Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Bobboau on October 11, 2002, 11:47:42 pm
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we need a pof editor of some sort that we could use to make new pof data chuncks, I would like something that reads a text file and spits out a pof at the least, I would like something integrated into FRED at best, I tried to make a pof write function but I can't even figure out how to set up a new project properly to setup a basic read, stuf to structure, write from structure, program. and all things aside this sort of thing is sort of out of my depth
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What we really need is good 3d studio 4 exporter.
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3ds4? no thanx, planar mapping only doesn't fit me :P
a max converter would be great ( the format from the first 3dsmax, so anybody can use it ). Thinkings about it, a gmax converter would be the best.
Anyway, back on topic, that pof editor in fred would be interesting only to make a special variant of a ship within a single mission, saving room in the tbl... Or maybe I didn't understand what you meant.
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Actually we should note that down as something to add in to the mission format - the ability to store custom entries for certain ships. It would help a lot of people quite a bit I'm sure, and we could probably do it so it didn't interfere with the format otherwise.
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We could probably do something with POFView that came with fs2_public
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Well I'm imagining we extend Fred so for each ship there's a dialog that let's you adjust hitpoints, shield hit points etc. - just a bit more versatility you know?
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Originally posted by ##UnknownPlayer##
Well I'm imagining we extend Fred so for each ship there's a dialog that let's you adjust hitpoints, shield hit points etc. - just a bit more versatility you know?
That would require some editing of the source code for the exe as well. (At the least you'd need changes in the mission loader, not sure if all that code is shared between FRED2 and FS2.)
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Originally posted by PhReAk
We could probably do something with POFView that came with fs2_public
I have yet to see what POFView looks like or does. If it can show things like ModelView32 can (but presumably more accurately) then it might be interesting to see if someone could integrate code from it into PCS. And as I've mentioned before it would be nice to have just a plain text box you could type stuff into for making arbitrary chunks with data. I'm not sure how PCS handles the chunks it does do though so I know that would be beyond me. (Even if I could compile it, which I don't think I can.)
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I'd like to upgrade it to DX8 but Im not sure its even in cvs.
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POFView is only in the CVS copy of the initial release. (freespace2_public) Nobody's worked on it and, AFAIK, nobody's bothered to compile it. I would take a look at it but I don't have VC6 and my VC4 wouldn't compile it. (Not that I'd expected it to, but I had to try. Way back when it first came out.)
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I've spent a fair bit of time in there already, it mainly uses the fs2 engine
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Originally posted by RandomTiger
I've spent a fair bit of time in there already, it mainly uses the fs2 engine
Then it sounds like you may be able to integrate it with the fs2_open code, assuming the function calls it uses have remained the same. (even if the code they do/call is different.) Might need to do some makefile/project file editing to add in include files that didn't exist in the original version. Under Windows the case of the filenames shouldn't be a problem. (Unlike Linux/Cygwin.) The big thing would be to make sure any function calls POFView uses that did change (function name, return type, or arguments) is updated in the POFView source. Otherwise, it sounds like if FS2 uses DirectX 8 then POFView could use DX8. I'd like to know if POFView is as "picky" about geometry as FS2 is, and it sounds like it is if it uses the same graphics engine. That could be a quicker way of testing models then putting them in game. I really need to get VC6. :)
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Originally posted by EdrickV
Then it sounds like you may be able to integrate it with the fs2_open code, assuming the function calls it uses have remained the same. (even if the code they do/call is different.) Might need to do some makefile/project file editing to add in include files that didn't exist in the original version. Under Windows the case of the filenames shouldn't be a problem. (Unlike Linux/Cygwin.) The big thing would be to make sure any function calls POFView uses that did change (function name, return type, or arguments) is updated in the POFView source. Otherwise, it sounds like if FS2 uses DirectX 8 then POFView could use DX8. I'd like to know if POFView is as "picky" about geometry as FS2 is, and it sounds like it is if it uses the same graphics engine. That could be a quicker way of testing models then putting them in game. I really need to get VC6. :)
Being able to see clipping problems in the viewer would be the dogs b******s
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Um.. unless Im mistake not enough has changed for it not to work with fs2_open. Would need a bit of time to work with my DX8 upgrade but the beginnings are there because that were I did my test research for the full upgrade.
aldo_14, I would imagine problems would be more likely to show up in pofview if it used the same gfx system as FS2.exe.
