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Hey all. Thank you for checking out my first tutorial. I have seen this question asked, but not a whole lot of answers. Believe me I have been all over the forums. If this was already answered I apologise. This is gonna be a tutorial, using step by step, for the absolute begineer, so if your advanced this is not for you.
What you need for tutorial:
-This tutorial uses DARKmatter
-This tutorial uses FPScreator
-Some sort of photoshop program, or the such to save files as .tga, I recommend Paint Shop Pro which can be downloaded free! For 60 days.
-This tutorial is guided by Windows XP edition.

Step 1) We are gonna open up FPSCreator. Go to "start", "all programs", "the game creators", "FPSCreator", then click the "FPSCreator" icon. All we did here of course was open the program. Like I said this is for absolute beginners.

Step 2) Now we have the program loaded up, and you can see the area where you add prefabs, or entities, segments, or markers.

Step 3) This is the step where were gonna do a little tweaking. And were gonna visit the folders that fpscreator is in. So get ready! (note: Remember this is step by step, if you follow all these direction's, there is no way to mess this up! You will be using your own .x files in no time!) Bottom left click "start", then "my computer", "local disk C:" , then "program files". Scroll until you find "The Game Creators" Folder. Click that. Now open the folder "FPS Creator". Open the folder "Files". Now open the folder that says "EntityBank".

Step 4) With the "Entity Bank" folder open, right click anywhere in the folder. Then select "new" and select "folder". Once you have that folder created rename it by right clicking it, and select "rename". Were gonna name this folder, "MyEntities".

Step 5) Now with this step here. It may be a little tricky. But this is step by step. So just follow along. This specific step is gonna use DarkMATTER 2. Ok, now we go to "start", "my computer", "local disk C:", "program files". Open up "The Game Creators" folder, click on the "DarkMATTER2" folder: Open up the folder "DM2Browser", then open the folder titles "Media". In this tutorial were gonna add a tank. So click the folder titled , "Tanks". How about we add the A-7V tank? So open the folder titled "A-7V". Now ya see the funky image there? and the .x file to the right of it? Were gonna use those. Now time for step 6 !

Step 6) Make sure you have a clear view of your desktop! Thats where I like to put everything so it dosent get lost. Please remember so we dont take this tank away from your darkMATTER folder, we are gonna have to "COPY" NOT "CUT". So do not cut any images or .x files. Only copy. So what were gonna do now, is with the folder, "A-7V" open were gonna right click with the mouse, the file "A7V" image and select "copy". Go anywhere on your desktop now, right click it, and select "paste. And there it is. Do the same to the .x file , right click "copy" , go to desktop, and "paste". Now we have the two files we need there for us to work with.

Step 7) Now remember the folder we created earlier called, "MyEntities"? If ya dont have no fear, were step by step'n it here. No make sure ya have a clear view of your desktop, cause were about to move the files "A-7V" , which is our .x file. And the "A7V" which is our image file. Firs things first though! We need to make our image file a .tga file! This can be done with almost any pain programs. Im gonna assume you are using the program mentioned above, "PaintShop Pro" Which can be downloaded free from www.jasc.com.

Step 8) Go to "Start", "All Programs", "Jasc Software", and click on the "paintshop pro" icon, so we can open it up!. Now with PaintShop Pro opened up. We need to find our image. Remember we saved it on the desktop! So, looking at paint shop pro, we go to "file" , "open" . Now there pops up a box. Make sure the "look in" is looking at the desktop. If not , simply select the arrow, and scroll until you find the "desktop". Look for the file, "a7v", and double click it. It will now be open in paint shop pro. All we have to do here is really simple. Turn this image into a .tga file! So looking at PaintShop Pro, go to "file", then "save as". Now your gonna see "file name" keep that the same, dont change anything there. Under that your gonna see "save as type". We wanna scroll until we see the option "TRUEVISION TARGA(*.tga)". Now hit "save". Now this file is now saved on the desktop. But be aware the old file we had is also there. So were gonna delete that now. to avoid confusion. Go to your desktop , and delete the file other then the .tga file we just made.

