "Rename"
- have the new group selected in red and NO others...
- click Materials tab > select a material (or make new one) > click on the TOP long, horizontal bar there towards the middile that currently says ""
- find the .bmp of the texture that you wanted to put on there. Use .bmp, they are better resolution. File must be EXACTLY same size and dimension as the .Lif you will use later. > click "OK" > this texture appears wrapped aroudn the sphere there above the bar. Adjust 4 lighting values: Ambient, Specular, Diffuse, Emissive. HW uses (i think) the following values -
Ambient: full black
Specular: full white
Diffuse: full white
Emissive: full black (EXCEPT on glowy textures - then set FULL white)
- click "Apply" near bottom
- watch texture appear on 3D model in 3D window if you have "Textured selected.
- open > top menus > Window > Texture Coordianate Editor > select the new group, select the view, click "Redraw", change scale factor to easily see it (DO NOT HIT DELETE while changing the scale factor, it will erase your model!!!!)
- if you do not see an outline of hte mesh appear on the Texture, then hit "REMAP" and the mesh wireframe will appear stretched out to fill the entire texture region. click "Scale" to readust it's size and stretch. Click "Move" .... duh...
if you need to edit only certain vertices , then click "Select" and select the vertices using shift + leftclick (unselect in milkshape using shift+rightclick, very easy. Cntl does OTHER things, don't worry for now).
- watch your texture appear and move around during this whole process in the 3D window
...
- done? Click File > SaveAs > (save as .ms3d file for backup)
click File > Export > save as .3DS or an .OBJ are usually the best and most useful 2 formats.
More questions? This below is from a recent post i answered...
Download liflist here:)!!
it explains a bit in the readme, but basically you must
- design your texture in Paint shop PRo or photoshpo or something, then
- Save As > .psd file type not .bmp for .jpg or etc... just .psd file type
- put .psd in ..\liflist\datasrc\tex\
- put textures.ll file into ..\liflist\data\
- make *.mif file in ..\liflist\datasrc\
- *.mif file has lines like this for each texture you want to convert....
TEXTURES += etg\textures\heavycorvette0.lif
- do the lil RUN\DOS\RUN thing... (heh... funny dude, funny) ((basically get the DOS command prompt up and running))
- change directories to ..\liflist\
- type....
liflist Q data\textures.ll datasrc\mystuff.mif
- hope 'n' pray while it does it's thing. Any error messages? Try making sure path and filenames ar right, then also make sure .psd fiel was made correctly.
- if no errors then go into ..\liflist\data\tex\ directory and pull out your new .Lif
PSD requirements:
only mulitple of 2 in size... 64x128, 64x256, 256x256, 128x128, etc...
256x256 is MAX size
must have at least layers: TEX, COL1, COL2
can also have an ALPHA layer
name layers exactly like above, COL1 = base color, COL2 = stripe color
ALPHA layer gives transparancy, select blend mode = multiply, and use ONLY white or black. White = opaque (can see textures), black = transparant.
COL1 and COL2 can be set for any transparency level for that layer and any blend mode. Gives interesting effects and see thru team colors over the TEX layer. Nifty stuff. play with it, can give nice results and new colors. (ie - red TEX layer + player selects blue team color + TEX and COL1 overlap = purple color in-game)
example of see thru COL1 layer, see tailfin of the A-10 warthog here:
http://www.chadland.com/dp/texprob2.jpg