Blender2Torque Textures?

#1 Are you copying the texture files (.png) to the same directory as the .dts files? As far as I am aware Torque by default looks for the .dts' textures in the same directory as the model itself, and if it cannot find them doesn't attach any, making the models in game grey.

FYI, I am -not- an artist, just a dev, but I've seen the grey models you are speaking of when bringing art into our project but forgetting to bring the textures over.

#2 You need to name your material to be the name of your texture file. That's covered in the readme.html distributed with the plugin.

Hope that helps!

#3 Thanks for you input Brian and Stephen, I did have my textures in the same directory as the .dts however when the textures were in .png the engine said it couldn't find them. So I changed the textures to .jpg and the error message stopped however no textures. Maybe I'll go back to loading them as .png.
I also did name the material the same name as the .jpg and the .png when I did it. I might give it another go if you guys are finding success as .png.
Cheers
Mal

#4 Is it the correct dimensions? usualy toruq crashes hard, but sometimes it will give you the grey stuff. Are you able to get envirnment mapping working with the exporter and working on the box?

#5 @Malcom: come to think of it, I think most of the textures I've seen are .jpg as well--again, I'm just a dev, not an artist, so take advice from them before me for sure.

#6 Hi Cameron,
Yes I can get emap working on the shapes however I'm still getting a grey object. You can walk into the object and the collisions work okay it's just grey.
When naming the material if I've name it "galva.png" and copied the texture, to the same directory as the .dts file, is that right? I get an error message when the texture file is a .png as follows;

"can't find file control/server/vehicles/galva.png"

when the galva.png is sitting in the same directory as the .dts file in the "control/server/vehicles" directory.

When mapping the texture to the object i've used the sticky button in blender and the picture is mapping looks okay there. Hmm.
If I change the texture to a .jpg and the material names in blender Torque doesn't give me any not found error, however when i insert the shape into the world it is grey.

So when using .png I get not found error and when using a .jpg I get a grey object.

Cameron with the dimensions being correct, what do you mean here?

Cheers
Mal

#7 Try making your texture 512x512. There are others TGE supports (I believe they're the normal "power of 2" ratios), but 512 is a pretty good one.

Using the sticky button? Does this mean you're not doing the UV mapping of the object? If this is the case, then you'll never get the .png or .jpg to work. Every object to be exported must have their UV maps done properly. That's the only way TGE will work - it doesn't support any other texturing option from Blender.

#8 Thanks for your input Scott,
It maybe that I'm not using the UV mapping then. I read in the Torque exporter documentation that you could click the sticky button so long as your coordinates are correct. However I'll do the proper UV mapping I think and give it another try. My texture is already 512x512 so I'm betting it's the UV mapping.
I'll keep everyone posted on how I do.
Again thanks everyone so much for your help, I've only just bought the indi license last week, I am a programmer so I'm very new to the modelling scene. I love the way everyone just steps in to help what a great community.
Cheers
Mal

#9 Okay I've found the solution!

Thanks for all your help guys,

Scott was on the money, i thought that I was texturing the blender model however I had to run the uvMapper in blender and map the texture to it.
Using the UV Face select mode in blender, once I did this the model textures correctly in the world.

I wouldn't have done it without your help so thanks.

Anyone getting a simular problem look up the UV Editor and FaceSelect tutorial in the blender site, it explained the whole process.

I first had to create the UV map with the UV Mapper program and then import the model back into blender as a .obj file. Once I did this I had to recreate the collisions and bobs your uncle.

Thanks for not laughing at me with all by newbieness,

Cheers
Mal