the FreeWorlds RPG forum have change of address

i don't think some knowledge is lost ...

Sorry, but you're wrong. The forum's still there, but the topic's gone.

This is the link I placed in my favorites a while back: click.

Can we have a tool of some kind to be able to make destructible components? I know XTS released a ship recently that had destructible components...

i could write a tutorial for it, i've built four ships with destructible parts - all the tools are there, but for your avg' modder putting it all together is a bit out of their scope

tools:
latest CMP exporter
3DB exporter
SUR exporter
SUR splicer
UTF editor
notepad (for adding collisiongroups and simples to shiparch)

yes, Cold_Void ..

it coud be nice to centralise all last infos into one unique post ..

Destructable parts have been around for nearly 3 years - I cannot remember who completed it first, whether it was Wanderer or Redeye i don't know. It's in the downloads somewhere, and there is a tut on it i believe - although I could be wrong.

Destructables are easy with a resized SUR but the model has to have been exported as multiple groups, unfortunately the vast majority of them have been exported as 1 group, making them useless for destructables. The Battleaxe and the Thunderbird are 2 ships that have destructables that work with a resized SUR.

@ Chips, it's not really about destructables for me, it's about getting a SUR that fits my ships perfectly and works like a vanilla SUR.

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but for your avg' modder putting it all together is a bit out of their scope

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You ain't kidding Cold_Void, it doesn't matter which method you use there is a hell of a lot of work involved.

From what CV has been saying in other threads the "SUR splicer" can only (atm) do weapon damage detection for components, this means parts of your model can pass harmlessly through other models without taking damage.

This is because of the strange way SURs are built in FL, the "ROOT" is the only part that uses 1 mesh for both weapon & collision damage, the shield bubble, hardpoints and components all use 2 meshes, 1 weapon & 1 collision. However some components have a third mesh depending on wether they have any equipment Hp's attached or not, this is a damage spreader, equipment and components inside this mesh split any damage thats taken.

ATM only the SUR Exporter comes close to giving us this kind of SUR file, but it's not perfect as theres one or two little things that need worked on. Now that I have a pretty good understanding on how to build a model purely for the SUR I've started to get results that I'm more than happy to use in game.

**shuffles of with a new headache**

ah the root collision is fine, but parts don't collide with any reliability - this can be worked around by designing your ship with damage-panels, wherein the panel is replaced to add gaping holes - that way the whole ship can have physical coverage as root, and part-surs can stick out and take realistic damage. the challenge there is that a sur complex enough to cover your average ship will not give good results due to the sur format and exporter limitations.

IMO, having played with several ships i've converted from single-meshes i don't think the wings or fins etc failing to collide is much of a problem - as long as the root is big enough, you won't be able to fly anywhere a ship with a vanilla sur couldn't accept maybe down a really small tunnel (see the jumphole surs)

i've got an advanced tutorial for destructible->sur'ed->wireframed ships drafted right now, it should be good for intermediate-advanced modders and workable for beginners but i want to gather some more resources for it like screenshots, and an example ship, and given the number of utilities maybe a software package lol (seven tools in all to make a 'pure' freelancer ship; cmp, mat, sur exporters, utfedit, sursplice, makewire and if you count them, notepad and command prompt lol)

Edited by - Cold_Void on 9/23/2006 5:45:14 PM