Bridge Commander Central
BC Forums => BC General => Topic started by: starfox1701 on October 13, 2011, 04:51:57 PM
-
Got a question. I'm working on seveeral TMP era ships for A2 and I have been tring to replicat the TMP phaser effect I see in the Rifleman's videos with no sucsess so I was wondering if youal could help by explaining exactly how its done please. I included a Video of exactly the effects I mean
-
Just take them from a ship or weapons pack that has them. Many tmp ships come with them.
-
How? All I can find are sounds and textures, none of the coding info.
-
the coding for the TMP phasers is in the Hardpoint files, IIRC they still behave just like the regular phasers in the game. Rifleman just uses ingame footage for his videos.
-
So where do I find all the sprite animation settings?
-
You've been trying to replicate the TMP phaser effect for A2?
You may want to ask the guys at the Fleet Ops forums about that - not that the BC community is unwilling to help out if we can but the guys there know Armada in and out and you'd probably get a better response there.
http://www.fleetops.net/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,3/
-
The guys over at FO have moveed to a model heavy weapons formate. Very few of their weapons still rely purely on sprites. I'm working with stock 1.1 A2. since both BC and A2 where made by activision around the same time I figure the the effects will translate. After all most of the other stuff has over the years including some of the NANO FX. I just need to know how the animation is coded so I can write the sprite for Armada2
-
As Aces said the "Coding" is in the Hardpoint files. Just search for a Phaser Property. But The only visuals set there are Colours, the Texture, how fast that texture moves along the beam and such things.
Everything else is Hardcoded in the Engine.
About the FleetOps Community: I think they also have a Stock Modding section. You could also ask at MSFC or the A2Files Forum for Help.
-
"Coding" is in the Hardpoint files. Just search for a Phaser Property. But The only visuals set there are Colours, the Texture, how fast that texture moves along the beam and such things.
Everything else is Hardcoded in the Engine.
Thank you; this is the kind of information I've been looking for. Its unfortunate so much is hardcoded. Kinda limits flexability a bit doesn't it?
-
Actually, if you watch ST II, you'll notice the TMP phaser sfx used are from Reliant's mega phasers. The Enterprise's phasers weren't as obnoxious, but haven't been able to find a .wav rip of Enterprise's phasers.
-
granted my hearing isn't perfect but I can't really tell the difference sound wise between the 2
-
There's a difference, just listen carefully. Reliant's sound harsh with a high pitch. Enterprise's sound softer and much more refined. Of course, if you are watching the move on the big screen with large speakers and surround sound, it might be hard to tell the difference with that much noise.
-
Its really unfortunate that they never used these phasers after that movie. Theres really no good clean audio of Enterprise in the sound mix. On the positive side I might have something to show. I belive I have tracked down the Armada 2 sprite equivalent of the BC phaser. I'm still tweeking a few things but I think I' gotten preaty close.
-
As prmised some wip pics just follow the link to the Dropbox gallery. I think I'm close but somthing looks off ,but I'm not quite sure what yet. C&C please.
https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3697428/1/phasers?h=bc95da
-
The bursts need to be shorter than how you have them bud
-
Ok some changes made new pics in the folder. I have the mega phasers using the old longer sprites C$C please
-
Wow, they look perfect now! Well done :thumbsup:
Just FYI, despite the fact that BC and A2 were made around the same time, they actually share virtually nothing. They were only distributed by Activision, published by them, they were developed by Totally Games and MadDoc, respectively, and use totally different engines, code bases, scripting languages, and art assets. The publisher and the Star Trek licence are basically all they have in common.
-
The guys over at FO have moveed to a model heavy weapons formate. Very few of their weapons still rely purely on sprites. I'm working with stock 1.1 A2
Keep in mind that even though the Fleet Ops guys have modified A2 extensively, that doesn't mean they won't be able to help you with stock A2 - the Fleet Ops forums are kind of the BCC of the A2 community, so don't worry about being turned away or anything. Not trying to throw you out of BCC of course, but the guys at Fleet Ops will be able to help you with issues we may not necessarily be able to help out with over here. Like Bren said, A2 and BC are two VERY different games with nothing in common except for the publisher and franchise setting...
Also, a friendly suggestion. Upgrade your stock 1.1 to the 1.2.5 patch that is available over there. Lots of stability fixes and the preservation of multiplayer makes it a must have, and there's a lot of modding support as well that may make what you're trying to accomplish a lot easier.
-
Well they do have several important things in common. They both use the same kind of texture files and while alot of BC sprite stuff is hard coded there are only so many ways to do a sprite so if the right info can be rounded up the BC sprite can be transfered to A2. They also both use the same kinda sound files to. You just have to combine some because A2 won't loop them. Location information in a hardpoint file can provide a map to build the HP node tree for a ship in A2 and any physics info in that file can be transferred preaty much straight up if you understand how A2 physics work. You can even run BC models in A2 if you know how to do LODs and have a powerful enough PC.
-
There are no sprite files in BC.;)
-
Not specificly but there is sprite information in the script files. Once you know what the base animation is you can take that info and code the A2 sprite like I did with the TMP phasers. In this case the A2 sprite equivalent for the BC phaser is the spphaser sprite animation found in the found in the tex_anim.spr file. Modified version of that entry is what used as the base for the new TMP phaser.
-
It's more an issue of semantics and differing application of the same sort of assets.
Just to clarify;
Strictly speaking, a sprite is a 2D billboard, often animated, oriented to the camera at all times.
BC's phasers are nested, hardcoded cylinders, textured with the phaser TGA, and coloured in accordance with the harpoint scripts.
The torpedoes are also complex 3D objects, with a sprite core, static textures, and "flares", like petals, that fade in and out of visibility randomly.
The most notable uses of proper animated sprites in BC is actually a mod. NanoFX's explosions are a very evident examples of sprites in BC.
Anyway, I think I'm rambling, I just wanted to clarify why we say the weapons in BC aren't sprites.