Wing Commander Models Update

[mkruer]

I have just released a 0.3.0 file pack for the wing commander ships. All the ships have now been converted into one of the following 3 formats, cob, 3ds or obj. This should allow just about any modeling program out there to read the files, if not there are tons of converters.

You can find the package here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... e_id=46125
50MB file 130MB uncompressed.

Next objective goals
• More removal of redundant ships
• Complete conversion of all formats into the obj format.
• Adding of new ships.

Quick and Dirty VegaStrike Modeling Schema (QDVSMS)

This is a simple schema to help standardize all the models currently available for VegaStrike. The general purpose is to make the models and structures easier to read.

Directory Prefix
The Directory is the fundamental building block for all models. Each model should be kept in its own unique directory. This eliminates cross linking ships accidentally. The directory name is the first part of the prefix structure to help identify the model. The file part of the directory name is to identify the quality of the model. This is subjective, but it is to give a measure of the quality of the model without having to open the model for viewing. As all the models are reviewed and sorted, the prefix, with the exception of the ogm will disappear.

lq. Low Quality; these are the lowest
aq. Average Quality; represents the average quality of most game models
hq. High Quality; these are models that above the average, but not in the extreme range
eq. Extreme Quality; these are models that have detail so great that using them for game play becomes impractical.
ogm. Original game model, models ported directly from another game.

Optional suffix for the ogm prefix:
This is for the ships that are direct conversion from other games, texture included
wc3. ship model comes directly from Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger game.
wc4. ship model comes directly from Wing Commander 4: Price of Freedom game.
wcp. ship model comes directly from Wing Commander: Prophecy game.
wca. ship model comes directly from Wing Commander: Academy game.
If you are using the model but are replacing the texture, please see, Name Suffix (Level 2) or Description Suffix (Level 4) to specify changes to the textures.


Class Suffix (Level 1)
This is simply the type/class name of the ship.
aq.bengal

Name Suffix (Level 2)
This is for a specific ship to define individual ships.
aq.bengal.tigers_claw

Alignment Suffix (Level 3)
Alignment is what faction the ship belongs to. Note: This is not to be used to define the race. Race is a root directory classification.

tc. Terrain Confederation (assumed default)
pr. Pirate
cv. Civilian
bw. Border Worlds
aq.bengal.tigers_claw.tc


Description Suffix (Level 4)
The description suffix was added to describe changes to an existing model. i.e. color, damage, etc…
aq.bengal.tigers_claw.destroyed.tc

Version Suffix (Level 5)
Version Suffix is a last catch all for any ships that fell through all the prior levels. This level should be avoided.
aq.bengal.tigers_claw.tc.destroyed.v2

Not all ships will require all the levels of the Suffixes. You can add the levels you need to describe the ship. However all the Suffixes should be kept in the appropriate order. (P,1,2,3,4,5)

