At this time there is no way to import your own parts made outside of game into the game, however you can indeed make your own custom ship parts in the games ship designer from ship parts and save to use as ship parts for your own designs.

Yes, I know that. There must be a way to format an .obj file for the game to recognize. The developers obviously built polygonal models for all of these parts and codified them for the game.

I wouldn't use any of these parts for ont of my designs because they wouldn't be MY designs and they conversion always ends up with triangulated polygons. I prefer 4 sided polygons.

The devs know how to convert a model for game use.

I honestly do not think there is away to do this since the game already provides players the means to create thier own unique ships.

The devs used 3d max, maya, etc to make these models then they encoded them for their game engine. I am asking the Devs how to do this, so I can do the same and offer part sets in the workshop...NOT ships.

They have them all locked in .sdf files . . . does anyone work with this format?
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To create you own ship parts.

1, select hull scale starter block and add your base starting part.

2. add more parts but DO NOT place them on the hull scale starter block, only use hardpoints from the other parts you have placed on design to add other parts to.

3, when you have the part made and want to save as a ship part
a) click highlight first ship part press/hold shift button and select all other parts
b) click Group button to group parts to see if they will all form a single part. if done correctly only your first starting part will show.
c) click on Ungroup button so all parts show again.
d) now repeat step (a) without grouping parts, click the save as ship part button, name your ship part and click OK,

Custom ship parts will show in the universal parts section and at top of in styles tab section.

Hope this now helps you.

That is some good information. Thanks.

My post was about importing my own 3dmax designs to use as ship parts, and share them with others. I just want to know what they are using to convert the models they made in Maya, 3dmax,etc so that the game engine will recognize them. The moddelers that work for this company did the modelling using one of the commercial software packages (probably Autodesk 3DMax) to make all of the things used in this game.

I have worked on games and made loads of models.

Thanks for the excellent tips about the ship designer mechanics Airmaster.

Originally posted by ulroth:

That is some good information. Thanks.

My post was about importing my own 3dmax designs to use as ship parts, and share them with others. I just want to know what they are using to convert the models they made in Maya, 3dmax,etc so that the game engine will recognize them. The moddelers that work for this company did the modelling using one of the commercial software packages (probably Autodesk 3DMax) to make all of the things used in this game.

I have worked on games and made loads of models.

Thanks for the excellent tips about the ship designer mechanics Airmaster.

Its pretty easy to replicate your own designs in the ship designer. If you have not visited my workshop and have seen what I done with replicating Star Trek Ships from various races as well as my own custom designs, I would like to invite you to do so. I would also recommend visting the workshops of Omnibus, KBB-000. EdLadner, BigVeg, and many top content designers for the game. I and many of those I mentioned make our own ship parts as well using the games ship designer. Getting some idea's of what we all have done for the past three years I hope not only helps you but inspires you to make your ship parts using the games ship designer to share with the GCIII community.

I have been trying to figure out how to save a ship set for a custom race I made. I modelled the leader and the backround set (CGI). They look pretty good.

Whoever did the Klingon ships did a great job. I was impressed that he could use that part set to design them. The Empire (SW) looks pretty good too.

Airmaster,

I made a couple of ship parts using your instructions. I saved them as Arkan 1 and Arkan Engine 1. Where will these appear in the parts list I dont see them.


Thanks Again

Go though the tabs and look for the part sometimes the thumbnail image will be blank but the part will be there. Look for the part name hovering your cursor over them. Most parts will be listed in alphbetical order. I keep mine set to Style so all my custom made parts appear at the top in the list column.

BTW. Klingons are my work.

Nice. I just looked through all 87 pages. You have been busy. I was going to make some Klingon ships, but it looks like you have that covered 8).