starfury shipsets
 

i have not been around the forum much lately, but i remember talk about starfury from a while back.

the SF shipsets will be the same format as those to be used in SE5, and i seem to remember that people were already modding SF/SE5 shipsets. are there any previews of these? are there any examples of what SF mods will look like, or is that all still under NDA?

Re: starfury shipsets
 

NDA

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Without violating the NDA, I can tell you this:

Starfury ships are .x files with bitmap textures. .x files are directX files...there are a few editors that can make those (meshX comes to mind). Doga can export .x files, and 3d studiomax files can be convert to .x using some converter (3dsconv?) from the Microsoft website.

Poly counts around 500-1500 work best, higher rates will slow the game down for the avg user.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Another- free- program that will do .x:

http://www.wings3d.com/

Doga probably won't work for Starfury- any good-looking ship will have a polygon count that is FAR too high. DOGA isn't particually efficent that way.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, as far as DoGa goes, excessive detailing will be the one thing you'd have to control. The Light Cruiser for my Psycho Trapper set comes in at 2905 polygons. If i remove the individual windows I can probably bring the polygon count down to a more acceptable number for Starfury & SEV. The Destroyer, as it is, is just over 1000 polygons, so no worries there (hopefully).

Does anyone know the Class Structure of Ships in Starfury? Will Ships be broken down like they are in SEIV (eg destroyer->lightcruiser->cruiser etc...) or will there be more randomness and little to no class naming? Will the stock Ships be viewable within a *.X editor for size comparisons against our own creations?

Re: starfury shipsets
 

The MeshX program can reduce the poly counts of your Doga ships. 3d Studio Max can also do this as well, but for their .3ds format before you'd convert it to a .x file.

The stock ships are viewable and can be modified in a program that can work with .x, and very nicely done as you can see in most screenshots.

There are fewer ship sizes than se4, but the size ratio is about the same between the ones that are in the game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

That's about as much detail I can say here...

Re: starfury shipsets
 

You guys can try Milkshape too. I use MS a lot and it can export to .x format aswell, but I haven't messed with .x files much so I don't know much about them. Just know it can be done with MS and that is a fairly cheap program.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

The best freeware tool I know of to do ships for Starfury is Anim8or: http://www.anim8or.com/main/index.html

I have done several models with Anim8or and put them in Starfury. Here is one example.

Doga would not be my tool of choice.

Rollo

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Does anyone know if Moray/Povray will work? I looked through the help information, but didn't see anything about .x files (Mulder and Scully weren't part of the design team for SF, were they? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I haven't been able to find a converter that can transfer moray/pov-ray files to .3ds or .x format...

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Thanks for the info Captain Kwok. I was hoping that Moray would work, but I guess I'll have to learn how to use Anim8tor. I hope it's not too steep a learning curve...

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Anim8tor is ok, but I don't think it's very powerful, but with some practice I'm sure you can produce decent to good results.

Most of the stock ships were made with 3D Studio Max. However I'm keeping my eyes open for a good dedicated .x program that can work just as well.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

how about that - mail microsoft about what program is the best for .x files.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

I did a little looking around on line, and discovered a program by Inivis called AC3D. Has anyone used this program? Is it any good?

Link:www.ac3d.org

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Looks good. I like how it can handle POV-Ray files...so you'd be able to use a basic Moray/Pov-Ray object and then use the program to save it to .x format with any textures you want...at least I hope!

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Hmm...I hadn't thought of that possibility. If it works, then all my time spent learning Moray won't be lost. If you figure out how to do the file conVersion, please let me know!

Re: starfury shipsets
 

hey kwok would you like to do another se4 guest after the release of SF and show us how to make those x things ??

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sure. I've had some experience with it so I'd be happy to help!

Re: starfury shipsets
 

I've done some searching, and posted over on the Inivis Boards, and have discovered that the Moray to .x conVersion (through AC3D) won't really work. The problem is that AC3D will export into Povray, but cannot import from Povray. So, I cannot go Moray to Povray to AC3D to DirectX.

So, it looks like I'll be learning AC3D. I hope it doesn't take as long as it did for Moray... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Rats. There are lots of programs that can go into Moray/POV-Ray format, just none that go the other way. Like you said, it looks like we'll be learning new programs...

On a more positive note...

One of the benefits of the ac3d program is that it looks like you can edit vertices and such, which is helpful for making ships for Star Fury.

I'll have to try out this program and see if I can good results in the game. I'll report back my findings in a few days.

[ August 12, 2003, 22:08: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Ok I got a question about wings3D from another board(not me some guy has a question about Wings 3D and I have more): <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now I know of some other free 3D programs
Blender.org

Anim8or.com

http://www.wings3d.com/

and Amapi 5 and under and Doga L1. Now of those which is the best?(I like wings and Blender but blender looks really complicated, and I haven't learned wings interface yet. I've been doing Anim8or and Doga stuff so far.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

Hugh, I'm afraid I'm a complete newbie when it comes to anything but Moray (where I'm only a semi-complete newbie), so I really don't know how good the other programs are.

Captain Kwok - I read the AC3D manual this afternoon (quite well written), and I can tell you that it does indeed allow you to edit vertices. You can "snap" them together or to a grid, and you can optimize shapes and cut down on the number of polygons, too. It seems like a pretty useful program, really.

The main difficulty for me will be creating the bitmap textures. I'm not that good at 2d art, so creating good looking "skins" for the ships will be quite a challenge.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

OK, Rollo, since you like Anim8or so much, maybe you can explain this to me...

How exactly does the Arc Rotate tool work? It's driving me crazy - the program looks good, but I just can't use the tool! Half the time I try to use it, the object I have selected goes rotating or translating off in some odd direction which is NOT the direction I moved the mouse! What the heck is it that determines which way things rotate??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: starfury shipsets
 

I've sent an e-mail to Aaron asking if I'd be able to answer some of your questions in more detail, say in a #se4 chat. I'll let you know what happens - that is, if it is a yes or no.

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">One of the first things that came up when the beta process started was that we asked him when the ship model specs would be released so people could start modeling. He felt it wasn't settled enough so we let it go for a while.

When the delay was announced I bugged him again to release the specs (Which would have been a good PR move to soften the negative impact of the delay). It seems unlikely that the ship format will change now. He said he was going to release it, and even a 'tester' program so people could know their ships would work... but seems to have spaced it. That happens lot with him, what with 4-5 projects going all at once. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Keep pestering him. I think you can get him to release the specs before the game actually comes out.

[ August 14, 2003, 03:06: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: starfury shipsets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That would be very good - I hope it happens. I have a general idea about a set I'd like to do, but it's difficult to make it more concrete without some idea about how many different ship sizes I will need, etc.