The ST Modding communities...unable to unite?

[MLeo]

It's a little (and old) mod that I created that allows you to reuse the same model and most of the textures and only have textures that are unique on a per ship (plugin) base.

For example, one of the first ships to use it was SNS Galaxy, which used it to cut down on nearly 100MB (if memory serves me correctly) on models and textures. Possibly even more, since it included a crazy amount of ships in there. Which originally all had their own nif + full texture set.

SDT (starship Skinning and Damaging Tool) also allows you to predamage ships, like in the Single Player, but nobody has actually used that feature at this point.

[Shino Tenshi]

ah with that full name i recognized it. ;)

[Starforce2]

Well, I doubt it's easier to get a ship in BC than in Legacy. Also in Legacy you don't need modelling skills, all you need to know is how to place joints in Milkshape. Well, BC mods aren't prepped for Legacy as well, we always have to spent hours with smoothing the BC models, but that's not what this discussion is about. If you want I can export you a few models to nif and send the textures in tga. And talking about the registries. Registries work in Legacy quite different. They are put on faces that are sligtly above the normal texture and the alpha channel defines what's visible or not. In BC the registries are merged with the texture itself. So the question is do you want a lot of large texture files, since you need a new texture for every registry or do you want only one registry avialable.

You shouldn't need to spend hours with mesh errors unless you are converting the legacy files. Start directly with the authors mesh, prior to porting/modding to legacy and you got a winner. I never do any smoothing on anything I port from sfc or anywehre else because I am incapable of doing so, and it's never really bothered anyone except a select few nitpickers.

[gdata]

Well, I doubt it's easier to get a ship in BC than in Legacy. Also in Legacy you don't need modelling skills, all you need to know is how to place joints in Milkshape. Well, BC mods aren't prepped for Legacy as well, we always have to spent hours with smoothing the BC models, but that's not what this discussion is about. If you want I can export you a few models to nif and send the textures in tga. And talking about the registries. Registries work in Legacy quite different. They are put on faces that are sligtly above the normal texture and the alpha channel defines what's visible or not. In BC the registries are merged with the texture itself. So the question is do you want a lot of large texture files, since you need a new texture for every registry or do you want only one registry avialable.

You shouldn't need to spend hours with mesh errors unless you are converting the legacy files. Start directly with the authors mesh, prior to porting/modding to legacy and you got a winner. I never do any smoothing on anything I port from sfc or anywehre else because I am incapable of doing so, and it's never really bothered anyone except a select few nitpickers.

I know...and believe me, we always try to get the max files, when we do. But in some cases we simply don't get them, due to different reasons (harddrive issues etc.). Anyway, let's get back on topic. So what files do you want converted Starforce? So that I can get the cleaned nif and the tga's to you.

[Dalek]

Just briefly returning to the topic title: Unable to unite because some people steal mods. We already have one example on BCC (doesn't quite count because it isn't an ST community but its still a community using Trek stuff) and I know of another one but won't go into details 'caufor the sake of privacy.

[MLeo]

Just briefly returning to the topic title: Unable to unite because some people steal mods. We already have one example on BCC (doesn't quite count because it isn't an ST community but its still a community using Trek stuff) and I know of another one but won't go into details 'caufor the sake of privacy.

BCC is primairly a community around a ST game.

Also, do you mean someone from BCC stealing? Or someone else stealing from someone on BCC?

[Dalek]

A slight variation of possibility 2, MLeo. Again, I won't say anything else for privacy's sake.

[Starforce2]

I am sure there are theives in both communities. Lets not get into that, it's a topic for private discussion, not public. This is a modding forum and thus this thread should either discusss actual modding or be moved.

Mleo, I need to review what I have. Some long island stuff is here, I can load it but it's got crap in it. Then there was the black kite, which someone snet me (I need to find it) but no textures, and there was one other. This all got sent to me a couple weeks before the filesnetwork issue so I don't even remember where I put all the stuff. I am just getting my projects going again, but I defenetly want to be doing legacy stuff and if I get a modder or 2 assisting, revive my tos project which can include tos stuff (provided it's non-fed..I have enough fed..atleast for the primary mod..I can include more after the fact as add-ons)

[Shino Tenshi]

If i remember correctly, we also have some ENT and TOS/TMP cardassian and dominon ships. ;)

[gdata]

If i remember correctly, we also have some ENT and TOS/TMP cardassian and dominon ships. ;)

They would need new textures, though...the current ones don't look all too good.

[MarkyD]

So this thread seems to be going in the way of converting meshes issue, we dont need a thread about this, I recieve PM's about this subject and am in contact with legacy peeps, about making meshes avail to Legacy... Im pretty certain if BCC members are contacted via pm and permissions sorted their is no issue.. 

[Starforce2]

perhaps if uit's that big of a deal I should clean out the starforce productions board and use it as a team forum (public) for legacy porting..

[Shino Tenshi]

Good idea. ^^

[Starforce2]

How many legacy authors have their models in virgin form, IE, when the main mesh is completed, before the damage related stuff is added ect? At this point, the only thing that should need to be done to them is textures/lightmaps saved as tga and the hole in the mesh (or whatever you call it) for the registrey dealt with. Also, at this point, one would assume it's probably in 3ds, max, or ms3d. Something easier to deal with than the post-conversion file type.

[gdata]

tiptop's stuff and almost everything from nEw-GEN should be available in either ms3d or max (maybe some files got lost, there are only two or three ships I know about, maybe like 5%). Then it should be pretty easy to delete the damage mesh, the hardpoints and the registry mesh, and place the registry on the main texture, before you convert it to tga. Most of the other Legacy modders should do it the same way, especially since there is no way of converting it back (at least not for us).

[MarkyD]

perhaps if uit's that big of a deal I should clean out the starforce productions board and use it as a team forum (public) for legacy porting..

agreed good idea  8)

[gdata]

perhaps if uit's that big of a deal I should clean out the starforce productions board and use it as a team forum (public) for legacy porting..

agreed good idea  8)

Did not read this the first time, yes good idea.

[Centurus]

Let's not forget about the SFC Community.  There are some ships that were released for Legacy that I'm sure us SFC people would love to see ported over to SFC format, and some of us, especially me, would be more than willing to help in the process.

Some ships I've worked on in collaboration with other people, namely ModelsPlease, have found their way into Legacy, and all permissions were obtained prior to release.

[Starforce2]

Oh I am sure nobody is forgetting, it just wasn't brought up because the thread is in a forum for modding BC.  For those who don't already know, however, http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/board,16.0.html is the place to go for SFC ports. It's also a great place for anyone to keep an eye on new ships being built that might end up here as well.

[gdata]

PM me if you want to port something from nEw-GEN to sfc.