Starlancer & TTF models

[Bejaymac]

Gibbon I take it you've seen my post in the Starlancer forums over on TLR.

I can still give you the models, it means that as I don't have the textures you will have to make your own for them (like OP_R&R did for CF).

I'm just glad we had a better group of hackers back in the early days of Freelancer moding, rather than the idiots they must have had for Starlancer, seven years on and they still can't extract the textures from the game files.

Your one luck so and so having some of the TTF models in 3DS format, the versions I have aren't wavefront .OBJ format but a similar format. Milkshape just wasn't opening them right so I've had to install Deep Exploration to open them and convert them. At least half of the ships use multiple models to make one ship, the Gora Carrier has about a dozen of them, the only reason I'm not losing my sanity trying to combine them is because I've had plenty of practice lately, half of the big ships in Freelancer were in a similar state because of the importer.

I'm rebuilding the Warhammer for you so that it uses the normal textures rather than the remapping someone else did, if there's any of the others that you want let me know.

PS What do you think of the 'Sai'

[Gibbon]

ARRRRGGGHHH, i have the models already lol. It's those darn textures i'm after of the coalition ships. I've got all the fighter models from the coalition side, after a set of textures like the
Samurai Studio guys had for the alliance fighters. They are a pain in the ass to do as they're complicated as hell. All i have to go on are some piccies from the SL section of LR.

**update**
Just read the reply on LR, that's a major pain, means they all gotta be done fresh...

Been finishing off my BSG ships, all i can see is hardpoints and more hardpoints lol

[Bejaymac]

If I knew enough about hacking the files I might have waded into them to see what I could rip from them, but I'm no hacker. The part that's realy bugging me is that they can add textures to the files with their custom ships, but they don't know where the standard textures are stored .

;DI know what you mean bud, I've got vertices swimming before my eyes, and I've been dreaming about space ships the past 2 nights.

I've figured out a scaling for the TTF ships that I have so they come out as 1:1 with Freelancer (I hope), even at a 1:1 ratio the big ships are *%$£in' huge , the Bora Frigate is twice the length of the liberty dreadnought, and the Bora Carrier is easily twice the size of the Frigate. I've got an 'orrible feeling that they'll have to stay that size if I want to use them as bases, the docking bays are quite small from what I've seen so far.

[Gibbon]

I've not seen any of the big stuff from TTF, been concentrating on the fighters which ive finished doing the remapping now. One or two of the models are driving me nuts though, there's one texture on the Poseidon which i can't seem to line up correctly. If you need a hand with those big ones then let me know.

Btw, i sent you a new sur file for the Sai which is a bit smaller than the one you already have, fits a bit more snugly.

[Bejaymac]

I don't see how a primitive shape can fit more snuggly bud, my SUR is a second skin for the CMP, the model for the SUR was built using vertexes from the Sai's model. The whole purpose of making a custom SUR is to have it fit as close to the CMP's mesh as is possible, besides I stopped using primitives when Argh released the exporter and that was over 2 years ago.

Open the Sai's CMP in HardCMP and look through the hardpoints, you'll notice that their not all on the "Root" like most custom models, but are on "Parts" just like a vanilla CMP. Open and view the SUR with the CMP and you'll see the SUR is skintight to the Mesh, the SUR also has "Parts" built into it, they were named exactly the same as the "Parts" in the CMP so that just like the "Parts" in a vanilla SUR they are tied to the "Parts" in the CMP.

Do you remember when Rankor got a little heated over that SUR you did for him, if it had been me that had done it he would have had a SUR that was skin tight to his model, he would have also been able to fly through it without needing phantom physics, but the model would not have been the same one he sent me as I would have needed to rip it apart and rebuild it as a proper FL CMP model.

I've learned over the years that you don't build a model then shoe horn it into a game, you learn to adapt you skills so you can build a model that works properly with the game. Unfortunately I'm in the minority in our community, Cold_Void being the only other member (that I know about) that does multiple component CMP's & SUR's, damage parts, lod levels, wireframes and cockpits. The rest just throw out basic models that don't even belong in a CoMPound file, even xXx's models are simple mesh files (3DB) in a CMP cover, the CMP's you'll create with the TTF model will be no different, but the ones I create will be true CMPs with skintight SURs and have damage parts.

Take your BSG models, the one with the green domes on it, with your SUR will you be able to fly a small ship between the domes or will you bounce off nowhere near them, or with the Galactica will you be able to dock and enter the landing bays without phantom physics.

Don't get me wrong you can only model as good as your abilities or how you've been taught, I'm good but not brilliant at modeling and I was fortunate that I cut my modeling teeth on Halflife and the sims as you HAD to build for the game to get it to work, building a skeleton and rigging it to your model is not fun, and then having to split and regroup the mesh and assign joints to everything after the first failed test is the stuff of knightmares for a noob. That's one reason I'm glad we don't have a DFM editor, our model makers would just give up as it's "to much like hard work", it's the exact same reason the SUR Exporter was slagged off by (almost) everyone, they couldn't figure out how to use it so they just gave up on it.

Sorry about the rant but half-assed model making is pet hate of mine that started back in my SFC days, you'd D/load a model that someone else had done only to find one model when there should be two, the damaged model was always "forgotten" or they didn't know you needed one.

[Gibbon]

LoL, totally fair point, my bad. teach me to look first really. I like those burning textures on the Sai. I have to say that's really nicely done, it does make all the difference when bits fall off.

[Bejaymac]

;D That flame texture is from SFC, it's what they used on the damaged sections of the starships, I've just moved it over to Freelancer, so feel free to help yourself to it.

As you've probably noticed when you lose all of the parts from the Sai your stranded. I coded the engines and thruster to the parts, which is something DA did but never fully implimented, if you were to create collision groups and simples to use all damage 3DBs, then every ship would end up stranded without propulsion, just a little something to add spice to any fight .

Have you deleted the smillies from imageshack or something bud, as the only one I can see is ::whojso:: the rest show "image does not exist" pictures from imageshack.

[Gibbon]

Yeah i noticed the stranded thing lol, was wondering wtf was going on... then BOOM, dead Gibbon.

Those SFC textures are nice. I have quite a few of the SFC bases models. I have a few bases i'm using that have the damage textures included and lightmaps. I know how to do the lighmaps now but seeing as the bases are dockable, least the ones i'm using, i haven't included the damage textures.

Er, yes the smilies. I've kinda inherited the forum and i need to work out how to get new ones lol

[Bejaymac]

;DFirst time I took the Sai out for a test I unmounted the shields, flew over to the detroit debris field and engaged a couple of rogues, they shot me a couple of times and then hit me with a missile. Bang went the left wing and I was to busy admiring the damage part to realise another missile was about to hit, it took out the top fin and my other wing and before I could do a damn thing another missile took out the bottom fin stranding me, before I could even react to take a screenie the beggars finished me with weapons fire. I've been shot at with missiles countless time before but three one hard after the other caught me completely by surprise. Needless to say I then mounted my shields again, bought better guns and went rogue hunting for an hour .

I have hundreds of SFC models, that many I don't know where half of them are, I've got that many damned CDs it's a nightmare trying to remember where everything is.