When i try and do the uvw mapping thing and "shrink wrap" thingy, i go to modifiers-->uv coordinates--> but then uvw map is greyed out? i have no idea what to do.. is this a required step?

hi, i have some problem in texturing the ship i tried to put as hul some texture i found using the milkshape material, but it put the texture on my ship not as many of that one near other or repeating it but streching the texture, so the effect is very ugly, no particulars etc how i can do?
thx stefano

hi guys

stefano74

that was actually one of the biggest problems i had whenever i tried to text my ships... mainly because thats exactly what the program thinks its supposed to do.

I have long been away from the modding scheme (requested that harrier take over for me and he has done such an excellent job!... yes i've been watching.)

the only way i was ever able to get texturing to work exactly the way i wanted it to was to simplify the texture and stretch the mesh manually using "window management" if i'm even remembering the menus right... havent actually used the program in a long time. after i had satisfactorily stretched the mesh to fit the texture, it usually turned out.

another thing... there are some really great texturing tutorials out there... my tutorial was supposed to be a kick in the rear to get you people moving the the right direction not the definitive bible of freelancer modeling.

once again harrier, thanks a million for taking over for me. If we ever see another great space flight simulator RPG like freelancer that we can mod as openly i may dive in headfirst with another tutorial.

further note. I have noticed that alot of the links i used have broken. I apologize for this inconvienience and further appologize that i dont have the time to fix them. I have found that just a little searching can usually bring impressive results.

6000+ downloads

I've been playing freelancer for quite awile but this is my first mod attempt. I went through the tutorial and everything seem ed to fine but in freelancer there are major problems. First, my ship is invisible in the dealership. Second, as soon as I complete the purchase freelancer immediately crashes to the desktop. No errors or warnings, just boom and its gone.

Any ideas of common mistakes that could cause this?

Sorry for the verry nooby question, but:


Is there any ohter program than milkshape i can use? Something free and non-trial?


The reason i ask is that i just started with MOD-ing. In fact, I did yesterday.....


Is that other program U use in the TUT capable of doing the same work, or is there no options??!!

As I understand it, milkshape is required becuase it is the only program that can export to the freelancer cmp format. So until someone develops a plugin for one of the other editors we're stuck with milkshape.

Yes First of all thank u for the tutorial but i have a problem and i've checked all the ini files my .mat file my .cmp file but anyway the problem is my ship isn't buyable at the destination i chose or anywhere else there's not even a frickin icon Pleaz Help....

Doulble check that you have correctlty changed the codes that make a ship buyable at a base. Also make sure that the base doesn't already sell 3 ships.

just a couple of questions...1st, re: the hardpoint "HpMount" is this an actual "face" that is located X distance below the ship? and if so, how can it be set to not show up in the flight scenes? 2nd.. is there a limit on the # of polys a model can have before it adversly effects game play?

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just a couple of questions...1st, re: the hardpoint "HpMount" is this an actual "face" that is located X distance below the ship? and if so, how can it be set to not show up in the flight scenes?

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When modelling, yes it is a face that is generally center of ship a tad bit lower than the lowest ship extremity. The game does not render it as a viewable poly since it is marked as HPMount.

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2nd.. is there a limit on the # of polys a model can have before it adversly effects game play?

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I've seen some pretty poly intensive models flying around. Best bet is to keep fighters under 5000 polys, and anything gun boat size up to battleship no more than 10,000 polys. The game will support higher poly counts, but then lag issues start happening.

Also, remember, if you can texture it on rather than modelling it, then please do. I've seen great models weigh in at 1000 polys and terrible models weigh in at 15,000 polys.

Thank you so much xXx for the info, it helped. however...you mentioned something about "texturing it on rather than modelling it"" to keep the poly count down....if you're saying that I don't need all these surfaces to put a texture on..I think I'm gonna cry..LOL. Also, a problem arose with MShape. I modeled this ship in Rhino3d, saved as .3ds, and imported that into MShape, goes in perfectly, saves to a MShape file..no prob...but when I re-open the saved file, it tells me I have "invalid triangles/groups. Do you want to remove them?". When I click Yes, some faces are removed and I can't seem to get them back. If I say "No" it loads and all the faces seem to be intact. Any suggestions? or might this just be an annoyance to be ignored?

