BAT - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[gottago 24]

Raysfan:

If your BAT goes buggy after export, go to unhide all, get rid of your LODs, check in your material nav that there aren't any of those weirdly distorted render bmps in there, and if there are, delete them. Then select the whole model and click "save as" and give it a new name. Then close out gmax, restart with a new file, and import your renamed model by using "merge." Then make a simple box and apply all your textures to it, and delete the box.

You should then be back to where you were a few hours before.

[Raysfan16 5]

Nononono, the BAT itself is fine-it's just the view that is messed up. When I am in regular Perspective view and I rotate it around, it looks loke it is centered on the origin (the middle of the foundation of the bat) but after I do a preview the camera seems to switch and I can't make it focused back onto the origin.

Thanks for the help.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

Originally posted by: Raysfan16

I have two minor problems. First, after I previewed my BAT in SC4 view, when I went back to prespective mode it got all screwed up and I can't rotate certain ways without messing it p. Note it was perfectly fine before the preview.

Second, my toolbar is gone! I accidentally X'ed it out and don't know how to get it back.quote>

The resaon the first problem happens is becsue it alings with the zoom camera.  When that happens to me i just press the letter "P" and it usually fixes it.

For your second problem you can get  your toolbar back by going to Customize> Revert To Startup Layout

[GlobexCo 33]

Originally posted by: Xyloxadoria

Originally posted by: Raysfan16

I have two minor problems. First, after I previewed my BAT in SC4 view, when I went back to prespective mode it got all screwed up and I can't rotate certain ways without messing it p. Note it was perfectly fine before the preview.

Second, my toolbar is gone! I accidentally X'ed it out and don't know how to get it back.quote>

The resaon the first problem happens is becsue it alings with the zoom camera.  When that happens to me i just press the letter "P" and it usually fixes it.

For your second problem you can get  your toolbar back by going to Customize> Revert To Startup Layout

quote>

First problem: left click on the viewport name (should be camera# or perspective), go to Views > and select perspective.

With letter "P", Gmax returns to the first viewport set. For example top, front, left, viewport; with a preview it becomes top, front, left, camer; pressing "P" it returns to top, front, left, viewport. P is like a "revert to startup Layout".

Second problem is very simple. Go to Customize > Show UI > select all the toolbars you deleted.

[robbo298 0]

Got a question about the .BAT files and everything to do with adding new buildings etc to the game. Also, bear in mind I know nothing about modding.

I download the item (building etc) and put the files stated in the readme into the plugins folder. Yet when I run the game nothing I've added appears, except once when I added some RADAR tower, it showed up on screen as a paper-wrapped present.

Help please!

[GlobexCo 33]

Missing props (the game can't load them because you don't have the right plugin) are shown in-game as brown boxes.

You need to install all the dependencies that the file requires in order to have a functional new building. Read carefully the details of what you downloaded, you'll find the missing prop pack.

[anubis89 107]

I have a new question: after almost every time when I get a fresh BAT of mine into the game, the night lighting on custom content doesn't work anymore, although it did before. Does anyone experience similar problems? And is there a way to solve it?

I certainly do have the necessary patch installed!

[Gn_leugim 853]

sometimes lites take some time to light up.. check if they light up after a few game days\months...

[Sky Guy 163]

Hi I have a problem too, when I go to open up my bat, It gives me an error message saying it failed to open it. How can I fix this?

[Jumpthefence 74]

Originally posted by: anubis89

I have a new question: after almost every time when I get a fresh BAT of mine into the game, the night lighting on custom content doesn't work anymore, although it did before. Does anyone experience similar problems? And is there a way to solve it?

I certainly do have the necessary patch installed!quote>

You are providing electricity, right? Can't have lights without that!

[madhatter106 3,903]

Originally posted by: Sky Guy

Hi I have a problem too, when I go to open up my bat, It gives me an error message saying it failed to open it. How can I fix this?quote>

Not sure, but it sounds like a bad installation.  Have you tried uninstalling and then reinstalling?

[Sky Guy 163]

@madhatter106: I tried reinstalling gmax and the BAT, no luck still.

Please help me- I cant afford to lose this model...

[SimFox 802]

you have to be more specific in you description of a problem, now it totally vague

[Sky Guy 163]

Ok, sorry- here is my problem

The first sign is when I go to open the file, there is no thumbnail image

Now, when I double click on open, I get this error:

Hope this helps, it wouldn't have anything to do with where my files are located would it? 

