SEV: Using custom races on PBW

Captain Kwok · #1 April 17th, 2007, 01:15 PM

I think so. When adding a custom race to the Balance Mod, I had no problems with the game displaying the images from the custom race's default install in the stock Empires folder. But the text files should be on hand in the Mod's empires folder under the custom set's name - all of them for a PBW game with AI generated players. But the most important text files for player controlled empires I believe are [Empire]_AI_Main.txt and [Empire]_InvConfiguration_Slots.txt.

geoschmo · #2 April 17th, 2007, 01:21 PM

Ok, I think you aren't saying I don't need the custom images, only that I don't need them in the mod folder. Only the custom text files need to be in the mod folder. I still need the custom images, but the game can find them fine in the stock folders. Is that what you mean?

Geoschmo

Captain Kwok · #3 April 17th, 2007, 01:32 PM

Yes, that's what I was trying to say.

Although I don't think you need the images at all on the server since the game's graphics are never displayed - but if there's a way you can test or confirm this that would be good. As long as the players in the game have the custom race installed in their stock folder or mod folder, the image references should be intact and the correct images displayed in game.

geoschmo · #4 April 17th, 2007, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
Although I don't think you need the images at all on the server since the game's graphics are never displayed - but if there's a way you can test or confirm this that would be good. As long as the players in the game have the custom race installed in their stock folder or mod folder, the image references should be intact and the correct images displayed in game.

Isn't this the whole crux of the problem people are having? I don't have the images on the server now, and we are having issues with people using custom races. If the image references stayed intact we wouldn't be having an issue or this discussion.

There definetly is a problem. I guess I don't know what exactly the cause is. I thought it had been pretty well defined though.

Geoschmo

Fyron · #5 April 17th, 2007, 03:53 PM

geoschmo said:
"I don't have the images on the server now, and we are having issues with people using custom races."

You don't have the images, but do you have the .txt and .csf files for the custom shipsets installed?

se5a · #6 April 17th, 2007, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
Yes, that's what I was trying to say.

Although I don't think you need the images at all on the server since the game's graphics are never displayed - but if there's a way you can test or confirm this that would be good. As long as the players in the game have the custom race installed in their stock folder or mod folder, the image references should be intact and the correct images displayed in game.

NONONO!!! This is what we've been *****ing about since day one of beta! get with it kwok! - didn't I explain what happens in the BM thread?

and for the record, I've tested this exstencivly.

se5a · #7 April 17th, 2007, 03:59 PM

ok, you might get away with not having the textures, as long as you have the models...

shipsets have the
3d model
this is a .txt file with a .X extension
the texure for the above
this is a .bmp it is called from the .x file
it has flags
which are .bmp
and portrates
these are .jpgs which are an image of the renderd ship 'photos' if you like of the ship.
there's also AI, names and other files.

you may get away without having the textures... but I doubt it SEV will probibly give errors, not sure on this.
you may get away with removing the portrates, might have a little more luck there.
removing the flags will result in the server slecting at random annother flag - permanantly.

but removing all this stuff is going to be more trouble than it's worth just to save a bit of hard disk space.

Captain Kwok · #8 April 17th, 2007, 04:11 PM

Look at it this way:

The Balance Mod has folders for all the stock races with a few of the .txt files and no other images besides the small flags. The PBW server runs Balance Mod games using the stock races just fine right? So, any custom set should work just fine if they are setup in the same fashion...

Now, does the server need the custom ship images in order to run correctly? Perhaps. If there's a flag in the code that is set to TRUE when the images are found, it might mean if it returned FALSE (no images found) it would make the game pick a new set to display for that race... we should check that out as this might also be true for the first .gam file generated by the host in a PBW game as well. If it works along those lines, then the custom sets should just need their images on the server (or hosts' install) in the stock empires folder.

se5a · #9 April 17th, 2007, 04:17 PM

Kwok you're confusing things by talking about what goes into the mod folders when geo is talking about what gets installed in the default stock empires dir. (or at least not being entirely clear which you're talking about)

if it's in the stock empires dir then yes, the mod only needs a few of the .txt files, because it can use the models from the default stock empires dir

Geo, There's also a flag in the mod definition.txt that if set to TRUE on the first turn will allow a mod to use the shipsets in the default stock folder. however since the first turn is not run on PBW it doesn't help you a huge amount unless the guy running the first turn knows to switch it.

and for the record kwok - I apolagize if my post was a little... harsh. I tend to overeact when I feel people have ignored what I've said.

geoschmo · #10 April 17th, 2007, 06:48 PM

I'm not too concerned about the harddrive space issue. We've got space, and if we run out I can add another harddrive. I'm thinking about doing that anyway just for the SE5 stuff.

What I'm trying to do is establish what exactly the process is that I need to go through to put a custom shipset on the PBW server. It sounds like I'm going to be dealing with putting different files in different folders, not even taking into consideration if it's needed for a mod.

Fortunatly to this point we aren't talking about too many mods, but we are starting to get a few custom races. I'm looking forward to the day when we have dozens of mods and hundreds of custom races like SE4 does and I'm not real happy about having to go through a confusing and tedious manual process for every new custom race.

But until we can convince Malfador that it's an issue that needs fixed, I need to do something about all the games that are breaking because of the custom races. So what I need to know is where the files all go. So if someone could explain that I'd appreciate it.

Geoschmo