Final Frontier

[sci-fi guy]

I have the Milkshape installer, but I won't be able to do anything with it until I get home. It turns out that the latest version (1.7.8) does not allow exporting for the trial version. Fortunately, I did manage to find an older version (1.0.1). I hope that it can export.

[sci-fi guy]

I need a plugin for Milkshape in order to import SODs. Someone can probably get if from somewhere at this site.

[Highway of Life]

Hmm... I'm not sure exactly what you would need... but can you check from here?
This lists a TON of downloadable plugins for Milkshape:
http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/ms3d/download.html

[sci-fi guy]

No, that sites blocked too. See if any of them mention Star Trek: Armada or .sod files.

[Highway of Life]

Okay, here is one...
I'll be looking for more, now that I know what I'm looking for.

Not sure if this is useful, but I found a tutorial that might be helpful.

Spoiler:

MOD TO SOD CONVERSIONS MADE EASY TUTORIAL
By Bubba91873

Mod To Sod Conversions Made Easy Tutorial

Though this procedure looks like alot of work it really isnt.Its alot easier then

what I have been doing.
Al thoug htis is primarily for SFC 2 and 3 models converted to Sod format this can be applied to other models as well.

Programs You Need Are:
3ds Max R3 or newer
PSP 7 or Photoshop
Milkshape
UTMV or Assimview arent need but they arent bad to have

Max Plugins
A1 sod exportor
SFC 2 3 importor exportors

Milkshape Plugins
SFC 2 importor exportor
Model Statistics Plugin its a nice feature to have

Step 1. Place the model and textures files in a folder with all files in the same

folder together.

Step 2. Open Milkshape up on your desktop, go to file->import and look for the .mod

file ( this is the model file for SFC models )
double-click it to open in Milkshape.

Step 3. Go to the Groups tab in Milkshape and you will see a list of all the groups

the model has along with the texture that is assigned to that group.If you see this

you are in great shape!
Write down the groups and what texture is assigned.You will need this info later.

Step 4. Go to your Materials tab. Write down the info you see in exact order.Writing

this down on paper will save you time when you are having to swicth between programs

to get what you need.

( Side Note ) SFC models come with seperate light maps in addition to the main

textures.This is where the Alpha channels are placed.We need to get rid of those as

we won't be using them.

Step 5. Now you know exactly which textures goes to the model, what groups the

texture is assigned to, and what the model should look like.This will be invaluable

to you later.

Step 6. With the information that you have now on paper, Open up your favorite paint

program, I prefer PSP 7 personnaly.
Create a new texture file 512 x 512, black background color, 16.7 million colors and

make sure its pixel size. All of the textures that comes with the SFC model is going

onto this one texture!Amazing isnt it? Ok, once you have that done, in your paint

program open all the textures in the exact order that they are assigned to the model

using the info you wrote down earlier.
Now you have to make a decision, this new texture file you just created can hold

either 4,8 or 16 old textures into one by resizing the old textures and copy and

paste.The point is to try to fill-up the graphic as much as possible.
If you have 4 textures make the grid 256 x 256.
If you have 4-8 textures you can make the grid 128 x 128 or a combination of the 2

sizes.Like you could have 2 that is 256 and 6 that are 128.
You can place 16 textures into the new texture by resizing them to 64 x 64 but that

will make them really small and I would avoid that.

Click View->Change Grid And Guide Properties
Inside the pop up window choose pixel size 128 x 128 instead of the default 10 x 10.
Check snap to grid.Check Snap to upper left.
Now with that complete, Click on the first texture to be copied to make it the active

window and click Selections->Select All and then click Edit->copy then click the 512

x 512 texture and click edit-> paste in the upper left corner and then repeat this

for the other textures until your graphic is filled up.
Close all the old textures without saving them and Save the new file as tga 24 or 32

bit uncompressed tga in the same folder as the other files.

