[IronBeer]

So, earlier today I decided to go through the wiki here and pick out ships that seemed interesting/ useful enough for a mod. Well, right off- I ran into a small irritation: there is no download link for the GTI Whitehall on the wiki, and an (admittedly quick) search on Google turned up nothing.

Other than that, I managed to get a hold of what I wanted, so here's what I'm trying to work in:
-GVD Hathor
-GTC Reyna
-GTB Athena Mk2
-GVC Aten Mk2
-GVI Cheops
-GTVF Chinubis
-GVD Hedetet
-HLD Mefdef
-GTF Maverick
-GVC Newet
-SC Lamia
-GTF Selkie
-GVD Tannen
-GTI Bretonia
-GTI Nareos
-GVCv Wepwawet
-...at the moment. I've got more new ships downloaded, but they're in .vp form and need more extracting.

All data is in .tbm format wherever possible (which is to say for all ships here).

Running under a standard 3.6.11 build, FSO tells me that there are 188 errors.... after I click through a bunch of errors stemming from the Chinubis' .tbm. The Chinubis' .tbm seems particularly troubled, starting from Line 42 (Default Secondary Banks) and seemingly every line thereafter. I recently started using a debug build, and got a some actual answers, but it's too late for me to slog through all that tonight.

Oh, here's the Chinubis' .tbm. Maybe one of y'all can have some better luck- it looks perfectly healthy to me:

Code: [Select]

#Ship Classes
$Name: GTVB Chnubis
$Short name:            LSBomber1
$Species: Terran
+Type: XSTR("Heavy Bomber", -1)
+Maneuverability:       XSTR("Average", -1)
+Armor: XSTR("Heavy", -1)
+Manufacturer:          XSTR("Triton Dynamics / Akheton", -1)
+Description: XSTR(" ", -1)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR("Along with the Hestia, the Chnubis was developed as part of a joint effort between the Terran and Vasudan military. 

Somewhat remarkably, both species find the design ugly – but there’s no doubting the power of the ship, which has been

designed to replace the aged Medusa class and which can carry all major warheads.  Although somewhat slow, the afterburner

capacity, shielding and weapons capacity of the Chnubis mean it will serve at the forefront of the GTVA fleet for many years

to come.", -1)
$end_multi_text
+Length:          39 m
+Gun Mounts:      2
+Missile Banks:   3
$POF file:                      chnubis.pof
$Detail distance:       (0, 180, 300, 1300)
$Show damage:           YES
$Density:                       1
$Damp:                          0.30
$Rotdamp:                       0.6
$Max Velocity:          0.0, 0.0, 45.0
$Rotation time:         4.5, 4.25, 4.7
$Rear Velocity:         0.0
$Forward accel:         4.0
$Forward decel:         2.0
$Slide accel:           0.0
$Slide decel:           0.0
$Expl inner rad:        50.0
$Expl outer rad:        100.0
$Expl damage:           25.0
$Expl blast:            2000.0
$Expl Propagates:       NO
$Shockwave Speed:       0.0
$Allowed PBanks:        ( "Lamprey" "Circe" "Maxim")
$Allowed Dogfight PBanks:        (  "Lamprey" "Circe" "Maxim")
$Default PBanks:        ( "Lamprey" "Maxim")
$Allowed SBanks:        ( "Rockeye" "Hornet" "Tornado" "Trebuchet" "Stiletto II" "Piranha" "Cyclops"  "EMP Adv." "Infyrno"

"Helios" )
$Allowed Dogfight SBanks:        ( "Rockeye" "Hornet" "Tornado" "Trebuchet" "Stiletto II" "Piranha" "Cyclops"  "EMP Adv."

