Hey everyone! New user here. First I got to say I'm really excited to have found this community!
FFT is one of my favorite games of all time!
I want to start off simple; just modeling and texturing environments. I was wondering if there is a range in the game for poly count? I want to stay as authentic as possible to the original games look and style. A lot of what I've seen on the site and forums talks about file sizes. Since I plan on (at the moment) creating something purely for art sake and not to put in the game, this info doesn't really help.
Also textures? What size are they 128x128 Is the entire map on one texture map?
I really appreciate the help, if anyone has any examples of a 3d file (.obj .ma. .max) and or a texture sheet that'd be great!
Thanks again and I look forward to showing you all my work!
---vonkoz---
www.landofkoz.com
Hey man, i unfortunately don't have an answer for your question, but i just wanted to say, I just looked at your work and it is extremely impressive
Thanks Elric! It's ok, worst case scenario is I eyeball it by screenshot for the poly count and just guess on the textures. But I'm hoping there is at least one user on here who knows, or has a few files I can look at! :)
well depending on exactly what your looking for my first thought would be to take a look at the map editor. i don't know how it works exactly since i do Event work, but i know that new textures can be added so i would assume that they could be exported as well, tho I'm not positive. Hope this is of some help atleast
While I also lack the specific information you seek, I think this tool is will steer you in the right direction, possibly:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=2479.0
Thanks guys! Looks promising. I'll have to dig up my copy of FFT for ps1 and see if I can rip the maps from it.
Quote from: vonkoz on January 06, 2012, 11:58:08 pm
Thanks guys! Looks promising. I'll have to dig up my copy of FFT for ps1 and see if I can rip the maps from it.
If you have any trouble locating it lemme know, im sure i can help in that aspect :P
Found it! I'll have to dig into this editor in the morning, it's pretty late here and I'm already deep into a Guardian Heroes project I desperately want to finish! :D
Quote from: vonkoz on January 07, 2012, 12:19:17 am
Found it! I'll have to dig into this editor in the morning, it's pretty late here and I'm already deep into a Guardian Heroes project I desperately want to finish! :D
Glad you were able to find it and i look forward to seeing more of your work :mrgreen: its really very stunning, as several people i have showed to it also agree
Thanks again! :oops: I post my art pretty regularly on my blog www.landofkoz.blogspot.com When I get into my FFT stuff I'll be post on my blog as well as here though!
just subscribed to your blog, looking forward :mrgreen:
Ok so I just finished my latest art project and I'm going to get started on some FFT goodness soon! So I figured I'd bump this post and see if anyone can offer some more help. :mrgreen:
Stuff you need to use this:
- Game ISO
- python.exe (http://python.org/download/releases/2.7.2/) or python package
- The software in the this link: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6809.msg143936#msg143936
Thanks! But when I try to install the setup tool it's telling me that:
Python version 2.7 required, which was not found in the registry.
I installed python version 2.7 and it's on my c drive. What am I doing wrong?
Forgive me if I'm naive, I'm and artists and this hacker stuff it tough sometimes! :oops:
Thanks again!!!!!
You're on a 64-bit OS, huh? Did you install it as 64-bit? Uninstall the 64-bit edition. Install it as 32-bit. Otherwise, your option is this: http://selfsolved.com/problems/setuptools-06c11-fails-to-instal/s/63
I've put all the installers you need to run that software here: download (http://www.darkabstraction.com/showOff/ffhackticks/%5B535%5Dmap2gl17%2Bexport-full.zip).
After you've run all those installers, you're almost ready. Do you have a copy of FFT's original CD? Put that in your CD drive. Do you only have an ISO? Mount it. Double-click the map2gl program. It will ask you to locate a .GNS file. These are the files FFT has its maps in. They are located on the game's CD.
