lightwave is not applying textures

lancer

I have lightwave 7.5c

I downloaded a firefly mesh of the ship from the series. very detailed tonnes of png and jpg textures, great.

load up the object, won't use the textures or the uv maps created for it.

when I load it, lightwave asks me to point at where the textures have been stored because they are in a different location to where the original creator had them. I specify the location as requested but when it loads, no textures.

anyone suggest how I solve this?

I have no problem with meshes I create myself, but anything I download and attempt to use has this issue.

Andrew March

This issue is down to Lightwave's directory structure. You have to tell it specifically which file to load first time round, pointing it at the folder won't work (this has been somewhat corrected in newer versions).

I would also check to see which version of Lightwave the model was made for, If it's Treybor's Firefly, I think that was made for 8+ and might not work in 7+

Post a screengrab of the message you're getting as well.

lancer

as it happens it is treybors serenity mesh in this case.

according to his credits txt file it was saved in the 7.5 format.

when I load the mesh it asks me for one of the png textures. I go into the directory, point it at the texture, select the texture click open and then it asks me for each subsequent texture.

I laboriously do it for all of them and when it loads up. none of the textures are there.

when you go into surface editor, all the properties for each item are set but it has not loaded the texture.

when in surface editor you go into one of them and select load image, again point it at the correct texture, click ok and nada, it hasn't applied it.

Ps, it's not just his mesh that does this.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of universal setting I've deselected by accident.

Andrew March

Okay, you're probably going to have to reinstall your image plugins. Just get Lightwave to scan the plugin directory in the root Lightwave folder, then give it a try again.

I'm just wondering if 7.5 supports .png files, it could be that simple.

One other thing to do is locate all of your Lightwave .cfg files (normally located in documents and settings(YOUR USERNAME). Delete them all and then fire up Lightwave again. Don't worry Lightwave will create a new set for you when you start it up, then reload all your plugins again using the scan directory method, shut down Lightwave, quit the hub and restart again.

What you've basically done is flushed lightwave of any possible bad commands and given it a couple of advil for the headache

NanoGator

I think Andrew's right.

a.) Make sure your content dir is set and that the mesh/images are in the appropriate folder under it.

b.) Reinstall all the plugins. Go to Layout/Utilities, Edit Plugins, Scan Directory, and go to your Lightwave program folder and click on the plugins folder under it. It'll sit and run for a while and tell you a bunch of stuff was added. After doing that, IMMEDIATELY close Layout (and Hub, and any other LW related stuff) and re-open it. (If you don't do this, you'll have to repeat this process again because it doesn't write the config files until you close it.) You should have better luck when you open the mesh after this.

pmpn

lancer

yup that did it.

the idiot program basically lost itself like you said.

thanks for that.