Skinning and Powerplants

Wed Jun 23, 2004 8:17 am by Black Eagle

Hi! I have two questions:

First:
What tools do I need to make new skins for the original Freelancer ships, or at least to change these skins and how do I skin (any tutorials?). Is it
possible to make this with Milkshape? Do I need the MAT-file Importer/Exporter or something like this? And is it possible to do this with other programs? I tried to export the files from the mat file of the ship, but these files aren't really tga files and I don't know how to open and edit them!
I'm a total noob in skinning, so please help!

Second:
I asked this several times, but noone answered me. Now I have looked into it once again. In my mod, I want the player to be able to see the powerplant on
every ship (If he is scanning, if he is buying a new ship or if he looks in the equipment window of his ship). Everything is well, except of that the
powerplants are transferable between ships. So, If a player buys a new ship (e.g.: Startracker), he is able to transfer the powerplant of his old ship
(e.g.: Titan) to the new ship. It would be possible to have a light fighter with the Titan powerplant. So does anyone know, how to make the powerplants not
transferable between ships (like the engines). Is there a mod, in which engines are transferable, so that I can take a look and do it just the other way
round?
I looked for the engines (in engine_equip.ini and engine_good.ini) and the powerplants (in misc_equip.ini and misc_good.ini). There is no major difference.
I know that every ship has an "HpEngine01" hardpoint and often also "HpEngine02" and "HpEngine03". But there is no "HpPowerplant01" or something like that.
Maybe I can make a powerplant hardpoint in every ship (I know it sounds strange, but I tried to solve the problem for a long time. So I will try everything).
But there is another question. I couldn't find any file, in which it is said that engines are mounted on the "HpEngine01" hardpoint. There is no such entry
in engine_equip.ini, engine_goods.ini, goods.ini (in the several the packages), or anywhere else. Does the engine actually use the "HpEngine01" hardpoint?
If there is a file, in which the engine is connected with the "HpEngine01" hardpoint, please tell me!
My second idea was, if there is an entry in one of the dlls, which says that engines are not transferable. Does anyone know about such an entry?
My last idea: Maybe there is a hidden entry in constants.ini, which makes engines not transferable between ships. I know that some modders found hidden
entries in the constants.ini. Where did they found them? Maybe in one of the dlls?

I know it's a pretty long text and the problem is not that bad, but please help me!
Thanks to everyone!

Wed Jun 23, 2004 8:26 am by Accushot

You need the UTF editor (somewhere in the downloads section) to access the MAT Files. Even though it says TGA the textures are in .DDS format, so you need something like photoshop or paint shop pro to edit them. I can e-mail you the plugin for photoshop if you need it.

HpEngine01 is defined in the ship's CMP file, again use the UTF editor and find the "Hardpoints" nodes. I'm pretty sure you can either have a) Visible powerplants that can be transfered or b) invisible ones that can't. Doesn't seem to be a decent middle ground

I doubt the you'll have much luck with constants.ini, the constants in there are mostly numeric and nothing major like your problem. You can find hidden entries by looking through the DLL's, content.dll being the most important, but you'll have to disassemble them which is...well...not fun

Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:50 am by Black Eagle

Many thanks accushot!
I have photoshop 7.0. It would be very nice, if you can mail me the plugin to [email protected]
But I hope there is a way to make the powerplants not transferable. Please, everyone who knows about this tell me how to solve this problem!
Thanks again!

Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:48 am by Black Eagle

Okay, I downloaded the plugin and I'm now able to open up the dds files in Photoshop. But I encountered a strange problem.
I exported the dds files from the or_ships.mat file to edit the Anubis Skin. In fact I only want to change the color from brown to black. But as I opened the files, the skinparts were not the brown ones you see in the game.
So my question: Where is it defined, which color the Anubis skin has (This light brown you can see in the game). Is there any file, I can change to make a black skin for the Anubis? Or do I need other programs for this (Milkshape?).
Thanks!

Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:17 am by Black Eagle

Anyone out there, who knows about the wrong color of the Anubis dds files in the or_ships.mat file. I want to change the color of the Anubis to black, what do I have to do. If you can give me only a hint I will try it, but now I'm stuck with this.

Another question: Where are the skin files for the Corsair ships? I already searched in the ku_playerships.mat file, but I'm not sure where to find the textures for the Corsair ships.

Please help! Thanks!

Tue Jun 29, 2004 4:13 pm by baene

As far as the Anubis, i think the skin you are looking for is one of the LODs - Not the actual "panels"...been a while, so i'm not 100% on this.

Also, to save you a boatload of time, Black_Lightning extracted ALL the Freelancer textures in a couple formats. You might want to do a search of the downloads for it, as it's REALLY useful.

