Page 7 of 24

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:47 pm
by Griff
A few months ago Commander McLane decided to take up a modelling career (we can only hope he shaved his legs first) and started a thread about it, it's full of cool tips about using wings 3d to make ships for oolite, it's sunk a few pages down the forum now though so it may be worth posting the link to it here again
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=4718

using co-oords in wings to place model subentities:
You can use Wings to get the positions for exhausts, flashers etc by looking up vertex co-ordinates, make sure you 'flip' the X co-ordinate value (the first of the 3 co-ordinate numbers), ie make it a negative value if it's originally a positive value, or make it a positive value if it's originally a negative value
Image
in the pic above, if i wanted a exhaust plume to originate at the highlighted vertex's position in oolite, the co-ordinates in the shipdata.plist would be 1.0 1.0 1.0 and not -1.0 1.0 1.0

exporting a texture template from Wings3d into GIMP (or any other paint program)
1. When you've got your UV's laid out as you wish, right click in the AutoUV: window and select Create Texture.

2. In the Draw options box that appears, set the resolution to something suitable eg 512x512, in the render options, make sure 0: is 'Background' and 1: is 'Draw Edges', 2&3 should both be set to 'None'.

3. Click the Options box for the Background layer, select 'Color' and then click the Color Swatch so we can specify a new background color - leave the RGB and HSV sliders as they are but make sure to slide the the A (alpha) slider all the way down to 0.0 - this will make the background colour transparent. Click OK, then Click OK on the 'Background' box, then finally click OK on the 'Draw Options' box.

4. In the Outliner window there should be a new image at the bottom of the list with a filename probably ending in _auv, click to select then right click on it's name and choose 'Export...' save out the image as a .png

5. Open GIMP and load up your saved image. Open the Layer palette - there should be only 1 layer present called Background. Rename this layer to Template then click the Lock option to stop you being able to paint in this layer.

6. Create a new layer and in the layer palette drag the new layer BELOW the Template Layer (always keep the template layer at the top of the stack, this way you will never obscure the UV outlines so you can see exactly where you need to paint).

7. Select your new layer and begin painting! Once you're ready to save out your final image map, click the Eye icon beside the Template layer to switch off it's visibility so that it doesn't appear in your final texture, then save out your image.

@ Thargoid
I think i've got the tutorial you mean saved on my pc's hard disk. It was in a thread on these boards called "Rotation's Logic" started by Draco_Caeles, but i think it got so old it got automatically deleted.
I've pasted the tutorial (by Aegidian) below

Quick and easy instructions for wings3D.

1. Make a panel on your main model where the dock entrance will be. A rectangle 192x64 is ideal, but you can go bigger - and use different shapes.

2. Assign the special material '_hole_' to the rectangle.

3. While you have it selected make a note of the coordinates of the centre of the rectangle.

4. As a separate model, make a cube then scale it to the dimensions of your rectangle and a depth of 250. So a cube scaled to 192 x 64 x 250.

5. Select the face of the cube facing the same way as your dock entrance in (1.) and assign it the '_hole_' material.

6. While it's selected choose Tools - Center - All from the menu to move that face to the origin.

7. Select the object, and from the right-click menu choose Invert to turn the cube 'inside out'. It should look something like this:
Image

8. Texture your new dock. And convert it to an Oolite .dat model file.

9. Position the new dock as a subentity of the station, at the coordinates you noted down in (3.)

10. You should now be done. You can vary the shape of the dock entrance in stage 1. If you copy and paste the panel into a new model you can even use it to extrude the dock shape.

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:45 pm
by Thargoid
Griff - Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of. Might be a candidate to put on the wiki maybe?

firefly's serenity

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:43 am
by chomann
Okay I am now Officially starting work on a Firefly Serenity. ANYONE who has any comments or suggestions please let me know. Originally the serenity has no weapons so there will be a shift in roles there. As of right now Im planning on making her around 80x40x140 in size, with ample cargo size, I also do NOT want to create an UBER ship so to keep the theme of firefly the cargo should be the major factor. With some capabilities to defend. Althouth I am not totally against making a medium fighter/cargo transport... but any suggestions for cargo size, weapon specs, speeds or anything can help I want to build a ship for the community, and myself. not make the next Uber ship...(an adder can be a uber ship with a little bit of text editing... and im agains all forms of modding my save file) so giveme some input.. thanks

i do plan on making 2 versions 1 for 1.7 and one for 1.65...anyone know how to place some rotational action of the tail end of ship like the engines on the firefly?

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:36 am
by DaddyHoggy
With regards to Cargo capacity - the Serenity had a pretty huge cargo bay but it didn't look particularly optimised for mass storage! In fact the fullest it ever got was when it was full of cows = so she can certainly hold a few hundred milling cattle!

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:59 pm
by ClymAngus
DaddyHoggy wrote:
With regards to Cargo capacity - the Serenity had a pretty huge cargo bay but it didn't look particularly optimised for mass storage! In fact the fullest it ever got was when it was full of cows = so she can certainly hold a few hundred milling cattle!
so cow weighs a shy under half a ton (apparently) so 300 cows would be 150-160 tons? That's a pretty good storage weight, enough to clean out a couple of commodities and have room spare for a bit of deep space pick me up.

