Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC Bridge Modding => Topic started by: trezillah on December 30, 2009, 02:35:22 PM
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Hey Guys,
I'm sorry in advance if this has been posted somewhere else in here, but i just couldn't find it :D
I'm interested in retexturing the Excalibur Bridge to fit some of DJCurtis' ships (which are phenomenal by the way) and not too sure where to begin. Ive tried copying and changing filenames etc, but thats obviously not good enough. I do realize bridge modding is difficult, and I'm not asking for someone to hold my hand, but if one of you gurus can point me in the right direction, it would be very much appreciated :D Hopefully someday after hard work and practice i could actually contribute to this fantastic community....
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Ok, so first of all you need a tool either professional or free, for beggining you should try GIMP but you might be interested in some older professional software like JASC Paint Shop Pro 8 or Adobe Photoshop 8,9,CS.
When you get your graphic editor, familiarize yourself with tools inside it.
there are 2 types of bridge textures : Lightmaps (which are responsible for lighting and shadowing of the bridge) and RGB/or whatever they are called - maps, for start you shouldn't be interested in Lightmaps at all ;)
everything else is a matter of your skills and practice, also before you start retexturing you should familiarize yourself with bridge mapping ;)
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Thanks bones :D
I have Photoshop CS4, ive done some basic retexturing already with installed bridges but i just don't know how to basically clone a bridge, retex it, call it something else and play (I know its not that easy lol)
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Well, Actually it is quite easy, first of all you need to rename your bridge set folder to name you want, then you move to SCRIPTS, there are two folders with files you'll need to edit 1: BRIDGE, 2: CUSTOM->AUTOLOAD. In both of these folders there are plugins you need to edit and rename.
I'll take for example PDW Excelsior bridge plugins, lines that are marked with red color are those you need to rename with the same name of the folder where bridge model and textures are as well as the plugins names.
this is the plugin from SCRIPTS/CUSTOM/AUTOLOAD directory (this file stores informations about animations used on specific bridge as well as map swapping, active LCARS and sound functions) :
import Foundation
# Uncomment the below to enable!
Foundation.BridgeDef('PDW Excelsior', 'PDWExcelsiorBridge', dict = {
'modes': [ Foundation.MutatorDef.Stock ],
'locations': {
'AmbHelm': [ 'data/animations/Amb_stand_h_m.nif', 'Amb_stand_h_m' ],
'AmbTactical': [ 'data/animations/Amb_stand_t_l.nif', 'Amb_stand_t_l' ],
'AmbCommander': [ 'data/animations/AmbTNG_seated_C_M.nif', 'AmbTNG_seated_c_m' ],
'AmbScience': [ 'data/animations/Amb_stand_S_S.nif', 'Amb_stand_s_s' ],
'AmbEngineer': [ 'data/animations/Amb_stand_e_s.nif', 'Amb_stand_e_s' ],
'AmbGuest': [ 'data/animations/Amb_stand_X_m.nif', 'Amb_stand_X_m' ],
'AmbL1S': [ 'data/animations/Amb_L1toG3_S.nif', 'Amb_L1toG3_s', 'pCharacter.SetHidden(1)' ],
'AmbL1M': [ 'data/animations/Amb_L1toG3_M.nif', 'Amb_L1toG3_M', 'pCharacter.SetHidden(1)' ],
'AmbL1L': [ 'data/animations/Amb_L1toG3_L.nif', 'Amb_L1toG3_L', 'pCharacter.SetHidden(1)' ],
'AmbL2M': [ 'data/animations/Amb_L2toG2_M.nif', 'Amb_L2toG2_M', 'pCharacter.SetHidden(1)' ],
'AmbG1M': [ 'data/animations/Amb_G1toL2_M.nif', 'Amb_G1toL2_M' ],
'AmbG2M': [ 'data/animations/Amb_G2toL2_M.nif', 'Amb_G2toL2_M' ],
'AmbG3M': [ 'data/animations/Amb_G3toL1_M.nif', 'Amb_G3toL1_M' ],
},
'CurrentMaps': {'Map 4': "Map 4"},
'GreenMaps':{'Map 4': 'data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorBridge/High/Map 4.tga'},
'YellowMaps':{'Map 4': 'data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorBridge/High/Map 4.tga'},
'RedMaps':{'Map 4': 'data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorBridge/High/Map 4_r.tga'},
},
} )
in the very same file you'll find these lines :
"bridgeSound": {
"LiftDoor": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebdoor.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"AmbBridge": {"volume": 0.3,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebamb.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"RedAlertSound": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/RedAlert.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"YellowAlertSound": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebYellow.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"GreenAlertSound": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebGreen.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"ViewOn": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebviewscreenon.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"},
"ViewOff": {"volume": 1.0,"file": "sfx/PDWExcelsiorBridge/ebviewscreenoff.wav", "group": "BridgeGeneric"}},
"LoadingScreen": "data/Icons/LoadingScreens/PDWELoading.tga",
bridge sounds using BP Core (Bridge Plugin Core Gold to bo specific, which comes with KM 1.0 mod) can be placed into folder you'll create and name after your custom bridge in SFX sound folder, on the bottom there is custom loading screen for your bridge. Once again I marked lines you must alter in order to get it working properly.
