Tangents are used for lighting purposes. Specifically to allow the smooth light/shadow transition across the surface of a model, instead of polygon jumping you get when there are no tangents specified. I had the exact same issue when I tried to import my first model, I'm quite sure that's the problem you're having.
You probably haven't set the Alpha channel in the color texture (the *_cl.dds). The Alpha channel is responsible for the visibility of the texture which is used for blending purposes. Normally it has to be full white, so check if yours is perhaps black or isn't there.
That is a normal map issue. Make sure your model has a normal map texture assigned, and also make sure the tangents have been generated for it. You can check that easily by opening the .mesh file in notepad and checking out the Tangent entries under vertices. If they happen to be all zeroes, then you don't have tangents generated. In XSI you do that by selecting your model, then going Property->Tangent.
Gah, my bad. Yes, you are correct about that... what I meant to say (and failed miserably, blame lack of sleep) is: 1. As you already said, copy the original files from the game directory - since they are already converted to binary it cuts down on loading times a lot. Then one can use the text versions of the files which need to be changed, since its impractical to convert them every time a change is made. 2. Also when making a mod its best to create a separate folder where yo
All models can be resized using a 3D editing software like 3DSMax or XSI. Do note however, that planets and stars have an animated effect (cloudlayer for planets and surface motion for stars) which seems hardcoded size-wise and is lost when the models are resized.
A heads up - SoaSE supports any number of races you want. There is no hardcoded limit. The only limit is how much work you want to put in. ;)
There should only be "GameInfo" folder, the "Reference Data" folder is just where the various files are kept in text form for the modding pack. So move your folders in the "Reference Data" directly to the mod folder. That should fix it. Or give you a minidump if you messed something up. ;) Actually, if all you are going to do is edit .entity files, then I suggest simply copying ONLY the files you changed to the "GameInfo" folder of your mod. There is no need to copy yht entire GameInfo
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Thanks for the support everyone, that's a lot of positive feedback I'm getting! Great stuff. :) Status update. Ze frigate line is allmost complete! The pace has slowed down a bit this week since I had some other obligations to focus on, but none the less one model and texture (minus final tweaking) is complete. I generally don't post screens untill I have a finalized version to show, but that's what concept sketches are for. :p [link="http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xi
Very nice implementation, and a very nice model in itself too! :) There are many more ways to use this, and you are right when you say it brings an element of life (not to say the immersion factor) to the models. Turbolift pods, elevators, sensor and radar dishes, machinery, hell if you really want to go for the grand prize you could even animate pedestrian and other traffic through hangars and such. :D
Yes, the particle effects can be used for that very purpose. In fact, I already created some simple structure animations with the system, and I plan on making animated details such as elevators, sensor dishes, centrifugal sections etc. to some of my models. One thing to note though - particle systems sometimes take a moment to show up, so that may create some momentary wierdness if you use large stuff like that missing section.
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Asiriya, yes, with the doomsday devices you will see instant kills. In fact, as they are meant to replace the racial superweapons, I intend to have them suitably powerful. The Xin will, for example, generate an artificial mini-nova, with the chance of decimating an entire gravity well; the Hegemony will be able to use their cultural and military heritage to create an awesome display of might which will have a similar cultural impact as the current Advent superweapon. And the Remnant will just de
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I have two more frigates, the siege and colony ships, to finish; then I will start on the cruisers and after that on cap ships. I have to note that Xin (and later, all) ships will be considerably larger than what you can see in vanilla game. The drones are an exception, and I may even downsize them a bit (the Assault Drone is currently around 90m long) depending on how they look next to the cruisers. Also, the planets themselves will be resized (about 3 times larger) along with the gravity wells
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And here I am again. A short (too short) vacation later and I have some more screens to show off. These are kind of special because they mark the transition from small-ish frigates to humongous structures, the making of which has finalized how the big Xin ships will look regarding the texturing and surface design. Feel free to comment, what you like (in which case the Xin shall reward you by placing your brain in a nutrient jar for further study, you may even be allowed to think occasio
I thought, maybe it has a problem with "xinl" or something like that. But even "FrigateXinlLongRange" works. And no, it can't be the "Xin" part since I have "FrigateXinScout", "FrigateXinLight" and "FrigateXinAntiFighter" working just fine. I do think it has something to do with the parsing. Its just annoying, wasting time hunting such elusive and illogical bugs as this... I don't mind debugging, but its damn hard when you have to look in the most illogical of places.
