help importing ships

Need help testing contributed art or code or having trouble getting your newest additions into game compatible format? Confused by changes to data formats? Reading through source and wondering what the developers were thinking when they wrote something? Need "how-to" style guidance for messing with VS internals? This is probably the right forum.
GustaveDelior
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help importing ships

Post by GustaveDelior »

first and foremost im not code savy, or anything like that. but i was wondering how to import ships created for vegastrike. a template of what i must do would help.
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Post by Dilloh »

First of all, make sure that you saved your model and textures in the correct formats, that should be bfxm and png layers, If you have trouble with that there are some experienced ship modellers around.

Afterwards, take a look at units.csv in your /units directory. I'd suggest to use csveditor2, available on the forum. Just take a line of a ship which seems to have similar specs to the ship you want to import, and duplicate it. Allocate new names and the correct folders, and you got a first prototype.

To make the ship buyable, you need to give it an entry in master_part_list.csv.
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Post by Halleck »

I've written down just about everything I know about the process in the article HowTo:Add Ships on the wiki. Give it a read! :P
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Post by GustaveDelior »

alright that kinda makes sense to me. I have no problem creating the 3d thingy for the ship and painting it (though that alone takes a long time.)
so the XML and PNG formats ore like different layers linking the ship to each little part to tell it how to work?
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Post by Halleck »

No.

The PNG is used for the texture.
There is no XML really. The BFXM format is based on the xmesh (XML Mesh) format, which you can convert to if you really need to hack VS-specific features around in your mesh.

The behavior of the ship is defined in the ship's row in the units.csv spreadsheet.

You should be able to edit units.csv with OpenOffice.org calc or M$ Excel. I personally prefer GAlex's Csveditor as mentioned, since it is custom built for vegastrike. You might also try vsdataboy if you can get it to not crash. These tools can be found in the developer tools section of the forums I think.
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Post by loki1950 »

Watch the save with Excel it has a tendency to do things the M$ way and bork the format. OO calc lets you choose your delimiters on save make sure text is not in quotes as that is one of it's save options that one has happened to me a few times when i accepted the default save options.

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Post by GustaveDelior »

well all that being said i guess its all on me with trial and error
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Post by peanutbutter »

What are Vegastrike tags.. ? -
[Vegastrike Tags] -> [Mount (Weapon)]
From this link here - http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... in_Wings3D

How do i hardpoint her ?
You know.., add bones ?

Is there a detailed, step by step tutorial on how to get a ship into VegaStrike ?
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Post by loki1950 »

[Vegastrike Tags] -> [Mount (Weapon)]
Those are just place holders for the wki software i believe

bones are only used if you are into animation and there is no animation of models in the VS engine(yet) as for the How to Halleck's wiki article is still the most complete http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/HowTo:Add_Ships.

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Post by peanutbutter »

So how does one arm her with weapons, turrets ?
I have modded other games that require joints with specific labels. e.x. h_scene root
h_hard points - hp01, hp02 etc..
h_damage - blah ...
m_group/objectname..
h_lights.. blah
VegaStrike does not have this system ?
How does the model tell the game where to fire its weapon from.., where to place the turret ?

And the page is empty ?
HowTo:Add Ships.
From VsWiki

(There is currently no text in this page)
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Post by bgaskey »

turrets and guns are placed in the units.csv file where the ship is defined. The model should just be the mesh itself linked to the appropriate textures. If you have a model done, I can process it (texture conversion etc.) and send it on to JackS for possible inclusion. 8) :wink:
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Post by loki1950 »

:oops: Sorry about that i did not check halleck's link this is the right one http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/HowTo:Add_Ships

all the weapon placements are defined in a separate file Units.csv which has a line for every unit in the game they are just entries in the proper field describing each mounts coordinates

