Sketchfab Import Guide

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    Textures in this thread are not up to date with StarMade v0.199.357 - Texture Update. I am no longer active within the StarMade community and therefore will not update this thread. The full BBCode for this thread is freely available here, to anyone who wishes to repost and update this thread (I expect credit to be given for my work on this thread). In the event that this occurs, I recommend that this thread be closed/turned into a redirect, and the sticky passed on to the new edition. That, or an administrator may replace the content of this post with updated material written by any interested parties, with credit provided for their contributions.

    Fly safe, Starfriends.

    This thread is a guide on correct process for importing a StarMade model into Sketchfab, to ensure that the community can get the most out of that platform.

    The first thing you need, obviously, is a model exported from StarMade. This process is straightforward: Enter any ship, press ‘U’ to open the Catalog, and click the “Export as 3D model” button under the heading “Blueprint Options”.

    This model will be exported to the following directory for Steam installations:
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\StarMade\StarMade\modelexport
    Exported files include the basic textures, an OBJ file, and a related MTL library.

    Once you’ve got your model exported (see above if you’re uncertain how to do so), you can then put it into Sketchfab and start setting up.

    Having exported a suitable model, the instructions in the sections below cover uploading and setting up this model in Sketchfab.

    When you go to upload your model to Sketchfab, the minimum you’ll need is the OBJ file and associated MTL library. You can select these both, or .zip them and select that; Sketchfab just needs to receive them one way or another. You can also chuck in the base textures as well, but this is optional as you can add them later.

    Click through the following dialogues (ignore the warnings about missing t000, t001, and t002), add the desired title and information when prompted to, and wait for Sketchfab to process the model.

    Once it’s processed you’ll end up on the page for that model, with a preview window and a number of options. Hover over the orange “Settings” button and click on “3D Settings”. This will take you to a full preview of the model, as well as various options for setting up the textures, maps, background and lighting.

    Once on the 3D Settings page, you’ll note the menu on the left side. This has 6 tabs; the main ones for this work are the first 3 (Scene, Lighting, and Materials), with Annotations being optionally useful. I recommend working through setup in the order listed below. Many options are matters of taste; my recommendations are given below.

    1. Start off by opening the Lighting tab
      1. Turn on Lights.
      2. Click “Load Lighting Preset”.
      3. Select a desirable preset: Full Moon Night works well for StarMade models.
      4. Lighting can be manually altered, but this is a lot of effort for comparatively little gain. I recommend a preset.
      5. Select an Environment: Milkway is pretty good for spaceships, oddly enough.
      6. Set its Orientation as desired.
      7. Adjust the Brightness value until you have a satisfactory tonal range: 1 tends to provide a good base shadow to show off emissive blocks.
    2. Open the Scene tab
      1. Open the “Background” dropdown.
      2. Adjust environment settings as desired: I find 0 blur and 0.5 brightness pretty good for the Milkyway environment.
      3. Open "Post Processing Filters"
      4. Turn on filters as desired. Most are not useful in this context, but Bloom is noteworthy because it adds a "glow" to emissive maps enabled later in this process.
    3. Open the Materials tab
      1. Click on any texture selection dropdown and then click “Manage Textures”.
      2. Click “Import Textures” and import the contents of this folder.
        1. For manual setup, you only need to import the files with suffixes "_diffuse", "_emit", "_nrm", and "_spec". The others are duplicates used for automated texture application, explained at the end of this post.
        2. 8-bit versions have lower quality, but Sketchfab's compression makes this almost unnoticeable anyway. Their main advantage is smaller file size.
      3. Note: all of the following steps must be repeated for each of the 3 materials in a StarMade export (mtl_0, mtl_1, and mtl_2), use the texture number appropriate for the current material (selected in the drop-down at the very top of the Materials tab).
      4. Under “PBR Maps”:
        1. Select the Specular workflow.
        2. Set the Albedo texture to “mtlX_diffuse”.
        3. Set the Specular texture to “mtlX_spec”.
        4. Ensure the sliders on both are set to 100.
      5. Under “Roughness/Glossiness”:
        1. Select “Glossiness”.
        2. Set the texture to “mtlX_spec”.
        3. Ensure the slider is set to 100.
      6. Under “Normal/Bump Map”:
        1. Set the texture to “mtlX_nrm”.
        2. Ensure the slider is set to 100.
        3. Ensure that “Flip green (-Y)” is unchecked.
      7. Under “Transparency”:
        1. Set the texture to “mtlX_diffuse”.
        2. Ensure the slider is set to 0.
        3. Ensure that “Invert” is unchecked.
        4. Ensure that the mode is set to “Blending*” (Dithered is the only other mode which will work, but this looks very grainy and the shadows it does cast tend to be low quality).
      8. Under “Emission”:
        1. Set the texture to “mtlX_emit”.
        2. Set the slider as desired: I recommend about 30.
          1. If Bloom is on, an even lower value may be desirable to prevent the colours "blowing out" due to the brightness of the light. 20 or less works well in this case.
      9. Under “Faces Rendering”:
        1. By default, this is set to “Double sided” which works well in most cases. Setting this to “Single sided” will resolve the Z-fighting seen on “cross-section” blocks like paint, light rods, and plants.
        2. However, it will also make transparent blocks like grills and mesh less appealing, since it does not render the back faces of these blocks.