Whole point is to find anything related to bridge name in this case it's PDWExcelsior
Same thing with bridge plugin file stored in SCRIPTS/BRIDGE folder, you need to rename all lines with name given to your new bridge, mainly these are just directories to your bridge set folder, you should be only interested in these lines at the very beginning of the file :
def CreateBridgeModel(pBridgeSet):
iDetail = App.g_kImageManager.GetImageDetail()
pcDetail = [ "Low/", "Medium/", "High/" ]
pcEnvPath = "data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorbridge/" + pcDetail[iDetail]
# Pre-load the Bridge model and viewscreen
App.g_kModelManager.LoadModel("data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorbridge/Yamaguchi.NIF", None, pcEnvPath)
App.g_kModelManager.LoadModel("data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorbridge/YamaguchiViewScreen.NIF", None, pcEnvPath)
# Load the viewscreen and set it up specially with SetViewScreen()
pViewScreen = App.ViewScreenObject_Create("data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorbridge/YamaguchiViewScreen.NIF")
pBridgeSet.SetViewScreen(pViewScreen, "viewscreen")
# Setup bridge object
pBridgeObject = App.BridgeObjectClass_Create("data/Models/Sets/PDWExcelsiorbridge/Yamaguchi.NIF")
pBridgeSet.AddObjectToSet(pBridgeObject, "bridge")
pBridgeObject.SetTranslateXYZ(0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000)
pBridgeObject.SetAngleAxisRotation(0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000)
that's about all :D
so to sum it up, it's all about renaming bridge name lines with your custom name and be sure they are the same everywhere otherwise there will be a BSOD caused by faulty name/typo insidfe the plugin ;)
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Amazing! Thank you very much for your assistance in this matter....i thought i made these edits but i may have been off....
It is now time for some retexturin! Thanks again bones! Ill report back later with some mediocre pics that are sure to bring the lulz ;)
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Great, I'm looking forward to them ;) oh and welcome to bridge modding :P
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indeed - there can never be enough bridge retextures, IMO :)
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I agree.
Good luck, trezillah. I look forward to your future retextures.
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wait a minnit, is there a PDW excell bridge?
Trezillah: good thing you have Photoshop. Paintshop seems to have a goof in the way it saves Targas that it only displays the alpha channel :P
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Yeah lol I should know, I've made it :P
http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/file/Post_Dominion_War_Excelsior_Bridge;96594
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Well i followed Bones' instructions (Thanks again man) and We've got a seperate bridge ingame except....Saffi givin these Romulan Ale lap dances...
I got a few laughs outta this....I checked the files again and all seemed to check out...this is probably an easy fix lol
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i think i know why it is doing that - can you upload the plugin for your bridge here?
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Here ya go Jimmy :D Thanks in Advance.
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actually, the plugin script is the one located in scripts/Custom/Autoload folder - can you upload that one?
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Whoops yessir. Sorry bout that.
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Wait why are all animations taken from Ambassador bridge ???
Yes just checked, animations in excalibur bridge are Exc_ prefix so you must have made custom plugin out of ambassador bridge plugin right ?
Oh and I doubt Excalibur bridge ever supported active damage display so this has to be ambassadors bridge plugin, you need to make this plugin out of Excalibur bridge plugin in order to get it working,
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Yeah Bones that was it...
I figured i had the ID10T error goin on...thanks for the replies :D
Now onto retex this bad boy :D