Anyway, hope it helps some.

Baene

Edited by - baene on 6/29/2004 5:14:09 PM

Thu Jul 01, 2004 5:29 am by Accushot

The dds you extract contains MIP maps, which are basically levels of detail. Different ones are used to show more/less detail on the ship, which is whythey appear like a staircase of similar textures. You can select "Dont show MIP maps" when it loads and you'll just get one normal image, but then you have to remember to save with mip maps afterwards.

You need to extract the "LOD" node, I think it looks something like "anubis_lod372683.tga" (The numbers are different though). This should give you the right texture.

The corsair textures are stored in "ships\corsair\co_ships.mat". Where else would they be?

Edited by - Accushot on 7/1/2004 6:29:59 AM

Thu Jul 01, 2004 5:45 am by LordFjord

just a small correction

(we love to be perfect, dont we?)

corsair textures are in ships\kusari\ku_playerships.mat

its also interesting that corsair ships have the nickname "tag" pi_ like pirates - and pirates have co_ like corsairs.
Reven (who wrote the cmp importer) found this out a long time ago.
seems that some of the ships werent initially meant to be for the factions of the release version of FL.
interesting small details

Fjord

---------------------------------
Excelcia Mod Leading Developer

Thu Jul 01, 2004 1:25 pm by black_lightning

tsk tsk accushot, as fjord said corsair textures are in the kusari folder i.e. just look at the shiparch.ini

nickname = co_elite
DA_archetype = Ships\pirate\pi_elite\pi_elite.cmp
material_library = ships\kusari\ku_playerships.mat

where else would it be with a material path to the kusari folder : p

Fri Jul 02, 2004 5:21 am by Black Eagle

Many thanks for your help!
But I have still some problems. I already found the textures of the Anubis before, but the problem is that they do not have the right color. I extracted the "elite_256.dds" file from or_ships.mat and then opened it in Photoshop 7.0. But somehow the color of the texture (I'ts the part with the rising sun, you can see on the Anubis) is not brown, like in the game, but it is grey. Is this normal? Where is the real color of the Anubis skin (brown) defined?
The other problem is with the corsair textures:
As I said, I already looked in the ku_playerships.mat, but I'm not sure which of the files are for the corsairs. I also opened them in Photoshop, but they looked like the Kusari ones.
So please help me and thanks again!

Fri Jul 02, 2004 2:05 pm by ColinS

Some of the material library entries in the .mat file have a "Dc" node same as the glass. The floating point values of some of them correspond to RGB 246, 218, 182 (approx). This is a light brown/sand colour in Paint Shop Pro, could be some kind of base colour override.

Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:53 pm by parabolix

Dc is the part of the .mat which sets the color of the glass. Its standard setting is

0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000

The top value is Red, the second is Green, the third is Blue, the fourth seems not to have any effect. To get the values to plug in, find your RGB setting, and divide the numbers by 255, then plug the answer into its respective place.

Oc is opacity, Its standard setting is

0.00000

This one is more straight forward, just set it to the decimal that matches the opacity percentage you wanted. If you wanted it to be 75% opaque, your setting would be

0.750000

for 50% is would be

0.500000

and so on....

Sat Jul 03, 2004 3:04 pm by Black Eagle

Thanks ColinS and parabolix!
This really helps. Now there is only my question which dds files in the ku_playerships.mat are for the corsair ships! Does anyone know this? Please help and thanks!

Sat Jul 10, 2004 2:17 pm by Black Eagle

Hi again!
I found the Corsair textures, but now I have another problem. I changed the color of the following files to black:

K_panel01_256.dds
K_panel02.dds
k_panel03.dds
K_panel_trim.dds
k_wings.dds

These files are in the ku_playerships.mat!
If I'm on a base or a planet, everything is right and my ship (It is a Corsair Legionnaire) is completely black. But in space some parts of my ship are still brown, like the original ship. My question now: Which file do I have to change to make the Legionnaire completely black in space. I already thought of the k_panel_selfillum02.dds, but this texture looks very strange (black with some grey and some white spots. Do I need to change this file? And how do I change this file to make the skin black?

Another question:
What does the commodities_per_faction.ini do? I thought that the different factions carry only the commodities that are mentioned in this file. But my new factions also carries other commodities. How can I make them carry only the
commodities I want?

Last question:
I set up a tradepath of my new faction. Everything works great, but the encounters do not carry any commodities. I already added the faction and some commodities in the commodities_per_faction.ini. Do I add the commodities in another file, or is there anything else I forgot?

Please help me, and thanks to everyone!!!

Tue Jul 13, 2004 5:43 am by Black Eagle

Anyone out there, who knows something about my questions?
Please help me!

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