Code: Select all

WC_Ships
+---common
|   +---guns
|   |   +---lq.antimatter
|   |   +---lq.flak
|   |   +---lq.laser
|   |   +---lq.massdriver
|   |   +---lq.meson
|   |   +---lq.neutron
|   |   +---lq.particle_cannon
|   |   +---lq.plasma
|   |   \---lq.tachyon
|   +---mines
|   |   +---hq.jumpbuoy
|   |   +---hq.laser_mine
|   |   +---hq.mine
|   |   \---omg.wc4.laser_mine
|   +---missles
|   |   +---aq.image_recognition
|   |   +---aq.missile
|   |   +---aq.torpedo
|   |   +---hq.dart.direct_fire
|   |   +---hq.ea.heavy_missile
|   |   +---hq.ea.medium_missile
|   |   +---hq.ea.small_missile
|   |   +---hq.ea.torpedo
|   |   +---hq.friend_or_foe
|   |   +---hq.heat_seeking
|   |   +---hq.javelin.heat_seeking
|   |   +---hq.leech
|   |   +---hq.pilum
|   |   +---hq.spiculum
|   |   \---hq.torpedo
|   \---turrets
|   +---aq.turret
|   +---lq.generic_turret.gun
|   +---lq.turret
|   +---lq.turret_beam
|   +---lq.turret_beam_heavy
|   +---lq.turret_body
|   +---lq.turret_body.green
|   +---lq.turret_gun
|   +---lq.turret_gun.green
|   +---lq.turret_gun.v2
|   +---lq.turret_gun_heavy
|   +---lq.turret_gun_small
|   +---lq.turret_heavy
|   +---lq.turret_main
|   +---lq.turret_main_gun
|   +---lq.turret_main_gun_heavy
|   +---lq.turret_main_heavy
|   \---lq.turret_small
+---kilrathi
|   +---bhantkara
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.bhantkara
|   +---boodfang_mk_ii
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.boodfang
|   +---corvette
|   |   +---ogm.wcp.corvette
|   |   \---ogm.wcp.corvette.v2
|   +---darket
|   |   +---ogm.darket
|   |   \---ogm.darket.v2
|   +---drakhri_mk_iv
|   |   +---hq.drakhri_mk_iv
|   |   \---ogm.dralthi_mk_iv
|   +---dralthi
|   |   +---eq.dralthi
|   |   +---hq.drakhri
|   |   \---lq.dralthi
|   +---dralthi_mk_x
|   |   \---hq.dralthi_mk_x
|   +---dreadnaught
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.dreadnaught
|   +---ekapshi
|   |   +---ogm.wc3.ekapshi
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.ekapshi.v2
|   +---fralthi
|   |   \---aq.fralthi
|   +---fralthi_ii
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.fralthi_ii
|   +---fralthra
|   |   +---hq.fralthra
|   |   \---lq.heavy_destroyer
|   +---goran
|   |   +---ogm.wca.goran
|   |   \---ogm.wca.goran.v2
|   +---gothri
|   |   \---hq.gothri
|   +---gratha
|   |   \---lq.gratha
|   +---grikath
|   |   \---hq.grikath
|   +---heavy_destroyer
|   |   \---ogm.heavy_destroyer
|   +---jalkehi
|   |   +---aq.jalkehi
|   |   \---lq.jalkehi
|   +---jalthi
|   |   +---aq.jalthi
|   |   \---ogm.jalthi
|   +---jrathek
|   |   +---ogm.jrathek
|   |   \---ogm.jrathek.v2
|   +---kamekh
|   |   \---aq.kamekh
|   +---khahaf
|   |   +---ogm.wc3.khahaf
|   |   +---ogm.wc3.khahaf.v2
|   |   \---ogm.wc4.khahaf
|   +---korlarh
|   |   +---ogm.korlarh
|   |   +---ogm.wca.korlarh
|   |   \---ogm.wca.korlarh.v2
|   +---krant
|   |   \---lq.krant
|   +---light_destroyer
|   |   +---ogm.wc3.light_destroyer
|   |   +---ogm.wc3.light_destroyer.pr
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.light_destroyer.v2
|   +---paktahn
|   |   +---aq.paktahn
|   |   +---hq.paktahn
|   |   \---ogm.paktahn
|   +---ralari
|   |   \---aq.ralari
|   +---salthi
|   |   \---aq.salthi
|   +---shoklar
|   |   \---ogm.shoklar
