Simviation Forum - Texture Errors

Jul 5^th, 2003 at 9:50am

VF-8 Doc Offline
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Greetings Folks,

Just looking for some advice on repaints. It seems that everytime I repaint my favorite bird (F6F-3) in CFS2, I get some funky things happening in game. It seems to occur only when I repaint the area of the wheelwell and/or the inner-most flaps. I will update this post with a screenshot to help explain. I have a couple of ideas and wanted to run them by the experts here. I'm really enjoying repainting planes, but it gets frustrating when things don't happen like ya want 'em to....right? lol
Anyway... my guesses as to why things are awkward and these:

1. I've used MDLEdit to correct my collision bubble, and that's causing the textures to look funny.

2. There's something in the MDL file that doesn't like this area of the plane to be repainted.

Fixes:

1. Reinstall CFS2 and never ever use MDLEdit again. (lol)

2. Use Mr Hagar's repaint tutorial to do the repaints using the FRHED program.

3. Repaint the planes except for the flaps and wheelwell areas.

4. Give up and just fly stock planes. (never!! I don't give up...repainting is too fun Shocked

) )

Any input would be greatly appreciated folks, thanks a million in advance.

Doc

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Reply #1 - Jul 5^th, 2003 at 10:34am

Hagar Offline
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Doc. Not an expert but I am familiar with the basics. By MDLEdit do you mean the M$ MDL Converter Tool or some other utility? It occurs to me that whatever it is might not like your hex-edited MDL file. Try patching it with MDLEdit first. Then add your repainted textures (using the original file names). Check it out in Free Flight without the hex editing. If that works, rename the textures, hex edit the MDL & try it again.

This might also depend on the aircraft you're repainting. tell me where to get it & I might be able to check it out for you.

PS. I always used Tcdfsview to fix the collision bubble on aircraft created with the original FSDS.

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Reply #2 - Jul 5^th, 2003 at 10:45am

VF-8 Doc Offline
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They took my pic away.....

Posts: 16

Hagar, MDLEdit is only a collision bubble fix, I'll fix you up with the link as soon as I can find where I got it..lol. I don't believe it's from microsoft, but I'll look into it. Something funny just occurred, and I hadn't thought about this before. I just reinstalled CFS2, left MDLEdit in a far off folder, and started the game. My graphics settings may be to blame. I have a pretty stout computer, but even with the STOCK Hellcat, I saw these inconsistancies in the undercarriage and flaps areas. Any thoughts on this? Also.. with my repaints, when I put a number on the gear door, sometimes the texture for the door rotates 90 degrees, not mirrors. I find that very strange too.

One last thing, I haven't yet used the FRHED program, so I'm sure the errors aren't occuring there. Thanks again for all of your help.

Maybe I just need to turn my graphics down a hair? Here's the screen shots (if i can figure out how to post them).

« Last Edit: Jul 6^th, 2003 at 1:26pm by VF-8 Doc »

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Reply #3 - Jul 5^th, 2003 at 10:58am

VF-8 Doc Offline
Colonel
They took my pic away.....

Posts: 16

http://d.cackley.home.mchsi.com/

I'm a bit out of practice with web publishing, please forgive me. There's the link to view the pics, sorry I couldn't get them to come up on here. Thanks again.

Doc

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Reply #4 - Jul 5^th, 2003 at 11:10am

Hagar Offline
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Right. As I remember, this MDLEdit is for default aircraft only, unless they updated it. This might well have something to do with your display settings. It will depend on your system & video card & I'm not qualified to answer that, apart from making sure you have the latest manufacturers' certified drivers for your hardware. Installing the latest DirectX might also help. There is a slilght bug with the gear animation on the default Corsair which might explain the problem with the gear door textures.

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Reply #5 - Jul 5^th, 2003 at 7:11pm

VF-8 Doc Offline
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They took my pic away.....

