Author Topic: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships  (Read 3465 times)

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Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.  :)



 

Offline Droid803

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Oooh look at those little sprite fighters. So cute~ :3

btw, orthographic or perspective. Yes it does matter.
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Offline Alan Bolte

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.
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Offline Droid803

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
I don't think PCS2 has normal map rendering.
Nor can it do orthographic projection (should you want that)
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Offline headdie

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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
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Offline Droid803

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Oh hey, never noticed that.
Mostly because it's useless XD but cool, never knew that.
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Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Normal mapping shouldn't be an issue at sprite scale.
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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.

 
Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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?
« Last Edit: August 11, 2012, 06:00:10 pm by EnderNerdcore »

 
Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.

 
Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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!

 
Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Dig around in the preferences,  I could've sworn there is a color settings section

 

Offline Droid803

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
There is a color settings section but there is no option to change the background.
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Offline Kobrar44

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.

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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
Why not just magic wand the black and fill it with green in whatever image editor you're making the sprites in?
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Re: Odd request -- top down views of FS2 capital ships
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.