Kupu's thread

[Nauvran]

Hahah. Yea... we're being very careful to avoid further texture coordinate issues after pretty much wiping out all of the current ones. :D

Not sure if it's your department but just as a note most people tend to build with odd numbers and I do hope we can make bigger areas than 4x4

 

[kupu]

Not sure if it's your department but just as a note most people tend to build with odd numbers and I do hope we can make bigger areas than 4x4

I'm going to wait until we implemented this fully before explaining it all. Sorry.

 

[Benevolent27]

Yep, this is one of our main frustrations with custom textures, but it's pretty easy to make a download pack for players to install. The packs are usually pretty small in size. Installation is as easy as a drag & drop into your starmade folder. Worst case if players don't install the tex pack, then they just see default blocks instead of the custom blocks.

[doublepost=1484940713,1484940367][/doublepost]BUG: Enabling normal maps lightens all blocks and takes away regular lighting effects / shadows when block faces are away from a light source. It's like the normal map causes 100% specular/ambient/emissive on every face of a block.

EDIT: important to note that this happens in the default texture pack, and on all blocks, original and custom ones.

Normal maps off:
View attachment 37320

Normal maps on:
View attachment 37321

kupu : what later or image does the game pull emissive data from? Does the game engine actually / only uses the .png files, right? If so, why all the .zip and .tga files in the texture directories?

I ran the gauntlet trying to get custom textures to work. We ended up abandoning it because when we had custom texture files, they were rather large and people kept timing out while trying to download them from the server. Many players could not connect at all.

I will try again at some other point, but after a few days of messing with this I am done for now. I have a lot of other projects to work on and this has been a major time sink that had literally no results, except to make the server seem unstable to our users.

 

[Blodge]

I'm going to wait until we implemented this fully before explaining it all. Sorry.

It's number 6 suggestion on HERE, isn't it?

 

[Ithirahad]

There is a fairly major bug in the dev builds (unless it was fixed...) where turrets and rails can randomly get rotated... If the pickup rails are affected, that might affect any attempts to fix the texture orientations on those.

 

[kiddan]

Checked the most recent dev build today; Gotta say, items are looking good (Are those your department?). =)

Also, are the Extended Textures a possibility for greebled advanced hull in the future? If you can say.

 

[Ghent96]

Rotation issue?

yes but no... go into blockconfig.xml and search for the block in question... looks like explosive modules?

find this:
<SideTexturesPointToOrientation>false</SideTexturesPointToOrientation>

change to true. It will point up instead of "forward" then on the sides.
[doublepost=1485319636,1485319396][/doublepost]

Are you sure mate?

Spoiler: shiny wood picture

IMO wood needs a new texture badly :u It looks more like mud than actual bark

Petrified wood? I agree it looks pretty shiny Try just reducing specular, imo.

 

[Ghent96]

Have you reported this bug anywhere other than here? This is the first report passed onto me that persists after restarting the client.

I've spent 2 years and many reports on the bug tracker, only to have them all ignored, re-categorized into oblivion, or argued with. It's a jading experience, and when the dev/bug team isn't sincere about using it, why should we the players be? Sorry if that's harsh or hurts someones feelings, but it's true, it's how I (and a lot of others) feel, and I'm not going to lie about it. With as few players as there are now, the tracker is broken & useless, imo.

Can't reproduce. Currently running the latest builds with no _NRM.png files present. What is the error you receive if you ONLY delete t000_NRM.png t001_NRM.png and t002_NRM.png from the active texture directory before launching the game?

Either a "ResourceException: data\./textures/block/" or something like "png not found, reinstall the game files". Yes, it is possible that I originally generated this error by deleting t000.png instead of _NRM.png, but I've since re-installed, and still get the error. Unfortunately I can't reproduce it now to copy or screenshot, because all I've been getting the last few times are resource exceptions. They're java critical errors. When it does load, it's only with normals disabled. After loading into a world, I can enable normals, and then get this:


...which you can tell there's some sort of overlay/alpha being applied to the core, green std armor, and custom blocks in the foreground. To me, it looks like tiles of harvestable resources from overlays.png. I've verified this on stock blocks and custom both. Restarting client doesn't work.

Thanks for clearing up diffuse vs. specular, and the info stored in the _NRM files.