It currently uses software, I would change it to use DX8.
Only problem is it might not work for voodoo owners.
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Originally posted by RandomTiger
It currently uses software, I would change it to use DX8.
Only problem is it might not work for voodoo owners.
If you could get it to use DX8 or Glide (set in an options dialog or command line argument) or just DX8 and Software, that might work. The best of both worlds would be to be able to chose which graphics mode of the three to use. (DX8, Glide, Software)
I assume the software mode is what FRED2 uses? Even that could be better then ModelView32, especially if it can show things like subsystems, paths, etc. (ModelView32 can't do or show paths which is annoying 'cause doing them WYSIWYG would be much easier.)
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yep, it displays the models exactly as fred does, which means it's probably has the same tolerance as fred.
i fairly recently got VC6, as i plan on doing programming in a few years. :)
if anyone wants a look at pof view, get it here: http://www.geocities.com/vasudanad/Pofview.zip
no guarentees it'l work or anything, it was my first go at VC6. hope it's useful somehow. it can basicly display everything fred can and a few more things like the boundbox etc. it has a heirarchy viewer but it can't edit ships in any way. :( it also can't open vp's and is a bit unstable, but it can open more than one ship at a time .
oh, and the rotate/move ships with the same controls as fred.
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Originally posted by EdrickV
If you could get it to use DX8 or Glide (set in an options dialog or command line argument) or just DX8 and Software, that might work. The best of both worlds would be to be able to chose which graphics mode of the three to use. (DX8, Glide, Software)
Does glide run in a window?
Even if it did I wouldnt be able to develope it cos I have a GF4.
Additionally glide makes me sick.
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make sure you have a pcx named helvig.pcx in the same directory as the exe or it'll run like **** (becase it keeps trying to load it every frame
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Originally posted by Vasudan Admiral
yep, it displays the models exactly as fred does, which means it's probably has the same tolerance as fred.
i fairly recently got VC6, as i plan on doing programming in a few years. :)
if anyone wants a look at pof view, get it here: http://www.geocities.com/vasudanad/Pofview.zip
no guarentees it'l work or anything, it was my first go at VC6. hope it's useful somehow. it can basicly display everything fred can and a few more things like the boundbox etc. it has a heirarchy viewer but it can't edit ships in any way. :( it also can't open vp's and is a bit unstable, but it can open more than one ship at a time .
oh, and the rotate/move ships with the same controls as fred.
:yes: :yes: Good job.
I opened it up and gave it a try and I must say I'm a bit impressed with the visuals... I wonder why :v: never compiled and released it.
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POFView was obviously intended for in house use, not for public distribution. :) They didn't release Cfilearchiver, Cryptstring, Fonttool, HelpEd, Nebedit, or Scramble either. :) (I'm not even sure what HelpEd was used for, if it was ever even used. The one I have that came in the Freespace2_public zip looks like some sort of very simple text editor for table files, but it won't actually open any files. Maybe a reboot will change that.)
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Then again, maybe it won't. Apparently HelpEd was never used, it doesn't seem to have much of anything besides MFC generated code and has no code to actually handle the opening of files.
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http://www.planethardwar.com/~hwcomic/example.html
This is what I've submitted before but no one listened to me.
Anyway this would greatly expand the ship selection per level/mission. And (in theory) bring down loading times for levels that don't have many ships/weapons in it.
Note this is a visual aid for those who can't/won't grasp what I said before.
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Originally posted by HotSnoJ
http://www.planethardwar.com/~hwcomic/example.html
This is what I've submitted before but no one listened to me.
Anyway this would greatly expand the ship selection per level/mission. And (in theory) bring down loading times for levels that don't have many ships/weapons in it.
Note this is a visual aid for those who can't/won't grasp what I said before.
That's not a POF editor. A POF editor would be like PCS or ModelView32. (Which is what this thread is about.) It's also nothing like what I think HelpEd would have been if you were referring to that. Your thing seems more like a MOD control panel kinda thing and if you're thinking of that on a per-mission basis, that wouldn't really work right as FS2 reads a lot of the tables (In particular the ships.tbl) when it starts up, not when the mission loads. Having FS2 reload things like the ship/weapon tables after it's already running would slow it down. (Though I can imagine that eventually being done.) There is work on actual MOD support though via redirecting it to load files from a different folder via a command line argument.