|   +---sorthak
|   |   \---ogm.sorthak
|   +---starbase
|   |   \---ogm.wcp.starbase
|   +---strakha
|   |   +---aq.strakha
|   |   +---aq.strakha.v2
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.strakha
|   +---transport
|   |   \---ogm.wc3.transport
|   \---vaktoth
|   +---hq.vaktoth
|   \---ogm.vaktoth
+---nephilim
|   +---ogm.tiamat
|   +---ogm.wcp.devil_ray
|   +---ogm.wcp.lamprey
|   +---ogm.wcp.manta
|   +---ogm.wcp.manta_red
|   +---ogm.wcp.moray
|   +---ogm.wcp.raynode
|   +---ogm.wcp.skate
|   +---ogm.wcp.skate_b
|   +---ogm.wcp.skate_m
|   +---ogm.wcp.skate_t
|   +---ogm.wcp.squid
|   \---ogm.wcp.stingray
\---terran
+---arrow
|   +---aq.arrow.v1
|   +---aq.arrow.v2
|   +---aq.arrow.v4
|   +---hq.arrow
|   +---lq.arrow
|   \---ogm.wca.arrow
+---assault_shuttle
|   \---ogm.wc4.assault_shuttle
+---avenger
|   +---aq.avenger
|   \---ogm.wc4.avenger
+---banshee
|   +---ogm.banshee
|   +---ogm.wc4.banshee.boarder_worlds
|   \---ogm.wca.banshee.confederation
+---bearcat
|   +---aq.bearcat
|   +---lq.bearcat
|   +---ogm.wc4.bearcat
|   \---ogm.wc4.bearcat.v2
+---behemoth
|   +---Behemoth
|   |   \---Behemoth
|   \---ogm.behemoth
+---bengal
|   +---aq.bengal.tigers_claw
|   +---hq.bengal
|   \---lq.bengal.tigers_claw
+---black_lance_base
|   \---ogm.wc4.back_lance_base
+---broadsword
|   +---aq.broadsword
|   +---aq.broadsword.v2
|   \---aq.broadsword.v3
+---caernaven
|   +---ogm.caernaven.bw
|   +---ogm.caernaven.ct
|   +---ogm.caernaven.pr
|   +---ogm.caernaven.tc
|   +---ogm.wc3.caernaven
|   \---ogm.wc4.caernaven
+---centurion
|   +---lq.centurion
|   \---lq.centurion_deluxe
+---civilian_cruise_liner
|   \---ogm.wcp.civilian_cruise_liner
+---communications_relay
|   +---lq.communications_relay
|   +---lq.communications_relay.v2
|   \---ogm.wc4.communications_relay
+---concordia
|   +---ogm.concordia
|   +---ogm.concordia.freedom
|   +---ogm.concordia.invinsible
|   \---ogm.wc4.concordia.lexington
+---condor
|   \---ogm.condor
+---confederation
|   +---aq.confederation
|   \---eq.confederation.concordia
+---container
|   +---ogm.container.bw
|   \---ogm.container.ct
+---crossbow
|   +---hq.crossbow
|   \---hq.crossbow.v2
+---destroyer
|   +---eq.destroyer
|   +---ogm.wc3.destroyer
|   +---ogm.wc4.destroyer.sheffield.blue
|   \---ogm.wc4.destroyer.sheffield.green
+---devastator
|   \---ogm.wcp.devastator.black
+---diligent
|   \---diligent
+---dragon
|   +---ogm.wc4.dragon
|   \---ogm.wc4.dragon.v2
+---drayman
|   +---aq.drayman
|   \---hq.drayman
+---drayman_mk2
|   +---aq.drayman_mk2
|   \---eq.drayman.mk2
+---durango
|   \---ogm.wc4.durango
+---epee
|   +---eq.epee
|   +---lq.epee
|   \---lq.epee.v2
+---excalibur
|   +---eq.excalibur
|   \---ogm.wc4.excalibur
+---exeter
|   +---hq.exeter
|   \---lq.exeter
+---ferret
|   +---aq.ferret
|   +---aq.ferret.p
|   +---aq.ferret.v2
|   +---aq.ferret.v3
|   +---hq.ferret
|   +---hq.ferret.v2
|   +---lq.ferret
|   \---lq.ferret.v2
+---galaxy
|   +---eq.galaxy
|   \---lq.galaxy
+---gilgamesh
|   +---eq.gilgamesh
|   \---hq.gilgamesh
+---gladius
|   +---aq.gladius
|   +---lq.gladius
|   \---ogm.wca.gladius
+---hades
|   +---hq.hades
|   +---ogm.wcp.hades
|   \---ogm.wcp.hades.cerberus
+---hellcat_v
|   +---aq.hellcat_v
|   +---hq.hellcat_v
|   +---hq.hellcat_v.v2