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

It has nothing to do with where your flies are located. Your file has become corrupted. You could try merging the building into a new scene, but if you dont have a working version then theres not much you can do otherwise

To merege, open a brand new scene and go to File>Merge Then select the objects you want and press OK.

[Sky Guy 163]

Thanks, it didn't work, but I did have an old version of what I was working on backed up.

New problem: While working on the roof (again) I got the tile texture to go down on all the sides, but when I do a preview it gets all messed up heres some more pix:

Everything is how I want it:

And now look at the tiles- what is up with it? Also, how do I get that shadow to look normal too?

P.S. I do have a bat thread, but no one pays attention there, so thank you for the help guys! 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You edited your polygons without changing the smoothing groups. Smoothing groups are used to make the edges between polygons look smooth without actually modeling curves (which would take work and could take a lot of polygons to get a smooth result). By default when you make an object it starts out with certain smoothing groups turned on for certain areas based on what shape it is, but when you edit it afterward, those polygons still have those smoothing groups turned on. But sometimes you edit the object in such a way that it no longer makes sense for those smoothing groups, and you get things like black gradients going across your object.

Here's a tutorial I just found that explains smoothing groups. http://www.free3dtutorials.com/index.php?id=104

Since you only want hard edges, you'll want to remove all smoothing groups, by selecting all of the faces of your object, and clicking the "clear all" button (this is shown in the tutorial above).

[Sky Guy 163]

Thanks Jasoncw, I got the shadows taken care of, but there is still two sides where the tiles are going diagonal instead of down, you can see it in the picture in my last post- any suggestions on this?

Thanks again!

[SimFox 802]

well it looks bad, unfortunately... I'm not too familiar with GMAX, but in Max (although message would be more specific) it would mean that file had got corrupted. One way to get your work back is to open one of 3 backup files. These should be found in Autoback folder in teh root of your GMAX installation. If you haven't been doing anything else after your work on the corrupted one chances are you'll get your work restored, otherwise....

[Sky Guy 163]

Thanks simfox, I just redid what I had lost ( I had several versions) The only trouble I'm having now is what I posted above. (How the roof tiles are diagonal)

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Have you applied a UVW Map (Modifiers UV Coordinates>UVW Map)?

If you have, try increasing the size of the tiles and see what everything looks like when they're larger. It's possible that the tiles are too small, and are creating a moire pattern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern) with the grid of pixels that make up the image itself.

[SimFox 802]

Yep, Jason is totally right here, there is nothing wrong with the texture orientation in the preview. What you see there is a moire pattern caused by bad Aniti-Aliasing used in GMAX preview. Actually you can relax cause you final BAT in game will not look like your preview does. In GMAX Anti-Aliasing is enabled in preview, but DISabled in final export (even on top settings) So moire will most probably be gone, but you'll have much more jugged edges.

[mntoes 270]

I know this has been answered before buy I can't figure this out or find the solution. How do I apply more than one texture to a box? (ie all six sides have a different texture). It really is time I new how to do this now..lol Thanks in advance.

[psander5 195]

I don't know if there's an easier/better way, but I just detach each face as a different object then you can texture each side separately.

[mntoes 270]

Thanks Psander5   I forgot to "detatch* the faces.  Working a treat now.

[SimFox 802]

that's one way to do it... however it creates 6 objects out of one. This may (in larger numbers) have quite a detrimental effect on viewport performance. another way to assign unique material to each side of the cube, or even to selected individual faces is to use Multi-material rather than a standard one. it may hold upto 100 (if memory serves me right) sub-materials that could be assigned to specific faces. this way you'd still have only one object but upto to 100 unique materials on it...

[mntoes 270]

  Thanks SimFox  That's great I'll give it a go. I understand the theory I just need to put it into practice.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Having quite the bizarre problem here...my night maps don't show up, despite having a wide variety of them in the proper folder, with only the necessary files...

What I really don't get is how not even the default maxis night maps (beige, blue, green) will show up?  Not sure how to remedy this but was hoping one of you might.  Thanks for any/all suggestions.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I think when this happens it's because there's thumbs.db in there somewhere. In Windows XP, go to Start>Control Panel, then go to folder options, go to view, and uncheck "do not cache thumbnails". That file is related to the thumbnails you see when browsing folders, but it's not necessary. In the same window you'll want to check that you can see hidden files and folders.

Now when you go back to your nitemaps folder you should be able to delete thumbs.db and then your nitemaps should show up in gmax.

[Sky Guy 163]

Hi, I was looking through some of the tutorials on night-lighting, but I am still confused on a few things:

How do you make the window textures and the windows themselves see through?

Thanks for all the help!