Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: EAD_Agamemnon on October 24, 2005, 10:39:35 pm
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I got the idea to try and rethink my TBL modding, to where all vessel's big weapons would be missiles. To make things look more interesting, I'm trying to make them...well....Imagine a missile whos appearance is an ENGINE GLOW or something that is perhaps even animated (Think a Photon Torpedo from Star Trek and how it looks and behaves while in flight).
I'd like to make these weapons targetable, and as a result, can be destroyed by weapons fire (vessel point defense or fighter primaries). Wouldn't be bad either if you could target fighters/bombters with these...while they still have the abiility to destroy them. Could use the flag "bomb" or "bomber" but the first one means the AI will use only vs big ships and the second one only vs bombers (I assume on this second one).
I'm not very technically inclined, but I'm a bound and determined to make this work. Since this would require a POF, that is where I find my problem.
I have ANIVIEW, MODVIEW, TRUESPACE 3.2, ANIBUILD, ANIVIEW. I do not have PHOTOSHOP or the like, as I cannot afford such a thing. I found a trial version of something similar but was so confusing I had to just plain remove it.
Any pointers would be helpful. If I can make this work, perhaps I could use my time to maybe help with some little things in other mods.
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The "Bomber" tag is for ships only :) But yes, I think you can do this...in fact, I think it's been done already (no reason not to try though). What I think you'd need to do is texture the missile with a transparant texture (just grab a rockeye and change it's texture name to a transparant texture), then just redirect your energy torpedo table entry to that model. That should do it (in theory).
But as of yet, there's no way to make it targetable other than using the "bomb" flag (which should be changed, IMO).
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I don't know how well this would work, but you can give it a try. I'm going to assume that you have the MediaVPs installed, since they're going to be important for this. You'll probably also want an image editor that can handle images properly; barring Photoshop, I recommend The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/windows) as it's free and pretty powerful. Next, you'll need to make a simple POF. I lothe Truespace 3.2, and although it'll work you can also just do it with the tools you listed, plus PCS (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=26889&package_id=53033). Now, using Modelview, open sparky_fs2.vp. Select the missile/bomb that's got about the size characteristics you want your missile to have. It's shape or appearance doesn't matter all that much, you're just looking for something that has a finite size.
And it looks like I've been pre-empted. I'm going to try and see if you can add a glowpoint inside an invisible texture and have it render, since that's probably ideal.
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I know the "bomb" flagged weapon for use against another fighter by an AI is out of the question for the moment.
First of all I need to figure out how to make a transparent texture, then to make an animated "sparkling glow" to it. (BEAMGLOW06 from INFERNO has my attention.)
I think I have most of the necessary tools, but what I'm lacking is just some critical know-how.
For starters I need something better than GRAFX. That program looks like nothing more than a revamped PAINT from the old WINDOWS 3.1 or whatever system of 15 years ago. ANIBUILDER apparently has the ability to put together what I want, but I lack an imaging tool (the most important part it would seem)
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I may be able to cook something up real fast. Hold on.
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Okay...
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Ok, I'm guessing you want something resembling this (http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/energytorp.POF). The link is a model; use PCS to change the graphic of the glowpoint. That right there should sort of work drag-and-drop if you've got mv_effects installed.
(http://www.duke.edu/~cek6/screen0217.jpg)
For anyone doing this in the future, missiles can be hit even if they use the invisible map; glowpoints will render through that map with the exception of a glowpoint fully contained within the model. Anyone with modelview should be able to see how I got around that limitation.
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Didnt notice your first post Strat...the MEDIA VPs are the the VPVIEW and all that right?
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The media VPs are the extra graphics sets that are released along with SCP versions. Check out the SCP forum for more details. VP view you probably have; it's the Descent Network Toolkit program for opening VP files (Volition archives, what the main FS2 data is stored in). Regardless, you don't need either for this. Just open PCS, go to the glow tab, and replace "red_glow" with the name of the image you want to use for the glow. You can also adjust the size there by changing the "radius" property. And whatever you do, DO NOT edit and save this model from Modelview. It throws out the GLOW chunk, which is the key to making this work.
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Hmm....I may not have all those then...I'll chekc though...
Okay...I have PCS....just not quite sure how to work it properly.
As for MV_Effects and that...I dont think mine is up to date, so 'I'll go update.
Am going to have to put this on the backburner for the the night...will wrestle with it again tomorrow. Any questions I come up with I'll put here.
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Okay now the missile glows....now (if practical) an ANI to make it (flicker like a photon torp)...
Thanks for this first bit of help....I got other questions but they can wait till tomorrow afternoon when I'm back
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WOuaw, i will try it, i'll need just to find the proton torpedo from Omni's Star Trek mods :love:
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I have the basic thruster using space bomb. Here. (http://koti.mbnet.fi/vekkup/FS2/shell.pof) Check it (with modelview) if you like.
But i really think StratComms approach to this issue is better.
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Omni does not use them, his are glow points. Mine are ST torpedo images...
(http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7326/thunderchild3jc.jpg)
I am in the process of making mini or "Micro Torpedo" versions for the fighters.. Only the Micro photons and quatums are done. I got like 12 other races to go!