I ended up calling the entity "FrigateXinaLongRange" and it works. Go figure. And to think I wasted allmost an hour on this... :(
I found it, and its got to be a bug. The game crashes when I enter "FrigateXinLongRange" in the PlayerXin.entity file. If I enter "FrigatePhaseLongRange" and change all the string ID entries and mesh calls in the corresponding file, it works. If I change it to "FrigatePhasLongRange" with the same as above, it works. Why it finds the "FrigateXinLongRange" so offensive is beyond me, especially since three other units use the same naming convention without a problem. So for now I got the w
I don't know what it is, but I thought to post my problem here and see if someone has an idea. Ok, so I want to add a new unit to my new race. I have already done this with several other units without an issue. I have prepared: -the new mesh file -the new .entity file, which is (for testing purposes) *identical* to the vanilla file except for the String entries for name and description and the mesh entry -changed the appropriate entry in the player .entity file to point to the new .en
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Bailknight, no, as far as I know there is no way to make a structure move. Titans will be just another type of ship. A bigger, badder, nasty piece of hardware though. ;) The number of cap ships is currently hardcoded. However, I am quite sure by the time the mod is ready for release, that particular problem will be fixed. Some may call that optimistic, but it is a simple enough change and much asked for by the modding community. Dark_Lord1399, the Remnant will fill the role of the "huma
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Glad you like it! :) Dark_lord1399, the way Titans will be introduced: the mod is planned to come out in three releases; when the first release comes out, only the Xin will have a Titan - it will actually replace their superweapon, and I intend to do the same with the other racial superweapons, replacing the existing structures with something more defensive and less annoying. Fleet HQ maybe, or a Citadel. I feel there is simply something very rotten about giant space cannon spammage. Ha
Yes, that would be nice. I'm more in it from the art side, but having the ability to actually change base game behaviour is, in my opnion, a must. Either that, or at least allow expansion on existing grounds. Adding more weapon types per ship, new entity types etc. would be something like that. Now, I would certainly welcome new tools such as the Particle Forge (I hope there will be a preview renderer included ;) ), but I also hope we will get tools for abovementioned stuff, not just an
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Yeah, I really like how the ships turned out together myself too. You should see them in action. Actually, you will, as soon as I touch up the particle effects. ;) In the meantime, here is a concept shot of the first orbital module I've made for the Xin. [link="http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xindronefactorynl3.jpg"][IMG]http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9901/xindronefactorynl3.th.jpg[/IMG][/link] I have to say, even though making larger models is more demandin
That makes no sense. A game sells better and longer the more quality mods are available for it. I know when the original Counter-Strike came out, people were actually buying Half-Life just so they could play CS. I mean, that's the idea behind the modability in the end... the better mods we make, the better (and longer) the game will sell.
I have a slight feeling that the SDK, or a near equivalent, is in the making. I might be wrong though, its just a hunch. I hope they plan on making it possible to at least expand the scope of the game, for example add new ship types and change the numbers such as weapon type limits and fighter squadrons (I have no idea why this is not already modable...), since it creates a real obstacle for pretty much every mod out there which seeks to bring new stuff to the game, not just change skins and sta
You need to edit the brushes files, specifically those that handle icons. They way they work is as follows (buttons in this example) - there are several large files containing textures for all the icons and buttons in all their states (pressed, disabled etc.); the brushes files contain references to those files as well as coordinates (pixelbox) telling the game which part of the image to draw for the button. So if you add new buttons to the game, you need to both add the art in the appropriate f
I think the only way to do that is to remove the particle effect references in the .entity files of all the abilities and buffs which have particle effects. It is entirely possible to do that (in fact is on my to-do list for the Last Stand for precisely the same reason) but may require a few hours of work to go through all of them.