[ShadowGorrath]

Alright , so , I have a question .

How do you make new beam cannons ? I mean both graphically and in tbl editing . I am asking for this because I'd like to make my own beam cannons that look different than ones in-game , but I don't know how to do it . So can anyone help me please and post some kind of tutorial here ?

[Mobius]

Graphically: you have to create new textures for them.

Table editing: It's easy

This is the table entry of the BGreen, used by Terran destroyers in FS2:

Code: [Select]

$Name: BGreen

$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:                laserglow01
@Laser Color: 0, 255, 54
; Pale green R 192 G 255 B 200
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.3
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.3
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      1600.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
>>>>>>$Fire Wait:                     15.0<<<<<< ;; in seconds
>>>>>>$Damage:                        2400<<<<<<<< ;; NOTE: for beam weapons this is kind of a "continuous" damage applied every few fractions of a second that the beam is on.
$Armor Factor:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:                 1.0
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$Lifetime:                      25.0            ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed:               0.30            ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    0.0              ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                     125              ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                     88              ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
>>>>>>>+Weapon Range: 4000<<<<<< ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags:                         ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam")
$Icon:                          icongun05
$Anim:                          LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion:              ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius:       60.0
$BeamInfo:
+Type: 0 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
+Life:   4.0 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
+Warmup:   3500 ;; warmup time in ms
+Warmdown: 3500 ;; warmdown time in ms
+Radius:   110.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
+PCount: 20 ;; particles spewed every interval
+PRadius: 1.4 ;; particle radius
+PAngle: 60.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
+PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
+Miss Factor: 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.7 1.4 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
+BeamSound: 147 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
+WarmupSound: 154 ;; associated warmup sound
+WarmdownSound: 159 ;; associated warmdown sound
+Muzzleglow: beamglow3 ;; muzzle glow bitmap
+Shots: 0 ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
+ShrinkFactor: 0.0 ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
+ShrinkPct: 0.0 ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 25 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-red ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.0 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 4.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 30 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green2 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 160 160 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 60 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.45 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 3.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 40.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.4 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 2.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 50.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green3 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 0 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 0 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.5 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 0.0 ;; hehe
Most fields are intuitive, like Fire Wait, Weapon Range and Damage. I suggest you to play around with them before modding parameters like Warmup and Warmdown(and beam sections).

Here's an example of a simple table editing:

Code: [Select]

>>>>>>>>>>>$Name: ExtraPowerfulBGreen <<<<<<<<<

$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:                laserglow01
@Laser Color: 0, 255, 54
; Pale green R 192 G 255 B 200
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.3
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.3
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      1600.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
>>>>>>>$Fire Wait:                     30.0<<<<<<<< ;; in seconds
>>>>>>>$Damage:                        1200<<<<<<<< ;; NOTE: for beam weapons this is kind of a "continuous" damage applied every few fractions of a second that the beam is on.
$Armor Factor:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:                 1.0
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$Lifetime:                      25.0            ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed:               0.30            ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    0.0              ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                     125              ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                     88              ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
>>>>>>>+Weapon Range: 4000<<<<<<< ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags:                         ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam")
$Icon:                          icongun05
$Anim:                          LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion:              ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius:       60.0
$BeamInfo:
+Type: 0 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
+Life:   4.0 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
+Warmup:   3500 ;; warmup time in ms
+Warmdown: 3500 ;; warmdown time in ms
+Radius:   110.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
+PCount: 20 ;; particles spewed every interval
+PRadius: 1.4 ;; particle radius
+PAngle: 60.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
+PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
+Miss Factor: 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.7 1.4 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
+BeamSound: 147 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
+WarmupSound: 154 ;; associated warmup sound
+WarmdownSound: 159 ;; associated warmdown sound
+Muzzleglow: beamglow3 ;; muzzle glow bitmap
+Shots: 0 ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
+ShrinkFactor: 0.0 ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
+ShrinkPct: 0.0 ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 25 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-red ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.0 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 4.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 30 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green2 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 160 160 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 60 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.45 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 3.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 40.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.4 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 2.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 50.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green3 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 0 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 0 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.5 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 0.0 ;; hehe
I have changed the parameters mentioned above(Damage, Fire wait and Weapon Range). Fire wait is 1/2 of the original, Damage and Weapon Range are 2x the original. I used many "<" and ">" to underline the changes(don't add them!).

Many good informations are accessible from the Wiki

[ShadowGorrath]

Hey , thanks . That helped a lot 

Now for the graphical part - how do I create textures for them ? I tried myself , but failed miserably .

[Mobius]

Try to modify existant textures. Extract them from the Media VPs with VP View and use a program like Photoshop to play around with them

Remember to give your modified textures new names. Modify the table entry accordingly

[Wanderer]

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Tutorial_-_Beam_Weapons

[ShadowGorrath]

I don't have the mediavps 

But if anyone can upload them somewhere , I'd try to modify them .

And I tried that link , it only made me confused about the retexturing part 

[Mobius]

Well, if you want to practice...you can extract the original textures from Retail FS2 and modify them

[ShadowGorrath]

I tried . And failed .

[Mobius]

What do you intend for "failed"? FS doesn't accept your modified textures or...you don't find the results satisfying? In the second case, just don't give up

[ShadowGorrath]

I meant FS didn't like the changes so they didn't work 

[Mobius]

I see. What ahve you done, exactly? Have you changed format, resolution or stuff like that?

[ShadowGorrath]

No . Format and etc. was the same . I think . I only drew a testing beam effect . But it didn't work - loaded a dull red beam , without any power up animation and etc. That's why I need a tutorial . Usually I self learn stuff , but this time I totally failed in this .

[Mobius]

Where did you place the modified texture? You should create a mod folder for it

[ShadowGorrath]

D:\Games\Freespace2\BeamModtest\Data\Effects

[Mobius]

At this point, I have no clue on what your problem is related with

[ShadowGorrath]

I think it's because of bad format in which  saved the "new beam textures" . So that's why I asked for some kind of tutorial . I want to know how exactly to make new beam textures and table edit .

The things I need to know about the beam textures : what size do I need to make the textures , what EXACT format do I need to save it ( I am using GIMP 2.2 , and it has options for each format , I dunno which to choose ) and etc.

[Mobius]

I suggest you to play around with the entries, then work on the textures...

[BengalTiger]

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Weapons.tbl
+
read the tbl file a few times to get the feel of it, make a simple beam (1 section) and play with the tbl, testing how each modification changes the beam. It worked for me, and it's pretty much fun (I even came up with a Command&Conquer 3-ish railgun, but I'll keep it a secret how to do it )

As for textures, still didn't try.

[Wanderer]

While working just save the textures/effects as TGA images (truevision targa without RLE). And always use power of two textures - the height and width (number of pixels) should be among the numbers you get with 'power of two'. That is something like 256 x 256 is ok, as is 128 x 512 etc. For basic beam texture either 128 x 128 or 256 x 256 should be adequate. Also leave the alpha away for now.

What format did you try?

[ShadowGorrath]

PCX . And that is the problem !   

Is there any way I can use DDS format ? TGA is too slow on my PC .