    The game's current 4 LOD models each generate an individual material for themselves when exported from StarMade. These models, and their associated materials, are listed below:
    • Mushroom: mtl_-1
    • Console: mtl_-2
    • Pipe: mtl_-3
    • White Light Bar: mtl_-4
    All of these models have diffuse textures, the light bar and console have emissive textures, and the console has a normal bump map. These textures are packaged in this Dropbox. The emissive map for the Console is 256x by default, and must be applied to a 512x texture; my placement may be slightly inaccurate, but it appears satisfactory.

    When bringing these into Sketchfab, I recommend setting the light bar's emissive to 100 and turning on bloom, and setting the console's emissive to the same value you are using for the rest of your emissive maps, so that all of the computers have the same glow.

    These files are all named in such a way that they are compatible with the automated texture application explained below.

    This is a complete outline of how to fully utilize the different maps available in StarMade (as far as I am aware: if I have missed anything, I welcome further input and will update the thread accordingly).

    I may add further relevant information, such as cleaning up models to decrease file size (I am only familiar with 3DS Max, and will welcome input from users who are experienced with the same processes in free software like Blender).

    I have also done testing of automating a lot of the Sketchfab upload process. The basic process is straightforward: Sketchfab reads texture names and applies them to the correct material and map slot based on this naming syntax. Thankfully, this syntax can properly read texture names that refer to the game's default materials for export (mtl_0, mtl_1, and mtl_2).

    To upload a file with automatically-applied textures, zip all of the textures in the aforementioned folder (use all of the textures in the main directory, and either standard or 8-bit texture sets for diffuse/opacity) alongside the .obj and .mtl file from the desired export. Bear in mind Sketchfab's free upload limit of 50MB. If your model has LOD models (console, light bar, pipe, or mushroom) read over the spoiler about LOD models, and add the relevant textures from here to your upload .zip.

    This upload will have all the necessary maps in place once Sketchfab has processed it; your work will be limited to environment and scene setup, fixing the normals (ensuring they are not inverted), and setting emissive and glossiness values as desired.
     
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    Updated with section on LOD models, as well as a Dropbox for the relevant textures.
     
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    Thank you so much just for posting this! I was wondering how exactly to do all this last week! I'll definitely try your recommended settings!
     
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    Crimson-Artist

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    Heres some of the new textures sheets as well as their accompanying sheets. I've also found that simply swapping out the new textures for the old ones on pre-existing models will cause some errors as some textures have been moved to new locations on the sheets. best option is to export a new version of the model.
    t000.png t001.png t002.png

    Normal maps (gives the blocks some dimensions)
    t000_NRM.png t001_NRM.png t002_NRM.png
    Specular Maps (small details that can be seen when light bounces off of them)
    t000_SPC.png t001_SPC.png t002_SPC.png
     

    Crimson-Artist

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    Emission Maps (Makes blocks glow)
    t000 3D EM.png t001 3D EM.png t002 3D EM.png
    (P.S. had to make 2 posts cuz of the 10 image limit)
    [doublepost=1484717097,1484715832][/doublepost]using all of the sheets together should get you results like this.
     
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    Thank you very much Crimson-Artist; I'm on holiday presently but should be able to update the thread less than a week from now. In the meantime, I recommend that visitors to this thread download them directly from the above posts, in lieu of me putting nice .7z files in the OP.

    EDIT: I am no longer active within the StarMade community, and will not complete such updates. See the disclaimer in the OP for details and the BBCode for the OP, available to anyone who wishes to update it and repost (credit expected).
     
