Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: EnderNerdcore on August 11, 2012, 04:05:29 pm

Title: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: EnderNerdcore on August 11, 2012, 04:05:29 pm
Hey FS2 modders!  Many years ago I played FS2 quite a lot and I've always had nostalgia for it.  Recently in my spare time I've been working on creating a FS2 mod for a neat little tactical space combat game called Starfarer. It's a sprite-based game, and as such I've been able to create the fighter wings by extracting and cleaning up the top-down fitting-room images of various FS2 fighters and bombers, a lot of weapons with original sounds, and I've re-created the BFGreen beam along with the charge-up time and the original sound effect.

I'd really like to add the larger ships! Unfortunately, I had little to no art skills. While I could struggle through figuring out how to import the models and apply textures to them, I realized that some of you are probably already set up rather well for this.

So, my request: would it be possible for someone to take the time to take fairly high resolution (~1024 on the long-axis) top-down views of various cruiser and capital-size ships, preferably with a contrasting-color background (so that I can easily turn them into sprites)? This would save me a great deal of time and effort.

In return, I'll buy you a copy of Starfarer.  :)

(http://anbuteam.net/fs2ships1.png)(http://anbuteam.net/fs2ships2.png)
(http://anbuteam.net/fs2ships3.png)(http://anbuteam.net/fs2ships4.png)
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 11, 2012, 04:14:12 pm
Oooh look at those little sprite fighters. So cute~ :3

btw, orthographic or perspective. Yes it does matter.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Alan Bolte on August 11, 2012, 04:24:32 pm
You can get the images you want (aside from a non-black background) just by loading the POFs into PCS2, selecting the top view, and taking a screen shot. No need to import the models and textures into Blender or anything like that.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 11, 2012, 04:33:50 pm
I don't think PCS2 has normal map rendering.
Nor can it do orthographic projection (should you want that)
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: headdie on August 11, 2012, 04:39:11 pm
Nor can it do orthographic projection (should you want that)

yes it can, its the second of the two icons between the direction lock keys and grid view
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 11, 2012, 04:47:24 pm
Oh hey, never noticed that.
Mostly because it's useless XD but cool, never knew that.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: mjn.mixael on August 11, 2012, 05:43:45 pm
Normal mapping shouldn't be an issue at sprite scale.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on August 11, 2012, 05:54:13 pm
Normal mapping shouldn't be an issue at sprite scale.

If normal mapping and lighting isn't an issue, then you could also do the models in FRED, and make a big green or blue skybox to form a background.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: EnderNerdcore on August 11, 2012, 05:55:42 pm
Interesting--I hadn't realized it might be that easy.

I'll give it a shot.

Ah, I'm not entirely sure of the answer between orthographic and perspective, but for sprites like this I'm *guessing* orthographic may be the answer. I'll use the tool and see if it gets me what I need.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT:  Oh my, this does look easy. I am struggling here to make the background non-black. Am I missing something?
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Scourge of Ages on August 11, 2012, 06:02:36 pm
Interesting--I hadn't realized it might be that easy.

I'll give it a shot.

Ah, I'm not entirely sure of the answer between orthographic and perspective, but for sprites like this I'm *guessing* orthographic may be the answer. I'll use the tool and see if it gets me what I need.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT:  Oh my, this does look easy. I am struggling here to make the background non-black. Am I missing something?

If you're using PCS2, then I don't think there's any way to make it non-black. If you're using FRED, you'll need to use the background editor to place a green pane or skybox (that you've prepared earlier) behind the ships.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: EnderNerdcore on August 11, 2012, 06:07:03 pm
Interesting--I hadn't realized it might be that easy.

I'll give it a shot.

Ah, I'm not entirely sure of the answer between orthographic and perspective, but for sprites like this I'm *guessing* orthographic may be the answer. I'll use the tool and see if it gets me what I need.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT:  Oh my, this does look easy. I am struggling here to make the background non-black. Am I missing something?

If you're using PCS2, then I don't think there's any way to make it non-black. If you're using FRED, you'll need to use the background editor to place a green pane or skybox (that you've prepared earlier) behind the ships.
Yeah, I'm using PCS2.

Ah well, I'll just have to work around it a bit. Thanks guys!
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: BlasterNT on August 11, 2012, 06:51:56 pm
Dig around in the preferences,  I could've sworn there is a color settings section
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Droid803 on August 11, 2012, 07:14:53 pm
There is a color settings section but there is no option to change the background.
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Kobrar44 on August 11, 2012, 07:21:18 pm
you can import 2-polygon model with whatever texture you want. I'll even attach such a thing. Enlarge it and place under ship to get desired effect.

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: Black Wolf on August 11, 2012, 07:36:44 pm
Why not just magic wand the black and fill it with green in whatever image editor you're making the sprites in?
Title: Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Post by: EnderNerdcore on August 11, 2012, 07:47:49 pm
Why not just magic wand the black and fill it with green in whatever image editor you're making the sprites in?
Yep, that's actually what I'm doing.