[MeekGeek]

After spending a bit of time in the hunt, I finally managed to pin down a copy of FS2! So now to enjoy all the things you guys have been enjoying for ages!

I bought it mainly to mod, since from what I understand, the game is about as moddable a space sim as there is out there. Freelancer was restictive... X2 had flakey combat, and FS2 has HUGE ships and fast paced action....

No doubt I am going to be asking some dumb questions about modding in the near future, but here goes the opening salvo!

1) I got a load of spaceship meshes knocking around on my HD. All my own work, and either in Max or LWO format. I want to put them into the game, but have no idea where to start! What tools do I need etc.

2) I understand from searching around here that there are certain restrictions on model design that were removed by 'Source Code Project' builds. I don't want to mess around with a buggy / test release.... so what would be the best version to get, and where ? There seem to be lots of versions around!!! I want features...and stabiity

Thats it for now Would appreciate any help you guys can offer!

p.s. I can't believe how much I paid for this game..... I got FS1 for 50p in a second-hand shop....FS2 cost just a little more Seems worth it though!

[Swamp_Thing]

Welcome to the boards!!



The first thing you might consider reading is the Wikipedia, the FSDOC link right on top of the page.In there you will fid lots of stuff relating FS modding. You should also consider visiting the SCP forum, and get the FS_Open prog, that will increase the visual and performance of your FS game.
The rest, well you´ll learn as you go.

[magatsu1]

Karajorma and Bobboau both have excellent walkthroughs/tuts in their sigs.

[phreak]

IW2 is actally a better game to be modded, but nobody mods it.  possibly due to the fact the model converter only accepted LWOs and there was only one lightwave modeler here that played it.

there are converters written by the community that will support trueSpace COBs (search for PCS) and there's a MAX 4,5,6 converter here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26260.0.html

reading the documentation would be a good idea before trying to get anything in game at first.


Secondly, the most recent SCP build can be found here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,23953.0.html

i wouldn't say all the model limits have to be removed, the recommened limit is about 2000 or so for fighters now (up from 500) and 15000 for capital ships (up from about 2000).  Also rotating turrets should rotate along the xz-plane which means no rotating turrets on the sides of ships.  In addition, you can only have 10 rotating submodels.  We had this at 25 but i think it caused some problems in multiplayer.

Thirdly, search for VPView on google or on the forums to download the tool to extract tables from root_fs2.vp located in your main freespace directory.  they should be extracted to /data/tables and will override any tables currently in VPs.

[wiki]MeekGeek[/wiki]
[scp]MeekGeek[/scp]

[Black Wolf]

You'll probably also want a copy of Modelview32 while you're grabbing VPView. It's slightly easier to work with than PCS, good for placing subsystems, firing points etc.

We seem to be getting lots of new modders lately - got any pics of the ships you can show us? We rather like pics.

[Singh]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing
Welcome to the boards!!



The first thing you might consider reading is the Wikipedia, the FSDOC link right on top of the page.In there you will fid lots of stuff relating FS modding. You should also consider visiting the SCP forum, and get the FS_Open prog, that will increase the visual and performance of your FS game.
The rest, well you´ll learn as you go.

You forgot the rest of the welcome speech

Good morning, and welcome to the Hard Light Productions Facility. Current topside temperature is -239 Degrees, and is expected to drop after the Supernova passes. In case of an all-out invasion, there are flamethrowers underneath the seat. unfortunately, these will serve only as clubs as we don't have the budget for Napalm. Plasma rifles are located in the lockers to the front, but they can be opened only be [v], an Admin, or a hyper-intelligent shade of the color blue. If you happen to be roaming around the vents and spot a Shivan, stop and give him your lunch. If you're lucky, it's just Carl - he'll take your lunch and go away (again, if your lucky). If you intend to MOD models for FS2, beware of Truespace - but the MAX plugin is your best friend. If you intend to MOD Missions, beware BoE syndrome - small missions are your best friends! If you intend to MOD tables - dyslexia can be troublesome, but notepad is your best friend in this case

If you simply wish to make use of the Forum facilities, please feel free to do so - but do not piss of any Admin or else suffer the dire consequences.

Thank you, and have a safe and productive day.

[MeekGeek]

Thanks for the tips ( and the welcome ) !

I think this has pointed me in the right direction. The Max converter will be useful.

Working my way through the documentation etc. to try and tie all this stuff together. As far as screenshots go...well...it's a touch early for that! I got no intention of showing pretty pictures of ships unless they are actually going to stand a chance of making it in game!

First attempts will be a selection of small unarmed transports, some simple gun platforms and such like. There is a whole pile of stuff I don't know how to do, and I don't want to rush in! Besides...I hate it when people post pics of 'works in progress' and then thats all you ever see of it

[Falcon]

Hey MeekGeek welcome to the forums.

[Blitzerland]

Welcome! HLP is growing with these new modelers. We need modelors, especially. I'd give you my welcome speech, but i've used it four times, so i'm writing a new one.

*Tosses dubloons at Magatsu1

[magatsu1]

huh?

[MeekGeek]

OK...this is looking promising

Downloading the SCP 3.6 right now...
Dowmloaded and tested the Max2POF plugin, and it worked perfectly on the test model supplied.

Looks like the plugin pretty much supplies a fully finished model ready to use! That is pretty neat. I am genuinely impressed at how neat that was. There are a whole lot of extra points and lines and dummies in the model, but I think I have pretty much worked out what is what. I will try duplicating the same naming conventions on one of my models and see where that gets me

For now, though... it's time to sleep!

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by Singh

You forgot the rest of the welcome speech
 

Yeah, i wish someone would do a copy and paste job and add the speech to the picture, to save us trouble...
Any volunteers?
A new picture wouldn´t be bad either!

edit: Ok, since no one volunteered, i did something...



You can all now bow to the Swamp God!!:D

[Blitzerland]

Not really very welcoming, sadly. Maybe it could be a banning beam?

[phreak]

MeekGeek: post pictures, we like pictures

and brainZzZ

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by Blitzerland
Not really very welcoming, sadly. Maybe it could be a banning beam?

[Hippo]

get that the **** out of here


bitmaps are _NOT_ meant to be uploaded. _EVER_

[Blitzerland]

Originally posted by Hippo
get that the **** out of here


bitmaps are _NOT_ meant to be uploaded. _EVER_

It displayed instantly for me. It is a very small bitmap.  What type of connection do you have?

Besides, freewebs won't let me upload JPGs. I'll try a GIF next time.

I can't do anything right, can I?

[Axem]

100kb isn't tiny compared to the 3kb the normal beam is.

http://photobucket.com/

Use these guys for image hosting. 25 mb space, 1.5GB bandwith a month, jpg, gif, even swf files accepted.

[Blitzerland]

Yeah...sorry...

I'll try photobucket.

[Setekh]

Welcome to HLP, MeekGeek.