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CABAL

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I set up lights for the nebulae. Apparently, the nebulae don't register the new light lines that the FO team added and the default ones use some sort of hard cut-off for distance at around 200 units, right at the edge of the nebula model. Black holes, however, do use the new lights so I made a few with 0 radius and dropped them in the nebulae. I think the end result looks pretty nice.

attachment.php
attachment.php
Here's the ODF if anybody wants it. Pretty simple stuff, but it took me a bit to find something that could use the lights properly without making the AI do odd things like have a bunch of miners orbit empty space.
Code:
baseName = "trigger_blocking"
classLabel = "blackhole_obj"
distanceBelowGrid = 0.0
unitName = "Metreon Nebula Light Source"
//ambientSound = "mblkhole_am.wav"
//ambientMinimumFactor = 1
//ambientMaximumFactor = 1
GravityRadius = 0
EventRadius = 0
Rotation = 0.01f
ScaleSize = 10.0f
avoidMe = 0

lightcolor = 1	0.2	0.2
lightfalloffstart = 600.0
lightfalloffrange = 1000.0
hidden = 1
ignoreinterface = 1

mapicon = "mapicon_empty"
dont_load_sod = 1
scalesod = 0.1
 

Rifraf

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Hey Cabal. Nice work. Same thing I'm doing with my mod however, the files in mine all work perfectly in stock A2, but when I transfer them over to my mod in FO they don't put off any light in the map editor or instant action play? It's essentially the stock nebula file. Do I have to change them to be like yours with a different classlabel to work? Freyr and Medafusion also did the same thing to create generic omni lights that you can place on the map which I'm almost done doing for dilithium moons and wormholes.

I never thought to test until tonight and that's when I discovered the lights don't even show up. I'm glad you posted this. I listed my file below. This is for one of the omni lights, but it's just been modified from a nebula:

// Runtime class of object.
classLabel = "nebula_obj"

// Name of type.
unitName = "Small LITEBlue Light"

// Tooltips
tooltip = "Small LITEBlue Light"
verboseTooltip = ""

// specify what type it is for the nebula map and such
// Radioactive = 1
// Metreon = 2
// Mutara = 3
// Metaphasic = 4
// Cerulean = 5
nebulaType = 5

//Sound played
//ambientSound = "msnebam.wav"

hidden = 1

// Effect Radius of nebula
effectRadius = 100

// How expensive it is to path through
pathing_cost = 800

// Set the effect flags. 0 = no effect, 1 = disable system
disableWeapons = 0
disableShields = 0
disableSensors = 0
disableCrew = 0
disableCloak = 0

// Set damage flags and timer
//damage of ship per frame
damageValue = 0

//lifespan of cloud. If set to 0, cloud is permenant
lifeTimer = 0

// Object inside this nebula are hidden from sensors.
hideContents = 0

// Sprite to use for minimap display.
mapSprite = "map_nebula5"

// Size of sprite chunk to use for minimap.
mapSize = 5

// We generate the mesh for this in code
dont_load_SOD = 0

// How fast does pulsing change speed? (1st derivatives of pulsing speed)
min_speed_change = 0
speed_change_period_divisor = 0
speed_change_range = 0

// We have a one in n chance of getting a light source
one_in_n_chance_of_light_source = 1

// What's the base light source color?
red_glow = 0.0
green_glow = 0.0
blue_glow = 0.1

// What's the allowable color swing of the light source?
red_glow_range = 0.0
green_glow_range = 0.0
blue_glow_range = 0.2

// How does the lighting fall off?
glow_falloff_start = 300.0
glow_falloff_range = 300.0

// How do we slow down ships? (coefficient is a multiple, speed limit
// is a cap; set speed limit to -1 to have an unlimited speed limit)
craft_speed_coefficient = 1.0
craft_speed_limit = -1

//Change the scale of the SOD
ScaleSOD = 5
 

CABAL

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It's this bit.