Step 7. Open a paint program, I prefer PSP 7 cause it has a nice multiple screen

capture utility that you need.You are going to take screen shots of each group and

texture material that is assigned to that group with its "original UVW

coordinates".You will compare the old textures maps to the new ones you will do

later.
Inside PSP 7 click File->Import->Screen Capture->Setup
Use these settings:
Full Screen
F3 or any appropriate hotkey that you can remember.
Delay timer 1 or 2 seconds ( 2 should be the default )
Check Multiple Captures ( This will allow you to hit your hotkey and take a

screenshot of the window you are working in each time you hit the hotkey.The

screenshot will automatically appear in PSP 7 when you are finished.

Now click your button called Capture Now or simply double-click the camera icon

located on your main tollbar at the top of PSP 7.
Now you are ready to take some pics.PSP 7 will now be minimised to your desktop once

you have clicked the capture now button or the camera icon.

Step 8. Inside the Materials tab in Milkshape you will see towards the middle, 2

buttons with the textures assigned to the particular grouping, underneath 4 buttons

called Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Emissive.
The top one is the main texture we want to keep, the bottom one is the light map we

don't want.If the second one is empty and just says none then thats fine.Less work we

have to do.
To the right of the 2nd button you will see a button with the word none marked on it.

Click it and the second texture which was the light map is removed from the model.

Now that you have removed the light map, you need to assign the texture that you made

from combining all the textures into one to the model. You do this by clicking the

top texture button that was the old texture and a directory box pops up directing you

to the texture you made.
Find the new texture and highlight it and click open.Milkshape has now assigned the

texture to the group.
You will see a text box below this with the word rename beside it.
Type in the new name of the texture you just assigned.
Now click the Assign button at the very bottom of the Materials tab in Milkshape.

Step 9. Now open the jpeg file in windows picture viewer that you made earlier with

the screen capture utility same name as the texture that you are working with.
You will be using this jpeg to compare the texture mapping that you will be doing

later.


Step 10. Switch back to your Milkshape program and on your Groups tab highlight your

first group and hit the Select button.The group will now be highlighted red in your

view windows inside Milkshape.
Highlight each group that you see one at a time and click the hide button except for

the first group you are working with.
Now with your first group highlighted red and all other groups hidden and out oif the

way you can now got to your Window button located on the main toolbar at the top of

Milkshape and select the Texture Editor.

A small window will open up inside Milkshape.This is the Texture Editor.

Underneath the button that says Region there will be a text box that has the name of

the Group showing.Click the down arrow button and find the Group name you are working

with.This should be the first Group in the list.
Now the new texture that you created earlier will appear in the Texture editor along

with the selected polys you are working with.
All the red dots should be highleted red, if not click the Select button and select

all of them and click your Move button to move them to the middle of the scene.
At this point you will probable have to go back and forth between the jpeg image of

what the old UVW coordiantes looked like and the new one you are doing now.
Now its just a matter of clicking the Scale button and scale down the red selected

polys to match exactly what is shown in the jpeg viewer to the texture you are

working on.I usually just drag the cursor at a steep angle to the left to make the

polys smaller to fit the texture exactly as the the jpegs show.

That is it!Just repeat this process for your other groups in the model making sure to

hide the ones you arent working with.Once you have assigned the new texture to all

the groups in the model and made sure that the light maps were deleted from the model

reference you can export the model to a mod file and either overwrite the old one or

create a new mod file with the old one as your backup.

Step 11. Open the new .mod file with the UTMV or Assimviewer and make sure the

texture show up correctly on the model.It's not sorcery it's called converting.

Step 12. Follow Westworlds BBOM to import the mod into 3ds Max and add hp's and other

nodes and your finished dude!

[sci-fi guy]

I will see if this works tonight. Thank you very much.

[sci-fi guy]

It isn't working!
I get an error saying that only stock models can be imported!
I think I am going to have to take a different route.

[Highway of Life]

Yeah, I read about that as well... so far as I've been able to tell, only elite 3D Modders are able to use a "special" importer that will import non-stock models.
I think our only chance is to get something that will just "view" those models, and have some sort of camera adjustment so we can spin it... or... we might just have to create it on our own.

I'm gonna email FM again.

[sci-fi guy]

You still have not heard from him yet, right? I hope that you can contact him. He obviously has the Scimitar model.
His models (especially the Borg Cube) seem to be the best that can be found.

[Mr. Orange]

The Bad Monkey banana Website has changed to under construction again!