Re: firefly's serenity

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:36 pm
by drew
chomann wrote:
Okay I am now Officially starting work on a Firefly Serenity.
:shock: :D 8)

Yes!

Cheers,

Drew.

so far

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:56 pm
by chomann
so far ive been working on the modeling and tweaking and many pages of note taking... so far it looks as though the serenity will hold about 150 tc with the extra cargo extension adding (i'm thinking) around 15-25 tc. As for the weapons issue. I have some votes to limit the laser to the mining laser and not allowing the military laser to be equipped, let me know how you guys feel about that one. I also have a mention that the serenity should be limited to 2 missiles, with the added missiles pack this may be too few missles, but then again the serenity is made for scavaging and running. That being said it should be VERY fast. since transports run at about 80 and themark 3 is at around 360 (thats .36 lm), once again i turn to the population for max speed suggestions... as of now the ship comes in at about 40 meters tall, 80 meters side to side, and 140 meters long. it can go bigger but the height must remain lower than 64, and anything tooo close gets hard to dock...i also need to keep proportions.

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:29 pm
by DaddyHoggy
Happy with the dimensions - happy with the TC - happy with the lasers - max beam front - mining elsewhere - fine - only two missiles - hmmm - 3 for luck I think. As for speed - yes - should be fast - 0.45 kinda fast. Will she have the option to have Injectors - mil shielding, mil energy unit?

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:32 pm
by chomann
DaddyHoggy wrote:
Happy with the dimensions - happy with the TC - happy with the lasers - max beam front - mining elsewhere - fine - only two missiles - hmmm - 3 for luck I think. As for speed - yes - should be fast - 0.45 kinda fast. Will she have the option to have Injectors - mil shielding, mil energy unit?
for defenses since the original serenity scavanged i believe that all defenses should be capaable but weapons no... also how many energy banks shoudl she have...the firefly is notoriously fast, and i assume proably has more "energy" with its rear engine!

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:44 pm
by DaddyHoggy
OK - should have at least a turret weapon since the crew managed to modify the ship to do this in the film...

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:03 pm
by chomann
a turret... would this be added as a subentry? and turrets are able in the 1.65 version right? i want to make the oxp work in both versions..1.65 and 1.7..and yea the mining laser can be anywhere you want it front, rear, side whatever... but overall there will be no military laser option as for the turret... you think it should be ai scripted or player controlled...liek a front weapon...i really havent worked with turrets at all yet... tell me all you knwo about them...please

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:49 pm
by LittleBear
Turrets work in 1.65 and 1.72. However, the rub is that in 1.65 a turret on a player ship is just for show. Only NPCs can actually fire their turrets in 1.65.

So if you make a model with turrets in 1.65 only NPC versions of the craft will actually use them (boo!). On 1.72 if the player gets himself a ship with turrets then the turrets will lock onto hostiles and attack them.

An OXP ship with turrets will work on both 1.65 and 1.72, but the player will only gain a benefit if he is playing on 1.72.

thanks

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:28 am
by chomann
aha thanks again LB...all the more reason for the two different versions

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 8:57 pm
by Thargoid
I'm trying to put together a little station with a shipyard at the same tech level as the system it's currently in. I've put in what I think are the needed keys in the shipdata.plist, but no shipyard happens if I dock with it and then F3-F3. Can someone cast a knowing eye over the shipdata entry below and tell me which particularly simple idiot error I'm making please?

Tried to spawn it in the Leesti system at the moment (tech 11). The coriolis has a nice shipyard, my little station doesn't... :( It's based on a rock hermit as reference...

Code: Select all

{
	"pf_testStation" =
	{
		name = "Test Station";
		roles = "pf_testStation station(0)";
		ai_type = "stationAI.plist";
		cargo_type = "CARGO_NOT_CARGO";
		energy_recharge_rate = 100;
		forward_weapon_type = "WEAPON_NONE";
		frangible = no;
		has_ecm = yes;
		has_escape_pod = no;
		has_scoop = no;
		hasShipyard = 1;
		isCarrier = 1;
		equipment_price_factor = 0.8;
		has_npc_traffic = 0;
		max_energy = 25000;
		max_flight_pitch = 8;
		max_flight_roll = 8;
		max_flight_speed = 0;
		model = "new-rock.dat";
		port_radius = 500;
		requires_docking_clearance = no;
		smooth = yes;
		subentities = ( "hermit-docking-slit 0 0 0 1 0 0 0" );
		thrust = 100;
		weapon_energy = 0;
		materials =
		{
			"asteroid.png" =
			{
				shininess = 2;
				specular = (0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 1.0);
			};
		};
	}
}
[/color]

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 9:41 pm
by another_commander
This is a bug that was resolved after the 1.72 release, in SVN revision 1856 (hasShipyard was not working). Will be OK for next release.