Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => FreeSpace Conversion => Topic started by: Galemp on August 26, 2002, 03:07:02 pm

Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Galemp on August 26, 2002, 03:07:02 pm
Many times people have asked me how I managed to convert the original Freespace missions into Freespace 2; was it a simple copy and paste, or did you have to replicate everything? Well, it's a little complicated. So, for your use in converting your old Freespace 1 missions and campaigns for re-release, I have here instructions on how I converted the FS1 campaign missions into FS2.

Originally, I had FRED and FRED2 open simultaneously and copied all the object, message, and events information by hand. :eek2: It was awful, and it took a month to copy five missions.
THEN I opened up the FSM and FS2 missions in WordPad and found they're almost exactly the same. This is the proceedure for converting most FS1 missions:
-Open the .FSM mission and save it as .FS2. (The first step.)
-Do a find-and-replace for PV and replace it with GV. This makes all the Vasudan ships recognised by FS2--PVC Aten is replaced with GVC Aten etc.
-Find and replace GVF Anubis, GVB Amun, GVFr Ma'at and GVFr Bast with their PV* equivalents. These ships retained their PV designations in Freespace 2.
-Find and replace Prometheus with Prometheus S. I didn't include the standard Prom with the port, just used the Prom S.
-Replace capital ship weapons with their definitions in the FS1 ships.tbl. That replaces the beams and flak on the ships with FS1 laser turrets.
Save and open it up in FRED2. It should work, but check up on any error messages you may get. Most common ones are medal grants and if the Galatea or Bastion are included. Once it checks out OK, try it in FS2. If that runs, you're in good shape--save a backup. For the finishing touches, give the Vasudan ships AltNames (give all the GVF Thoths PVF Thoth designations,)
make sure all fighters have the right FS1 weapons, and give all large Vasudan craft Vasudan turrets instead of Terran turrets.  Add backgrounds and music, fix icons, and edit any briefing text that doesn't fit or has quotation marks. Run through the mission
a few times and make sure everything fits. Save, test, etc. throughout.
     If the first few steps don't work... er, add all the objects manually, anywhere. You can copy and paste ship position and orientation, briefing information, and events and messages from the FSM piece by piece until you run into a problem. Then you can add that much by hand.

Hope this helps the folks who made their wonderful FS1 campaigns and anyone else who wants to port their missions!
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on August 26, 2002, 03:28:52 pm
that's what i would have thought would be the best way...


now you give away all the secrets ;)
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Alikchi on August 27, 2002, 07:21:42 am
Yes, copying all the events wasn't fun :blah:

Also note that due to a small problem with the Port tables (that can't be fixed), missions will sometimes start with really high entry times (the team loadout bug thingy whatever yeah).

You can edit that in WOrd. Just save it there.
Title: Re: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: StarGunner on October 03, 2002, 03:46:33 pm
Quote
Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
-Open the .FSM mission and save it as .FS2. (The first step.)
 


Huh? how do you open them up you "CAN'T IN FRED" all I get is an unable to open/ upload file Error. What do you mean and what program did you use to open them up in?:confused:
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: WMCoolmon on October 03, 2002, 04:53:37 pm
You can use Notepad/Wordpad. for that step. :yes:
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Solatar on October 03, 2002, 05:15:47 pm
You are a god GE!!!! I've always wanted to play some Silent threat missions with the port. Now I can have some fun!!!
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Galemp on October 03, 2002, 05:53:13 pm
Make sure you share! :D
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Solatar on October 03, 2002, 06:09:21 pm
I will. Don't worry. In fact, just for you, I'll do it twice. Once for me (I don't need to change it a bit. I already have PV vasudan ships, and the Prometheus ) and once for you. I'm doing The Sands of Normandy right now. One of my all time favorite missions.
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on October 07, 2002, 12:16:25 pm
Sands of Normandy, yeah i remember that from FS1 multiplayer

if anyone's done any Silent Threat missions and would like to donate them to the FSPORT, let me or galactic emperor know
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on October 28, 2002, 10:15:03 pm
i've just thought of the perfect idea... i'm going to convert this to a tutorial on my website
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on October 29, 2002, 10:45:33 am
yes, but you never do, soi have to do it myself
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Knight Templar on October 29, 2002, 08:19:32 pm
hmm my post seems to have been deleted.. grr.


anyways.. i could write it for you if you like Stealth. this weekend
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on October 29, 2002, 08:42:06 pm
yeah, i think one of the admins did it, because when i tried to edit your post i screwed it up (or it screwed itself up), and one of the admins just deleted the post using some mySQL command or something... that's what i would've done too!

This thread is not for SPAM though ;)
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Knight Templar on October 29, 2002, 09:57:55 pm
:wtf: riight....


anyways, do you want me to right it or not?
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Galemp on October 29, 2002, 10:11:01 pm
If you could. :nod: It will probably take a week or two of straight work, though; you can convert two or three missions in a weekend, but not the whole thing. Make sure you check the For Developers thread in this forum for the half-finished missions.
Title: The Secret of Converting FSMs!
Post by: Stealth on October 30, 2002, 10:47:43 am
i don't see a "For Developers" thread...