Hello everyone!

   I am new to the 3d modelling world and just wanted to let everyone know that i have released a series of ww2 airfeild buildings, props, and extras for use with all your old warbirds! All of my items are freebies and are scaled with v3/m3 and ready to use in poser and daz studio complete with cr2's! Along with my prop sets, i've also done a set of highres/high detail repaints of BeyondVr's series of freebie aircraft.... feel free to check out all my downloads at www.sharecg.com/pf/theschell..... enjoy!

I downloaded one of your airfield sets the other night, but didn't have time to get the other one (dialup).  I'll have to get the other tonight so I can check them out.  They look extremely useful, and are just the kind of thing you always wish you could get.  Keep up the great work!

John

I had skipped this thinking it was a request for WWII props. Glad I finally decided to look in! Thanks a lot theschell. 

You're welcome guys...glad you liked them:)

 They're a bit problematic in Poser 6. I haven't found all the causes, but the material settings sometimes look odd. It looks like the conversion from DAZ Studio added some spurious transparency.

I'm getting stuff working, and it's worth the effort.

Yeah, I had trouble with each item having a random color for diffuse.  Most didn't have a preview material, so I thought it was trying to combine the two.  A couple had preview mats and did it anyway.

I made a "theschell" textures folder, and imported the OBJs as props (uncheck all options).  None of them had moving parts, so that made sense anyway.  Just a little work, and everything performs fine.  Like you said, worth the trouble.

John

 OK, I'm going to run  through a few things, starting with what may have been an effect of conversion from DAZ Studio.

1: Diffuse, and sometimes Specular, Colors are odd. When a texturemap is used, a white diffuse color works best. Any tint in the color setting mixes with the texturemap, which can have odd effects. Dark Specular Colors are appropriate for non-glossy surfaces. A large value for the Highlight size is also good, but a value of 1.0 is likely rather too high.

2: Transparency Fall-Off is consistently set to 0.6 giving odd results. Some things need to be transparent. Most don't.

Next, some Poser-specific stuff.

3: Texturemaps in different folders which have the same filename can confuse Poser.

4: The PNG files to provide the library pictures should be a lot smaller. The images provided with Poser's default content are 95 pixels square. Poser doesn't crash, but small images fit with the Poser library interface.

5: Everything but the repainted F4U could be a Poser prop.

6: Some of the material names you used were awkward: "material23" is OK for something with just one material. "Drop_Tank" tells the user something. A useful improvement would be to have the bombs and bomb-racks as seperate materials (no need to change the texture) so they could be hidden, allowing the plane to be shown after it has dropped the bombs, simply by making the bombs transparent and non-reflective.

7: The UV map for the backdrop is clumsy. It wastes a lot of space, and thus comsumes RAM it doesn't need to.

And a few quibbles:

8: That's much bigger than a ten-gallon drum, and I have my doubts about the red warning label. I suspect it came into use much more recently. The packing crates resemble the colour of old ones I saw as a kid, basically grey, but what I was told was WW2 "salvage" was thick plywood, rather than planked. But this was on the other side of the world.

Overall, it's far better than my early attempts at creating models.

sorry guys for the probs... it's my first try at some serious modelling... the biggest prob i have is that i can't afford poser... so most of my work is being done through daz and hexagon alone... so materials and stuff are uvmapped with hexagon and it generates that map type... i can't do too much about it unfortunately...i had to do them as cr2's as i can't generate props in daz... no capability for pp2 files at all.. though i do now have a cr2 exporter... it clumsy... but the best i have... alot of what i do i don't even bother uv mapping... i can just apply the materials directly in daz... and the cr2's all worked properly in daz when i tested them both on my own machine and my room-mates... as for diffuse settings etc.. again... that's a daz prob.. it can do many things but just doesn't have the capabilities of poser... if people want to rework the files and post them that's fine... i have only two requests... that i receive credit where it's due.... and if at all possible i be contacted before hand for permission so that i can download the new files myself... i would also ask that they not be posted on pay to download sites... as noted in my readme's.. other than that it's pretty well all good..... everyone seems to like the basic idea though... and the basicis of my work.. as i gain skills and ability i may redo them myself... and repost... thankyou everyone for the feedback.... and sorry again about probs with them... i'm trying my best with what i have...