// We have a one in n chance of getting a light source
one_in_n_chance_of_light_source = 1

// What's the base light source color?
red_glow = 0.0
green_glow = 0.0
blue_glow = 0.1

// What's the allowable color swing of the light source?
red_glow_range = 0.0
green_glow_range = 0.0
blue_glow_range = 0.2

// How does the lighting fall off?
glow_falloff_start = 300.0
glow_falloff_range = 300.0

I don't know why, but in FO the light has a very short hard cut-off. It will work perfectly until you get around 150-200, maybe even just 100 units from the glowing object's root at which point the light stops rendering on the other object entirely. The FO code, the

lightcolor = 1 0.2 0.2
lightfalloffstart = 600.0
lightfalloffrange = 1000.0

bit works perfectly, but only with certain classlabels. I'm not sure what they are and I can't find the part of the Guide that said, but I know it does not work with nebula_obj. You may try some of the others on the TerrainObject page though. It looks like there's a generic terrain object with the classlabel I76building. You might try that. It's possible that using a black hole as a light source may have unforeseen consequences.
 

MrVulcan

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Cabal, very nice result :) looks great. I had done something like this with a uball that shoots out invisible torpedoes with appropriate light falloff. Your version is much better as it's a completely permanent and stationary light source.

I wonder if uball and other weapon objects support light_falloff with the new FO code. Think I missed a news item on this.
 

Rifraf

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Thanks Cabal. I'll start experimenting with the settings and classlabels. I had a panic attack when I found they didn't work last nite and thought I wasted a lot of time redoing every single map adding omni lighting. I'm so glad I read your thread. :)

I know in stock A2 a falloff_start of 300 = about 2.5 squares from object center and a falloff_start of 600 = about 5.5 squares. I'll experiment after bit with them, but did you find similar when you did yours?
 

Rifraf

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Well, no go. I can't seem to make these work for a stock A2 mod in the FO mods folder. For classlabels I tried yours with the blackhole-obj, I tried background-obj, and I tried that I76building one, but they all crashed to desktop.

The omni lights I tested in stock are all sod based lighting which is why I had to add them to every map as a nebula_obj. I guess I may as well stop editing the maps now. :cry:

What gets me is that I can't even use the background-obj even though the stock A2 direction light is a background-obj and the planets in FO are as well? Gonna look through it all one more time to see if there's anything else before giving up.
 

Rifraf

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Seems I panicked for nothing. I'm really not a drama queen. :lol: After digging and testing more it seems my mod in FO works opposite of stock. I just had to add lightcolor = x.x x.x x.x, lightfalloffstart = xxx.0 and lightfalloffrange = xxx.0 to the latinum neb, dilith moons and wormhole.odf's and tada they project light once I deleted the glow_falloff values and such. I had to copy the trigger_blocking.odf from FO to my mod and then use your bit of code Cabal for the nebula light and drop it over a neb in the editor and it works too now and they look awful purty.

The only thing I dread now after redoing every map 3 times is having to do them all again. Well at least only the ones with nebula on them. UGH

I'd like to official ask to use your bit of code in the mod if you don't mind Cabal?
 

CABAL

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Go right ahead. I posted the code so anybody that wanted it could have it.
 

Dominus_Noctis

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Late to the part, but lightColor, lightFalloffStart, and lightFalloffRange are base FO GameObject commands, so they will work with all GameObjects (and ordnance commands) :)

Those *glow commands however are intrinsic to particular classlabels; wormhole and nebula
 

MrVulcan

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Ah, that's great :) Thanks Dominus.

CABAL, perhaps you can use uball instead of nebula_obj + blackhole_obj for the nebulas. I've been using uball to expand the number of available nebula types; the uball provides additional effects via weapons, and can have a pretty SOD for nebula graphics. And now that it supports the glow_falloff commands you wouldn't have to manually drop a light into every nebula.

I haven't really considered all nebula effects. Perhaps replicating the nebula effects via uball weapons will be more challenging than I anticipate ;) Not sure how you would disable life support reliably in the radiation neb for example..
 

CABAL

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CABAL, perhaps you can use uball instead of nebula_obj + blackhole_obj for the nebulas. I've been using uball to expand the number of available nebula types; the uball provides additional effects via weapons, and can have a pretty SOD for nebula graphics. And now that it supports the glow_falloff commands you wouldn't have to manually drop a light into every nebula.

Well, I only need the original A1 nebulae so while uball could be useful for new ones, I don't really need it. Also, my computer is pretty old (I'm using a GeForce 5700; that's not a typo) and when I was experimenting with every nebula emitting its own light it could lag my computer in certain spots. Manual light placement allows me to control that more efficiently.

Not sure how you would disable life support reliably in the radiation neb for example..

I'm pretty sure there's a specific disabler weapon for every sub-system, even if they weren't used in A1.

