Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: BloodFleet on August 09, 2010, 05:21:04 pm

Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 09, 2010, 05:21:04 pm
hey you mind telling me how to put hw1/hw2 ship in fs2? I've tried to no avail (I tried to get the fighters in, such as the Taiidan interceptor, would really like to fly those :P)
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Getter Robo G on August 11, 2010, 03:58:02 pm
hey you mind telling me how to put hw1/hw2 ship in fs2? I've tried to no avail (I tried to get the fighters in, such as the Taiidan interceptor, would really like to fly those :P)


How did you "try"?


Step 1: Convert from .hod (HW2) buried in the complied BIG files to .cob (for conversion into fs2 pof).

Step 2: You might need to recheck model for correctness and no "holes" or bad geometry...

Step 3: Switch out generic fighter table used (ie Uly) for one more customized for your fighter or whatever...

Step 4: For Lulz only , cause as copyrighted material you CANNOT profit!!!


(No Porfit$ for you!)

:)
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 11, 2010, 04:00:23 pm
directly from .hod to .cob? I think I may need more specifics than that.
I tried by opening the .hod and exporting the .obj from geometry.
for hw1/hwc ships I could use 3d exploration to convert them to .cob from .peo but something is still wrong, I try to import it into POFCS2 and nothing happens

and lol of course no profit I dont want $$$ for this I just want to fly the HW ships (I have made similar weapons already)
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 11, 2010, 05:18:16 pm
I actually had to use several programs and found out how to do it almost by accident when looking at papercraft models. I have no clue how to do it for HW2 models, but I must say, I never really liked the look of HW2 ship design. I think the designs and story went from something unique to "Look! We're driving huge ships based off real battleships...but IIIIIN SPAAAAAAACE!!!" And the story, my god, it was beyond horrible.

Anyway, you take the BigViewer and open the .big file for either homeworld or cata. Each model has 4 LODs that you can use for models but the counts on even the largest ships are only 500 polys so I don't see the need for anything other than LOD0.

You use 3D Exploration to convert the model and the textures to use in MAX, then tweak it accordingly for the DAE converter.

The problem arises when you try to convert it. Each ship has about 5-15 textures that are stored with the model, but the names are very similar, so you have to modify the textures list in the converter and rename specific textures. When I imported the frigate, half the textures were from the corvette.  :lol:

On the plus side, it should be easy to make hi-res maps since the texture automatically seems to shrink or grow depending on the size. How to edit the mesh to higher polys though, i have no idea.
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 11, 2010, 06:07:19 pm
ah well then im missing MAX and this DAE converter...
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Aardwolf on August 11, 2010, 08:59:23 pm
...or you could use Blender, which is free and legal.
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 11, 2010, 10:23:49 pm
if Blender can do the same thing then ok
Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Getter Robo G on August 12, 2010, 12:41:26 pm
I had no idea your capabilities or level of skill so I was deliberately vague.

Plus hw2 conversion is slightly different.

Geo/PEo only works with HW1 meshes.

I make them into obj's then use 3dexploration to turn them into Cobs.

Like so (from HW2Gundam mod).

pic too big, so posted link instead
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/Char1.jpg

I may be a bit rusty cause it;s been over a year since I did a HW conversion as i had been struggling with sketchup. I finally got some working.

Title: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 12, 2010, 06:10:16 pm
well to be more specific of what I'd like to get into FS2...

