There are a bunch of material-related threads in the mod support section right now, but none of them really pertain to my issue. Normally I prefer figuring stuff out on my own, but this is really bugging me... (mainly because I don't REALLY understand how material files work) I've made a mod which attaches the "Hero" Bus cape to the D-Series, and it uses an unedited copy of "citybus_cape.DAE" to do so. (I wouldn't have copied it, but the .jbeam couldn't find the "citybus_cape.DAE" that actually belongs to the bus in order to use it... if anyone knows how to point the .jbeam at a specific .DAE file, please let me know about that too lol) I figured since this worked, I'd copy/paste the materials from the bus and just delete any lines that don't pertain to the cape, but it doesn't work. I've attached the mod for reference, and an image to show the problem. Please help me lol
That's just not how you do it, it's not as easy as just copy+pasting some files, you have to rename the materials both in Blender and in materials.json file, and make sure to not delete anything important
lol It worked for the cape itself, which is why I thought it might work for the materials too... As I said, I don't really understand how material files work. The tutorial in the wiki is WAY outdated. It still gets the point across, but there are so many more layers of complexity now that aren't covered. My very issue is that I don't know what is important and what isn't lol It didn't work even initially which is why I tried renaming some things... If I may ask, what exactly was the misnamed file? If it was that "/vehicles/citybus/citybus_cape_p.color.png" I noticed that I couldn't find it in the "citybus.zip," but I didn't think anything of it because it was like that before. I didn't rename that one. I gave it a looksee when I was trying to make it, but not having a great understanding of material files, I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. I get that the file-path-looking thing is actually a file path pointing at a specific image file, but I don't really understand the "name" and the "mapTo" and "class" and the like, and the wiki is REALLY vague. lol I think having screenshots of what in the "materials.json" was wrong, and what you did to fix it here would be more helpful to other noobs than re-uploading the whole mod. Thanks for the help lol
I was under the first impression when I first got into the world editor that simply exporting a DAE to the game would also make the texture when it loaded. I repurposed a meme for this occasion Don feel bad Oioioioioo, we all make errors and can laugh about them now. I just happened to see the cape and thought of something similar before but mine was a superman cape.
Basically in the material file the top 2 lines were you put “pickup” should of bin citybus or in other words you mapped it to a group that didnt exist in any files.
They were citybus when I tested it the first time, and it didn't work then either. I changed it to pickup just for the heck of it, I didn't really expect it to fix anything... Weird. Thanks again for the help.
Hey all, just bumping my own old thread on the same topic as todays' question... Does anyone have any knowledge of the existence of a COMPREHENSIVE materials tutorial or wiki? I am once again having skill issues with materials, and it's one of the only things in modding I really have had no luck learning. If anyone has comprehensive knowledge on the subject, I'd be VERY interested in creating a sort of forum thread "wiki" where people can help eachother out with modding... at the very least use such a thing as a placeholder until the documentation page is fully fleshed-out. Documentation page I mentioned in case you live under a bigger rock than I do: (Very helpful, but very unfinished) https://documentation.beamng.com/ Any help is much-appreciated.
Hmm… I agree that a more detailed (even if unofficial) documentation would be really helpful, for both beginners and more advanced in modding. Sadly I dunno much about specifically materials, but I would be happy to help with the documentation project you mentioned. --- Post updated --- That thread name though… It do be like that sometimes/
Yeah I think it'd be great to bounce ideas around even between experienced modders if they have one nagging/illusive issue they can't quite pin down, especially because SOMEONE has probably had the same issue and maybe solved it. As I said, any help is much-appreciated. I don't quite know how to structure a thing like that, if it'd be one giant mess of a thread, or a master thread with links to specific issue-threads. idk. I can help (noobs) a lot with .Jbeam in general because I've learned a lot, and learned that you can do a lot that isn't in the wiki or documentation. I also have some knowledge of how to identify and address model errors in Blender, mainly pertaining to mesh-slapping, but might be helpful for real modders too idk.... Yeah it do... oftentimes, actually.