Late to the part, but lightColor, lightFalloffStart, and lightFalloffRange are base FO GameObject commands, so they will work with all GameObjects (and ordnance commands) :)

Those *glow commands however are intrinsic to particular classlabels; wormhole and nebula

I thought that was the case, but when I applied the Light commands to objects that supported the Glow commands nothing happened, even when I commented out the Glow lines.:confused:
 

Rifraf

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Well, I only need the original A1 nebulae so while uball could be useful for new ones, I don't really need it. Also, my computer is pretty old (I'm using a GeForce 5700; that's not a typo) and when I was experimenting with every nebula emitting its own light it could lag my computer in certain spots. Manual light placement allows me to control that more efficiently.

I like your idea of being able to place the light manually for nebula as in stock A2 the devs used such an over saturation of them on some maps that I wondered if they would lag like crazy? I guess in stock though all nebs and weapons were all fully lit and ships/stations had phong lighting so it never really presented much of an issue even though the map lighting was pretty bright and the range of the light in the nebs was like 60 so you never really saw all the fancy lighting anyway?


I thought that was the case, but when I applied the Light commands to objects that supported the Glow commands nothing happened, even when I commented out the Glow lines.:confused:

I tried what D_N suggested as well using lightcolor and the lightfalloff settings on nebs and they didn't project any light like you said Cabal. I assumed he meant the glow settings were required in nebula_obj's even though he said the light settings would work on all obj's?

Just for my knowledge, nebs load a sod in stock A2, but also use sprites so do you say nebs are sod based because they use sods (even though they also use sprites), but something like phasers/pulses/torps are sprite based since they are only made by code in the sprite file? I just wanted to be sure of the terminology.
 

Dominus_Noctis

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Ah, I understand what you are asking now.

It is quite likely that the *glow commands overwrite the *light commands for those two map objects (wormhole and nebula). I haven't looked at that in detail, but Nebula and Wormhole are quite old classlabels and I think use the same texture effects as other A1 things. I wouldn't be surprised to see them only use that older glow system, which so lags our systems. Sorry to give false hope :oops:

This addition is pretty ancient in FO, so there's unfortunately no readily available documentation on its compatibilities :sweat:
 

CABAL

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What's the status with the mod??
I haven't done any work in quite a while. The way certain things were done in A1 have turned out to be very difficult to recreate in FO3, particularly the old officer cap. I think I can get the officers' quarters working, but I would need to convert the mod to FO4 and I'm not sure I'm right that the command does what I think or that it's even implemented since the loader is incomplete. As it stands, though, I think I mostly need new models for certain NPC ships and stations and the old A1 maps recreated. Campaign would be nice at some point, but I would need to figure out how to recreate all of the scripts and make widescreen bridge views.
 

OpetJa

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So If I get it right you are trying to re-create A1 on FO engine?? Would you use some elements of A2 such as more than 4 races (that would be awesome), colonization, warp?? If I were you I'd focus first on models than on scripting... I'm not much of modder but If you need help I'm here :) I believe everybode knows I prefer A1 than A2
 

CABAL

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It's basically just an A1 port so that it runs on modern systems since a lot of people have reported issues getting it to run on anything newer than XP.
 

OpetJa

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Well I'd be pleased with that too... On my old laptop (which is now gone) there was Win7-Ultimate-64 and it ran A1 without problem... On my new laptop I'm using Win8.1-64 and I run A1 using software called dgvoodoo...Everything is ok, but sadly I can't save game and game freezes...
 

Sqweloookle

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Hey Cabal, I'm having trouble getting your super classic to work. Do you make a copy of STA2 Classic Mod and paste Super Classic w/ Advanced in it overriding STA2 Classic or just have a mod folder with Super Classic w/ Advanced files in it?
Cause it crashes as soon as I launch the mod with STA2 Classic Mod that has Super Classic w/Advanced files in it.

Oh and your download link doesn't exist anymore :(
 

CABAL

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Super Classic is not dependent on A2 Classic at all. Simply drop the Super Classic and Super Classic Advanced folders into the [fleetops]\Data\Mods folder and select one or the other from FO's Mod Settings menu, no other steps needed. SC Advanced even loads files out of SC with ParentMod to keep file size down. Which probably isn't necessary because the whole thing is only 24MB, but still.

Oh and your download link doesn't exist anymore :(

Fixed! Thanks for telling me.

