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[thunderfoot]

Do the planet SODs work in the same fashion as the ship/station ones?

I've decided I'd like very much to have some custom planets for my BSG based maps. What I'd like to do is make up a specific SOD, ODF, and texture for each of the Twelve Colonies. It's an "eye candy" thing I know, but I'd like to try doing it anyway.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

What do you mean by "in the same fashion"? Perhaps specific questions might be allayed by the new GameObjects section of the guide: GameObject - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

 

[CABAL]

I think he means if the planet SODs require a different hierarchy or something. The A1 backdrop SODs were designed a little differently and stuff made with the exporter doesn't work right, just stock models hex-edited to have different textures work properly.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

Ah, yea, I know nothing about that sadly - would be nice to get some proper tutorials/links up about this set of features

 

[thunderfoot]

What I should be able to do is hex edit the texture name to change it to the texture I want to use. As I did when swapping out the tl'Ingan TOS D7 texture for the Rihannsu TOS V-11 Storm Bird Texture I did in the TOS Adversary Add On pack. I am fairly certain it really should be this easy. Why I asked this is because I wanted to see if there was anything additional anyone knew of which may cause difficulties. I am nearly finished making the BSG based maps for BSGHRM v2.0 and I wanted to not use the Stock planets over and over again. I know, I know. "Eye Candy", right? But still...

Thanks for the help, people. 'preciate it.

 

[Majestic]

Eye candy is awesome, you can't get fat on it.

What hex editor do you use by the way? I am curious as the other day I was looking into it and didn't have much luck.

 

[thunderfoot]

Eye candy is awesome, you can't get fat on it.

Maybe you can't, young'un.

What hex editor do you use by the way? I am curious as the other day I was looking into it and didn't have much luck.

XVI32 is the one I am using. Rather simple with a basic set of tools and formats. Works with both Win7 and Vistas. Found it as freeware on the Web. I cannot remember the exact site since I've had it for about three years now.

 

[Majestic]

Ah I found that one the other day. Thanks.

 

[CABAL]

There is one thing you need to know about hex editing different textures in, the name of the new texture needs to be the same length as the name of the old texture.

 

[thunderfoot]

CABAL, I had completely forgotten. Thanks for the reminder. And now to show off a fair day's work. Eye Candy! Mmmmmm....

 

[Terra_Inc]

Hey people,

right now I'm going through Aad's Romulans, deciding which ones to add to Wastelands as NPCs. I've seen that the models do not properly darken when there is no lighting (you can still see hull details) and also don't reflect weapon lighting. Thankfully, he has included MS3D files for his models. Unfortunately, anything involving modeling goes right over my head, so here are my questions to you:

1) Can I fix these issues by changing stuff around in MS3D?
3) If it can be done, how is it done?
2) Can it be done while leaving the rest of the model and texturing intact?

The last point is important since re-applying the texture or doing any kind of modeling magic is beyond my capabilities, so if that was the case, I wouldn't be able to do it.
I think this was brought up before somewhere here, but since I'm a complete modeling noob, I have no idea what to look for.

 

[thunderfoot]

Terra, would you please either PM me or post a list of the Rihannsu ships you would like. I may already have some of these done the way you've indicated you want. If I do I'll send you the SODs and textures. Some of Aad's meshes are set up for A1, not A2. And some of them have incorrect prefixes and suffixes within the mesh. I've hexedited a few of these so they light up correctly. Still Aad's work so he deserves the credit. Further, he needs to okay this beforehand because I'm editing a mesh he made. I want no credit or mod theft issues to arise. But Aad's ships surely look much nicer the way you want them.

 

[OpetJa]

Maybe not best place for question and maybe is not best explaination, but here it is..Using M3D I converted ships from MOD (SFC) to SOD...Ships work fine in game, however I have troubles with "adding hardpoints"...
I have hierarchy for converted ships (damage, shield, root, etc.) and then I add "hardpoints" in 3DS Max, with clone option or pointing object and (re)naming it to e.g. "hp01" and I move it to desired position.. Than I export SOD model, and in odf file I set than weapon should be fired from "hp01"...but in game nothing happens, and ship doesn't fire anything...When I set weapon hardpoints on "borg", "root", it's firing...
So, what I'm doing wrong??

EDIT by Terra_Inc: I've moved your post to a more fitting thread.

 

[obriensucks]

I'm wondering whether it's possible to change how far the camera can zoom in. In my build, the scaleSOD on my ships is rather small so that planets look to scale. This however makes shuttlecraft and fighters almost invisible lol...

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I'm wondering whether it's possible to change how far the camera can zoom in. In my build, the scaleSOD on my ships is rather small so that planets look to scale. This however makes shuttlecraft and fighters almost invisible lol...