Sorry... me again... it just also occurred to me that some of the textures in question may have been "large" because i upsize the base map... i prefer to work in highres so i can get more detail into it and the base texturemaps that hex puts out are tiny so when i apply them to an object  any detail like words or print i put in either go fuzzed out or are really grainy... where as when i up size i can put in fine details and have them still readable or noticeable on the finnal object... making for a nicer finish... atleast in my estimation... i had done such with my props so that they wouldn't lose detail and get grainy when viewed in close up... and that way they could be used in close-ups as well as background items... sorry.....

also.... when i made the models and exported them all the figures had white set as their basic diffuse... so i'm not sure what happened there or why... some of them may have had a light grey for diffuse and white for glossiness... but i am pretty sure i had most of them white diffuse ambient is always black... i prefer it that way... anyways... not sure why other colours were showing up... when i load the figures in daz they are fine and still show the colours i set... though my roomie who uses poser also downloaded my figures and had no issues... then again she's also using poser 7 so maybe the issue is with poser 6 specifically?... no one using the earlier versions of poser seems to have indicated a prob... most of the probs i'e had reported in emails seem to be with users of poser 6... so i'm wondering if there's some kind of incompatability or read error between the daz exports and poser 6's programing... my roomie has mentioned that poser 6 had added some new settings for surfaces that weren't in previous versions... not sure if maybe that could cause issues....?? I'll try and correct what errors i can at some point and will re-release the items.. but feel free to fix the errors yourself... just see my requests above if you wish to repost.... In the mean time... here's a new model i've done while i was playing around at trying to figure out daz's figure set-up tool which i just downloaded as a trial version... i'm sure the rigging is horrendous compared to a pro's... but i'm doing my best...lol

 First: I haven't checked your stuff yet.

But I do use Hexagon as my primary modeler, and I was thinking that it might be better if you simply offered the models as raw obj (scaled to V4/M4) - that way a Poser user could easily import them as obj with ALL THE IMPORT OPTIONS unchecked and still have a correct-sized model. It's easy then to save it as a Poser prop by simply clicking the + in the Props palette.

Oh and keep an eye out for Computer magazines that may have earlier Poser versions on their cover disks ;) 

Thanx for the suggestion Trekkie... as it stands now i may be getting a copy of poser 7.. a friend of mine bought it because she wanted to start trying modelling but didn't like it... so she's said i can have her liscenced copy...with the reg numbers etc... she never uses it... if i get that then i can test my stuff in poser and sort out some of the probs... so far though it's seeming like alot of the probs are with poser6 specifically... but i'll see what i can do... i've gone back and checked my diffuse settings etc... and everything is fine... so the issue is somewhere with poser when it's translating and importing the objects...or with daz when it's exporting and translating the items to poser format... not sure which... but when i load them in daz... no issues... so... at least users have been able to sort the probs out themselves thus far... and i'll see what i can do on my end... as a word of note though... i do plan on working with high res maps for better detailing... which means larger maps than normal... though mine aren't as large a size as some i've seen with figures... both pro and freebies like mine...
 

I did some checking and DAZ seems to have exported with the content version-labelled as Poser 3, with no "Preview" material, and some differences in how colours are defined.

I tried Poser 5 and the results were no different.

Wild guess, but do you have a choice of Poser version to export to?

