[Droid803]

Multiparts only work for FSO if they're on the top or bottom by default, so you need to tell them they're rotated by assigning it a fvec and a uvec in PCS2, telling them how they're rotated.

fvec is "forward vector", meaning, well, which direction is "forward".

uvec is the "up vector", meaning which direction is "up", usually defined by the turret's normals, if the arms are pointing perpedicular to the mounting surface (which I presume they are).

However, for both, you have to flip the X coordinate with respect to what PCS2 shows because someone somewhere derped hard and FSO tables and Subobject properties use a different coordinate system to the POF data (ie turret normal, subobject position) coordinate system...

So if your turret normal for your side-mounted turret is 1:0:0, put uvec as -1:0:0. etc.

Man it feels like I'm repeating this for the millionth time...

GODDAMMIT SOMEONE FIX THE COORDINATE SYSTEM.

For your 45-degree angled turret in the front...

fvec should be something like... 0:1:1
and uvec should be something like 0:-1:1

you might want to normalize them, in which case instead of 1 you'd put something like 0.707 (sqrt(2)/2)

[StargateSpankyHam]

Hmmm...it doesn't seem to work right. The turrets now point at weird angles.

Just out of curiosity, is there any way to import a turret model (non-multipart, such as the glowy BP dish-type beam turrets) into the Orion's .pof? I made them glow green.

On another note, I'd also like to add the green, glowy, beam turrets to the Hecate, since its beams don't presently glow either. Nor do the ones for the Deimos, or Fenris, or Leviathan.

[Droid803]

Yes and yes.

did you remember to flip the x-value

[StargateSpankyHam]

Yes, I flipped them.

[Droid803]

lemme see the POF?

Also, uh, you can import the turrets using PCS2's Import function under "subobjects" if you don't want to go through a modelling proggie.

[StargateSpankyHam]

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20706191/SD_Orion2.pof <-- The .pof

The turrets that don't work properly are the first one, and the last four.

My apologies if it's a huge newbie mistake that's supposed to be obvious, but these are my first non dorsal/ventral multipart turrets.

[Droid803]

uvecs and fvecs are separated by commas instead of colons.

I can probably fix all of them for you, actually that'd probably be faster than explaining some of the other mini-problems one by one XD

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/126554/FS2/SD_Orion2.pof

there we go.
all the side/front turrets should have proper fvecs and uvecs :3

[StargateSpankyHam]

Well, for some odd reason, the turrets still don't point in the right directions - although the directions are noticably different now.

However, importing turret subobjects from other models is deceptively easy - so those five multipart beam turrets are now Raynor-style, non-multipart, glowing dish turrets.

I am a little disappointed that I took the lazier solution - although in this case, the less technically challenging of the turrets fits better with the rest of the GTVA.

Tomorrow's mission - delete the Hecate's non-glowing dish turrets, and replace them with the glowing ones.

[Droid803]

Hrm, I ran into something weird with PCS2 subobject importing, namely it isn't perfect...if the sources you're importing from aren't (well duh).
x-forms and whatnot aren't reset so even if it looks right in PCS2 it may break in FSO >.> That might be the issue with those multiparts, I don't see what else it could be seeing as I have like 50+ sidemounted multiparts set up the same way and they all work.

[StargateSpankyHam]

This problem still has my curiosity - I'm going to import one of the raynor or titan multipart missile turrets, and try and put it on the side of the Orion.

That way, we can isolate the source of the problem (hopefully). If it's just a buggy multipart turret model, then if I understand you correctly, importing any other (presumably non-bugged) multipart turret should work.

Anyway, onto more grand and spectacular things...

In one mission, I'm going to have a ship explode upon entering subspace, while it is halfway through the subspace window. The 'cause' of the explosion is supposed to be the front end of the ship being shredded and ripped apart by violent distortions in subspace.

Would it be possible to make a custom subspace window effect for this? Is it like the shockwave.eff file, with all the .dds image files to go along with it? Or is it a .ani file (and if so, could someone plz point me to a program that can open, edit, and save .ani's easily?) I imagine replacing the existing one entirely with the new one would not be monumentally difficult - but I will only need to use this 'special' effect a couple times over the entire course of the campaign.

Similarly, would it be possible to change the shockwave used, when the ship explodes? I already plan to use a seperate ship in the ships.tbl file, with an instantaneous explosion, rather than lingering around and exploding a few seconds after the hull integrity reaches zero.

Also, I read somewhere that it was possible to spawn weapon projectiles into a mission, via a SEXP. Is there a tutorial on this somewhere? I'm considering using it to generate a 'spray' of projectile-debris, in front of the subspace window - assuming that drawing that many projectiles on the screen at once won't make peoples' PC's melt down.