|   \---lq.hellcat
+---hornet
|   +---hq.hornet
|   |   \---cockpit
|   \---hq.hornet.v2
+---longbow
|   +---ogm.wc3.longbow
|   +---ogm.wc4.longbow
|   +---ogm.wc4.longbow.v2
|   \---ogm.wcp.longbow
+---midway
|   \---ogm.wcp.midway
+---mining_base
|   \---aq.mining_bases
|   +---aq.mining_base
|   +---aq.mining_base.v2
|   \---aq.mining_base.v3
+---morningstar
|   +---eq.morningstar.full
|   \---hq.morningstar
+---murphy
|   +---eq.murphy
|   +---eq.murphy.v2
|   \---ogm.wcp.murphy
+---panther
|   \---ogm.wcp.panther.black
+---paradigm
|   \---eq.paradigm
+---pelican
|   \---ogm.wcp.pelican
+---phantom
|   +---aq.phantom
|   +---ogm.wca.phantom
|   \---ogm.wca.phantom.v2
+---piranha
|   \---ogm.wcp.piranha.black
+---plunkett
|   \---omg.wcp.plunkett
+---radar_array
|   \---ogm.wc4.radar_array
+---ranger
|   +---ogm.ranger.bw
|   +---ogm.wc3.ranger.victory
|   +---ogm.wc3.ranger_class
|   \---ogm.wc4.ranger_class.lexington
+---rapier
|   +---aq.rapier
|   \---lq.rapier
+---rapier_f-44
|   +---aq.rapier_f-44
|   |   +---cockpit
|   |   \---exterior
|   +---aq.rapier_f-44.pr
|   +---aq.rapier_f-44.v2
|   \---aq.rapier_f-44.v3
+---raptor
|   +---hq.raptor
|   +---lq.raptor
|   \---lq.raptor.v2
+---razor
|   \---ogm.wc4.razor
+---sabre
|   \---aq.sabre
+---scimitar
|   +---aq.scimitar
|   +---hq.scimitar
|   \---lq.scimitar
+---seahawk
|   \---ogm.seahawk
+---shrike
|   \---ogm.wcp.shrike
+---shuttle
|   +---ogm.wc3.shuttle
|   +---ogm.wc4.shuttle
|   +---ogm.wc4.shuttle.green
|   \---ogm.wc4.shuttle.grey
+---spacelab
|   \---aq.spacelab
+---space_station.refinery
|   \---aq.space_station.refinery
+---starbase
|   \---ogm.wc4.starbase
+---starbase.perry
|   \---aq.starbase.perry
+---stiletto
|   \---lq.stiletto
+---superbase
|   \---ogm.wc4.superbase.ella
+---tallahassee
|   +---eq.tallahassee
|   +---hq.tallahasse
|   +---ogm.tallahassee
|   +---ogm.wc3.tallahassee
|   \---ogm.wc4.tallahassee
+---talon
|   +---eq.talon.mlitia
|   +---eq.talon.pirate
|   +---eq.talon.retro
|   \---lq.talon
+---tarsus
|   \---eq.tarsus
+---thunderbolt_vii
|   +---aq.thunderbolt_vii
|   +---ogm.thunderbolt
|   +---ogm.thunderbolt.p
|   +---ogm.wc3.thunderbolt
|   \---ogm.wc4.thunderbolt
+---tigershark
|   +---ogm.wcp.tigershark
|   \---ogm.wcp.tigershark.v2
+---transport
|   +---ogm.transport_loaded.bw
|   +---ogm.transport_loaded.ct
|   +---ogm.wc3.transport
|   +---ogm.wc4.transport.destroyed
|   \---ogm.wc4.transport.destroyed.v2
+---vampire
|   +---ogm.wcp.vampire
|   \---ogm.wcp.vampire.v2
+---venture
|   +---hq.venture
|   \---lq.venture
+---vesuvius
|   +---ogm.wcp.vesuvius
|   +---ogm.wcp.vesuvius.eisen
|   +---ogm.wcp.vesuvius.mckinley
|   +---ogm.wcp.vesuvius.st_hellens
|   +---ogm.wcp.vesuvius.v2
|   \---ogm.wcp.vesuvius.v3
+---vindicator
|   +---ogm.vindicator
|   +---ogm.wc4.vindicator
|   +---ogm.wc4.vindicator.v2
|   \---ogm.wc4.vindicator.v3
+---wasp
|   \---ogm.wcp.wasp
+---weapons_factory
|   \---ogm.wc4.weapons_factory
\---wraith
    +---lq.wraith
    \---ogm.wraith

