Hi All

Why is it that when you open an rFactor scn file in 3DSimEd and check for missing files, it will say "No Missing Files", but then when you export as a .3ds and open, link the texture files to the model, it comes up with loads of textures missing !

Any thoughts on this one ?

Whitetimer

When using the .3ds file format, all material names and texture names should be less than 8 characters in length.

When you open the .scn fille the textures are placed in a temporary folder if they can only be found in a .MAS file so it's quite possible for the texture maps to "disappear" when you close the .scn.

To get over that you must Export Textures but even then 3DS files do not have the full path to the texture unless the short names option is deselected when exporting 3DS.

Cheers!

Dave N.

So whats the best way around this then ?

Cheers

Hi Dave N

Where is the 'Short Name Option' ? Plus i do use the Export Textures method !

Many thanks

Whitetimer

The "8:3 Texture Names" uption when exporting 3DS.

Cheers!

Dave N

Hi Dave

Oh, yes i make sure that is checked. I think i will just have to replace the textures that are missing after i export.

Cheers

Whitetimer

I am not sure if it happens in version2 (like I said before, I don't care for the interface of ver2), but version1, when you export in 3ds it saves all the 3ds files with a 4 digit number at the end. example: "window" would be "wind0001" (this would be for the texture models in the scn file). If you are exporting a lot of models out, be careful of this. I can tell you first hand it is a pain in the butt to change those name back to what they should be. And, if you are looking for a specific file when you load the 3ds file, it is torture if you have 50 file names that all start with the same 4 letter words (like trackdry, trackwet, tracklow, trackhi, etc... - they would all be "tracXXXX").

Hi Nathan

Thanks for your reply, yes i have noticed that now about the textures, #$%& pain really ... ) ... So what would you suggest as the best option ?

By the way, i'm using version 1.18a until i get around to buying the latest version.

Many thanks

It saves it out in the same order as the scn file, so if it is huge, you have to open the scn file in a text editor and just rename all the files (I am very happy though that simed will save files over 64k - even though that is more than a 3ds file will allow, so it isn't all bad ). That is the only way I have been able to do it. If it is going to get too confusing though, you can save parts of it at a time instead of the entire thing.

Hi Nathan

Thanks for that, i think its what i'm going to do, as for now i only need one track for prototype testing only. Does it matter whether the .gmt or .dds names are upper or lower case for parsing ?

Many Thanks

Nope, makes no difference.