Pre-Modding Basics Questions

chovynz

I notice a lot of tut’s and things out there that jump in on a certain area of modding. While this is good and practical for specifics, it doesn’t help people like me, who want to mod, but don’t know where to start. Much modding is done alone, or in a team of individuals.

So my question is this.

How does one go about:

Setting up for modding

The actual modding itself is covered by lots of tutorials. What I’m asking for is pre-modding advice.

What are some good practices that dev’s have found over the years?
What’s the right way of modding Freelancer, from the beginning?
How do you set up your computer so that you can revert accidental changes?
How do you document what you are doing?
What are pot holes and landmines that experience has shown you?
What would you do differently, if you had to start over modding, knowing what you know now?
Is SVN a good thing to use, and how do you use it effectively?

frozenballz

To be quite honest… its hard to answer a question like this imo. prepare yourself for a WoT nathan.

Each modder has his own setup that he/she is comfortable with, and then modified exceedingly to help/suit them best. for example, i have 1 external HD dedicated to just modding related stuff for both 3d modelling and photoshop work- tutorials, video tutorials, projects, different renders, textures, inspirational artwork/design, etc.

When you start off modding for freelancer, or any game for that matter it can be quite overwhelming if you dont know a thing and have to learn everything from scratch. prime example- When i first joined the dev team for discovery, i was kinda clueless as to how to help the mod. i sifted through different aspects of the modding, found a spot i liked, and set to work (in this case, having to rebuild around 80% of the ships’ hitboxes for 4.85, for both older ships and new ones).

before i began, i bugged multiple people to learn the basics of hitboxing, what are the do’s and dont’s, what precautions to take, what must be kept in mind, etc, and from them i just went ahead and piledrived through the work. each new hitbox i made gave me a different result. i learned from my mistakes, fixed them, and moved on.

modding -can- be frustrating at times. believe me i know. it was only cuz i was a right stubborn #$%% that kept me, and still keeps me going. example: when i was making the hitbox for the BHG destroyer for discovery, it took me 3 full days, and 84 failed attempts to make the hitbox working 100%, both registering hits + collision detection.

over the course of time, as the need for hitboxes decreased, i moved on to learning how to texture models. i got alot of help from one particular modder for discovery (treewyrm), and then i figured the rest through trial and error and youtube tutorials etc.- alot of what i know is self learned now via tutorials i found by googling for it.

looking back now at how i began my modding “career”, i know how hard it can be, and that is why i try to document and write a tutorial regarding everything i know how to do, so i can share my knowledge to others, and hopefully inspire more people to start modding for freelancer (not just discovery), and perhaps create something that was unimagined so far. human brain = pro at imagining stuff, can create some pretty amazing results if put the proper energy into the projects

for setting up, it was again by going around and asking what tools are needed, then doing searches to see if i can find tools that could further help to make my job easier. it was by actively searching i found a couple of tutorials that helped me improve my texturing techniques 5x, id say.

that said, i would always advise people to get the proper tools to do any modding work. one of the biggest issues i have with people who use milkshape for modelling/texturing is the number of problems that come with it, and then the modders who’ve been submitted it tend to have to fix it, etc.

im not saying milkshape is bad, dont get me wrong- discovery has a couple modders who use milkshape for things such as texturing (doom is a prime example), but still manage to produce top notch work… its just that if you DONT know how to use it properly, your results tend to be horrible, and THAT is something you want to avoid.

there isnt any one “right” way to modding for freelancer. sure, there are certain rules you should follow, to stick with the general consistency of how the other stuff in the mod/vanilla are created, but i wont say that there is just one method to modding freelancer.

i would definitely recommend people to get used to the tools they use first before making any submissions for modwork/ own mods etc. another example: it took me 7 complete retexture jobs to finish my first texturing job (the kusari bc model) in 3ds max. i was still new to texturing, and i learned something new each time, which allowed me to revise my work to a much better standard/quality (though i think its time for me to revise the mesh, it could be 100% more cleaner :P)

a problem im seeing alot nowadays, even on the disco forums, is that people fail to accept negative criticism- they fall into a protective “NO U” shell everytime, and refuse to listen, instead trying to shout louder than the other person. if you wont accept criticism, you cannot improve, and its pretty much a stalemate there. i know, taking negative criticism can hurt, but its the only way to improve your own work quality.

that said, the people posting the criticism need to be considerate with the words they choose to express their feelings toward models. personal feelings toward people is not enough reason to be a complete bastard towards someone you dont like whose made a model and has posted up pictures of it etc.

also, NEVER be shy to ask for help. if you’re stuck, ASK someone who knows how your problem can be fixed/solved. a second opinion on models is never bad either, it allows double checking for errors as well (both for mesh as well as texture errors). i have a select group of people i show my models to before i make the images available to public view on the discovery forums, i find i work better that way.

–---------------------

That’s all i can think of for now.

On a side note, its 4:30 am. i should be in bed, but you kept me up for the past 15 mins, Making me post this. :-<

Xarian_Prime

Frozenballz has covered many things nicely there, im just going to explain briefly on how I recently re-setup my FL “lab” and new mod.