Finally if anyone would like to add or edit any of the ships (i.e. check them out) and just post a message on which ship you are going to be modifying. Once you have completed the edits you can e-mail the ship(s) directly to me at wasteland@solsector.net

Notes for editing. A lot of the larger capital ships and some of the smaller ships have had there turrets melded to the body for some reason. If possible separate the turret from the body and into its component part. This will make it much easier latter on when animating the ship.

Any help would be appreciated. Have fun

You can find the package here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... e_id=46125
50MB file 130MB uncompressed.

[charlieg]

Excellent.

[scheherazade]

matthew << i'm finishing off the visible weapons models for the priv and RF guns... currently, there are 3 lod's per model. hq, mq, lq.
just have plasma, steltek, fusion, and rest_of_neutron to go and they are all done.

-scheherzade

[mkruer]

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by visible weapons models?

Also I want to make a correction/addition. The Quality of the ships in the prefix is not the LOD for that ship. Its simply a subjective way of organizing all the ships, nothing more. I am still debating whether or not I will remove it from a future package, but for now its simply there to aid in sorting.

Additional Directories for the units.

Unit
The unit subdirectory will store all the component parts of the ship, the main body, turrets, ship textures, etc…This is were all Level Of Detail LOD will be stored for that ship.

Cockpit
The cockpit subdirectory will store all the component parts that make of the cockpit, the cockpit model, cockpit textures, turret cockpit, etc…

Screen
Screens are the rooms for the larger ships, like the docking screen or weapons screen etc… all file associated with the ship, are to be stored here.

Accessories
The accessories directory is a general catch all for everything else. The accessories directory will hold the 2d/3d models that other ships bring up on their display. (A more accurate description will be added as time progresses.)

Final note. Yes I know there is a lot of redundancy, but I am working on a solution that will vastly reduce, if not completely remove all redundant data for the final package(s).

[scheherazade]

for the longest time (and ignored so by nearly everyone) vegastrike has has Vwep support. I.E. you can see the guns mounted onto the ships when you view them. All you gotta do is change 1 flag in the config, and voala, lasers no longer shoot out of nowhere, there are visible weapons now attached to the ship.

-scheherazade

[scheherazade]

also, i'm gonna make models for all external upgrades

engines
afterburners
cargo-module (? methinks)
missiles (underwing, vwep)
launchers (missile and torp underwing, if ammo > 1, launcher instead of single missile)
maybe radars, if there is a 3d interactive equiping screen, where the ship is opened up like in priv.

-scheherazade

[RFBurns]

Awsome, just incredibly awsome!

[mkruer]

Excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by visible weapons models?

Also I want to make a correction/addition. The Quality of the ships in the prefix is not the LOD for that ship. Its simply a subjective way of organizing all the ships, nothing more. I am still debating whether or not I will remove it from a future package, but for now its simply there to aid in sorting.

Additional Directories for the units.

Unit
The unit subdirectory will store all the component parts of the ship, the main body, turrets, ship textures, etc…This is were all Level Of Detail LOD will be stored for that ship.

Cockpit
The cockpit subdirectory will store all the component parts that make of the cockpit, the cockpit model, cockpit textures, turret cockpit, etc…

Screen
Screens are the rooms for the larger ships, like the docking screen or weapons screen etc… all file associated with the ship, are to be stored here.

Accessories
The accessories directory is a general catch all for everything else. The accessories directory will hold the 2d/3d models that other ships bring up on their display. (A more accurate description will be added as time progresses.)

Final note. Yes I know there is a lot of redundancy, but I am working on a solution that will vastly reduce, if not completely remove all redundant data for the final package(s).

I knew I forgot something.
The fifth type of directories is the sound directory.

Sounds
Sound that are ship specific are stored here. This can include ambient noise or background music. This directors is not for weapons sounds.

[ltercap]

All you gotta do is change 1 flag in the config, and voala, lasers no longer shoot out of nowhere, there are visible weapons now attached to the ship.

Which flag is that? I saw the meshes but didn't get them working

[MamiyaOtaru]

also, i'm gonna make models for all external upgrades

engines
afterburners
cargo-module (? methinks)
missiles (underwing, vwep)
launchers (missile and torp underwing, if ammo > 1, launcher instead of single missile)
maybe radars, if there is a 3d interactive equiping screen, where the ship is opened up like in priv.

-scheherazade

wow. So stuff like that should be left off of the ship models then.. nice.