I just want to get ships from HW1 in (so .peo/.geo btw is one of those better to use than the other?) some are more than 1 part as long as I export the whole thing that won't matter? Though ships with turrets, the turrets need to be seperate objects ya? I am quite good at modding HW2 and also have all the HW1 ships in HW2 .hod format.

ok I can do what you said you do and the model is still textured and all (or not, if I extract .obj from .hod) but nothing happens when I try to import the .cob into POFCS2
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 13, 2010, 11:53:27 am
I have no idea how to do it in blender, but 3d Exploration has about two dozen export options for different formats. I export the peo geometry (.geo was added in Cataclysm, so there's no difference) to a format MAX can read then set everything up in MAX to use the Collada DAE format exporter. I'm having a hell of a time on turrets and physical subsystems though. Right now I'm trying to import the Taiidan destroyer.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 13, 2010, 05:03:39 pm
ill have to use blender as 3ds max trial ran out...which btw can use .3ds and .dae

so if anyone knows what I should do with that...
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Getter Robo G on August 14, 2010, 06:20:24 pm
Argh! I remember doing just some (not all) of my hw2 conversions in pcs2, most of them I did in pcs1

Can someone link him the BEST (not oldest/newest) version of pcs2?

 they key point that you're .cobs aren't showing is a sign there's a problem...

Or

Are you sure you're able to see textures? Don't forget you got to change the bmps into other formats like pcx or the recommended (DDS?)...

I remember using an old pcs2 build taht wouldn't accept .cobs but would open existing already made .pofs...

Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 14, 2010, 07:55:56 pm
ya I may need that then, the one I have is probly old or something.

nothing happens at all, no model, no textures, nothing.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Getter Robo G on August 17, 2010, 11:13:30 am
try this: http://www.4shared.com/file/rbRHEuCd/pcs2-rc2a.html

And because you should have them, these as well otherwise they get lost in the mists of time...

Enhanced MV: http://www.4shared.com/file/1oRmKe3e/ModelView_11A101.html

PCS1: http://www.4shared.com/file/0l8bXyei/POF-CS-1_3_42.html

Good luck to you.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 17, 2010, 03:51:35 pm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;7

well thank you a lot I finally got it  :yes:

last issue is getting it facing the right way I think
pic http://img829.imageshack.us/f/ascreenshottousetoshow2.jpg/
didnt move the camera thats how it looks when i open the .pof..setting it to view from front has it view the top of the ship so I assume its not rotated right

i get how to add points like guns and stuff btw

lol it will load though, of course the model is huge
http://img25.imageshack.us/f/ascreenshottousetoshow3.jpg/
wow way too damn big! bah

ok I saw that you can transform when exporting the .peo to .cob unless someone knows what I should transform (scale and rotation values) I'll just keep trying

nvm ive got it facing the right way now...still re-sizing

i think i finally got this down now lol
http://img826.imageshack.us/f/ascreenshottousetoshow3.jpg/
still a little too big maybe?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on August 17, 2010, 06:11:08 pm
It looks about the right size. I always got the feeling that HW fighters were pretty big, even compensating for the necessity of having big-looking ones that don't get lost against the mothership.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 17, 2010, 07:28:46 pm
Well I've pretty much got this as a done deal now.

To compensate for no team color and stuff (all dull grey ships are boring to look at lol) I am going to make multiple .pof for each ship
Imperial/Loyalist Interceptor http://img19.imageshack.us/f/fstint1.jpg/
Republican Interceptor http://img191.imageshack.us/f/fstint2.jpg/
I sized it down a little bit from that last FRED screen, it is slightly bigger than a Perseus

I assume for ships with turrets it will be more difficult ya?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: The E on August 17, 2010, 07:40:08 pm
Multiple pofs per ship are not the best solution. Best to just supply various alternate textures that mission designers can then use in missions via texture replacement.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 17, 2010, 07:43:21 pm
being able to just place them already in a certain way (or in this case certain color scheme) wouldn't be easier?

huh, well to me it seemed that way...seeing as they could have different ship names (ya I know you can do that in FRED but why not just have it so its already done?)

btw it's not like they are HTL'd or anything, each one for the Tai interceptor here is only 71 kb (it is an ancient 1999 model after all)...that is if space used is why it might be a problem
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: The E on August 17, 2010, 07:53:44 pm
It's just a basic piece of conservatism on my part. If you have various retextured versions of the same ship, each of those needs its own ships.tbl entry, meaning that your ships.tbl will get unnecessarily bloated with duplicate entries. Not to mention that each of them takes up one ship slot in ships.tbl, reducing the total number available.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 17, 2010, 07:55:20 pm
You shouldn't even need alternate pofs even if you do have separate ships.tbl entries -- isn't there a tbl-based texture replacement in 3.6.12?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 17, 2010, 08:13:25 pm
if there is I am not aware of it...
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 17, 2010, 08:16:20 pm
I recall some talk of it over ST:R, but that's about it.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 17, 2010, 08:59:41 pm
have a youtube vid up now of my success of today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-_5bB02X8Y
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 17, 2010, 10:35:46 pm
Nice work!