Step 9) Were done with PaintShop Pro now. So go ahead and close it out. Noe what we need to do is find an "entity" that already exsist, in FPSCreator, and take that ".fpe file". Easy. I figure when i have the program, "FPSCreator" open, and I select, "entities", then "ww2", "furnitureb" , the "damaged tank" looks like what we need here right? Good glad you agree. Now, we need to look for the "damaged tank.fpe" file in FPScreator. So go to "start", "my computer", "local disk C:", "program files", "The game creators folder", then "fpscreator folder", open the "files" folder. Open the "entitybank folder", open up "ww2" folder. Now "furnitureb", Remember we were looking for the "damagedtank.fpe"? When you find the files that say "damaged_tank", your on track here. But there is two files! Click on the file on the right of that image "damaged_tank". The file we need should look like a notepad file. What were gonna do here is right click , the file called "damaged_tank", and select copy. Now move this file to the desktop with the other 2! (THE .fpe file LOOKS LIKE A NOTEPAD FILE!)

Step 10) Guess what! Only a few more things left ! What were gonna do now, with the new .FPE file we have on our desktop, we need to rename it. So "right click" select "rename", rename it to "a7v". Now double click on that .fpe file we just renamed. If your computer aks's you what program you'd like to open it up with, just select, the program "notepad". Now your gonna see all sorts of foreign text in there right? Nah. Not to bad. Lets get to messing with the script a lil bit.

Step 11) With our .fpe file open, we see something that says ";HEADER", right? Under that it will say, "desc = damaged_tank". Let's change that. Just delete the part that says "damaged_tank", and type in "A7_V". Now were done there. So scroll down to where it says, ";Orientation", just under that your gonna see the word "model", then to it's right, a crap load of stuff, ending with a .x, right? We need to change this. Before we do mess with anything else though we need to move our 3 files to "MyEntities Folder" we made earlier. Sorry for skipping that. Go to the "a7v" file we been messing with, and go to "file" then "save". Then close it out. Go to your desktop where those three files are at. Put them right next to each other. Now select all those files by click somewhere around them, hold the "left mouse button" , this will select them, now click the "right mouse button" select "cut". Now we can "cut" these files cause there ours, and wont ruin anything.

Step 12) Now we need to go to "start" , "my computer", "local disk C:", "Program files", now open "the game creators folder", select "FPS Creator folder" , Open up "files" then open up "Entity Bank". Last but not least we open up the "MyEntities" folder we created earlier. "Right click" in that folder, and select "paste". Now the three Files we messed with earlier are part of the FPS Creators program. Although we still need to do a ferw more things to the .fpe file we messed with earlier. So open up the "a7v" .FPE file. The one that looks like notepad. Where it says ";Orientation", under that it says "model = blah blah blah.x". What we need to put here is exactly this, if you followed this step by step! Remeber without the quotation marks! "model = C:\Program Files\The Game Creators\FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\A-7V.x". This is pointing to our .x file. Were almost all set.

Step 13) Now looking at our a7v FPE file we scroll down and see where it says ";visualinfo". See where it says "textured"? Thats what we need to change now? And do you remember the .tga file we created? Thats exactly what needs to go there! It will look exactly like this when you have changed it. "textured = C:\Program Files\The Game Creators\FPS Creator\Files\entitybank\MyEntities\a7v.tga". Again dont put the quotation marks in there. Now with the .fpe file we have open we need to just save it now. So go to "file" and just select "save".

Step 14) Im assuming you have FPSCreator open still. What we need to do now is close it. So close it out completely. Now were gonna open it back up, go to "start" , "all programs" , "the game creators" , "fps creator" , then open "fps creator". Then it loads. Ok here is what we do now. With FPS Creator open, we select the "entities" tab. Now it will have the "add new entity" option. Click that. Now scroll down until you see the new option called "MyEntities". Look for the "a7v". Then put it on in the game! If you want, you can mess with the x, y rotate commands in the .fpe file, to change the tanks angle and what not. Make sure ya have the "build game" options set to high to look at the DARKmatter beauty Such as texture detail, and light map settings. Later I will give a tutorial on using the xrotate , and yrotate commands. Which my wife taught me. lol. But are pretty darn easy!

Thank you everyone. This is my first ever written tutorial. Please feel free to add comments, or suggestions to this post. I hope this helps some of you out. It only took me an hour and half. I went through every step my self to ensure the quality of this turorial but i make no gurantees. If ya have questions or comments, and wanna talk to me directly , please feel free to e mail me at mike_and_angela@sbcglobal.net !

