An issue with windows and exporting pmd's.

[CrazyMango73]

This is going to be a long question, so please bear with me.

I am currently working on the Scania 143 made by Ekualiser which I'm sure you're all ware of. It hasn't been updated in a long time, and I took the courage to update the window animations.
I took some time to analyse how they work and how to make them etc. I got a 'test' window animation to work, which I'm very chuffed about:

[ external image ]

The animation is great and functions how I want it to. I was about to do the the one on the right and the interior ones, then realised there was an obstacle in front of me.

As you can see in the photo above, there is a 'fixed' window behind my animated window. I presume it's there because there were no animated windows when Ekualiser made the mod and so the fixed window is part of the overall truck model. Here is a better pic:

[ external image ]

So, I decided that I was going to simply import the 143 truck model and just delete those 'fixed' windows; once I did this, I just popped the 'now edited' .pmd and .pmg back into the mod and I hoped that the fixed 'window' would be gone, as shown here:

[ external image ]

As soon as I entered the game, I realised it was not as simple as this. The 'fixed windows' were gone. But I got this:

[ external image ]

So I assume its not easy as just editing a mesh and then just replacing it? What have I done wrong here? And I would appreciate some steps to help, maybe a different way to get rid of the 'fixed' windows?

Thanks a bunch, and Merry Christmas!

[W4X]

What does it say in the log?
In the last picture you can see that the textures are gone

[CrazyMango73]

Here is what it said in the log when the red 'stuff' occured:

00:00:18.589 : <ERROR> [fs] Failed to open file '/automat/ce/ceb68880593d66a8.mat' in the read_only mode.
00:00:18.589 : <ERROR> [resource_task] Can not open '/automat/ce/ceb68880593d66a8.mat'

I then put the automat it was asking for into the folders and got this:

[ external image ]

And this was the log after this:

00:00:16.186 : <ERROR> [r_effect] Failed to create effect '.rfx'.
00:00:16.186 : <ERROR> [material] Can not create effect '.rfx' - requested in material '/automat/ce/ceb68880593d66a8.mat'.

I am aware that this is most likely a texture issue but I don't understand why? I only removed the windows from the geometry, I didn't mess with any UV maps or change any materials. I'm a bit confused why this is happening, and it is slowing down my progress of making the window animations work
I hope I've given enough information to help you come up with the issue.

[xXCARL1992Xx]

if you reconvert the mod you have to copy the new automat folder also, you cant just copy the models over, a slight changed in values is enough to create completely new sets of automats

[CrazyMango73]

Do I have to re-assign all the textures to the model in Blender then? By the way, that automat file was literally empty.

[xXCARL1992Xx]

if you have set up blender right you dont need to reassign anything, if it isnt a zmod convert, then you have much more work because of the messed up conversion

normally you have ti mount the base.scs and then load the mod so you also pull out any texture the mod uses from the game, like reflections, or general textures for plastic or fabric

[CrazyMango73]

I'm not too sure if it's made with Zmod or Blender. I have extracted the base.scs, but what would I do with the base.scs files? Do I need to tell Blender somewhere to access it?

[xXCARL1992Xx]

no you mount it before you open the mod, people should stop extracting the base.scs and let blender do it

[ external image ]

here i mounted the base.scs and then loaded the dlc_frightliner_cascadia2019.scs so i get all textures needed

[CrazyMango73]

Ahh, I shall try this, I never knew this, apologies

[CrazyMango73]

May i ask how you got those options on the right hand side? I only have this:
[ external image ]