Unable to get characters to appear in incoming transmission window

Sushi

Not sure what’s going on here, but I’m unable to get characters to display in the incoming transmission window when a message arrives. For an example, this is what I have for the base code:

[Object]
nickname = Li01_01
ids_name = 459870
ids_info = 66141
pos = 1000, 1000, 1000
rotate = 0, -90, 0
Archetype = dock_yard_dock
loadout = dock_yard_dock
reputation = li_p_grp
dock_with = Li01_01_Base
voice = atc_leg_f01a
space_costume = benchmark_male_head, robot_body_A
behavior = NOTHING
difficulty_level = 1
visit = 1

As for the NPCs:

[NPC]
nickname = m01a_y-wing_1
npc_ship_arch = rebel_y-wing
affiliation = rebel_grp
individual_name = 216136
voice = pilot_c_leg_m01
space_costume = ge_male1_head, re_rebel_pilot1_body, prop_hat_rebel_pilot

All I ever get is “Incoming Transmission” in a black window. There are no characters models. Any idea of where I need to look to fix this minor glitch?

Thaddeus

not entirely sure what youre wanting…

but, windowed characters, the ones that a produced in the top left of screen, their costumes are defined in DATA\characters\costumes.ini and used in faction_props.ini

certainly how I added new mission commission characters

Sushi

I’m wanting for a character model to show up in the top left corner when a NPC sends a message to the character. At the moment, I get a black window with “Incoming Transmission” within it, with no character model.

As for your advice, I couldn’t find how the costume.ini tied into the faction_prop.ini. Did you mean bodyparts.ini? As the faction_prop.ini seems to use a head, body, accessory structure (eg. space_costume = pl_male2_head, sh_male2_body, comm_br_elite) rather than costumes such as “trent” or “juni”. Also, how does this tie into the bases not having character models, as they’re independent of the faction_props.ini?

Buck Danny

@Sushi
space_costume = benchmark_male_head, robot_body_A
Is this combination allowed? Linking a robot body with a human like head is something I never tried.
Reason: the robot bodies are operated in a different way than the humanlike bodies are. Robot bodies come with a head attached if I recall correctly.

See you in Sirius,
Buck Danny

Sushi

Buck Danny wrote:
@Sushi
space_costume = benchmark_male_head, robot_body_A
Is this combination allowed? Linking a robot body with a human like head is something I never tried.
Reason: the robot bodies are operated in a different way than the humanlike bodies are. Robot bodies come with a head attached if I recall correctly.

See you in Sirius,
Buck Danny

Hey Buck Danny,

Thanks for the assistance. I tried using vanilla code for my base:

voice = atc_leg_f01
space_costume = br_karina_head_gen, li_female_guard_body

I sadly received the same empty black “Incoming Transmission” window again.

Thaddeus

As Buck says, dont think that combination is allowed, proberly just see the robot, rather than black window. bit of a head scatcher. no head hardpoint on the robot so head wouldnt show.
anyway thought you wanted the mission vendor guy, hes defined in custumes and is in faction props as mc_costume =. but thats not what your wanting. As you say, arent the in-flight characters produced at ramdom from the selection produced from faction_props with their parts coming from bodyparts.ini?

Sushi

Thaddeus wrote:
As Buck says, dont think that combination is allowed, proberly just see the robot, rather than black window. bit of a head scatcher. no head hardpoint on the robot so head wouldnt show.
anyway thought you wanted the mission vendor guy, hes defined in custumes and is in faction props as mc_costume =. but thats not what your wanting. As you say, arent the in-flight characters produced at ramdom from the selection produced from faction_props with their parts coming from bodyparts.ini?

The issue is that I’m using scripted missions code which is pretty specific and not randomly generated. That’s why I’m at a bit of a loss to all of this.

As for the base, I changed the robot piece to another model and still no joy. That’s why I’m wondering if I’m missing something else since no matter what I try, I still cannot render the character model.

StarTrader

Sushi, you’re an old hand at modding, whazzap, getting old? lol

Use this format for robots in your system.ini’s base, with no head, robots are robot_body_A to robot_body_E:-

voice = atc_leg_f01a
space_costume = , robot_body_B

Also: Make sure your comms window is not turned off in the game options? It shoud display a comms tower pic if it is turned off though.