Semper Fidelis
GOD BLESS

VERY VERY nice tut deserves to be a sticky

Nice job man

GLyvin101

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it. And hope this helps many of you which had questions on using .x files. Coming soon, I will have a tutorial on using your own weapons, exporting them, and using them in FPSCreator. Thanks yall.
Semper Fidelis.
God BLESS

Thanks for the tut. I am gonna read it right now so i can finally put my own models in!

A little help here. How do I put models in if they are .x files and they are not from Dark Matter?

Hey there. I have actually been e mailed that question. You do everything the same way though. Nothing needs to be changed as far as I know. Although you still need to put the files (.x files, .tga) exactly as described. Dont forget you need to rotate the y,x for your models be placed how you want. If this dosent help. Send me the file your trying to use, ill try using it. And let you know whats going on!
God Bless
Semper Fidelis

Thanks. I'll try that.

whoops

I did exactaly what you said. Your tut is very good...but I cant get it to work. I did what you said to do. I checked the .fpe that you have to edit and it was changed like it should be. I don't know what I did wrong cus it looks like an egg. I posted a pic.

Help???!?!?

lol, like an egg..if you can send me the files yuou are trying to use like i been saying. I will then do my best to put them into fpscreator, and then give you the tutorial on what you need to do exactly to use them. Whatever pic you posted didnt work by the way
Semper Fidelis
GOD BLESS

Here's a pic. If you want the modle that i trying to import it is that cool walker that Pudbawl made. You can download it in the thread "walker type entity"

lol, yeah thats an egg alright. Ill go get the walker entity after im back from being promoted. Id like to try it out and see what i can do with it. Im out..
GOD BLESS
Semper Fidelis

thanks.

Hey, I have some .3DS models I would like to use, is there a good program to change .3DS files to .X?

this is a very informative tutorial, but I have one question, how do you stop entitys becoming white spheres instead of what they should be?

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I've never had that white sphere effect. I think your refering to the "egg" problem. Where the entities look like an egg of some sort. Just to help you out a little bit, make sure that you have your .fpe file pointing in the location of the media file.
God BLESS
SEMPER FIDELIS

Ok I'll try that when I get home.

Hehehe, nice one,devil, got it after bout two go's at it, got a apc in fpsc now,

which looks like a bloody damaged tank,

I'm glad you got everything to work Steven. I'm also glad my tutorial could help you. Thanks for checking it out. And good luck with fpscreator.
GOD BLESS
SEMPER FIDELIS

hehehe, well, devil, that's another story, mate, when i thought i did get it right, it was wrong, the apc doesn't show, it still comes up as the FPSC damamged tank.

Had another go at trying to import the APC and the A-V7 but gave up, plus not got time at the moment to give it another go as I am stuck on a oil rig at the mo.

Well it sounds like you dont have the texture pointed to the right direction. Did you make sure to change the texture? And the .x file? Sounds like in one of those points you went wrong. I had my wife who dosent know a thing about games besides World Of WarCRaft do this tutorial before I released it. And she got it to work. Shes my tester. Those are the only things I can think of going wrong with yours. If that dosent work. Just make sure you put those files that are the a-v7 in the fps directory.
GOD BLESS
SEMPER FIDELIS

I'm home. Will respond shortly.

Will give it aonther shot tomorrow if and when i get off this oil rig i'm on at the moment, got bloody fog offshore and could stop me getting off.

umm, I managed to get my models into FPSC, but is there a way to resize them? as at the moment my dropship looks like the only troops it can carry are Irish leprechans

any help would be apreciated, its probably up here somewhere else but I don't want to trawl through the site, I know, lazy, but I'm out of energy ATM

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Well Icompletely started over and tried it again and I'm still getting that sphere effect (EGG!). I'm sorry to waste your time but I would like some help if possible.

Thanks a lot,
DA ChieF

oddly enough, only one of the entitys I've brought into FPSC has become an egg, the rest are fine, hmmm

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Great Tutorial.

Thank's I hope it helps everyone. There will be more coming soon !
GOD BLESS
SEMPER FIDELIS

hey I can't get this file to work, would you mind trying it Devild0g?

I don't have a texture file for it

Do you have a texture for your .x file?

I did, but when I converted it to a .x file it built it into the code I think.

here's the original .3DS file... if it helps.

i'm having the sphere problem, but i didnt used to.

Nice tutorial, might be a tad bit too in-depth. Like "How to use x-files in FPSC for dummies".