 

at the time i didn't.... i had to hand write the cr2's after i exported the objects and mtl files... fortunately it's a direct copy from the mtl's to the cr2's... i was following a tut and had a blank cr2 to use when doing so... i could redo them now and choose the type of poser to export the cr2 as.... i'm using daz studio's figure set-up tools and cr2 exporter now... i hadn't had that when i did my prop sets... i kinda figured it had something to do with the way daz handled it's mtl's... BeyondVR had suggested such in an email to me regarding some other things... poser wouldn't read daz's mtl's properly with an object i'd sent him... so it stands to reason that the info that needed to be in the cr2's would be screwed up as well... ty antonia... now that i know what the prob is maybe i can fix it... the objects read fine in daz with no probs however... but i will have to retry making the cr2's with the cr2 exporter and see if that fixes the prob... but without me having poser i have no way of knowing if it works or not.... i'll see what i can do...

i double-checked with my room-mate who uses poser and it would seem that dazstudio uses a different numerical value to represent colours than poser... so what appears white in daz may appear as an entirely different colour in poser... my appologies peoples... this was a detail of which i was un-aware... not being a poser user... now i am left with a dilema... should i just leave them posted as is and let people figure it out themselves?... or should i just pull them and say forget it...?... hmmmmmmmmmm

Okay... here's what i have so far..

I finnally got to see what you were all talking about with the colours.... and have had the chance to try and figure out the prob... i beleive, after looking at some different formats of cr2 and the daz surfaces listings, that the problem lies with the cr2 format and the way daz handles colours... in daz all my items display as they should... colours and all... and when a friend of mine loaded them in to poser for me yesturday the diffuse, specular, and ambient colours were messed up... but the objects themselves loaded just fine with the textures in place as they should and it was just a matter of hitting the poser surfaces tab and correcting the colours which took about 2 seconds... lol...

Anyways.. BeyondVR has kindly agreed to test a new sample cr2 for me to see if it fixes the problem with the colours... in the mean time.. i'd set the diffuse to a light grey, the specular to white, and the ambient to black when i'd modeled them... and that was how they were when i loaded them back in from the cr2's in daz... also those were the settings i used when i did the renders for the example pics that i posted with my items on sharecg... it gave a semi-glossy finish that worked well to simulate the type of paint used by the military...

As for doing them as pp2's... i can't as i'd said already... so untill i have that ability i will have to continue using cr2's for my freebies... sorry guys... when i have the ability for poser props instead of figures i'll probably redo them... but the best i can do for now is when i know that the new cr2's will fix the probs with the colours i can post a set of corrected cr2's that will atleast resolve that problem and will let everyone know if that is the case... be fore-warned that i do work in a larger size texture map as i prefer working in highrez for extra detailing... lol...

i will probably follow up on the idea of making it so the bombs can be made to appear dropped... it's a good idea and ty Antonia... i like it... i also plan on doing some more weapons sets at some point... so that various armaments load-outs can be added... instead of just bombs or a drop-tank...

I also looked into the names of the surfaces... i can't rename them... or if i can i haven't a clue how... in the programs i use... i know in daz i can't at all.. and it labels everything as "default whatever" and in hex it just asigns a number to the surface(s)... the only way i've found to change this at this point is for me to manually edit the obj's in a text editor and rename the usemtl headings in the object itself... which is gonna be time consuming as hck in some of them... and i only discovered by accident  a couple of days ago that i could even do that much...

The textures for all my items should have been all in one folder in runtime > textures > Maps... the folder "maps" is the default one that daz creates when exporting the textures applied to an object when you export it... i left it by title as it was and continued using it for simplicity so i could easily find it if i wanted to redo or add to a texture for anything i'd created... since that's where all my textures go for anything i've done... including repaints for other peoples items or figures i'm not sure why you'd wind up with more than one folder with files of the same name... you shouldn't have... should have only been one textures folder for everything i put out.....

Anyways... i will see what i can do once i know if the new cr2's work... that will solve atleast one prob...

 Renaming materials is a common enough job that there are several utilities that can do it.

Even a good file editor should be able to do it. They're big files, but a global search-and-replace un on a material name on a .obj file will do it.