Where are the radars mounted on the ships other than the centurion (where it's inside the nose)? I thought it was external on some of them, so it might be cool to model them even if you can't open up the centurion's nose.

So, the ship list is looking nice. Still a few missing as far as I can see.

My wishlist:
The Stiletto. Privateer the Reckoning (Freelancer mod) has one..
The Demon. Privateer the Reckoning (Freelancer mod) has one..
The Orion. I have one (my own) plus the reckonings edited version of it.
The Tarsus, in something other than EQ
The Centurion, in something other than LQ Is the lq that ugly one I converted ages ago?
The Galaxy something other than EQ or LQ. Is the LQ version the broken one with missing faces?

Basically, there is no Demon, and none of the privateer player ships in a useable state. EQ is no good, and LQ is just a little.. blah. It would be so much easier to dredge up motivation to finish a privateer mod if I had models for ANY of the player ships

[mkruer]

The Quality of the ships in the prefix is not the LOD for that ship. Its simply a subjective way of organizing all the ships, nothing more. I am still debating whether or not I will remove it from a future package, but for now its simply there to aid in sorting.

I am hoping by the time we get done, there will be only one ship for each class minus of course all the variants.

[RFBurns]

A P1 Kilrathi Dralthi would be nice too!

[incubator]

aye, I loved those P1 kilrathi ships (especially that big six-winged carrier)

[hellcatv]

Don't forget a high quality version of the stiletto
I was the dude responsible for the low quality version
...I hear these other mods are using a really pretty one--and given that it was my favorite ship in priv...

[MamiyaOtaru]

Quite right.. an aq version of the stiletto is also needed. I'd add that to my list if I could edit posts, so I'll add it here instead.

[scheherazade]

well, can't we ask the reckoning people for their models? i mean they are just fine in reckoning, so they'll be fine for us. no need to re invent the wheel when we know it works.. right?

-schehearzade

[MamiyaOtaru]

I talked to Bob McDob about it and he seemed open to the idea (I would hope so, they are using one of my models lol), though we would need the permission of whoever actually made the model. It's a matter of tracking them down, though I guess Bob would be a good place to start.

[mkruer]

The packager utility.

The packager utility is a simple concept, but complex to implement.

In simple terms the packager works by first creating a MD5 check sum for all files in the target directory and sub directories. The theory is that the MD5 check sum will eliminate all duplicate files because every different file has an effectively unique MD5 value. Knowing this the files are then compared to each other, separated and sorted accordingly (all the images in one directory, and the models in a another, sounds in another, etc… ) finally and this is the big question on what to do next.

All the files (specifically images, sounds) should be renamed to the MD5 checksum values. This would require, when the models are converted (to bxfm format) all the image names in the file to be replaced with the MD5 name. The models and all files associated with the models (scripts, spreadsheets) should assume the name of the directory they are in i.e. (aq.bengal.tigers_claw.destroyed.tc) with the final extension being the .bxfm or .py, .cvs, etc… extension. The only thing that you would have to know when programming a mission is the model name i.e. (aq.bengal.tigers_claw.destroyed.tc)
Just calling this one name of the ship, all the files would be associated with the ship would work.

From the end users POV the only thing that need to be kept unique is the directory name, which is not a hard thing to keep track of compared to every single file for all models and in all directories. Also because the name you use when creating the ships you can copy, rename and reuse other images without having to worry about file duplication, which makes it much easier to release models and add new ship with duplicate files. Where this could be the biggest help is in the capital ship area where most capital ships use the same images.

In the end you should end up with one huge (preferable zip) file that contains all ships. This utility would be used to create the final package for the models in the game. Because all redundancy would have been eliminated this will do two things, first it would reduce the over all size of the final file, and the memory resources would potential be increased because of elimination of duplicate files. (yes I know this exists in VS now, but to what extent, I do not know.)

I hope everyone understands the concept.

Anyone want to give it a shot?

[hellcatv]

this isn't sane

you want the filenames to be human readable
you don't want duplicates in your directory structure
shared textures should share names and reside in the texutres dir
shared meshes (and they can be partial meshes of a ship) should share names and reside in the meshes dir.

the download packages (NSIS compressed) do eliminate duplicate files like CVS/Root and other silly files that we sometimes forget to remove
but this belongs NO WHERE NEAR the working art data
period


PS: Zip archives of subdirectories are supported (eg unit.zip) --but I do assert that file names remain readable and duplicates are eliminated before release

[mkruer]

I forgot to mention. Is the packager utility worth the effort? Personally I think it is, but that should be obvious, it’s my idea.