"Infyrno )
$Default SBanks:        ( "Hornet" "Trebuchet" "Helios" )
$SBank Capacity:        ( 60, 60, 80 )
$Shields:                       650
$Shield Color: 100 100 255
$Power Output:          4.5
$Max Oclk Speed:        75.0
$Max Weapon Eng:        80.0
$Hitpoints:                     370
$Flags:                         ( "player_ship" "default_player_ship" "bomber" "in tech database" "show ship")
$AI Class:                      Captain
$Afterburner:           YES
+Aburn Max Vel: 0.0, 0.0, 150.0
+Aburn For accel:       0.7
+Aburn Fuel:            200.0
+Aburn Burn Rate:       50.0
+Aburn Rec Rate:        35.0
$Countermeasures:       35
$Scan time:                     2000
$EngineSnd:       127
$Closeup_pos:           0.0, 0.0, -51
$Closeup_zoom:          0.5
$Shield_icon:           shield-b04
$Ship_icon:                     iconbomber04
$Ship_anim:                     ssbomber04
$Ship_overhead: loadbomber04
$Score:             10
$Trail:
+Offset: 12.35 0.5 5.75
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Trail:
+Offset: -12.35 0.5 5.75
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Subsystem:                     communications, 10,     0.0
$Subsystem:                     engine,         35,     0.0
$Subsystem:                     navigation,     10,     0.0
$Subsystem:                     sensors,        10,     0.0
$Subsystem:                     weapons,        20,     0.0
#End
Oh, one other thing. Who REALLY made the GTI Bretonia? The wiki here says c914 did it, but the FreeSpacemods site credits Trashman.

[TrashMan]

I didn't do it. Freespacemods is wrong.

Also, isn't there a Whitehall download on FSmods?

Now I can't recall off the top of my head if I included it in the COTS model files, I'll have to check that.

[Wanderer]

Reason for that (Default Secondary Banks) error is fairly obvious.. This "Infyrno ) lacks the second (closing) apostrophes

[The E]

Also, if you say that there are errors, please follow this up wit a) the actual error messages and b) a full fs2_open.log. Instructions on how to generate one can be found in the Support FAQ.

[IronBeer]

Update: Ran under a debug build, squashed any bugs that cropped up upon starting. All of them were related to tabling, like the Chnubis above; a lot of the bigger ships referenced weapons that were not included in the releases, yadda, yadda. Solution: clone existing weapons and give them a fitting name.


So far, so good- I go into the Techroom to see how the models render. Now the real fun starts.

-Apparently, the GTI Nareos has too many bay paths.

-The GTF Maverick has inverted bounding boxes for pretty much every part of the model.

-Aten Mk2, same thing- seems like every part of the model has the bounding box inverted.

-The Selkie and Chnubis both allegedly have bogus shield meshes (This error crashes FS2 whenever it crops up).

-Aten Mk2 references a non-existent texture "vascap4".

-Athena Mk2 seems to have problems opening "athenaadv02"; I checked, and it's there. No idea what's up.

-GTCv Reyena appears to be missing the texture "silnik"

-GTCvM Wepwawet appears to be missing the texture "glow_blus_small4"

I can post an FS2_log later if this information proves to be insufficient for any use.

[Dragon]

As I expected, some modelling errors and some easy fixes.
MIssing textures shoud be in FOW: COTS.
Nareos needs some paths removed and Wepwawet it's glowpoint bank edited (to point to blue_glow4_small).
Selkie and Chunbis are Aldo's, Athena Mk2 and Aten Mk2 are Trashman's.
Contact modellers to fix shield mesh and bounding box errors (Aldo should be still visiting Sectrogame, but he's gone from HLP).
Maverick have two versions, so check if it was fixed in one of them, if not, contact the author.

[IronBeer]

Ok... so is there any way I could fix any of those problems myself? Would it be proper for me to do so?

[TrashMan]

Youch...I'll have to look into those.

[chief1983]

-Apparently, the GTI Nareos has too many bay paths.

PCS2 edit the paths and save.  Probably doesn't need them all, not sure why it would have too many to begin with.

-The GTF Maverick has inverted bounding boxes for pretty much every part of the model.

PCS2 resave, clear BSP cache before the resave.

-Aten Mk2, same thing- seems like every part of the model has the bounding box inverted.

Same fix.

-The Selkie and Chnubis both allegedly have bogus shield meshes (This error crashes FS2 whenever it crops up).

Beyond just simple tool's ability to fix.  Probably needs a modeling app to fix.

-Aten Mk2 references a non-existent texture "vascap4".

You can try to remove the reference to it via PCS2, but I don't believe it will reindex the textures properly.  So unless it's the last one in the list of textures, it will cause issues.
Hack-fix: Get the blank DDS texture and rename it to vascap4.dds, and put it in the maps folder.  Won't really have a performance impact.

-Athena Mk2 seems to have problems opening "athenaadv02"; I checked, and it's there. No idea what's up.

Double check?  Is the file in a non-supported image format?

-GTCv Reyena appears to be missing the texture "silnik"

Same fix.  Either find a way to delete the reference safely or use a dummy texture.