You have to be careful about possible filename-matches in a .cr2, but it looks as though the material names only appear once.

I've never really gotten anywhere with the UV mapping abiities of modelling programs--I have a copy of Hexagon, but I use Wings3D--there's a range of possible tools. You've missed a couple of tricks with the airfield terrain model.

1: The model can be split into two materials, the background/sky and the ground.

2: If the materials use two texturemaps, they can share the same UV space.

Looking at what you have, and the reversed normals, I do wonder if you just took two surfaces of a cube primitive. It would explain the huge gaps in the UV space.

I've come across references to Corsairs and Hellcats being tested as torpedo carriers, hence the picture. This is my attempt at a late-war Mk 13, which could be dropped from an incredible 2400 ft and 410 kts. They must have used a fighter to test at that speed.

nice... looks pretty good Antonia :)...  and yeah.. i did just use a cube and remove all but two sides... i wanted something that i could make quickly for my own use and hadn't planned on releasing really at first... i wanted a backdrop for my other props because i wanted to do some renders of the aircraft on the ground rather than just flying... everyone does flying planes alot... i wanted something different... lol... i decided afterwards to release it... since i figured that it was hard to get decent scenes for stuff like airfeilds etc... i'm actually planning on doing a new version of it with a separate back plane for the backdrop and actually sculpting the ground... make the airstrip raised and leveled, modelling some basic texture into it etc.. for a little more realism... but i have another project i'm tinkering at right now... i'm experimenting still with rigging for a powered armour i've been sculpting.. trying to figure out rigging and the figure set-up tools for daz studio if i can figure out that then i have a late war corsair F4U-4 type that i'd done but haven't been able to rig... (the late war 4 bladed prop i put in my prop set was origionally created for my own corsair... i was able to work out how to attach it to Bazze's and since add-ons are also hard to find i decided to put it out)...and can finnaly finish it and maybe can get it released as a poseable figure for download... i'd done the model itself of the plane quite some time ago... but without being able to rig....

I have good news for those of you following this forum thread... the new cr2's solve the prob with the colour settings... and thanx again to BeyondVR for testing them for me... i'll be redoing the cr2's and releasing a replacement cr2 set shortly so keep an eye out on my sharecg portfolio for the new release... it'll just be cr2's to replace the old ones that are causing the problem and they will be named the same as the old ones so you can just delete and replace the ones that came with the prop sets... i'll announce in this thread as well when they now ones are out... :)... thanx all for the feedback...

Attached Link: Corsair Chocks

Here's some smartpropped chocks for Bazze's Corsair, in Poser prop format.

 I've included the .obj file for DAZ Studio users. It's a bit WIP, as there should be two chocks for each wheel, linked by a rope used to pull them clear.

One of those little details... Maybe usable for other models, though you need to adjust the geometry to match the width between the aircraft's wheels.

 I knew there was something nagging at me about that PSP tracking.

exmod-uk.com/equip.php Here's a photo, and measurements of current standard PSP.  It doesn't show the perforations very well, but note that they're round.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsden_Matting The Wikipedia article gives more details of the WW2 matting

thanx Antonia... i worked with what i had at the time and could find that best simulated what i needed when i did them... but when i do the two peice scene backdrop set i'll be doing a better job of it... it workes for a basic scene though... and most people would be looking at the aircraft rather than the ground...lol... i'll get a better look at psp and see what i can do for the new prop sets when i start on them... :)

Okay everyone... the new replacement cr2's are posted... they should solve the issues with the color settings not displaying properly... i also fixed some of the object names issues and a few other things... here's the link for the cr2's... http://www.sharecg.com/v/34371/Poser/Chriss-Replacement-Cr2s... i hope this solves some of the biggest issues atleast.... happy downloading!!! :)

Here's a pick of the marsten matting/PSP that i'm working on to go with my airfeild... i'm starting a new set of props...  anyone got any suggestions?