Want to do a strafing run on the Qwaar Jet I just imported?  :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 17, 2010, 10:48:19 pm
Oh awesome! :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 18, 2010, 12:03:47 am
well yeah if I can have ships that are already in so as I don't have to do it (no need for it to be done twice lol)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 18, 2010, 12:06:59 am
Got AIM or MSN?

And I take it you're running into using all dozen textures each fighter comes with? :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 18, 2010, 12:12:49 am
no I use xfire for messaging, playing games with ppl, etc

yeah but 3d exp., when I export .peo to .cob, keeps it the same and PCS1 (unlike PCS2 for whatever reason) will import the .cob with all needed textures in order, as long as I have them all as .dds they appear when I open the .pof in PCS2. From there on its adding weapon points and engine points, etc.

Some hw1 ships were missing textures in their folder (like tai interceptor was missing engine_back) so I had to assign it in 3D and then save the .cob again so all the textures were there

oh and if anyone wants to use it, here http://www.filefront.com/17212789/taiidan-interceptor-for-FS2.rar/
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 18, 2010, 01:24:48 pm
Since I can't run the MediaVPs or other enhancements on my computer, I worked for a bit with BloodFleet and sent him the turreted version of the Qwaar Jet Heavy Cruiser. It took forever for me to figure out how to get the damned turrets to track properly with the $fvec and $uvec properties...until I figured out that the X axis was inversed for both those values.

Anyway, was chatting with him this morning and he dropped it in to take a few pretty screenshots. Incoming!  ;7

(http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/9555/hw11.jpg)
(http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/836/hw13.jpg)
(http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/4928/hw12.jpg)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: chief1983 on August 18, 2010, 01:34:43 pm
Do want to play.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Rodo on August 18, 2010, 01:35:01 pm
nice :D
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Quanto on August 18, 2010, 01:36:41 pm
Wow, this is actually really awesome to see. I'm more partial to the HW2 models myself. But seeing the HW models is fun too!
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: pecenipicek on August 18, 2010, 05:19:47 pm
Wow, this is actually really awesome to see. I'm more partial to the HW2 models myself. But seeing the HW models is fun too!
TAP is using HW2.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 18, 2010, 05:33:15 pm
Original porter, if you're interested in Homeworldy stuff in Freespace, you WILL enjoy checking out our TAP project website. Just click that little blue square thing by my profile name.
 
We've got quite a bit imported already into the engine. Can't say too much obviously but your support is welcome. :yes:
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Commander Zane on August 18, 2010, 09:41:23 pm
Nitpick, Taiidani ion weapons are blue. :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on August 18, 2010, 11:52:29 pm
not in Cataclysm :P

but ya for this I will make blue beams
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Commander Zane on August 19, 2010, 11:04:30 am
not in Cataclysm :P
Touché. :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: MatthTheGeek on August 19, 2010, 11:40:35 am
When HWC and HW1 contradict, HW1 wins. Same for HW1 vs HW2. Hence blue ions ftw.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Commander Zane on August 19, 2010, 11:44:05 am
However there aren't Taiidani or Kushani ships in HW2, and the Vaygr don't even use ion beams.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: MatthTheGeek on August 19, 2010, 01:13:15 pm
Kushan = Hiigaran fyi. And what I said is in general, not only for ions.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Commander Zane on August 19, 2010, 01:23:50 pm
I said ships. There's no ships labled Kushani-anything in HW2, as far as who it is piloting them go, that means nothing to me when I'm talking about the ships.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: MatthTheGeek on August 19, 2010, 03:06:40 pm
Your point ?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 19, 2010, 07:26:13 pm
Does anyone know of a way to have the damage lightning show without the ship being damaged? That effect would be incredible for Beast ships.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 21, 2010, 11:48:26 am
Got the Repair Corvette working as a support ship :P