Weigh in with what you think

To me the boils down to post processing before release.

note; this is branch release, not development, development stays the same, and unaffected by the process.

[scheherazade]

eh', i'm not keen on that idea. its got some sense in it, but is really up hill. directories and normal names are prefectly fine. changing things on that level is just bizzarre.

pk3/zips that just compress a dirtree is one thing, but changing the whole way things are done is another.

-scheherazade

[hellcatv]

we support pk3/zip so it's all good

and if you do

find . -exec md5sum {} \; | xargs sort

you get a nice list of files with the same md5sum next to each other
you can easily write a script to parse the list or go through by hand (scroll down) and eliminate duplicates

this works in windows (cygwin) or linux

[BobMcDob]

Hehe, truth be told I "appropriated" the Stiletto texture from one of the VegaStrike ships (the X-WA ships?), so technicaly we've been "sharing" resources virtually from the start.

The Demon was made by DMJC, and unless I'm horribly mistaken, didn't he start your team? :p

The Tarsus is a BoH_Havoc original. Textures are derived from Lynx, though, who is on Tolwyn(WCS)'s team. So you'll have to talk to him about that. Same with the Orion textures.

Galaxy is also by BoH_Havoc, though for the moment it's untextured.

The only person you may have problem with is Stannum, who made the Centurion ... I've been unable to reach him for various reasons (college in Dutchland?). Unless you can get him, I can't help you there.

I can provide Perry and New Constantinople, I don't think LVXOCCVLTA will have much of a problem there.

I'm still working on a Paradigm.

In return:

- The external weapons and raders sound pretty nifty - could you possibly exchange them to us for ship models? (That is, if they're not too high-poly).

- At one point you said you were working on a base scene was that ever completed? (BoH_Havoc had an incredible one for the mining base, but his computer crashed and he lost it all. I'm hopeful he can get back up to pace in that area).

- Mutual self-promotion - you pimp your mod and I pimp mine, in each others

This is far from a complete list of course, and forums aren't my favorite area to discuss things like this. Do you have an AIM or some other kind of IM so we can meet and discuss this further?

bob

[hellcatv]

this would be great!
please send me the new stiletto
I spent a long while getting that texture course you get credit for it

4863215
it's ICQ but you can add me through AIM as well

[scheherazade]

BobMcDob <<

http://mason.gmu.edu/~mbanach/work_in_progress2.jpg

latest models, 3 lod's each

2 need to have their textures filled out.

as you can see, only hte highest LOD really looks presentable.

this is because in VS i expected these situations :

staring at your ship up close
in combat
at a distance

so the first LOD is really high - 2000 faces, meant for close up viewing.
second lod is pretty low ~ 150 faces. meant to be recognizable, but nothing to stare at.
third lod is barely recognizable... the outer extents of shape as it may be seen. face counts are sub 40

textures aren't detailed on any besides the highest LOD.



what use is this to you? i dono. FreeLancer is a bit of a different situation.

the ship is pretty much always at a near-camera distance, but not in your face.

so basically, you'd make best use of the middle LOD, but with decent textures.


i had no plans on remapping the middle LOD's,

Although, since daniel did say he wanted the middle lod to look a lil nicer a while back, i could modify the middle lod's to be usable as a weapons model.

i dono if freelander lod's the guns. but in any case, i'm sure they're not 2k faces. so i dono if you wanna make that step.

IF you can LOD-out the highest LOD to only when it's super close to the camera then i guess they are of use to you.



as far as the performance doom-evangelists are concerned, tehy'll say your computer will explode and burn with a bunch of these guns in game... but i've ran VS with a large flight of centurions, each with 4 lasers mounted to them, only the highest LOD model, and there wasn't even a FPS difference.


and in case you wonder why the detail, i plan on ultimately replacing all the priv vehicles with art quality models, aggressively LOD'd to sensibility. [ 20K, 5K, 1K, 250, 50]


-scheherazade