Spoiler:

The Shivans are going to use a wide-area subspace disruptor, left over from an eons-old war. It's essentially a galaxy-wide endgame device, instantly blowing up any ship that enters subspace. Subspace stabilizers on Shivan ships negate the distortions in immediate proximity to them, allowing them to move about freely. If the battlegroup the player is travelling with did not have access to captured Shivan ships, this would effectively have been the end of the GTVA, and the extermination of everything in the galaxy that's not Shivan.

Yes, I have watched too much Stargate Atlantis

[Droid803]

I think there can only be like, two different subspace effects to my knowledge (I may be wrong though), normal, and knossos.
If Knossoses don't appear in Singularity you can just replace that one, and then just use special warp in FRED (or fake it entirely by simply accelerating the ship into a effect-generated vortex )

Subspace vortexes are an animated texture on a static model.
You can replace the model, or just replace the animated texture. EFF/Ani doesn't matter.

You can definitely change the shockwave used when the ship explodes. At most, you'd just need to make a duplicate ship entry defining another type of shockwave effect. (that is, if you can't do so in FRED with special explosion).

As for that last one, weapon-create SEXP. I generates a projectile at (x,y,z) going towards (x1,y1,z1) at its tabled max velocity. pretty simple.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Really, there are different warp effects for the knossos warp? I never noticed.

There will be knossos-type warps in the campaign, but would anyone else notice if I didn't use the current special warp effect, and instead used the default warp for knossos jumps?

Also, probably more importantly, can I use a .eff for a weapon loadout icon? At present, the most important assets I am missing are primary weapon icons for my custom weaponry. I know there need to be four frames, apparently for four different states of the icon. Probably one for normal, one for selected, one for click/drag, and one for unavailable (as in, unmountable on the fighter)? I also read somewhere that something special needed to be done to the briefing icons during creation - something with the color, if memory serves correct - since apparently Freespace 2 cannot display multi-color briefing icons?

Overall though, it sounds like all of the warp effects will be manageable - and not even excessively difficult or complex! Which means, assuming I don't get lazy, I'll have a video to post in a few days.

[Droid803]

Knossos warps are green compared to blue.

And...I don't think so. The interface requires ANIs for the most part, with a very strict color palette, so no EFFs. You gotta make anis with a very specific color palette, and even then it'll just randomly not work half the time.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Oh hell...I suppose the total lack of more weapon .ani's in other mods is testament enough to the extreme difficulty of making working ones. I imagine that reusing the Morning Star's .ani probably wasn't the BP team's first choice for the Balor.

...How hard would it be to find a modeler to make some rudimentary models of primary weapons?

[Droid803]

its not the models. its the goddamn ani.
actually, you could probably ask mjn about both

EDIT: nopen ot the models, but you could just grab models of guns and chop the handles off \o/

[StargateSpankyHam]

 

...What?

I should probably be more clear. I meant: What if I did what they did in BP: WiH, and used the option to display primary models in the UI, instead of a .ani file? If I understand correctly, then I wouldn't need new .ani files, just models of the primary weapons.

Also, chopping the handles off of guns? Lulz! This would not work for Shivan weapons!

[mjn.mixael]

Your solution to the ANI issue.

Make a 4 frame image sequence matching the general colors of a retail select ANI. (Just use an retail SSXXXXXX.ani as a judge)

Then run userani.cmd and answer the questions. Please read the readme.txt to understand how the files should be setup.

[Droid803]

Also, chopping the handles off of guns? Lulz! This would not work for Shivan weapons!

yes it would you just need to find evil looking guns and put some red glows on the texture

[StargateSpankyHam]

Ran the installer as per the readme instructions, and made four dds files for a primary weapon icon .ani. Unfortunately, when I placed the autoani.cmd into my C:\Anims\ShivScythe directory, with the four files 'ShivScythe0000.dds through ShivScythe0003.dds, and when run, it says that the image sequence is improperly named or cannot be found. Python and Irfanview have been installed to the C drive - and while not automatically detected, the setup did run properly after I manually designated the directories.

Can it not handle .dds files, or did I do something wrong?

EDIT: Just tried it with .jpg, .bmp, and .png - same error.

[StargateSpankyHam]

After a careful reread (and a re-setup), I put the files in the render folder, and the autoani seemed to work - at first. But it did not bring up the ani builder as indicated in the readme. The command prompt popped up for about a half-second, spewed some lines of text, generated the temporary folders, and disappeared.