(http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3595/screen0021.jpg) (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/screen0021.jpg/)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: chief1983 on August 21, 2010, 01:43:45 pm
Awesome.  Now to get Salvage Corvettes...
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on August 22, 2010, 04:15:31 am
Having an issue with that, posted in another thread than clutter up Blood's any further :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 02, 2010, 07:41:45 pm
For those who want to fly the Taiidan Interceptor here is the files http://www.filefront.com/17258212/taiidan-interceptor-for-FS2.rar/
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Colonol Dekker on September 03, 2010, 03:02:44 am
Does anyone know of a way to have the damage lightning show without the ship being damaged? That effect would be incredible for Beast ships.

 
You can enable it in Fred. Via Sex-pee. Cannot remember if it's tickable in initial status though.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: pecenipicek on September 03, 2010, 03:46:38 am
i dont think so.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on September 05, 2010, 06:24:48 pm
All four Taiidan frigates and both destroyers are now in game. Working on other Taiidan ships as we speak :)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 06, 2010, 05:26:23 am
I have the probe, proximity sensor, target drone, and research ship in-game.

Will also do resource collector, resource controller, and pretty much any other ship that is simple (has no turrets/parts)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Unknown Target on September 06, 2010, 08:19:06 am
Got the Repair Corvette working as a support ship :P
*snip*

Awesome. Definately have to get the bottom of that thing glowing, too. :)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 06, 2010, 04:29:51 pm
Pretty sure he has done that (I have too of course).
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on September 08, 2010, 01:16:14 am
(http://a.yfrog.com/img245/9198/screen0037.jpg)

Eyecandy! :)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Commander Zane on September 08, 2010, 01:32:31 pm
Homeworld 1 ships and Homeworld 2 backgrounds. :P
Making good progress.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on September 10, 2010, 01:05:27 pm
I also learned that if you take the Drone Frigate, give it 24 free-floating turrets in a sphere around it, and give all of those turrets flak, it makes quite a lot of chaos :P
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 10, 2010, 11:07:07 pm
That's the only way I can see the drone frigate working btw :P

also, would like to start porting Beast soon, could the infection be possible as well? (both the beam and cruise missile kamikaze)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on September 11, 2010, 01:31:13 am
That's the only way I can see the drone frigate working btw :P

also, would like to start porting Beast soon, could the infection be possible as well? (both the beam and cruise missile kamikaze)
Hrrrm, make the beam and missiles TAGs, and do a "when is_tagged, then change-ship-class" SEXP to something infected. Or for cap ships, "when is_tagged AND hitpoints > %, then sabotage-subsystem hull".
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: pecenipicek on September 11, 2010, 05:45:03 am
also, change texture could be used for the "transformation"
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 11, 2010, 06:27:20 am
I see so yeah it could work then cool, about the transformation to the infected model. Could it be made to take like 10 seconds (during that 10 seconds the ship slowly spins btw) before turning sides?

I have a Beast example video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEyoZR9Cv94 the infection I would like happens within the first 7 seconds (then many times after that too of course :D), but yeah if this can be done too that would be pwnage. If not I understand, being able to simply switch the model and team is good enough.

um also cruise missiles were a controllable ship that kamikazed not a weapon...so for them something like "if ship is kamikazed by (insert cruise missile name or whatever here) then become infected"?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on September 11, 2010, 03:50:33 pm
For the delay, it's very easy in FRED. Instead of right away changing ship class or texture and IFF, use the ship-manuever SEXP that you need, and 10 seconds later change ship class or texture.