Posts: 16

Well, there were new drivers for my video card (ATI Radeon 7200) so I installed them...still no luck. This problem is a recent one, and I can't think of anything that I've done (other than go to Windows 2000) that would be a change. Maybe that's the issue, I dunno. The plane I'm repainting is the F6F-3 Hellcat, so the Corsair gear error shouldn't affect the Hellcat, shoud it? Heck, I dunno....gets frustrating.. Maybe this is an excuse to get some new hardware...lol. Any other ideas guys? Doc

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Reply #6 - Jul 6^th, 2003 at 5:04am

Hagar Offline
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Doc. I just read through your original topic again.
Quote:

1. I've used MDLEdit to correct my collision bubble, and that's causing the textures to look funny.

Now this from your last posting.
Quote:

This problem is a recent one, and I can't think of anything that I've done (other than go to Windows 2000) that would be a change.

The logical answer would be that the MDLEdit utility is not fully compatible with Win2000. This is my best shot for now.

PS. I searched round & downloaded what I assume to be the latest version of MDLEdit. mdleditv1-1a.zip here. http://www.com-central.net/~ccdownloads/Cccfs2utilities.htm
I copied this from the Readme.
Quote:

Notes:
~~~~~
1.
Some testers reported that in offline Quick Combat and Missions, labels (distance and name display) disappear and reappear at varying distances - this may be unrelated.
2.
This modification may show your plane as a "cheat plane" to other players who have not made the adjustment. It has been suggested that all players need to have the same mdl settings for a fair game. The RAAF does not hold this view - even if all players haven't made the change, they will still benefit from less collisions by those who have. The only intent of this modification is to make for a more enjoyable game with fewer collisions.
3.
This modification stops some inflight outside views on some systems if the collision bubble is set to a number below 3.
4.
When changed with mdledit, your plane will appear larger in the Select Player Aircraft screen.

Maybe this is the explanation. Try using a higher setting than 3.

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Reply #7 - Jul 6^th, 2003 at 1:24pm

VF-8 Doc Offline
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They took my pic away.....

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Yep, I would agree hagar, but I did a cpmplete reinstall of the game, leaving out MDLEdit tweaks. I just have the bone stock game now. Could MDLEdit still be giving me troubles if I'm not using it? Doc

PS I can't figure out how to enter a quote, but my second post (a reply to your first) stated that I had done a complete reinstall. Does MDLEdit stay hidden in the bowels of the 'puter unless it's wiped out?

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Reply #8 - Jul 6^th, 2003 at 1:46pm

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

Yep, I would agree hagar, but I did a cpmplete reinstall of the game, leaving out MDLEdit tweaks. I just have the bone stock game now.

Sorry, I missed that.

Quote:

PS I can't figure out how to enter a quote,

Click the Quote icon (2nd in from lower right) on the reply window toolbar & paste the text between the brackets.

Quote:

but my second post (a reply to your first) stated that I had done a complete reinstall. Does MDLEdit stay hidden in the bowels of the 'puter unless it's wiped out?

I'm not sure if you did a full Uninstall/Install or used the Reinstall option. See my CFS2 FAQ page. http://www.simviation.com/lair/cfs2faq.htm
Either way - this will overwrite all default files. For Reinstall make sure you check the "Recopy existing files from media?" button. ALL default files including those you patched with MDLEdit or any other utility will be returned to their original condition. Make sure to back up files you wish to keep (like your repainted textures) first. Nothing is retained in the registry or the "bowels of your 'puter".

I don't think this has anything to do with CFS2. From what you're saying it's a display bug which has only become apparent since you updated to Win2000.

PS. Installing the latest DirectX 9.0a might possibly fix it. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx?url=/windows/directx/downl...

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Reply #9 - Jul 6^th, 2003 at 2:40pm

VF-8 Doc Offline
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They took my pic away.....

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I had my fingers crossed that that would work too Hagar. But, you guessed it....DirectX 9.0a didn't fix a darn thing. I think I'm gonna hit some more message boards to see if anyone else has experienced this problem. Maybe some Micro$oft support is due. Funny thing is, it used to make those visual errors only now and then, and only on repainted textures after I had repainted that area (wheelwell-flaps) of the Hellcat. Now it's doing it with the bone stock files of CFS2. Maybe my vid card is shooting craps on me? Off to find some more ideas. Thanks a bunch for your help Hagar!!

Doc

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