If you wind up not wanting to bother with all that, FFT's maps usually have a single mesh for the map set to scale (0.01, 0.01, 0.01). The first square starts its lower-left vertex at (0,0,0). Squares go north and east from there at 28 units for width and length. Z-heights start at 0 going up in increments of 24 units. Half-steps are 12 units. All squares have the geometry of a square (in two conjoined triangles). Where you might be tempted to join like-area into simpler geometry, normal FFT maps don't; they still have geometry for each square. Added geometry (rocks, columns) are typical low-poly model approaches using triangle fans. A single large image is UV mapped as the map's texture. The original maps include baked lighting and weather effects all in that one file (meaning, one section is for sunny, one for rainy, etc).
dude you rock! And feel like I'm getting close! BUT!
I've tried to type in the command prompt and I keep getting syntax errors also when I click on the map2gl.py file it prompts me to open the gns file and when i do nothing happens. Thoughts?
Thanks again!
Quote from: vonkoz on January 17, 2012, 11:27:36 pm
dude you rock! And feel like I'm getting close! BUT!
I've tried to type in the command prompt and I keep getting syntax errors also when I click on the map2gl.py file it prompts me to open the gns file and when i do nothing happens. Thoughts?
Thanks again!
My only suggestion would be to try a different map. The ???/Unknown maps (such as 000) won't load correct IIRC
Fortunately, it uses its own code to load the map files. Inasmuch, gomtuu's program loads all maps on a valid PSX CD. I can't help you address the errors unless you post them.
Otherwise, it may have something to do with being on a 64-bit OS. I don't know which OS you're on, but most windows operating systems have a compatibility mode. Python files aren't executable, but .BAT files are. .BAT files are just text files with the ".bat" extension. Yours would look like "start.bat": "python map2gl.py" or "c:\Python-2.7.2\python.exe map2gl.py" in the map2gl folder. Now, right-click that file and go to "Properties". There should be a compatibility tab. Pick XP or 2000. Perhaps this will fix whatever issue you are having. Double-click the start.bat file to run the program in the compatibility mode you selected.
Thanks again for the continued help!
this is the error I'm getting
(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/681/erroranj.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/erroranj.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
Also the fft folder that was in the zip you linked to, where should that folder go? And what is the relevance of the files in it?
Thanks again!!!!!!!
This is how you run it from the command-line:
(http://darkabstraction.com/showOff/ffhackticks/map2gl-cmd-example.png)
The word "python" in this case stands for "python.exe". If it isn't in your Windows path envrionment variable (i.e. if "C:\Python-2.7.2" isn't part of your PATH environment variable), then you'll need to type out the whole path or run it from that directory (that is copy map2gl and its fft folder into C:\Python-2.7.2 to run it if you don't want to set up the environment variable).
(http://darkabstraction.com/showOff/ffhackticks/map2gl-cmd-example-2.png)
You can't run it from the shell easily like that (the picture you posted), since you'd have to do something extra to pass arguments (the filename) in. Just running the program from there is this command: execfile("map2gl.py")
"fft" is part of gomtuu's "map2gl" program.
I got it to work!!!!! You guys rule! This should be super helpful in creating some maps that are stay true to the look and style of FFT! I can't wait to share them with you!
Thanks again!!!
I look forward to them as well! New maps are always welcome. :D
Ok so I lied! I have another question. This is the PNG that I am exporting out. Does Which one is the actual texture that the map is using. Or is there a way to combine them?
Thanks!
(http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/6223/map044.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/map044.png/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
You have to load the model into a 3d modeling program (whichever one doesn't matter). Then, add that texture to the model, setting it to map to UV coordinates. The UV coordinates are imported with the model; the texture isn't, because I didn't spend enough time to make it do that.
Once you have it loaded, look at the UV layout to find the parts that are used, but know that the remaining parts may be used in weather. Note the purple areas on the right side of the screen:
(http://darkabstraction.com/showOff/ffhackticks/map2gl-blender-example.png)
Additionally, powerful 3d modeling programs offer you an option to bake your texture into a new UV map. With blender, that would result in a smaller image with just the parts of that image that are used by that model.