Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:28 pm
Fixing Wrong Ship Images in Shipdealers
I would like to impart a little tricky knowledge in return for the huge amounts of excellent info and utils others have given here.
This is a problem I found once only so far, in WTS worlds....
At the Planet New London Ship Dealer, where the Talon and Basilisk are both on sale, the Talon icon was correct but the dealer showed the Basilisk image for the Talon too, and not its own .cmp image.
Following on from Osprey's super tips on making good ship icons, it turned out that the .cmp files for the ship models have a similarly alterable structure, and that the file mesh leafs for both the Basilisk and the Talon are named hull.lod0.vms and the definition branches for both are named hull.3db...!
So as both ships were on sale at the same location, FL had already loaded the Basilisk hull.3db image into memory, so when it was called for again for the Talon, FL just copies it from memory. Sad really.
Solution:
You will need UTF Edit and CRC Calc or CRC Tools - credit due to the authors.
It will also help you if you open Notepad and just type the new names you want to use, e.g. Talon.lod0.vms and Talon.3db - then you can just copy (CTRL-C) & paste (CTRL-V) from there and be sure you didn't mis-type.
If you use CRC Calc, you will have to copy out the CRC code by hand as it's not selectable to copy it - shame - so it is safer to type it into Notepad and double-check it, then copy from there and paste it.
Note - 10-digit CRC codes are changed to negative "signed" CRC codes, they will be 9-digit numbers completely different from the original 10-digit CRC, and will start with a minus sign (-).
OK - here is what I did for both the Talon and Basilisk, the procedure shows the Talon so just do the same for the Basilisk after doing the Talon, by using the right names (those are Basilisk.lod0.vms and Basilisk.3db, guys 'n' gals!!)....
a) FIRST - Make a backup copy of any file you are going to change!!
I usually backup even the ones I only want to check too, and delete the backups once I have finished checking and all is still well - some of the utilities are not exactly 100% safe guys! You can do this quickly and easily - when you go to open a file from most utilities, just select the file you want, and then - before you open it!!- just try CTRL-C (Copy) and immediately CTRL-V (paste) - Windows should help you by making a fast copy called "Copy of xxxxx.xxx" in the same folder.
) So DON'T press "Open" or "Save" without it!! OK - that's what I do, what you do is entirely up to you.
b) 1) Open the file "talon.cmp" with UTF Edit, and open all the "branches" and "nodes" (but not the Hardpoints, not necessary) by clicking on the "+" signs so you can see their names clearly.
2) Change the name of the Branch under VMeshLibrary which is named "hull.lod0.vms" to "Talon.lod0.vms". Just click on the name once, wait a couple of seconds, and click on it again to enable editing, change the name, and then click somewhere else to fix the change.
3) Using the CRC Calc or CRC Tools utility, copy the name "Talon.lod0.vms" (without the quote marks please!), and paste it into the CRC utility to get the DECIMAL CRC code. CRC Tools may confuse you as it has both UTF ID CRCs and Hash Codes - the UTF ID CRC code is the one you want.
4) Copy this new CRC for the name Talon.lod0.vms (3906183987), click on the leaf "MultiLevel\Level0\VmeshPart\VmeshRef" in UTF Edit, then select "Interpret data as... Int Array", press EDIT, and paste it into the second line down, to replace the old CRC which should be -501338017 = the "signed" CRC for “hull.lod0.vms” – CRC 3793629279. If you check it again after you click UPDATE, your new CRC is also a 10-digit number so it will have changed to a 9-digit "signed" number, -388783309 - but this is correct, don't worry. 9-digit CRCs are not changed to signed ones.
c) 1) Rename the branch named "hull.3db" as "Talon.3db" by the same method you made change b) above.
2) Also change "hull.3db" to "Talon.3db" in the leaf "Cmpnd\Root\File name". This entry did not seem to require an accompanying CRC. (I couldn't trace one for the old name, and UTF Edit couldn't decode the VMeshData field for any .cmp file except as a string, it kept crashing when trying).
It may not be necessary to do both b) and also c) but I did both these anyway since I like standards -
This is my 2-cents contribution, I hope it's useful.
Look at Osprey's Ship Icons tutorial for more info, it will help with this too.
So modders- please do your best to use unique names in your excellent .cmp model image files and .3db icon files.
I'm not a frequent visitor so I may not answer any queries for months - sorry in advance.