(http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7051/microtorp.jpg)
l8tr!
Oh and when the starships fire too close the photons WILL detonate each other on contact :D I had two Reliants face each other and have at it and half the volley reached the other ship, the other half detonated their counterparts...
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Btw the funny i noted about the 'thruster bombs' is that they choose their thrusters appearance according to the firing vessels $Species: entry. With single table entry you get as many bombs as you have species...
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that's something i hate about the current FS2 thing, 1 thruster glow for 1 species.
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Damn, we need that "rayball" tag for weapons...
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Just came to my mind that you really should try the Vasudan 'thruster bomb' with corkscrew option. To give it a nice little spin. No radius, swarm amount to 1 but proper spin time. That might look quite good (i can not test at the moment).
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Glowpoints and thruster graphics won't spin, even if their parent model does. That wouldn't work the way you're expecting.
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Originally posted by Cobra
that's something i hate about the current FS2 thing, 1 thruster glow for 1 species.
IIRC custom thrusters are definable via the tables... right?
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I think so, but like so many features exactly how to do that has been lost with the search function. TBP staff would probably know how to do it, as it's one of their requested features I think. At any rate, you still can't define the engine glow for missiles.
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I think I solved the issue of making all SBank weapons targetable and to make enemy vessels use bombs against you...remove the "fighter" or "bomber" flag, and make it into "cruiser" or the like....just haven't figured out all the details yet...
I fiddled around with the flag change for a moment....tested it on the Myrmidon....and a friggin LEVIATHAN cruiser opend fire on me with an SGreen. Think I found answer to my torp-target issue....even tried flying around in a LEVIATHAN and ORION .... a sight to behiold....of course your weapons are ALL AI controlled....now if only you could have certain weapons (i.e. port broadside) slaved to a certain weapons bank (i.e. bank slot 1)...
Dont know if that was ever tried...but the artillery duel (even if my beam didnt fire and if i couldnt control the fire) with another LEVIATHAN while I was a LEVIATHAN...was interesting to say the least. The TBP WhiteStar will probably help with this point.
Just my 2 cents. An epiphany of a solution for the all SBank weapons being targetable and used against all idea...
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Any REASON for the seemingly unnecessary CAPITALISATION? :p
You could edit the model (POF) file for a capital ship and alter the forward turret to be a fixed firing point for a primary bank. Broadsides wouldn't be possible though, as all primary weapons are only capable of firing along the ship's relative z-axis.
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If I get the inclination I may do more testing.. If I remember correctly the ISS Wraith's point defense phasers (AA) were shooting down photons (Carl the Shivan's Borg Torpedo table was my rosetta stone, only effect images for other races and damage amount is different in the info).
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try using the particle spew for some plasma like effects.
$Pspew:
+Count: 1 (number of particles created)
+Time: 25 (time in milliseconds between particle creation)
+Vel: 0.4 (velocity of the particle as a percentage of the weapon velocity)
+Radius: 2.0 (particle size)
+Life: 0.15 (particle lifetime)
+Scale: 0.8 (angle such that theta = arccos(scale), used to determine spread of particles from centerline. lower values will result in more spread particles)
+Bitmap: (name of bitmap)
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Originally posted by PhReAk
try using the particle spew for some plasma like effects.
$Pspew:
+Count: 1 (number of particles created)
+Time: 25 (time in milliseconds between particle creation)
+Vel: 0.4 (velocity of the particle as a percentage of the weapon velocity)
+Radius: 2.0 (particle size)
+Life: 0.15 (particle lifetime)
+Scale: 0.8 (angle such that theta = arccos(scale), used to determine spread of particles from centerline. lower values will result in more spread particles)
+Bitmap: (name of bitmap)
Do you have any screen for that ? Because i can't see what you mean.
And should we place that code into weapons.tbl and where exactly ?
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In new table files advanced distruptor uses pspew. It is right after the impact explosion radius entry.
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How would I change weapon turrets to fire directly ahead. I'm tinkiering but no luck so far.
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Delete the turret entry for that turret in the POF, add a gunbank, and put a firepoint at the location of the turret. Modelview should be able to handle this task quite easily.
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Okay. Will try that now.
As soon as I can figure out how exactly...modelview and all all except vpview are still confusing to me.
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I'm doing something wrong or I'm forgetting something entirely. Not working. Everytime I think I got it right, I get this.
Error: Error parsing 'ships.tbl'
Error code = 1.
File:E:\Languages\Visual Studio Projects\Visual C++\fs2_open\code\Ship\Ship.cpp
Line: 3033
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
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It means you did something wrong in ships.tbl when setting up your firing point. Use an Ursa or something as a rough template for what order the entries are supposed to go in, as you can't just change the turret to a PBank and expect it to work.
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Ok. I took the Ursa and got the firing points for the turret to point forward. When I "Rotate Objects" the turret moves but the firing points remain fixed. So that part is dealt with I think. Attempting to figure out how to do what else is needed.
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Okay forget the ship turret issue. I got the "energy torpedo" to work using $PSpew. Been trying to get the spew timing just right so that the spew doesnt continue on into space after the weapon is detonated.