first of all, Drizzt Awsome tutorial!!!!

I managed to make my own model code it and put it ingame.

here come the problems i'm having

1. my ship can't get hit, well only at some points (i think where the weapons are)
2. my ship doesn't show up in the place where you can buy it(where u see the other ships before the buy menu) , but i can buy it and see a preview of it aswell.
3. my weapons turn strangely as in go through the wings and rotate in a small circle while still in it's turn limit.

I've heard something about .SUR files but i know nothing about them.

that's it, please help me cuz i would really like to make a mod for Freelancer.

EDIT: Heard about the bad news, hope u get well soon Drizzt.
Also found out that the .sur file is needed form my ship to get hit.
just a bit longer and everything should work fine

Edited by - Infidel1 on 11/20/2004 8:10:50 AM

Infidel1,

If the weapon model turns into the ship you will need to open the .cmp and edit the rotate values, this can be done using templates.... and can be a bit tricky, by experimenting with values you should be able to get it right, even tho the model wont turn as far it will still follow the targeting reticule.

open your file with the utf editor.. go to the HpWeapon concerned and expand the node.. you will see several things;

Axis
Max
Min
orientation
position

open "orientation"

templates:

This is a gun right side up facing forward:

1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000

This is a gun right side up facing backwards

-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000

This is a gun facing upside down and backwards

1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000

This is a gun facing upside down and forwards

-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000

Guns at 90 degree angles involve moving the values of 1 or -1 to different spots in the individual 3 number sets in the vector and you would just have to experiment with those because I don't run into those often. But it can be done.

Using the above templates does 2 things: it will orientate your weapon and will make the calculations freelancer does a lot simpler thereby freeing resources for other things, and it will place your weapon on the right "plane"

However, I had a model where outmounted guns would turn into the side of the ship, by experimentation editing the max and min values with the following values (arrived at by experimenting with decimal values) ..

Max
0.174540
0.000000

Min
-0.785400
0.000000

Thats for one side.....

The other side:

Max
0.785380
0.000000

Min
-0.174540
0.000000

Now these values work and allow the gun to turn out from the ship but not in ..well not very far in....probably about 10 degrees.. (cant be bothered to do the math) also degrees have to be converted to decimals (divide by 255)

Hope this helps..you may have to play with different values to get it right.. but.. not all values work, Freelancer simply does not recognise some of them

tho it really is a whole tutorial subject that has been done to death.. and in many instances incorrectly

Harrier


Retreat[![! ---- I'm too badly messed up now[![!

Edited by - harrier on 11/20/2004 9:14:44 PM

Hello I am creating a ship and i can not get it to export into the milkshape. Ithink it is because i don't have Quake3. do i have to have quake3 to export it correctly

Hi all,

First, nice job Drizzit.

Second, in Shiparch.ini, ids_info2 = 66608 is the same id for all ships. Do not need to change it.

Second how to change start weapons and shield?

ok you are all great for the time u put in here the tutorials are wonderful

here's my issue (u had to know there would be one)

i created some ships using the tutorial. i did NOT put hardpoints in using milkshape i exported them without hardpoints and used hardCMP to put the hp's in place and that all worked great. ships fly well mount all the weapons they are supposed to etc...heres the issue....

i cannot take damage when shot by another players energy weapons. mines missles etc damage my new ships...asteroids certainly do..but no energy weapons....any ideas...anyone? HELLLP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
damo


edit: went and checked it on my test server..seems my beams go directly through the ships...i can shoot the hardpoints and i still take explosion/impact damage..but no beam weapons this has put my mod project on perm. halt til someone can help me...plz

edit: yeah never mind...it was cuz i didnt put any sur files in wiht my ships..the flmodeltool is a godsend for that. thanks guys

Edited by - ={MG}=Damocles on 12/25/2004 11:14:40 PM

Edited by - ={MG}=Damocles on 12/26/2004 8:58:42 PM

First off, this is a very useful tutorial, thanks very much for writing it. I have written many tutorials myself on mapping for Unreal Tournament and know how time-consuming they are to write. So thanks for your time and effort. However, being a believer in constructive criticism, I do not mean to be offensive in any way, it's a great tutorial, but I believe it could have been written slightly better. I have used 3ds max (only a little) before so have had no problems getting to grips with GMax. However I can imagine getting lost if I hadn't had any experience before. For instance when I got into Milkshape I found it a right bugger to use because I hadn't used it before and there was little explanation how to do basic things such as move around in the viewports. If you'd like it, I'll help you improve the tutorial, adding things discovered by a newbie to Freelancer editing...

And now my question...hardpoint suggests it's a point...certainly this has been true for other games i have edited. While I realise here it's a triangular plane, what difference does the size of the plane you duplicate and set as a hardpoint make? For instance, take the docking lights...they're gonna appear from a point, right? Is that in the middle of the plane you've created, which is why you subdivide a plane? Thanks for your response....Lofty.

AcePilot, you don't need quake 3, you need a .md3 exporter plugin for GMax to export to milkshape. It does have something to do with quake 3, but you just need a plugin. When you install the plugin you'll need to restart gmax for it to work. Do a google search and you'll get one.

Lofty,

Drizzt Has not been here in a while... but has made the file available for editing, tho I dont know where the link is.. you would have to look. it would be good to update it with some of the new info now available to us.. but that would be a fairly major work.. so if you are keen.. go ahead..

On hardpoints.. they are of course a point but we use a triangle to 'represent' it, the centre of the triangle (subdivide), will be the centre of the hardpoint in milkshape, and you need at least one plane of three vertexs (triangle) so Milkshape will 'recognise' them and allow it as a group.. as it wont recognise single vertex's....So long as they are not textured they would be invisible in game..but can be as tiny as you wish (harder to see of course).... I would guess that utilities like utf and Hardcmp, would simply use a point

Harrier..

Edited by - harrier on 1/18/2005 10:53:11 PM

Right, I think I get ya...the centre of the triangle is the point used in-game. Going back to the docking lights example, you subdivide a traingle to get the hardpoint closer to the edge of the wings? Thanks for your help.

Lofty.

You dont need to subdivide the hardpoint triangle, I was just using that as an example.. the odd thing about lights is that I have found you have to stand them off slightly from the surface, plus certain postions are better visually than others, it's a case of trying and adjusting until you are satisfied with the positions...

Harrier

I based my ship on tortual,(just to help make 1) and now i got as far as cmp,
(went crazy with hard points 16 guns, 4 shield, 4 engine, 2 afterburner, but sucky design.) and now the cmp-exporter link doesnt work i need help please

Freelancer: M-B,

Hmm... too many hardpoints I think.. 16 guns and 4 shields plus...is just a tad overkill.. afterburner hardpoints? so far as I know no such thing exists, thruster hardpoints yes but afterburner..? no......
I suggest you delete most of the excess hardpoints - reduce it to 8 guns max etc... - and then try to export the ship.. you may be more successful..

Harrier

I'll try 16 gun points first ya i konw what u mean thrusters...
and afterburners same think in game controls it says afterburner.
And um ive put the cmp exporter in milkshape... originally i put it in gmax.
So,.... I've put it in ms3d. But nothing.... So I'll try only 8 max guns.
Thanks for the tip

YES BABY 8 IS THE MAGIC NUMBER