-GTCvM Wepwawet appears to be missing the texture "glow_blus_small4"

Same.

Actually, Dragon's advice for most of those is probably better than mine, if I didn't have access to other stuff that's how I would fix the issues.  But if you can get textures, etc from other places or fix glowpoint issues the right way, then do that

[Dragon]

-Aten Mk2 references a non-existent texture "vascap4".

You can try to remove the reference to it via PCS2, but I don't believe it will reindex the textures properly.  So unless it's the last one in the list of textures, it will cause issues.
Hack-fix: Get the blank DDS texture and rename it to vascap4.dds, and put it in the maps folder.  Won't really have a performance impact.

-GTCv Reyena appears to be missing the texture "silnik"

Same fix.  Either find a way to delete the reference safely or use a dummy texture.

-GTCvM Wepwawet appears to be missing the texture "glow_blus_small4"

Same.

Actually, Dragon's advice for most of those is probably better than mine, if I didn't have access to other stuff that's how I would fix the issues.  But if you can get textures, etc from other places or fix glowpoint issues the right way, then do that

Unfortunately, those are wrong.
You shouldn't delete the texture or use a dummy, because you will end up with a hole in the model.
You may replace missing textures with ones from mediavps though, I recommend changing "Silnik" to "Capital05-05" and "glow_blus_small4" to "blue_glow4_small".
As for VasCap4, experiment with it and try to replace it with some Vasudan texture from mediavps, you should quickly find one that will look good.

[chief1983]

Dummy textures work as a last resort, to get through other issues.  Some models even contain references to textures that aren't in use, replacing it with anything won't actually help in that case, and the blank is a good alternative to deleting the reference in PCS2.

But replacing with a texture that actually looks good if the texture is in use is a good solution too.

[Dragon]

Dummy textures work as a last resort, to get through other issues.  Some models even contain references to textures that aren't in use, replacing it with anything won't actually help in that case, and the blank is a good alternative to deleting the reference in PCS2.

Some do this, but it's not the case in models listed here.

[IronBeer]

Son of Update:

@Dragon-
I actually went through each model with texture issues to see where the problematic textures showed up, and none of them seemed to be in use. Further, I double-checked the rendering in the Tech Room, and it looks like the blank texture hack worked.

Now if only I could do something about those shield meshes... I swapped in some loose-fitting meshes so I can check rendering on the Selkie and Chnubis without crashing FSO, but if somebody could prime me on messing with shield meshes, I would be fully willing to fix them myself.

Ninja Edit mk2: Also, managed to modify the Nareos to have way fewer docking paths.

Edit: Does anybody have table files for any of the following ships, perchance?
-GTBc Blade
-GTF Ezechiel
-SF Harpy
-SF Naga
-SB Yali
-GTI Whitehall
-GVI Abthys

[Stormkeeper]

I have the Ezechiel, but its at home. If you can wait, I'll mediafire and pm it to you in 3-4 hours time. The rest, you can just copy an appropriate class and cook up your own.

Though I personally advise using the Whitehall unless you have an entire mission designed around it.

[IronBeer]

I have the Ezechiel, but its at home. If you can wait, I'll mediafire and pm it to you in 3-4 hours time. The rest, you can just copy an appropriate class and cook up your own.

Thanks- no rush. I'd just prefer to use published table values wherever possible.

On a more general note, are there any introductory resources for modelling around here? Particularly regarding shield meshes? All the other problems I've come across were quite fixable, but this one is proving to be very irritating.

[Dragon]

@Dragon-
I actually went through each model with texture issues to see where the problematic textures showed up, and none of them seemed to be in use. Further, I double-checked the rendering in the Tech Room, and it looks like the blank texture hack worked.

Check lower LODs in PCS2 or lab.
Lower LOD textured are easy to overlook, but they may also cause problems.

[IronBeer]

(Hopefully) final update:
I finally managed to fix the issue with the shield meshes. Don't really know how it worked, but I went ahead and purged the BSP caches on the selkie and chnubis .pof's, and that seems to have cleared up everything.

Thanks for all the help, guys! 

[Dragon]

I found that Reyena's "Silnik" texture is used on it's engines, so better replace it with an actual texture, or you will end up with a few holes instead of engine exhausts.
VasCap4 is indeed useless though, so you can leave it blank.

[Snail]

VasCap4 is indeed useless though, so you can leave it blank.

Why not delete it in PCS2 entirely?

[Dragon]

You will mess up the entire texture set this way.