Import Works on Trees but not Buildings, Why?

[Shroomblaze]

Alright, so I don't have a problem uploading my object as a tree in the asset editor. I can load it, preview it and then click continue and save object and play with it in game just fine.
My problem comes when I try to Import it as a building instead. I click load and I get a white hazy version of my object instead and it wont let me click continue to the asset editor screen. I tried changing settings to get it work, but failed. You can see below what I mean. I also included all my texture files and 3DS Max material settings. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I wanted to try importing my plant as a building because someone said that intersections and parks are bugged and wont let you attached a preview thumbnail.png so I wanted to see if tress had the same issue because it wasn't using my _thumbnail.png I included in the import folder. So I was gonna test it on buildings because I know that some modders have gotten building thumbnails to work.

Hope someone can help me figure this problem out. Thanks! Mod On!

 

[Shroomblaze]

I've added a video that further shows what is happening. I show how it works with trees and not with buildings. Then I show all my material settings. Sorry for some choppy parts on the video, the screen recorder is not the greatest.

But do you see how during the building import everything turns white and when I rotate the object the leaves disappear on me. Then after I show you that I take out the specular map and show you how the white goes away but still cant import it.

[video=youtube;5rvIQTgSTDY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rvIQTgSTDY&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Bipin]

Funny; I've got just the opposite problem. :huh:

 

[Shroomblaze]

Well thanks to Bipins input I was able to import my plant under the building category by naming my textures .jpg instead of .png but that still doesn't solve the issue I'm having. As you can see the screenshot below my object is still turning hazy white.

I decided to do a test and make a 25m cube, I applied diffuse, alpha, normal and specular texture maps too see if it was the game but everything worked perfectly with the cube, I got no color loss...
So I took it a step further and deleted every single material in my plant file to start from scratch and reapplied everything and still I get the same result with the hazy white.

I took a look at Bipins Gantry he sent me and he too is having the same issue as me with the building category turning the object white. What is going on with this?

 

[Bipin]

Perhaps try toning down the specular map. That said, I've found the intensity of the specular map to be anything but linear; intensity in relation to how white an area is on the map doesn't correlate all that well based on what I've experienced. I would encourage you to give it a try though.

 

[Shroomblaze]

Perhaps try toning down the specular map. That said, I've found the intensity of the specular map to be anything but linear; intensity in relation to how white an area is on the map doesn't correlate all that well based on what I've experienced. I would encourage you to give it a try though.

I already tried removing the specular map completely and it doesn't solve my problem because as you can see in the video when you rotate my object sideways the underside of my leaves disappears. When I removed the specular map it did remove the color loss problem but the leaves still disappear when turned on it's side, which I don't have this problem under the tress category.

Hopefully I can solve this problem today.

 

[Zed68]

Specular needs to be much much darker, yep.

 

[Shroomblaze]

Specular needs to be much much darker, yep.

I think the issue goes beyond specular map because like I said before I removed the specular map and it got rid of the white, but I was still having the leaves disappear shown in the image here... when you look underneath the object all the leaves disappear and I dont have this problem when I upload as a tree... It also doesn't explain the fact as to why I can't import my image using .pngs under the building category and have to change them to .jpg instead. Because I can import using .pngs in tress just fine.

Anyways here's Bipins object in the different categories, you can see the color loss happening.....

 

[Inge Jones]

Presumably trees and buildings are preset to work with different shaders. We really need access to edit more aspects of our assets.

 

[Shroomblaze]

Alright! Thanks to some of the wonderful modders over at the IRC channel I was able to get my problem solved. Special thanks to ^Nightwing^ and Japa!
If you haven't already check out the #skylines-modder IRC channel, you will need an IRC client to access chat. I suggest using https://hexchat.github.io/
#sklines-modder @ irc.esper.net

THE SOLUTION
Ok so I was having multiple problems that I thought were related to each other but in fact were separate instances.

1.) The hazy white problem was actually the specular texture map being too bright like Zed68 suggested. This leads me to believe that specular maps don't work with the trees category, can someone confirm this?

2.) The leaves disappearing when looking at the bottom of the object was actually a result of Unity not wanting to render the opposite side of my plane when trying to upload under the building category. It however was working just fine when trying to Import it as a tree because Unity uses different shaders for trees. You can find out more information on this subject located here... http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/362692/unity-does-not-render-both-sides-of-a-plane.html

Basically the interiors of buildings will not generate causing them to appear transparent, so you must extrude your plane to create another face if you want to show some sort of interior wall.

3.) The reason I thought I couldn't use .pngs under the building category was because I was trying to include the following files to produce a thumbnail image on the build bar in game.
Stalk_thumb.png, Stalk_thumb_disabled.png, Stalk_thumb_focused.png, Stalk_thumb_hovered.png, Stalk_thumb_pressed.png

As suggested by a CO Developer located in this post here...
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...n-the-Game&p=19022435&viewfull=1#post19022435

Once I removed them from the import folder I was able to finally Import the object into asset editor under the building category and save. So I guess including those thumbnail files may not be working, or I'm doing it wrong. I did notice however that once I saved my object and loaded into the game, a thumbnail was auto generated onto the build bar for the building category. However, if you try to upload a tree the game will not auto generate a thumbnail and will instead show the default corner of a building icon.

I hope this post solves some of your own future problems you may have trying to import a model to the game!

 

[Shroomblaze]

Presumably trees and buildings are preset to work with different shaders. We really need access to edit more aspects of our assets.

Yea, You are totally right. I just replied with my solution.