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    Crimson-Artist

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    I recently figured out how to add player models to sketchfab models!
    you need to use a 3d modeling software like blender to import your ship and character model. Thankfully I already released one. I put instructions on how to add them to another file armature and all. when you're done posing all of your characters then you just export all of them as a new .obj file. For me this was just selecting all of the meshs together then exporting them normally. trying to merge the meshes together created problems so this method was easier and only required just a little bit more work later. then when you have your new .obj file with character models just import them to sketch fab and they should retain their poses. Best part is that each character model can have their skins hotswaped in sketch fab.
     
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    Reilly Reese

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    I recently figured out how to add player models to sketchfab models!
    you need to use a 3d modeling software like blender to import your ship and character model. Thankfully I already released one. I put instructions on how to add them to another file armature and all. when you're done posing all of your characters then you just export all of them as a new .obj file. For me this was just selecting all of the meshs together then exporting them normally. trying to merge the meshes together created problems so this method was easier and only required just a little bit more work later. then when you have your new .onj file with character models just import them to sketch fab and they should retain their poses. Best part is that each character model can have their skins hotswaped in sketch fab.
    Damn crazy bastard! xD
     
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    You totally should create a reflectivity map. Things like the BobbyAI and Ship Core circular components look amazing with nice reflections, but that effects carries over to blocks on the same sheet - Creating a custom reflectivity map to define areas with gloss and matte finish would be brilliant to improve these effects!
     
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    im not sure what you meant with manage textures there is no such thing on the materials tab :X

    Edit:
    Ah one can click on the boxes to do that , solved my bad.
     
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    Thread updated to reflect my inactivity. Disclaimer section contains suggestions for further maintenance of this guide.

    ;-;7
     

    Crimson-Artist

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    I've finally managed to create a updated texture bundle with all current textures in game as well as the Normal, Specular, and Emission Maps. I've also included a simple instruction guide on how to add these textures to your models.

    Get it here!
    [doublepost=1508284239,1508283990][/doublepost]im also planning on creating a tutorial video on how to make your sketchfab model look better by using these textures.
     

    Crimson-Artist

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    Update! I've finally discovered how to easily add animations to models!

    Turns out all you needed is to use the built in Sketchfab exporter in Blender. I feel kinda like an idiot for not discovering this sooner. I'll try and break it down as quick and easily as possible.
    1. Make your animations in blender (duh). If you want to show off docked entities moving around via rails you will need to export each docked entity separately then assemble them in blender accordingly.
    2. Once you're satisfied with the animation activate the sketchfab exporter for blender. You can find out how right here.
    3. Simply select everything in the scene with "A" (while in object mode)
    4. Use the Skectfab exporter to upload the model. The exporter will automatically transfer over the animation keyframes.
      1. NOTE! If you're using a free account then you only have 50mb of upload data to work with. Even if you upload the model with only the 3 texture sheets they come with thats still 28mb. More then half of your upload capacity.
      2. The best work around I've found is to simply save project and exit out of blender, move (all) of the texture sheets to another folder, reopen the .blend file you just saved then. Everything should have no textures if you did it right. Just select everything then upload.
      3. The biggest down side to this method is that you have to manually apply the textures to the model on sketchfab. Thankfully the animation will work.
    5. Once uploaded the model be automatically published as a new model. So far I have yet to find a way to use this to update any existing models with animations.
    I've already have an example of this.
     

    Crimson-Artist

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    Update! I done a little more research/experimenting and I've finally managed to discover how to add animations to models without blenders internal sketchfab exporter! This method also allows you to make edits to models with animations so you can add/removes parts of the model!

    Its so incredibly simple that again I feel like a complete idiot for not finding this out sooner. Turns out that you don't need to include the .obj files of anything. all you need basically is just the .blend and .blend1 files. apparently they save the .obj models and the .mtl files.
    1. Create animations in blender.
    2. Save your progress
    3. A .blend1 file should appear in the same folder as your .blend file.
    4. Bundle both upload the .blend and .blend1 files into .rar and such and upload this to sketchfab.
      1. You can also add the texture sheets too. just be sure that the upload is less than 50mb if you are a free user
    5. Thats it! Enjoy your model with animations!
    Also if you havent noticed ive released the sketchfab texture packs as a community content item! I'll be using this instead of mediafire to distribute them from now on. I'll just advertise updates for it here.

    Late Edit: Turns out you only need the .blend file for the animation. The .blend1 file is unnecessary.
     
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    Reilly Reese

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    Reminds me of the time you talked about making an animated show.