But before we begin, he’s a few important things to think about…

1. Use Paper!! & those old things they call pens, Document everything your planning in a hardcopy document (book) 1st… most bargin places have a sweet range of blank books for around 1-2 $ … a sweet investment if you ask me, & something than can never be wiped out by HD failure/virus… ect (graph/grid paper… is your best friend!!..)

2. Spend some time away from your PC… with the tools from (1.) planning your universe… you don’t have to be strict… its just a draft really, let you imagination run rampid, then when your happy with what you’ve planned, look into the games/engine limits & wind back your draft to something more workable… this will save you countless weeks hitting brick walls and what not latter on, trust me…

3. Don’t rush into your mod straight away, make a few minor mods first, If successful you can always copy that data into your real mod latter… this way you can learn the craft one section at a time without fear of destroying your mod… when you get better and more confident you can do it all in the same mod… but to begin… its probably good to have a few mini mods to play with.

4. as in (3.) start small… and build up… as Frozen said, find a niche for yourself first then expand outward from there… each section of FL modding can get pretty hardcore… but its all related, I find weapons to be a good start point as they touch many references to other files as well… and teach along the way (fx, goods, sounds, ect) but everyone’s different… there are many tutorials abound for all aspects of FL modding & if in doubt… well this place is a excellent starting point for asking

Ok… mod setup, this parts pretty easy really…

1st. Have a “clean” backup of FL handy at all times, zip the main Freelancer down if you want & copy that zip elsewhere, this is your “get outa jail free” card & saves re-installing if you somehow corrupt the main freelancer install (the one in Program files).

2nd. Copy the main freelancer to a new directory… this will be your mods “working” version… in my case its C:/XLR/Freelancer with the entire Freelancer folder from the program files copied to this new one.
Replace the XLR with whatever your calling your mod… obviously (lol)

3rd. Find your old savegames and either delete them or back them up, basicly you want to remove them & make a new one for your new “install” (your mod)…this will automaticly happen when you fire up your mod. then goto your mods EXE & make a new shortcut to Freelancer.exe from that directory (for me C:\XLR\Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.exe)… now fire that up… its still Freelancer… but now in a separate directory that you can play with at whim… this is good to learn from… & also what you’ll be overriding with your actual mod to see changes (next step) & test bugs… ect

4th. Now… your actual mod itself… how you make it is up to you be it XML via the mod manager… of straight good old hard coding (my pref)
there are a few ways to “setup” the mod… and recently a few more… I would recommend the following… based on your plans…

SDK 1.5 - Basic uncompressed .ini’s & a few fixes… good to mod from when just starting out.
JFLP - Extends on the SDK with more fixes, but adds a slightly different approach to coding, and also some new features… better for the advanced modder starting afresh.
TC-ModStarterPack - Freelancer stripped to bare essentials to make Total Conversion mods alot easyer.

So id go with the SDK 1.5 for your needs, copy the files over your “working” ones… so you have extracted .ini’s and then copy the SDK elsewhere as your actual “mod”… you’ll make the changes in your “mod”, then copy them into/over the “workfile” files. At present my “mod” is located at D:\LAB\XLR\XLR-FV2\XLR\Freelancer. Changes made here are copied straight to C:\XLR\Freelancer keeping all file structures intact inside the “Freelancer” folder in both mod & workfile

Essentially… your patching the game with your mod… we copied the game to another directory as to not corrupt the install stored in your Program files… we don’t really ever want to touch that & that’s why this was done this way… savegames were re-created as well for the exact same reason.

Now you have a mod to work on… & a place to test it without stuffing up your install… backups from here are up to personal preference but do it regular & before the beginning of each modding session is good practice.

All tools for Freelancer are also residing in a Folder with shortcuts all on the desktop… try too keep them together as there are soo many… what you use there is also down to what your comfortable with, a note though… some are buggy… dont rely to heavy on tools to do your work… unless its UTF or FL-Dev… ect… specific tools for things that cannot be done without a extra program… eg: ID info .dlls

There’s so much more… this should give ye a good start as to how to begin… its a long, long road… but some parts are indeed paved with gold

Best of luck.

CK256

I’ve found Google docs invaluable for centralizing tutorials, concepts, images etc, if you’re working as part of a team the data can be shared and edited by all.

As mentioned earlier keep multiple back ups of your data, burn a DVD every 2 - 4 weeks and put them somewhere safe, an online store/file syncing site like Dropbox (free 2 Gb storage) is very useful too.

I’ve found FL Mod Studio very useful with it’s 3D system display and unlike FL Explorer works with an activated mod.

A couple of tutorials I’ve used are “System building from scratch by Giskard”

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/913966-freelancer/faqs/25096

and “Trying to understand encounters” by Buck Danny

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/download/visit.php?cid=5&lid=2420

There’s lot more tutorials in the downloads section but as the previous posters said pick a mod topic that you find interesting and work your way through it, then try something else.

CK256