For the cruise missile... I'm not sure if there is a way to do it simply, but you could hack it in with a distance check and and an is_destroyed if necessary.

You'd need a whole SEXP (or 3) for every possible target though.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 11, 2010, 08:27:33 pm
Well infection attacks would be kept at a reasonable level anyway, can't have all your allies becoming infected within the first 3 minutes lol  :blah:
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Kusanagi on September 14, 2010, 01:19:41 am
If the cruise missile is really the only thing attacking, if a ship gets below a certain HP you could trigger it automatically...assuming the beast has nothing else in the battlefield capable of whacking down something with that much health.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on September 14, 2010, 02:21:33 am
An idea!
Based on the various ideas of melee weapons mounted on fighters (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=71520.0)...
Give the cruise missile an extremely short range TAG beam which happens to be invisible. Give the missile standard "attack" orders, and it will close the distance to use it's main weapon. And then, when the target is tagged, set the missile to kamikaze.
It will probably take some fine tuning to get the timing and ranges right, but I think it would work.
Also give the missile very poor turn rates, so that it doesn't try to dodge the target after TAGging but before ramming.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 23, 2010, 01:44:33 pm
when I get to the Beast I will have to try that...

anyway got another vid of what I currently have http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOdB5pHqqQs
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Rodo on September 23, 2010, 02:06:28 pm
cool video!  :cool:
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Vengence on September 23, 2010, 02:58:12 pm
Question. I saw the vid and saw you somehow got the dual beam cannons working on the turrets of the HCs. How did you do that? I thought it was impossible. Well at least the Wiki says dual or more beams are impossible... care to elaborate? Or did I miss something? Twin firing beam cannons are kinda vital to my mod ambitions.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 23, 2010, 05:01:36 pm
As I said in the vid description the HC is not mine (it is Kusanagi's work so I'd ask him). I don't know how to do turrets.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Vengence on September 23, 2010, 05:47:52 pm
For a sec in the description I thought you meant it model wise. Well care to send the HC's turret info and weapon tables on PM? Or does only he have it?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 23, 2010, 05:58:18 pm
No I can PM the info to you
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Vengence on September 23, 2010, 06:04:25 pm
Just as I have partly thought... hmm... There are still other possibilities which I may not be entirely sure of but some of those flags may make this possible. Thanks for the PM!
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 25, 2010, 07:58:15 pm
Ah wth I have put in the Beast missile corvette and am pretty sure I did it right, yet the game and editor crash upon loading and I don't know why.

-data snipped-

nevermind lol...apparently it was the tech description, FS does not like 2 hyphens or whatever next to eachother (I am taking descriptions from HW Shipyards site, gotta edit out things like that)
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: The E on September 25, 2010, 08:27:43 pm
There's a special build of the engine called a "debug build". Use it. It will generate a so-called "fs2_open.log", which will list all errors found. If thre is an error, there will be a popup which you can click through.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 26, 2010, 11:30:31 am
I'm gonna assume theres no easy fix for this but wth...anyway I also would like the Kushan fighters in FS as well but when I tried to put in their Interceptor POF-CS...I guess doesn't like the model or something... because it just gives "too many polygons in same average location" error. Let me guess I would need to edit the model?
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: Vengence on September 26, 2010, 07:52:46 pm
perhaps you should try to put them in a modeling program first and see what the problem is.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 27, 2010, 08:06:36 pm
well I looked here http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/POF_Constructor_Suite#Tips_.2F_Common_Problems and #2 on there is the issue, not that I know what to do about it with an already existing textured model.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: The E on September 27, 2010, 08:46:18 pm
I sure hope you are using PCS2, not PCS.
Title: Re: Importing Homeworld Ships
Post by: BloodFleet on September 27, 2010, 11:00:31 pm
I would have been using PSC2 if it imported .cob, which it apparently doesn't because I try to do it in that and nothing happens at all.

I have to use PCS to actually get a .pof file then use PCS2 to edit it.