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** Tutorial ** - Making a new ship from scratch

Here you can discuss building custom ships, texturing and 3D modeling in Freelancer

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 2:02 am

hmm pretty good me thinks, but u need to xplain how to create a ship from scratch, ur post is good dont get me wrong but u should explain actually how to build it in the editor and methods u think are good for it, cause i am totally lost when im doing this i have no clue how to make a ship thats not a box u know.

Mess With the Best Die lIke the Rest

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 11:42 am

Great work, guy!
I have a problem: when someone attacks my new ship, it simply doesn't get any damage to the hull... I think (and someone told me) that the problem is the lack of a .sur file. I also read somewhere that .sur files cannot be done? Is it true? If so, can I use another .sur file and simply rename it?

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 5:06 pm

In a way I can understand.

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:34 pm


In a way I can understand.

can do

Zousug: I will take a look at it. You can also start it yourself and I'd be glad to help if you ran into any problems.

Subxero: ok, I'll add some basic modeling stuff to the beginning

xinos: You've got the right idea; the sur file describes a ship collision box. The best we can do so far is to just find a ship that has the same basic gemetry as yours and copy and rename its sur file for your own ship. Also, you might need collision groups in your shiparch.ini (the things I said to take out). I will look into that more.

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:04 pm

Hello.

ok.. thanx.. i would start but as i have no time atm because of Tafe and other stuff i cant..

what i want is for the ship to look like one of the giant battle ships that are floating around the planets and stuff.. (the biggest one you can find )

--------------------------------------SOS-----------------------------------------------------

below are the details i would like.

nanobots / shield batteries : 100/100 (if there is another ship with more then 100 add 50 on to what the other ship has.)

armor : 20000

10 gun mounts (5 along each side) / 6 turrents (360 degrees (3 along the top and 3 along the bottom))

3000 cargo space

2 torpedo tubes (on the front if possible)

2 misile tubes (on the front if possible)

4 thrusters..

(i think thats all)

and call it U.S.S Crusher

make it about $99,999 (because of the stats)

make it so it can be gotten in manhatten

--------------------------------------EOS-----------------------------------------------------

if thats all possible it would be great.. (if the gun mounts and missile tubes cant go in the areas im after then just put them where ever it is possible to put them)

thanx.

Space is big, so make the most of it..

Post Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:49 pm

Ok thanks Imagine, will try it...

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 6:19 am

I followed your instructions to the letter, but either Freelancer crashes, the ship simply doesn't display or the game will run until I get to the shop and then crash when I attempt to enter. I also made a ship in MilkShape, but was unable to turn it into a CMP file at all.

I did get one ship to load, but even when I completely duplicate the method for that ship I get squat. Any ideas?

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:39 pm

I cannot tell what exactly you did wrong, but:
1. If the game crashes when you go into the shop, there's a problem with the shop: maybe in shiparch.ini you didn't type the exact path to the ship model, or the package in goods.ini refers to an unknown ids_name (that of the ship hull, for example)
2. If you can buy a ship but do not see it when you fly it (I hope that's what you mean when you speak of a "disappearing ship"...) it's a problem related with the dimensions of the model: in Milkshape I noticed that the model has to be VERY large (larger than the viewport at minimum zoom)... so if you make it smaller Freelancer simply doesn't display it.
3. Another problem with ship models is textures: even if you don't apply any texture to the model you HAVE to include a .mat file... or so i have to :-)

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 6:43 pm

How do I export from Doga to Milkshape?

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:24 pm

ok... I built a ship shape (lol) in milkshape but now I have some questions...
1:Texture it now? Or wait till after the hardpoints are there?
2:UTF editor... shows you a file tree. How am I suposed to see where the hps are suposed to go? I didn't find any sort of list at all. I never saw anything to indicate I could flip my ship upside down in UTF (or anything else for that matter) and how does one flip thier texture upside down???
3: you said to make the taxture "blah.tga" for example. .tga???? all I have is paint, si I made some textures there is that ok? and dimensions that are a power of 2? Whats that mean?

I am just a little bit confused right now...

We who are about to die salute you!

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:08 pm

MQuaBeeQua: Just a little clarification; So you did get one ship flyable and the rest didn't work? Also, when you try to turn ships into cmp, what happens?

Trader Jack: leonhart will know more about doga than me; he uses it for his ship models. Try asking him on the general modding board.

Warlord Bob: 1. It doesn't really matter when you texture it. I just assumed that some people will place hardpoints based on markings on the texture.
2. The hardpoints in a cmp file are listed under \\shipname.3db\hardpoints. To turn ship and triangles upside down, select everything and rotate 180 degrees from the front/back view. To flip a texture upside down, open up your texture graphic in some graphics editor, and flip it vertically. This upside down version goes in your mat.
3. The texture has to be saved in tga format no matter what prog you use. I recommend maybe download a converter to change files from gif to tga or use a different graphics prog. FL is very picky about texture format. Dimensions that are power of two means
2^1=2 square is 2by2
2^2=4 square is 4by4
2^3=8 square is 8by8
and so on

Post Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:02 pm

yes, but 8x8 what? There isn't a point of reference on a computer. And my textures are brobably in .bmp format. Is a conversion necessary and do you know of a handy converter :\ ? I'll look for the hp notation again when my sister gets off the other comp, (this one doesn't have the ram for FL so all my mod stuff is on the other 1) but is it like a collection of files within a directory? Cause there wasn't anything openable in there except the file tree. Thank you so much for all your help, and I hope i figure this out soon so I can stop bothering you

We who are about to die salute you!

Post Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:08 am


I hope i figure this out soon so I can stop bothering you

The only reason this thread is here is to help people
8x8 pixels I mean. However, a more reasonable size would be 512x512 for a good ship texture.

but is it like a collection of files within a directory

They are like files in a way, with the hp names being the names of the leaves and the data stored in each leaf being the orientation and position data of each respective hp.
Try this as a format converter.

Edited by - Imagine on 22-08-2003 01:13:39

Post Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:51 am

zousug check your email real quick

Post Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:26 am

thanx imagine i really appreciate it

Mess With the Best Die lIke the Rest

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