Missing textures when importing

[VicseN1]

i get some errors about missing textures on every model i import in zModeler3 even tho textures are in the .ytd files, sometimes things are moved out of place also and the model is fully black.

[Oleg]

ZModeler is not given an option to find such textures. In most of cases, you are obligated to unpack textures and put them into the same fodler as the model you are importing.
In some formats (like GTA5) you can put the .ytd texture package as-is next to the model file you are loading, but specify ZModeler to search for textures in all .ytd files in current folder (this is a "preload packs" option on import).

The issue with shader adaptation being missing is probably related to an attempt to import modified model. This should not be a case with vanilla game models. The model uses some shader that ZModeler's importer has no idea about. May be this is someone's mod that requires some specific shader installed in game.

[VicseN1]

I selected the .YTD the mod came with and i got the same error, also when trying to import a vanilla vehicle.
https://imgur.com/a/47on2xI

[Oleg]

vanilla cars usually share some textures (especially interior textures), so the missing one could be in a .ytd you don't expect it to be. For example, buffalo2 model uses textures from vehicle_poltax_interior.ytd (police and taxi interior). Unless you give ZModeler required textures or specify texture packages on import, a missing texture is quite common import issue.

Meanwhile, a missing texture should not be an issue on export, as the geometry model specifies the texture name it needs. As long as exporter knows the name of texture your materials require, nothing should get messed up if you export a model with missing textures.

[VicseN1]

You're right there are absolutely no issues when exporting the model, there are literally no other issues other than the car being black, which handicaps me a lot in the work that i have with the program, i've never had this issue till now, i've even tried older models that i did a few months ago and didnt have the issue then, but have it now, any suggestions on what textures are required for vehicles other than the vehshares?

[Oleg]

if you get a message of "missing texture" upon import, it's your responsibility to find the texture package with the texture in a question. ZModeler will not search texture packages unless it is told to do so and given these packages. In particular, it can check all .ytd packs in the same folder as the file you are importing, but it's still your responsibility to extract these packages from rpf and put them in this folder.

Game uses metadata files that specify dependency of the model and texture packages, you can either guess what .ytd files you need or refer to metadata files.

GTA Enhanced version has a slightly different rendering method when textures for the model are missing. Legacy version used to render the last recently used texture instead of the missing one, while Enhanced version draws black when certain texture is missing.

The "missing" texture package is a tricky thing - the game can reject loading some .ytd file from an old location when there is a model file in an updated location. For example, if you extract vanilla buffalo2.yft and bufallo2_hi.yft files from the x64e.rpf file and put these file into mods/update/update.rpf file, the game will consider "buffalo2.ytd" pack as missing and no textures from this package will be used (even though this file is still available for the game). Once you extract this pack and put it alongside with the .yft files in mods/update/update.rpf file, the game will see availability of this file again and will load textures.

So, the above is to let you know that you should take care of all the textures and texture packages, not ZModeler.

[Oleg]

Model might appear black in ZModeler if the geometry has no tangents and uses any bump shader. In general, this should not be the case when you import game model. The model on your first screenshot does not look like a vanilla game model, including the texture names. It looks like some addon model to me. Is it your model or have you downloaded it somewhere? What model format was it imported from?

[VicseN1]

Even with no errors for anything related to body paint or textures (besides plate for some reason which is in the .YTD) the car is still black, mind you this happend all of a sudden, one day i edited a car, postponed it, went to sleep, woke up the next day and imported the same car to continue editing it and all of a sudden it was black.

[Oleg]

this might have something to do with your rendering setup on ZModeler. What is your rendering device selected on Settings page?

Create primitive object and assign any vehicle's material (that is shaded black) onto this object. Does it turn black too? If it does, the material setup is an issue.

Create new material and assign it onto a newly-created object; then start setting up the material to match the problematic (black) one. Start from assigning the same shader. Then check basic color parameters and assign the same textures.

As a final shot, delete the shader.cache file from Shaders folder and restart ZModeler (so ZModeler recompiles every shader it needs again).

[VicseN1]

zModeler got a random update and now colors seem to be right on every car, despite getting errors for missing textures (didnt add the textures just to test).