You can use this as you see fit, and I don't insist on credit being given to me.
This is a problem I found once only so far, in WTS worlds....
At the Planet New London Ship Dealer, where the Talon and Basilisk are both on sale, the Talon icon was correct but the dealer showed the Basilisk image for the Talon too, and not its own .cmp image.
Following on from Osprey's super tips on making good ship icons, it turned out that the .cmp files for the ship models have a similarly alterable structure, and that the file mesh leafs for both the Basilisk and the Talon are named hull.lod0.vms and the definition branches for both are named hull.3db...!
So as both ships were on sale at the same location, FL had already loaded the Basilisk hull.3db image into memory, so when it was called for again for the Talon, FL just copies it from memory. Sad really.
Solution:
You will need UTF Edit and CRC Calc or CRC Tools - credit due to the authors.
It will also help you if you open Notepad and just type the new names you want to use, e.g. Talon.lod0.vms and Talon.3db - then you can just copy (CTRL-C) & paste (CTRL-V) from there and be sure you didn't mis-type.
If you use CRC Calc, you will have to copy out the CRC code by hand as it's not selectable to copy it - shame - so it is safer to type it into Notepad and double-check it, then copy from there and paste it.
Note - 10-digit CRC codes are changed to negative "signed" CRC codes, they will be 9-digit numbers completely different from the original 10-digit CRC, and will start with a minus sign (-).
OK - here is what I did for both the Talon and Basilisk, the procedure shows the Talon so just do the same for the Basilisk after doing the Talon, by using the right names (those are Basilisk.lod0.vms and Basilisk.3db, guys 'n' gals!!)....
a) FIRST - Make a backup copy of any file you are going to change!!
I usually backup even the ones I only want to check too, and delete the backups once I have finished checking and all is still well - some of the utilities are not exactly 100% safe guys! You can do this quickly and easily - when you go to open a file from most utilities, just select the file you want, and then - before you open it!!- just try CTRL-C (Copy) and immediately CTRL-V (paste) - Windows should help you by making a fast copy called "Copy of xxxxx.xxx" in the same folder.
) So DON'T press "Open" or "Save" without it!! OK - that's what I do, what you do is entirely up to you.
b) 1) Open the file "talon.cmp" with UTF Edit, and open all the "branches" and "nodes" (but not the Hardpoints, not necessary) by clicking on the "+" signs so you can see their names clearly.
2) Change the name of the Branch under VMeshLibrary which is named "hull.lod0.vms" to "Talon.lod0.vms". Just click on the name once, wait a couple of seconds, and click on it again to enable editing, change the name, and then click somewhere else to fix the change.
3) Using the CRC Calc or CRC Tools utility, copy the name "Talon.lod0.vms" (without the quote marks please!), and paste it into the CRC utility to get the DECIMAL CRC code. CRC Tools may confuse you as it has both UTF ID CRCs and Hash Codes - the UTF ID CRC code is the one you want.
4) Copy this new CRC for the name Talon.lod0.vms (3906183987), click on the leaf "MultiLevel\Level0\VmeshPart\VmeshRef" in UTF Edit, then select "Interpret data as... Int Array", press EDIT, and paste it into the second line down, to replace the old CRC which should be -501338017 = the "signed" CRC for “hull.lod0.vms” – CRC 3793629279. If you check it again after you click UPDATE, your new CRC is also a 10-digit number so it will have changed to a 9-digit "signed" number, -388783309 - but this is correct, don't worry. 9-digit CRCs are not changed to signed ones.
c) 1) Rename the branch named "hull.3db" as "Talon.3db" by the same method you made change b) above.
2) Also change "hull.3db" to "Talon.3db" in the leaf "Cmpnd\Root\File name". This entry did not seem to require an accompanying CRC. (I couldn't trace one for the old name, and UTF Edit couldn't decode the VMeshData field for any .cmp file except as a string, it kept crashing when trying).
It may not be necessary to do both b) and also c) but I did both these anyway since I like standards -
This is my 2-cents contribution, I hope it's useful.
Look at Osprey's Ship Icons tutorial for more info, it will help with this too.
So modders- please do your best to use unique names in your excellent .cmp model image files and .3db icon files.
I'm not a frequent visitor so I may not answer any queries for months - sorry in advance.
You can use this as you see fit, and I don't insist on credit being given to me.