[Question] How to use vanilla textures in blender

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Flippi
Posts: 872
Joined: Fri, 21. Mar 08, 11:22
x3tc

[Question] How to use vanilla textures in blender

Post by Flippi » Tue, 23. Nov 21, 17:55

Hello there, forum.

I have a short, and rather embarrassing question that I haven't seen answered anywhere. How do I work with the vanilla game textures inside blender (or any 3d program for that matter). All I got are rar files of them and if I unpack them, I get 'file' files, which are not helpful at all.

What I am trying to do:

I have ship models, loads of them (from X3 AP). But they aren't textured and not ready to work in the X4 game environment (but can be imported into blender, UE4 or many other programs due to them being .obj files). So I thought I'd go and learn how to do that myself and start with texturing ships as a first step on my way to do that. I want to use vanilla textures because firstly, they do look better than the aging X3 ones, secondly, 'new' textures probably wouldn't work with the paint mods without hassle, and thirdly, because the vanilla textures are already there. And no before you ask, my ships were cconverted with gmax, so they aren't textured and smoothed out at all sadly. If I'd have 3dsmax, I'd already converted the majority of X3 ships. But alas, I don't, so I have to use what I got.

I haven't found anything regarding X4 textures anywhere. And it's driving me a bit mad. Maybe I overlooked something, which is possible. So I appreciate any kind of direction.

Another question regarding the forum here: Why is there no general Script and modding question thread? I mean, I would have asked there instead of opening up a new thread. And considering I might have many more questions about other topics, I really don't feel like creating too many threads over time.
KI Schiffsnamen/AI Shipnames
ETNO Mod Techdemo/Ressources Release: English / Deutsch

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Axeface
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Joined: Fri, 18. Nov 05, 00:41
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Re: [Question] How to use vanilla textures in blender

Post by Axeface » Tue, 23. Nov 21, 18:25

Ships meshes are split up into different objects for each material, and they need to be named to correspond with the material that each mesh is using. If you import some x4 ships you will see, their names are things like:-

anim_main
anim_mainXlod0
anim_mainXlod0XgenericXgeneric_p1_hulltexture

generic_p1_hulltexture is the name of the material in materials.xml and the textures for that material are in assets\textures\generic and the specific texture is generic_p1_hulltexture_diff.dds.

To see the textures in blender you just need to rename those 'files' you extracted from X4 to dds, then in blender go to the shading tab and direct the materials to the dds files (you might have to extract them before giving them the extension, they are gz archives and 7zip can extract them. Not sure right now).

Flippi
Posts: 872
Joined: Fri, 21. Mar 08, 11:22
x3tc

Re: [Question] How to use vanilla textures in blender

Post by Flippi » Tue, 23. Nov 21, 19:11

Ships meshes are split up into different objects for each material, and they need to be named to correspond with the material that each mesh is using. If you import some x4 ships you will see, their names are things like:-
Good to know. I couldn't check with X4 ships yet, due to the converting tool being... well, yeah. I knew about the different groups from one of the tutorials, and of course X3 had something similar. Sadly, I have to completely recreate these groups manually for my ships, because gmax. So I guess that'll be a hassle.
To see the textures in blender you just need to rename those 'files' you extracted from X4 to dds, then in blender go to the shading tab and direct the materials to the dds files (you might have to extract them before giving them the extension, they are gz archives and 7zip can extract them. Not sure right now).
Thank you. I go and try that out soon. Not sure If I get to check today. But at least I got a starting point.

Thanks again.
KI Schiffsnamen/AI Shipnames
ETNO Mod Techdemo/Ressources Release: English / Deutsch

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