Well, I say texture rather than model if you can cause I don't break my ship up into a million pieces for texturing. I UV Map the entire ship on a single map, then texture the map, that way I can have one 2048x2048 texture rather than 1,000 20x20 textures. Both ways work though.

Great Tutorial, finaly i can add my once usless creations and put them to good use

i found out some issues tho with the shiparch.ini file in your tutorial heres my shiparch entry:
<pre><font size=1 face=Courier>

{Ship} <<< i've done this for display purposes only
ids_name = 237033
ids_info = 66567
ids_info1 = 66568
ids_info2 = 66608
ids_info3 = 66569
ship_class = 1
nickname = My_Ship
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_shiparch_Libhf
mission_property = can_use_berths
LODranges = 0, 1300, 2000
type = FIGHTER
DA_archetype = ships\MyFighter\HumanFighter.cmp
material_library = ships\MyFighter\HumanFighter.mat
material_library = fx\envmapbasic.mat
envmap_material = envmapbasic
cockpit = cockpits\liberty\l_elite.ini
pilot_mesh = generic_pilot
nanobot_limit = 64
shield_battery_limit = 64
mass = 150.000000
hold_size = 45
linear_drag = 1.000000
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship01, 0.000000, 400
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship02, 0.000000, 200
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship03, 0.000000, 133
max_bank_angle = 30
camera_offset = 8, 25
camera_angular_acceleration = 0.050000
camera_horizontal_turn_angle = 17
camera_vertical_turn_up_angle = 5
camera_vertical_turn_down_angle = 25
camera_turn_look_ahead_slerp_amount = 1.000000
hit_pts = 1600
explosion_arch = explosion_li_elite
surface_hit_effects = 0, small_hull_hit_light01, small_hull_hit_light02, small_hull_hit_light03
surface_hit_effects = 150, small_hull_hit_medium01, small_hull_hit_medium02, small_hull_hit_medium03
surface_hit_effects = 300, small_hull_hit_heavy01, small_hull_hit_heavy02, small_hull_hit_heavy03
steering_torque = 50000.000000, 50000.000000, 230000.000000
angular_drag = 40000.000000, 40000.000000, 141000.000000
rotation_inertia = 8400.000000, 8400.000000, 8400.000000
nudge_force = 30000.000000
strafe_force = 20000
strafe_power_usage = 2
;bay_door_anim = Sc_open baydoor <<<
;bay_doors_open_snd = cargo_doors_open <<<
;bay_doors_close_snd = cargo_doors_close <<<
;HP_bay_surface = HpBayDoor01 <<<
;HP_bay_external = HpBayDoor02 <<<
HP_tractor_source = HpTractor_Source
num_exhaust_nozzles = 3
shield_link = l_elite_shield01, HpMount, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_gun_special_4, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02
hp_type = hp_gun_special_3, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04
hp_type = hp_gun_special_2, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04
hp_type = hp_gun_special_1, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_6, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_5, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_4, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_3, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_2, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_1, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_thruster, HpThruster01
hp_type = hp_mine_dropper, HpMine01
hp_type = hp_countermeasure_dropper, HpCM01
hp_type = hp_turret_special_4, HpTurret02
hp_type = hp_turret_special_3, HpTurret02
hp_type = hp_turret_special_2, HpTurret02
hp_type = hp_turret_special_1, HpTurret02
hp_type = hp_turret_special_4, HpTurret01
hp_type = hp_turret_special_3, HpTurret01
hp_type = hp_turret_special_2, HpTurret01
hp_type = hp_turret_special_1, HpTurret01
hp_type = hp_torpedo_special_1, HpTorpedo01
hp_type = hp_torpedo_special_2, HpTorpedo01
</font></pre>

the entry(s) for the cargo doors are not listed in the tutorial and when i first tried out my model it loaded ok untill i go to buy the ship and ctd (crash to desktop).

after that i went hunting for the error and found it was the bay doors entry in the shiparch.ini file that was creating the error, (my model has not got bay doors yet!!). apart from that its working fine

anyways does anyone know how to do collisions also do transparent textures and import them into freelancer?