[Hoho5000]

The other day I was reading the Empire at War boards over at Filefront, and someone suggested that a Freespace 2 conversion be made for the game. I posted over there asking if anyone would be interested in doing something like, but I received no response.

I'm a big fan of both games, and decided to take on the project. I spent the weekend taking a crash course in 3ds Max and UV mapping the Perseus and Orion. The Perseus is almost done, but the Orion still has a lot of work left.

Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone here had 3ds Max, and would be interested in helping me convert and UV map some of the Freespace 2 Models. At the rate I'm going, it's going to take weeks before I'm finished, and getting the models done is only a fraction of the work I would have to do.

Update:
For those that are interested, I have a screen cap of what I've got so far. Obviously, the Orion isn't fully UV mapped yet, but it's almost done. And the picture's not the highest quality either. That was only to save space.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[jr2]

Hroom...
http://hosted.filefront.com/jr2
- try that for max, there's a text file with registration instructions.  -That's gmax, is that the same as 3ds max?  I also have some other 3d stuff in there.

[Hoho5000]

That's not quite what I need.  I already have 3ds Max, and all the models in .pof format.

What I want is help with converting the models from .pof to .max, and then UV mapping them. Like I said, I've already done the Perseus, and most of the Orion.

[Unknown Target]

Why do you need to UV Map the models? IIRC whenever I exported POF to COB, it kept the UVs.

[Hoho5000]

Yes, but unfortunately, the only .alo exporter (the Empire at War model format) is for 3ds Max. As of now, I haven't been able to find any .cob importers for Max.

[Unknown Target]

I think someone mentioned this before in another thread, but Lithunwrap can open .POFs and export to .3DS, you could use that

[DaBrain]

Use *obj.

For some reason it works even better for MAX than it's own 3ds format.

[Hoho5000]

I'm at school right now, so I'll try it when I get home. If it works, it'll save me a lot of time with the fighters. The capital ships don't have a map though, so it really won't help me there.

[G0atmaster]

forgive me for asking, but what would the major differences be between all these Star Wars Conversions?  We have the original SW conversion project hosted here, there's Imperial Alliance, and now an EAW version.  It's starting to get a bit confusing.

[Wobble73]

forgive me for asking, but what would the major differences be between all these Star Wars Conversions?  We have the original SW conversion project hosted here, there's Imperial Alliance, and now an EAW version.  It's starting to get a bit confusing.

The difference is this is a Freespace2 to Empires At War/Star Wars conversion, not a Star Wars to Freespace2 conversion

[G0atmaster]

oOOOOOOOOOooooohhhhhhh

[TrashMan]

That's not quite what I need.  I already have 3ds Max, and all the models in .pof format.

What I want is help with converting the models from .pof to .max, and then UV mapping them. Like I said, I've already done the Perseus, and most of the Orion.

UV Mapped 3D MAx models..

Well, you can try to contact some of hte ppl working on the Homeworld 2 FS convertion.

Find hte Homeworld 2 forums (Relics forums) - tehy got a large number of ships done.

[gevatter Lars]

I got a question regarding the this idea. In EAW ship are breaking apart when special systems are taken down...will that also be a part of the mod? Would be cool when you could shoot down different systems on caps.
In general I like the idea.
Do you also got an idea for implementing beams and all the other weapons?

[Hoho5000]

Thanks for the model advice, I've been able to import the UV for the Perseus now, and will be able to do the other fighters much more quickly.

About the hardpoints, yes, they will be destroyable.

The beams could be an issue though, and I'm currently looking into that problem. I can make "beams" now just by setting the refire rate to 0, but they lack proper sound, and if something else gets targeted, lasers go flying in every direction.

[TrashMan]

Doesn't the expansion have some beam effects?

Maby you could look at how hte tractor beam was done?

[Hoho5000]

Yes, there is the Death Star II superlaser, which I've been playing around with, and it works, except you have to target things manually as it is an ability, and you can only have one instance of it per ship. The same goes for those other abilities. I really wish they hadn't hardcoded the abilities into the .exe.

[Grizzly]

While a Homeworld/O.R.B mod for FreeSpace 2 would be much better, I think. We never seen a FS2 ground battle.

[0rph3u5]

We never seen a FS2 ground battle.

Well there would be a lack of cannon reference material for vasudan infantry and "tanks" for all species but if you take the scenes from the FS1 hallfight vid and FS2 intro as reference you could surely create some terran and shivan infrantry...

Yes, there is the Death Star II superlaser, which I've been playing around with, and it works, except you have to target things manually as it is an ability, and you can only have one instance of it per ship. The same goes for those other abilities. I really wish they hadn't hardcoded the abilities into the .exe.

there is that hero stardestroyer which has the ability to use something like a beam cannon which isn't as powerfull as DS2 laser you could use that too

[Hoho5000]

Yes, I was considering having some ground battles, but certainly not in the first release. And besides, I'm no modeler, and I don't really have the skills to do something like that.

As for the proton beam, that won't work. Abilities, unfortunuately, can only be modified to a certain extent, and you can't create new ones. The DSII super laser is fine in the fact that I can change it's color, the amount of damage it does, and it's sounds. The downside to using abilities, is that you can only have one instance of the same ability for each unit, and the DSII super laser won't fire automatically. Also, the star destroyer proton beam has to be placed on a bone with a certain name.

I'm going to look through all the existing code there is to see if I can find anything that I will be able to implement to get this working.

Looking through the xml tags, I think I might have found a way to do a charge up sound. I'll test it when I get home, but if works, I shouldn't have to worry about using abilities anymore.

[Vretsu]

Shivans don't fight "ground battles."

A Shivan has never set foot on a planet as far as we know. They aren't interested in taking planets.