And in your faction_props did you define the comms character like this:-

voice = pilot_f_leg_m01
mc_costume = mc_co
space_costume = li_captain_head, li_tilton_body, comm_ge_generic2
space_costume = li_rockford_head, li_tilton_body, comm_li_hatcher
space_costume = li_sales_head_hat, li_tilton_body, comm_ge_generic2
space_costume = pl_male2_head, li_tilton_body, comm_li_hatcher
space_costume = pl_male5_head, li_tilton_body, comm_ge_generic2
space_costume = pl_male8_head_hat, li_tilton_body, comm_li_hatcher

foxUnit01

For robot bodies to show properly on NPC ships, they must be assigned to both fields like so:

space_costume = robot_body_a, robot_body_a
```That looks weird in the code and will throw an error in fl-client-errors (who cares?), but it works perfectly fine in-game: [http://www.memes.no/88flak/downloads/beta/Robot%20in%20an%20Anubis.jpg](http://www.memes.no/88flak/downloads/beta/Robot%20in%20an%20Anubis.jpg)

Sushi

Thanks for all the assistance thus far, guys. I’ve tried what you said, StarTrader and I still get the problem. I made a video to make sure we’re all on the same page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtwXK8JKh1U

Here’s the base code:

[Object]
nickname = Li01_01
ids_name = 459870
ids_info = 66141
pos = 1000, 1000, 1000
rotate = 0, -90, 0
Archetype = dock_yard_dock
loadout = dock_yard_dock
reputation = li_p_grp
dock_with = Li01_01_Base
voice = atc_leg_f01a
space_costume = , robot_body_B
behavior = NOTHING
difficulty_level = 1
visit = 1

As for the mission code, this is what it has written currently:

[NPC]
nickname = m01a_y-wing_1
npc_ship_arch = rebel_y-wing
affiliation = rebel_grp
individual_name = 216136
voice = pilot_c_leg_m01
space_costume = ge_male1_head, re_rebel_pilot1_body, prop_hat_rebel_pilot

[NPC]
nickname = m01a_y-wing_2
npc_ship_arch = rebel_y-wing
affiliation = rebel_grp
individual_name = 216137
voice = pilot_c_leg_m01
space_costume = ge_male2_head, re_rebel_pilot1_body, prop_hat_rebel_pilot

Crazy

Are you sure that your performance settings are high enough to display it?

Sushi

Ya. I made sure I had the dynamic com displays checked on. Everything else is full.

StarTrader

Foxy: the robot entry should be only “space_costume = , robot_body_X” where X is A to E. Honest Injun!

Sushi: Odd.

Could it be that the game option to display the comms character is off, and that the comms tower picture which should be shown has been removed or become corrupted?

Is your costume re_rebel_pilot1_body properly made?

Do you get any comms characters displayed from other NPCs or bases?

Standard faction NPC’s?

Could it be your screen resolution set too high? Try lower, 1024x768?

Sushi

Could it be that the game option to display the comms character is off, and that the comms tower picture which should be shown has been removed or become corrupted?

There’s always a chance that it is corrupted, that being said, to have a corrupted function revert to something else is a bit of a stretch. I guess I could look into it.

Is your costume re_rebel_pilot1_body properly made?

Nope. The model works for NPCs in the bars

Do you get any comms characters displayed from other NPCs or bases?

Sadly, no. I tried all the vanilla characters and I still get that window showing without a character.

Standard faction NPC’s?

Ya, tried.

Could it be your screen resolution set too high? Try lower, 1024x768?

Tried that too, no joy.

I think I may have to accept defeat on this weird bug.

StarTrader

No, don’t give up! I’m curious too now! lol

Start FL and click Game Options, click Performance, if Dynamic Comms Window is enabled then the character should show. If it is disabled you should get the static picture of a comms tower when an NPC talks.

Try both settings and let me know what you see?

If it’s black when enabled, we can try more troubleshooting.

If it’s black when it’s disabled, then it is the picture of the comms tower that is missing or bad.

Bas

Did you try with vanilla FL, without modification?
(I assume you did…)

Sushi

That somewhat hard to do with a total conversion…since we really don’t have much of the original mod left. That being said, FriendlyFire found the solution to the problem. In the HUD.ini

Our original code:

[Receiver]
object = interface\HUD\hud_CommsIcon.3db
action = Target
shut = -0.498000, 0.365999, -1
open = -0.309000, 0.178000, -1
delay = 0.150000
video_fovx = 5
speaker_rotate = -180, 0, 0
male_speaker_offset = 0, -1.250000, 100;-2.150000
female_speaker_offset = 0, -1.150000, 100;-2.150000
backdrop = backdrop
static = 0;1
win_pos = -0.400000, 0.250000, -1
win_size = 0.200000, 0.200000
btn_pos = 0, 0, -1
fly_time = 1.000000
tool_tip_id = 1021

FF got it working by putting in the stock vanilla coding Now everything works like it should. Thanks for all the assistance, though!

StarTrader