I should probably get around to finishing this. Not sure if I can really do the campaign, but at least finishing the multiplayer maps should be doable. I also remember I got the A1-style officer cap system working, but it was dependent on FOv4 features and you couldn't adjust the starting cap in the lobby like you could in A1. And it wasn't displayed on the GUI so it was stuck in tooltips.
 

Sqweloookle

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Pitty we won't be getting FO4. Do you know how the FO team are going with NX?
Dammit, the game just crashed after a few minutes, don't think I did anything.

Will you be bringing back any of the old looks for ships and stations to the mod? Would be awesome!
 

CABAL

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Pitty we won't be getting FO4. Do you know how the FO team are going with NX?
No idea how NX is coming along. Last I checked, they were working with some people developing a new engine, but their Twitter and GitHub are pretty quiet.

Dammit, the game just crashed after a few minutes, don't think I did anything.
Do you have the crash log? I might be able to figure out what went wrong.

Will you be bringing back any of the old looks for ships and stations to the mod? Would be awesome!
No, sorry. I'm really not a modeler. Some of the stuff could really do with fresh models since there's nothing like the Romulan Phoenix, for instance, in FO, but I simply don't have the skills to make them myself.
 

Sqweloookle

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I attached the crash log, or I think it is the crash log. Ignore the second half starting at line 684 (that is if you use notepad++ or Sublime Text which display line numbers), as that is from a earlier crash using a different mod. I didn't see any references to the Super Classic mod folder, though I could have missed it.
 

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  • exceptArmada2.txt
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CABAL

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Hmm. Looks like it has something to do with a cannonImp weapon. I think that was the most common weapon type I used.

It's almost midnight here so I'll check it out more tomorrow. Do you remember which factions were in play? Federation, Klingons, whatever?
 

Sqweloookle

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Okay seems I could play longer this time. Though I added the log this time with a comment I hope you see it.

Though I'll add it here anyway:
Playing Federation.
Klingons attacked, I think it is the Klingon Commando Team as that ship was present, I forget it's spelling.
All races in game.


I love how the chain reaction pulsar is so cute, pitty it doesn't have a trailing tail. Can you add the Galaxy? Unless it's in Advanced? Oh and the Premonition? I'm sure you can find a A2 model for both, and we need the Heroes - all races. Pitty the shield animation for the Inversion beam doesn't show.
 

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CABAL

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Yep, it was definitely the commando team. Fortunately, fixing it was as easy as adding the sound effects. Apparently it crashed when it couldn't find the files. Just put the files in the attached .zip in Super Classic's \sounds\effects folder. Still need to figure out why it can't be used when the target's shields are up, though. Might need to rework it as a UniTorpedo.

Didn't find a Premonition model that fit well with the FO style, which was part of the problem with making the campaign. Off the top of my head, I also need fresh Son'a and Species 9341 models.

I might add the Galaxy-class to Advanced, but to balance it out I'd also give everyone else another ship, and everyone already gets one additional ship with a tractor beam in Advanced. We'll see.
 

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  • SCfix.zip
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CABAL

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Figured out how to make the crew cost appear in the construction tooltips without going to FOv4 and without my very hacky latinumCost workaround. I also have an idea of how I might be able to do the A1-style soft officer cap in v3.2.7, but it needs a bunch of testing and might not work. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep the mod in v3.2.7, but I may still need to move it to v4.

I'm going to finish a different project (which will actually make this one easier once it's done anyway), and then I'll get back to working on Super Classic.
 

Sqweloookle

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Thanks for the Sound affect file. I hope your plans pan out mate!

Though I think it is best you have the old models, or similar as can get to, of STA 1 in order to give the mod the feel of A1 while enjoying the experience of FO's environment.

Using the A2's vanilla sods, though better textures, would achieve this? Also more maps would be awesome!! I hate the The First Map, not large enough. I'll be happy to help with maps. Just is there an exe for FO map editor?
 

CABAL

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I'm aware of those models. Unfortunately, they stick out like a sore thumb mixed in with the FO models.

I've considered restoring the old A1 art, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth. It would be neat, but I'd have to rebuild all the sprite entries and such. And then the UI wouldn't match so I'd want to remake the A1 UI in some way, and so on. I'm using A1 models for effects when there isn't a FO version, though, and I'll probably wind up using A1 models for placeholders on some things until I can get FO-quality models. And I think I'll restore the A1 music and unit voices for this next release.

I honestly do not remember how the map editor works. I'll have to get back to you on that one. I think you make a shortcut to the game exe and add an argument, but I'm not sure.
 
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