For efficiency's sake: PNG files have better compression (smaller file size) than TGA, and can still hold an alpha layer. Same with DDS. TGA files without compression, are unecessarily gigantic... and if TGA is saved with RLE compression, it may be causing errors with the game loading at 24%. Still testing this, but a compressed TGA is still much larger than a PNG.

 

[kupu]

when the dev/bug team isn't sincere about using it, why should we the players be? Sorry if that's harsh or hurts someones feelings, but it's true, it's how I (and a lot of others) feel, and I'm not going to lie about it. With as few players as there are now, the tracker is broken & useless, imo.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but what you describe is not objectively "true", it's an impression. One that i'm sorry was made though. The team endeavours to fix and triage bugs and uses Phabricator to do this extensively.

Either a "ResourceException: data\./textures/block/" or something like "png not found, reinstall the game files". Yes, it is possible that I originally generated this error by deleting t000.png instead of _NRM.png...

Ok. Just to confirm, nobody i'm in contact with can reproduce an error when removing only the redundant files. This being only the *_NRM.PNG extention files.

...all I've been getting the last few times are resource exceptions. They're java critical errors. When it does load, it's only with normals disabled. After loading into a world, I can enable normals, and then get this:

View attachment 37461 View attachment 37462
...which you can tell there's some sort of overlay/alpha being applied to the core, green std armor, and custom blocks in the foreground. To me, it looks like tiles of harvestable resources from overlays.png. I've verified this on stock blocks and custom both. Restarting client doesn't work.

Ok, the resource outline over the core does look like a known bug, (which i mentioned could be temporarily corrected after loading the game with normal maps enabled before entering a world or restarting). Your report reads very similar obviously with the exception of it being persistent.

I'm sure you've checked, but could you confirm that it makes no difference if the game loads the normal maps whilst in game, or from a completely fresh launch of the application?

If you like you can pass over the normal map files you're using and i can check them directly if you think an error lies in them, we should additionally explore the log files produced when crashing. Worth noting this would be done via Game Support subforum or the Phabricator bug reporting site.

Thanks for clearing up diffuse vs. specular, and the info stored in the _NRM files.

Happy to help.

For efficiency's sake: PNG files have better compression (smaller file size) than TGA, and can still hold an alpha layer. Same with DDS. TGA files without compression, are unecessarily gigantic... and if TGA is saved with RLE compression, it may be causing errors with the game loading at 24%. Still testing this, but a compressed TGA is still much larger than a PNG.

Disk space and graphic memory space occupied are different, the efficiency i mention as to why we combined map types was in graphic memory occupied.

TGA was picked for ease of use for now, DDS has compression options we can benefit from potentially in the future. RGBA PNG were considered, but most editors save out using tRNS settings unless various plugins or workarounds are used and wider accessibility is always nice.

 

[SkylordLuke]

hey Kupu
Just here to suggest making pipes,grates and stuff like that a bit darker.
everywhere I place them they feel out of place,like they are in "lighten mode" ..no shadows //(

 

[kupu]

hey Kupu
Just here to suggest making pipes,grates and stuff like that a bit darker.
everywhere I place them they feel out of place,like they are in "lighten mode" ..no shadows //(

Grates will probably get a new texture, i'm not so sure they're blending in correctly either. I'll be looking into them both in the coming weeks.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Ithirahad]

Grates will probably get a new texture, i'm not so sure they're blending in correctly either. I'll be looking into them both in the coming weeks.
Thanks for the feedback.

Awesome! That sounds grate.

 

[jstenholt]

Awesome! That sounds grate.

I LOVE YOU

 

[Blodge]

That sounds grate.

 

[Gasboy]

Awesome! That sounds grate.

This is why servers crash when you leave. They run on puns.

 

[Ithirahad]

This is why servers crash when you leave. They run on puns.

And here I was thinking they couldn't take the punishment.

 

[Gasboy]

And here I was thinking they couldn't take the punishment.

You are caked with puns, aren't you?

 

[Ithirahad]

At this point I think we're derailing the thread. :\

 

[Rixxan]

Thread has been re-railed

 

[Ithirahad]

Thread has been re-railed

So I wasn't the only one going down that train of thought...