OK, adding new ships and general mod creation 101 (
its all the same thing)
The first thing to understand is that the most of the structure of a mod is self explanatory. but for thoroughness i will cover this. See
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FS2_Data_Structure for more detail
Cache - here game stores ship model data that has been compiled by the game into a more readily usable form, except in cases of significant model complexity this is not needed for ship distribution and you can generally ignore the folder
Cbanims - is where command and mission briefing animations are stored
Effects - weapon and other 2d effects
fonts - font files are kept here, unless you are aiming at a total conversion you will in all likely hood not need this folder
force feedback - unused in any mod that i know
freddocs - the documents that are opened when you hit help in fred so just ignore again unless you are using a custom branch of Freespace engine
hud - custom hud guages and graphics
intelanims - animations used in the techroom for weapons and intel sections
interface - images and animations used in the menu system, note not everything you would expect to be a still is stored as a still so research carefully before changing anything. Again only larger mods and total conversions generally go into this stuff as it is very heavy going to do properly
maps - Texture files for ships and other model based objects
missions - where FRED2 should be storing mission files and the only place where FS2 will look for missions both single player and campaign
models - .pof files go here no matter what purpose
multidata - not sure about this, perhaps the guys generally dealing with multiplayer code or the guys balancing BP for multiplayer can help here, but generally you will not use this folder
music - in game music files go here
players - the files behind the Pilot screen on startup are stored here, not modding related except in very limited circumstances and is best just ignored unless the support guys tell you to go in there
sounds - sound effects like weapons fire in here
tables - last of the important ones, but the most important one, this is where the tbl and tbm files go that tells the game how to use the majority of the information in the folders listed and also controls a number of other game aspects.
Voice - Voice overs for mission chatter
above is the structure used by VP files
To add a new ship class and create mods in general.because of the ease in damaging data key to a mod or indeed retail
IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED THAT .VP FILES ARE NOT EDITED IN ANY WAY!If you want to add or change something to the game you are advised to create a mod folder. This is simple, first go into your Freespace 2 root folder. then create a folder, the name of this folder is not important in a game engine point of view but keeping it short and it making sense to you is a very good idea (EsaraiVsVengence should work ok). within that folder save the mod.txt attached below, rename it mod.ini (this is because of forum limitations) and create a folder called data. the mod ini contains a reference to the 3.6.12 mediavps ( secondarylist = mediavps_3612; ) . if you need to use additional mods then either change mediavps_3612 to the folder name containing the mod or place a comer followed by the mods folder name between the 2 and ; .
Within the data folder create the folders you need from the above list, in the case of just adding ships you need
models,
tables and will in all likely hood you will need
maps for any custom textures and
effects for custom weapons supplied with the ships.
Cache will not be needed as FS generates this all by itself. With the folders created place the files in as indicated in the above list. to test it is all in ok open you freespace 2 launcher and select the mods tab. hit select mod and select the folder containing the mod (my example was Esarai vs Vengence) and accept it. run freespace 2. if you then go into the tech room you should then be able to view the ships in there. if that all works ok then you are good to create missions with these ships.
On VP filesThe significant advantage of a VP file is ease of distribution. in simple terms a VP file is a container used to maintain the file structure between users because all that is required is that they are all placed in the Mod folder. the problem with changing them is that if you edit one and get it wrong the simple fix and in all likely hood the fix you will be told to do is to reinstall fs2/the mod as appropriate because there is no way for mod/FSO support teams to know what you have done to the VP and they have enough on their plate without having to user fix a problem that shouldn't have happened especially as the mod folders feature has been provided as a means achieving the same effect that requires no modifying of VPs.
tbm vs tbla tbl is the core table file of that type and only one can be loaded into freespace at any one time tbl files provide the structure to the engine and usually require all basic elements to be present to work.
tbm on the other hand is an additional file to the tbl, usually providing additional data to the tbl or overriding it if needed. Until you get to the stage of building mods for more than adding a few ships you will probably only use tbm if available for that table type. tbm also has the advantage that FS2 can handle multiple tbm files of any given type though avoid conflicting entries at all costs.
[attachment deleted by ninja]