Do even 10% of these "FPSC Users" KNOW anything? No offense intended, but they NEED it.

L0L, I know how to use it, I just dont know how to get red of THAT FRIGGIN SPHERE!

Ok I tried using this tutorial several tmes over. My models dont show up in fpsc but it is invisible. i ddo have the correct paths and stuff. Could it be some to do with the animations already in the model conflicting with fpsc ?

Thread is Now RED...

We need a tut for that... Why don't you make one devild0g?

@CBSTUDIOS - If all the paths, and files are places correctly there shouldn't be any problems. I have yet to mess with getting any animation's to work. Im not to sure where to start with your problem at.

@CDBGames - I have seen screenshots of the "egg" or "sphere". I believe this is a texture problem. I havent had this happen myself, but I know of it. Be sure when your copying all the files to the folders they need to be in, you open them up, and correct the texture location and all of that. Basically the "sphere" is saying there is nothing there, so instead of your jeep, or whatever your trying to make appear, "FpsCreator" makes this weird shape instead. Becuase of all the default settings on the .fpe file.

@RogerWilco - This tutorial was used for people not knowing how to use there own .x files. My question is, why the heck did ya read through the whole thing if it's "a bit to in depth". Just skip it , move on to the next thread. My tutorials are revolved around beginners. When V1 comes around, there will be more advanced tutorials I can write out.

@SunFlash - I have not forgotten about you bro! Im gonna get on that (Tuesday July 26th). Ill see if I can get it to work. Just so I have something to go off of, what exactly is this model? Around how big is it supposed to be?

@Merranvo - Not sure what ya mean by "Thread is all red", "we need a tutorial for that". A tutorial for what? If it had to do with models, and media , I'd be glad to help.

Semper Fidelis
God Bless

I was pretty sure the magic number to make the tread a "hot topic" was 40... guess I was wrong...

And I was meaning you should get us a debugging tut, that way no one can complain about cronic egg syndrom.

@MErranvo - lol. Well the only way I see to debug this problem would be to go through the .fpe file, and make sure your texture's are pointing in the right direction.

@All - Also, make sure you have all the files, in the folder that needs to be there. Dont short cut anything in this tutorial! It was tested by someone not knowing anything about model's or media. And was done 100% successful. Without any help or aid of reference. Part of the tutorial tell's you to "pick" something that resembles your model. So if i have a tank, and I copy the bananna model. Guess what. It's gonna come out small as heck, and im stuck with scaling. Make sure you choose accordingly.
Like I said though. A lot of things people do, is get to carried away, and try to skip things. This tutorial is geared for beginners, however if your a modeling genius, and this dosent work for you, swallow your pride and go back. Read through some things you make have over looked.
God Bless
Semper Fidelis

Tomarrow you all should have me explaining how to get sundances model to work. Hopefully that may clear some things up. Thats If I get it to work.
God Bless
Semper Fidelis.

I am aware that it is meant to be for begginers (which I am when it comes to modelling and using FPSC), and I didn't mean to insult your or something, but I meant instead of describing the exact path to the programs, you could just write something like; "Open up FPSC and...".

I was not offended at all. For some reason I dont have an internet heart. And any feedback I get is helpful! Believe me , no hard feelings. I just wanted everyone to know the "step by step" process , so there could be no confusion. Well at least there shouldn't have been. Take care and God Bless.

Hi,

Can someone clarify the steps for importing .x files into FPS Creator.

I only have photoshop and FPS creator. Is this all I need?


Cheers

Mark

Then you have everything you need. I only had the demo of Photoshop, and the only thing you need photoshop for in this tutorial is so you can make files .tga or what not. If for some reason your version of photoshop dosent support .tga, then download PaintShop Pro, at jasc.com
God Bless
Semper Fidelis

Hi,

Finally maanged to get a .x file into fps creator and map to an existing character texture.

The only problem is the entity is really small. How can I make the entity larger.

The character looks quite big in GameSpace 1.6, the program I am using to export the character as a .x file.

Cheers

Mark

Open up the .fpe file, and mess with the settings in there. Be sure to back up that .fpe file your playing with in case ya mess it up. Good luck
Semper Fidelis
God Bless

devild0g, may I host your tutorials?

I am updateing my Resource Site and have added a Tut's section, yours is one of the most helpful (and most asked for ).