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Post by peanutbutter »

bgaskey wrote:If you have a model done, I can process it (texture conversion etc.) and send it on to JackS for possible inclusion. 8) :wink:
Its' not a generic (orignal work) model, it' the BC 304, Daedalus class battlecruiser from the show StarGate. I have her textured and everything but i have sill haven't gotten to the shiny-texture part... how to disable it and all.
If you want, i could send you the mesh and all the relating textures, but something tells me, the mesh must be original work for it to be included into VS.
loki1950 wrote::oops: Sorry about that i did not check halleck's link this is the right one http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/HowTo:Add_Ships

all the weapon placements are defined in a separate file Units.csv which has a line for every unit in the game they are just entries in the proper field describing each mounts coordinates
Thank's, this is a lot simpler than i thought it would be... :D
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Post by bgaskey »

While the Daedalus from SG looks sweet 8) I don't think it has a place in VS per se. JackS has the final say on this, maybe I'll shoot him a PM letting him know. not all ships in VS include specmaps or glowmaps (the shiny ones) so its not really a necessity.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... pen_Models Gives a list of ships that are in progress, done, and need to be started. The Daedalus model could probably be modified a bit into several of these. Maybe call it the Patterson, an Andolian escort frigate.
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Post by peanutbutter »

Yeah, i thought so..., but don't worry, maybe in the future i'll do a mini StarGate mod.


And about the textures.., i don't know, i'm not sure what (effect ?, alphas, bumps, speculars ?) VS uses. I made my textures into PNG format, but they dont' show, i' mean they are too light and shiny.. you could hardly see them.
here, take a look. -
Image
Image
Image
I decided to test her out in place of the Sickle, for now. Can someone tell me how to arm her (the point on the mesh), or point me to where i can find the info.
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Post by Phlogios »

not all ships in VS include specmaps or glowmaps (the shiny ones) so its not really a necessity.
No. Ships look like crap without the shader maps!
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Post by peanutbutter »

My question is still left unanswered. How do i add mount points to my mesh.
This from another member's post. -
"6. Go back to your modelling application. It's time to get your mount points! Activate the equivalent of single vertex selection mode and select points where you think would make suitable weapon mount locations. Also, retrieve locations for engine mount(s) and cockpit.
7. Copy the vertex coordinates into units.csv at the appropriate location, i forget exactly what the column name is. Engine mounts are in a seperate column called LIGHT, though.
6. Once you've saved units.csv, edit a save game so that you have whatever ship you need to test. Then, load up vegastrike.
7. Rinse and repeat. "


What is "single vertex selection" and how do i do this in Wings 3d ?
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Post by Phlogios »

Create an object, with one vertex where the mount point is. Select this vertex and write down the coordinates.
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Post by peanutbutter »

Okay, i understand. All i need is the coordinates for the mount points. Now, just one more thing..., please bear with me here..., how do i create an object with just one vertex ? Or do you mean, create a plane (or cube) and select a single point.
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Post by Phlogios »

Whatever goes faster for you. ;)
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Post by peanutbutter »

Phlogios wrote:Whatever goes faster for you. ;)
Now, what is that suppose to mean ?
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Post by Phlogios »

What I meant was, that if it is easier to make a cube instead of a single vertex, do that, because in the end, it doesn't matter -- as long as you delete the cube before exporting the model.
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Post by peanutbutter »

So i dont need anything, just the coordinates. Why didn't you just say that... :?
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Post by mortaneous »

Because that was the gist of the instructions that you quoted previously asking for clarification on.

Phlogios provided you with one specific method for doing that to illustrate.
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Post by peanutbutter »

"whatever works faster for you" is a little vague, and could be interpreted to mean several different things when asked, "how do i create an object with just one vertex ? Or do you mean, create a plane (or cube) and select a single point"

A better answer would be, "you dont need anything but the coordinates to the mount points", because i initially thought (after reading this, "Activate the equivalent of single vertex selection mode and select points where you think would make suitable weapon mount locations"), i had to make a mount point/hard point of some sort, using the modeling application. Also, on the previous page, i had made it very clear by my "noobish" questions that i am new to modding VegaStrike.
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