understanding the process

[Joe]

Hi everyone.

Having never modded a game before, I am just trying to get a grip on how everything comes together. Using an example such as creating a custom ship and using it in bridge commander, let me see if I can hypothesize the process.

1. Ship is modeled, textured, rigged (if applicable)
2. Ship imported and the controls make the ship perform actions as defined by the UI
3. At some point someone has to program the ship how to display damage and recognize that hits to various parts of the ship cause different types of damage. The game also has to be told where the phaser arcs are and where to apply glows and lighting.
4. The ship is assigned parameters such as hit points, shield strength, weapon strength, reload times, regeneration times, how many simultaneous repair slots and the speed they repair, top speed, sensor range, weapon types and a multitude of other things I am sure I'm forgetting.

Basically I have no idea how anything beyond step 1 works.

Joe

[Adonis]

Hi everyone.

Having never modded a game before, I am just trying to get a grip on how everything comes together. Using an example such as creating a custom ship and using it in bridge commander, let me see if I can hypothesize the process.

1. Ship is modeled, textured, rigged (if applicable)
2. Ship imported and the controls make the ship perform actions as defined by the UI
3. At some point someone has to program the ship how to display damage and recognize that hits to various parts of the ship cause different types of damage. The game also has to be told where the phaser arcs are and where to apply glows and lighting.
4. The ship is assigned parameters such as hit points, shield strength, weapon strength, reload times, regeneration times, how many simultaneous repair slots and the speed they repair, top speed, sensor range, weapon types and a multitude of other things I am sure I'm forgetting.

Basically I have no idea how anything beyond step 1 works.

Joe

Revision:
1)Ship is modeled, mapped and textured
2)Ship o ported to appropriate file format
3)Ship is hardpointed, set up correctly through scripts
4)Play
5) Nr. 4 was last 

[Joe]

thanks for the revision :-)

So if I am just a lowely 3D modeler / animator, what hope is there of actually getting one of my creations to be playable?

[Bones]

Yep, phaser arcs, hull, shields strenght, torpedo launchers placement etc. etc. all the data about ships systems, weaponary and technical stuff is stored in file called 'Hardpoint' (these can be found in Scripts/Ships/Hardpoints folder). Glows are defined through alpha channel in texture file.

thanks for the revision :-)

So if I am just a lowely 3D modeler / animator, what hope is there of actually getting one of my creations to be playable?

chances are really big

hardpointing is not as hard as it would seem ;)

[Joe]

hope! I am revising one of my models to be optimized for the poly limit suggested in another thread. Then I'll have to hit the books on the subject.

-Joe

[FarShot]

If the models are good enough, there's a large enough chance it'll make it ingame.  Thanks to Bones, I only had to model and map the Exeter and Vendetta.  He took care of the rest. ;)

[BFGfreak]

the trouble is you need to take time to learn how to model in the first place. While there are a fair amount of free 3d modeling programs out there such as gmax and blender, you still will need to play around, do a few youtube lessons, ect. Basically, practice makes decent; don't expect your first model to be a work of art. But as everyone said once you create the model the rest is easy, just PM Bones to do the rest

[Joe]

the trouble is you need to take time to learn how to model in the first place. While there are a fair amount of free 3d modeling programs out there such as gmax and blender, you still will need to play around, do a few youtube lessons, ect. Basically, practice makes decent; don't expect your first model to be a work of art. But as everyone said once you create the model the rest is easy, just PM Bones to do the rest

Thanks for the tip!

[Bones]

'To Serve and to Texture' that's what I do 

[Adonis]

thanks for the revision :-)

So if I am just a lowely 3D modeler / animator, what hope is there of actually getting one of my creations to be playable?

With ships, model the thing first, keep it a seamless (watertight = a single object with a single element) mesh, then map it (by using up the least ammount of texture maps and as much of their surface as possible), then texture it.

The only thing in BC that has animations are the character models.

[Joe]

With ships, model the thing first, keep it a seamless (watertight = a single object with a single element) mesh, then map it (by using up the least ammount of texture maps and as much of their surface as possible), then texture it.

The only thing in BC that has animations are the character models.

So it has to be one continuous mesh? And no animations? What if you wanted to rig an Intrepid to flex its nacelles or have two objects making up a Galaxy so you can separate and rejoin with keyed animations?

By the way, are you the same Adonis from Deviant Art?

[Mario]

By the way, are you the same Adonis from Deviant Art?

He sure is

[Joe]

http://adonihs.deviantart.com/

This guy ^?????????

[Shadowknight1]

So it has to be one continuous mesh? And no animations? What if you wanted to rig an Intrepid to flex its nacelles or have two objects making up a Galaxy so you can separate and rejoin with keyed animations?

By the way, are you the same Adonis from Deviant Art?

Those are possible through two separate scripting mods that came out.  Galaxy, and other ships, separation is accomplished by the MVAM script.  You can also use that for Intrepid warp, but a model that came out a while back used a different mod called FTech to move the nacelles into position.  FTech can also, theoretically, be used for a Klingon Bird of Prey to lower its wings at red alert, but I don't think a mod like that has been made yet.

[King Class Scout]

no, I don't think so.  the real name and location do NOT match

actually, there IS an exception to "no animation" on a ship.  Baz knows the secret to that one, as does Wiley.  someone also figured out a texture swap script for nacelles that swap to "lit" when warp is engaged, and back again

[Adonis]

http://adonihs.deviantart.com/

This guy ^?????????

NO, my one is this one ;)

[Lurok91]

FTech can also, theoretically, be used for a Klingon Bird of Prey to lower its wings at red alert, but I don't think a mod like that has been made yet.

I'm fairly sure the Vaskholr (?, or whatever it's called  )  has FTech wings that shift position at red alert

[Adonis]

I'm fairly sure the Vaskholr (?, or whatever it's called  )  has FTech wings that shift position at red alert

Not really, that ship uses a combination of whole and part models to achieve the illusion. The movement is controlled with scripting. It works in this way: You have the whole ship model shown onscreen until you trigger a change with an event. Then, the scripts switch to the part models, do the wing rotation and then switch back to the whole model of the ship that corresponds to that configuration.

The Vas Kholhr is one of my own I gave to Defiant as a testbed for that script. The configuration I described above was the one that worked in the end.

someone also figured out a texture swap script for nacelles that swap to "lit" when warp is engaged, and back again

That's one of MLeoDaalders ones I wa sthe one who asked for it