I believe there's a setting in the art.cfg file in the main A2 directory that should help. That or it's a file in the ODF/Other folder

 

[obriensucks]

I think I found it in the FleetOps guide online. It should be in the RTS cfg file

// Where do we start the cinematic zoom?
float cfg_DEFAULT_TACTICAL_ZOOM = 2.0;

float OVERVIEW_PARABOLA_FOCUS = 200.0;
float OVERVIEW_MAX_HEIGHT = 2200.0;
float OVERVIEW_INIT_HEIGHT = 1000.0;
float OVERVIEW_MIN_HEIGHT = 1.0;

This controls how closely you can zoom in with the main camera, but I haven't yet found a way to control the tactical camera

 

[Starfox1701]

link to the guide?

 

[obriensucks]

http://guide.fleetops.net/guide/modding/units/rts-cfg-elements#OVERVIEW_MIN_HEIGHT

“Default tactical zoom” adjusts the camera at the beginning of the game. Overview_min_height adjusts how close to the “plane” the main camera can go (in strategic view). Still haven’t found anything to adjust the tactical camera though.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

So...I'm trying to add the "Canaveral" from Fleet Ops 2 to my current install and this is how it's coming out...

The ship is supposed to be much darker.

Anyone have an issue like this before?

 

[Starfox1701]

looks like your materials got messed up somehow

 

[Jetfreak]

Same problem with the FO Excelsior, some of their models are pretty "hands-off" when you try to put them in a non-FO game.

I suggest edit the model materials manually in MS3d, and re-export to SOD as needed.

 

[TUB_Husker]

I do not use Milkshape, but I think it should similar to 3dsmax. You must set the diffuse color to black:

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone remember what you need to do to get the Ferengi UI working with the Ferengi Scavengers mod?

 

[TUB_Husker]

Same problem with the FO Excelsior, some of their models are pretty "hands-off" when you try to put them in a non-FO game.

Yes, because FO use for many models a black (additive transparent) emitter, if you use the ship you must add all emitters in the emitter file. If the emitters are not defined the game crashes. In the past I made this in the same way, a kind of copy protection, only for people they don't know really how Armada 2 works. Is the ship to bright or to dark or in some kind strange colorized then it is because of the diffuse map color. If you set this color to green, the ship texture appears in a green tone. Set it to black.

 

[obriensucks]

I've been trying to install the Theleron beam special weapon manually from AOW to my custom install but I'm getting a crash everytime I try to fire it. I've checked the weapon.spr file

# Utritium Beam
utribm Wuitritium 0 0 128 32 @anim=tex1x4
wtheleron gtheleron 0 0 128 32 @anim=tex1x4

and I changed the firesound in the ODF to a .wav file I already have. Am I missing something? Thanks!

 

[dvatreknerd314]

I've been trying to install the Theleron beam special weapon manually from AOW to my custom install but I'm getting a crash everytime I try to fire it. I've checked the weapon.spr file

# Utritium Beam
utribm Wuitritium 0 0 128 32 @anim=tex1x4
wtheleron gtheleron 0 0 128 32 @anim=tex1x4

and I changed the firesound in the ODF to a .wav file I already have. Am I missing something? Thanks!

If it's based on the vanilla ultritium beam weapon, then the special weapon has five files involved in its firing. Take a look at the vanilla weapon and how it's set up, then take a look a the thalaron weapon to see what you might be missing or overlooking

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone remember what you need to do to get the Ferengi UI working with the Ferengi Scavengers mod?

Fixed this myself. Had the name line at the top of the file read "ferengi" instead of "ferscav".

Also, does Fleet Ops remove the cap on the number of races you can have installed?

 

[obriensucks]

If it's based on the vanilla ultritium beam weapon, then the special weapon has five files involved in its firing. Take a look at the vanilla weapon and how it's set up, then take a look a the thalaron weapon to see what you might be missing or overlooking

Thanks! I got it to work; I was missing "forebls.odf" that creates the shockwave. Now my new problem is that the weapon - neither the beam nor the shockwave - does no damage aha (I'm having this issue with the vanilla Ultribeam too). I've been editing the ODFs to see but I guess I'm not adjusting the "DamageBase" in the right file.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Thanks! I got it to work; I was missing "forebls.odf" that creates the shockwave. Now my new problem is that the weapon - neither the beam nor the shockwave - does no damage aha (I'm having this issue with the vanilla Ultribeam too). I've been editing the ODFs to see but I guess I'm not adjusting the "DamageBase" in the right file.

Any weapon based on the Utribeam has five files: the cannon that launches the initial beam, the initial beam, the object that beam creates, the launcher for the secondary beam, and the secondary beam itself. If your weapon isn't doing damage, check the last file in that chain

 

[obriensucks]

Yes...For anyone who might run into the same problem, at least for the Theleron beam, it seems like it was the "wkforebls.odf" file...I ended up blowing up my whole base and now I have to try and rebalance it lol.