HowTo:Create Ships in Wings3D

You must have Wings3D and the xmesh export plugin installed to do this, see Howto: Install Wings3d. This howto assumes that the version of the plugin you're using is 1.3b4 or newer. If you want to stay with the old plugin look at Howto:Create Ships with xmesh plugin 1.3b3. The old lights will not be used by the plugin anymore (What does this mean? -Ari)

Creating and naming objects

Most of the way how to create geometry in Wings3D is self-explanatory, but if it isn't look at the Wings3d homepage (especially the tutorials page or the tutorials thread, and the manual section of the discussion board)

Rename the objects you create to something good sounding: "Window -> Object -> RMB on object -> rename"

• ATTENTION:
  • Don't give multiple objects the same name, they will all be written in the same xmesh file.
  • Don't name an object like this: "tag_....."
  • Do not use materials in Wings3D (in combination with the plugin of course; especially not the hole material). The (correct) use of material colors is not yet supported.

Modeling tips:

• start with a simple cube
• stay with low polygon-count (no extreme round shapes, etc ...)
• Please mind this max. polycount values (its not to prevent good looking ships, but to make VS run smoothly an slower computers; not everyone has an GeForce VI with 512MB/1,8GHz and an Athlon 5,2THz):
  • without LOD mesh(es):
    • fighter 1024
    • capship 2048
    • station(part) 4096 ???
  • Only when using LOD mesh(es):
    • fighter 2048
    • capship 4096
    • station(part) 8192 ???

Orientation of the objects

• front= Z-axis = blue
• up= Y-axis = green

Assigning UV-maps

• Go to Howto:Texture in Wings3d
• Or see http://pub33.ezboard.com/fnendowingsmiraifrm3.showMessage?topicID=253.topic

You need the UV-data and a texture to display the ship correctly in VS. If you didn't do that you will get some scrambled geometry. In the worst case it won't even export.

Creating Weapon Mounts

• "RMB -> Vegastrike Tags -> Mount (Weapon)"
• place it where you want to have the weapon (move/rotate/...) (the point in the 90° angle is the base)
  • The longer side of the triangle must point in the direction the weapon should point.

Creating Turret Mounts

• "RMB -> Vegastrike Tags -> Subunit"
• the type of the subunit is specified in the config.txt
• place it where you want to have the subunit (move/rotate/...) (the point in the 90° angle is the base)
  • The longer side of the triangle must point in the direction the top of the turret should point.
  • The shorter one it the forward direction.

Creating Docking Ports

• "RMB -> Vegastrike Tags -> Dock"
• place it where you want to have the dock (the point in the 90° angle is the base).

Creating Engines

• "RMB -> Vegastrike Tags -> Light (Engine)"
• place it where you want to have the Engine (the point in the 90° angle is the base).
  • The longer side of the triangle must point in the direction the engine should point (normally points back).

"Spot" lights should have another position than their aim point.

Saving and Exporting

• Save your file as .wings
• now you have two options:
  • Select File -> Export -> Vegastrike (.xunit/.xmesh) ...
  • Select File -> Export -> the grey square right of __Vegastrike (.xunit/.xmesh) ...
    In this dialog you can set the export options. (they will be saved in your Wings3D-Preferences and __not__ in the .wings file)
    • Export as cockpit - use BSP=binary space partition
    • Ignore export-config - Ignores the conf files located in .../exportdir/config/*
    • Export image maps (as TGA files) - check if you want to export the texture maps (as tga-files)
    • Use Scale for whole xunit - Uncheck to scale single objects/xmeshes
    • Export scale - the value which is written into the xunit/xmesh
• If you are using the config-export method you must EDIT THE CONFIG.TXT to meet your idea of the ship
  • the sample config.txt included in the plugin has a editing-description in it
  • the sample data is located in the xmesh_sample_data-directory in your Wings3D-dir (to be precise they are in .../YourWings3dDirectory/lib/wings-0.xx.xx/plugins/xmesh/xmesh_sample_data)
  • some tips for editing config.txt
• Note that you must enter a name with the extension .xunit in the export dialog, but it will be cut away by the plugin
  The files are saved like this:
  • Unit Files: like specified in the config.txt
  • Object/Mesh File(s): yourmodelname_objectnameinwings.xmesh
  • Texture Map(s): yourmodelname_objectnameinwings_diffuse.tga

• to check the correctness of the files rename them into .xml and drag them into Mozilla, IE or another XML-understanding browser. They will show you an error if the syntax of the file is corrupt

Creating Logos (a workaround right now)

• search in Wings3D for a polygon you want to put the logo on
• switch to vertice-mode by pressing v
• select all vertices of this poly one by one and write down the numbers displayed in the upper left corner of the screen.
• also remember the name of the object, the polygon is owned by
• Edit the xmesh file of the object and insert this before the <\Mesh> line.
• See Definition of the Logo here: Howto:Edit Mesh Files

TIP: You can scale the tag-objects as much as you want. Also the length of the sides can vary (but they must not be the same length). But be sure it has an rectangular angle where the position Point is.

TIP: If you don't see the logo, make it very big to locate it.

Converting Texture Maps

• Use an image manipulation program to convert the .tga files to a compressed (smaller) file format vegastrike can read like png or jpg.
• Edit the name of the image files in the .xmesh files

Some image manipulation/convertion programs are at Links: Graphic Programs.

Miscellaneous

Description of xunit

Wings tips and tricks

• http://www.geocities.com/paulthepuzzles/aardvarks.html - Wings 3D tutorials, notes and general information - by PuzzledPaul
• Viewing the defined hotkeys:
  Menu "Help" -> "Defined Hotkeys"
• Defining your own Hotkeys:
  Menu "Help" -> "How To Define Hotkeys"