At a Loss

hello, as some of you may know ive been trying to start freelancer modding, ive already created sound and music mods in the past but now i want to try and use my 3D skills to change the game by adding some different ships.

it hasnt gone very well unfortunatley. and to be honest im close to giving up, theres nothing worse than spending an hour and a half each time, trying to make all the files, hard point the plane, edit all the ini files just for it to not work with no explanation.

ive been following the PDF “drizzt4.0_ship_creating_tutorialv1.5” to the letter up till the ID creation, because i dont really get all that messing with dll stuff, so i skipped that, and my friend had already tried with those steps included before and it still didnt work.

so the first time i tried i got nothing, and the game crashed straight away when loading into single player.

second time I tried, nothing, it didnt crash but there was nothing there ingame.

the first time my friend tried, he managed to get just a pile of hardpoints on the floor, probably because the model was so so so small it was inside all the hardpoints.

third time i tried, only a shield hardpoint showed up and an invisible model on the shop floor, but you could see the plane really really small in the UI window.

now you might be thinking “well its obviously scaled too small” but the thing is, that tiny plane, in Milkshape is 10 times bigger than the Dagger from freelancer. I used the Dagger to scale the plane appropriatley, and it was invisible because it was so small… so i made the model ten times bigger than the dagger, and i get that tiny RC plane.

so the next step was obviously make it even bigger, so i made it 100 times bigger than the dagger, which means i cant even see the model in milkshape as none of the viewports will render that far away, and the orthographic views wont even zoom that far either.

and actually, at 100x normal size, i get this

it is visible ONLY in the shop UI window, if you try to buy it, the game crashes instantly.

the next thing people will likely say is “well you are exporting it with the wrong settings with the CMP editor” but I did just as Sushi showed me on skype via a video demo he did. i also had another person from discovery freelancer give me a default settings file for the exporter to use as well, and still nothing.

so, im at a loss with this whole thing, nothing seems to relate to anything, and ive no idea why the textures wont work either, no matter if i make a TGA or a DDS, or whatever.

so im going to put the files here, and sombody else can see if they have any luck with it, and hopefully explain what they did to make it work if they managed it. im not going to learn it by sombody just doing it and going “here you go… all done” but im not going to learn it by smacking my head on this wall and wasting many many hours and getting nowhere. either.

biplane.zip

plane stats

it should have star flier maneuverability stats
no strafe or backwards move speed
A minimum speed of 90ms (54000) not sure if minimum speeds can even be done though.

Name: Light Fighter
Cost: 0 (its supposed to be free to buy)
Hull: 200
Speed: 180000 (300ms)
Core Energy: 800
Regen rate: 0 (doesn’t Regen)
Thruster doesn’t Regen either.
Cruise speed is 100ms (supposed to be slower than normal movement for what i have planned for it)
Cruise time is 10 seconds.

the most frustrating thing about not being able to do this myself yet is that i have a massive document with the stats for every plane, weapon, station, map, all writen down… so if a experienced freelancer modder came along he could literally take this doc and make the TC by himself, since it isnt going to be huge. not saying that will happen, but thats what ive done anyways… so its very frustrating to not be able to just GO. lol

Xalrok wrote:
The crash could be caused by equipment bundled with the ship in the ship’s package in goods.ini. Try having just a tractor beam, scanner, powerplant and engine sold with the ship, eg:

[Good]
nickname = yourship_hull
category = shiphull
ship = yourship
price = 7900
ids_name = 12002
item_icon = EQUIPMENT\MODELS\COMMODITIES\NN_ICONS\li_freighter.3db
[Good]
nickname = yourship_package
category = ship
hull = yourship_hull
addon = ge_lf_engine_01, internal, 1
addon = li_fighter_power01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_scanner_01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_tractor_01, internal, 1

Thanks for your responses,

I just tried that, but it still crashed instantly.

Nightstalker wrote:
1. If you are using DDS textures they must be square (64x64, 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, etc)

2. if you are using tga textures, they must be flipped (In photoshop and similar programs it is flip vertical)

3. If you specify a specific FL ship (shiparch) make sure your Hardpoints on the model match them (If not, remove them from both the goods.ini and shiparch.ini).

the texture is a 512x512 square, ive used many kinds of file type sadly no luck with any so far, but im not gonna give up.

Timmy51m wrote:
I’d have a look but an .obj file is no good without the materials (.mtl) file. What’s the .mb file for, not familiar with them?

oh, i think ive lost the mtl file somewhere as it didnt seem to have a purpose, or i couldnt import it into milkshape so i think i deleted it.

Nightstalker wrote:
I noticed you want it to be free to buy, In FL you need to have a price of at least 1

ooh… well thats at least another thing to fix, does it still count if the equipment on the ship make it worth more than 0, i.e. the ship price is 0, but it has a 200 credit countermeasure dropper, so the ship is now worth 200 credits.

Mini_Me wrote:
Should probably also post your .ini entries too, the problem may lie there.

Goods.ini

[Good]
nickname = plane_hull
category = shiphull
ship = plane
price = 10
ids_name = 12003
item_icon = Equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\li_elite.3db

[Good]
nickname = plane_package
category = ship
hull = plane_hull
addon = plane_engine, internal, 1
addon = plane_power01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_scanner_01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_tractor_01, internal, 1
addon = shield01_mark02_hf, HpShield01, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail01, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail02, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail03, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail04, 1

engine_equip.ini

[Engine]
nickname = plane_engine
ids_name = 263688
ids_info = 264688
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
max_force = 180000
linear_drag = 599
power_usage = 0
reverse_fraction = 0.000000
flame_effect = gf_li_smallengine02_fire
trail_effect = gf_li_smallengine02_trail
cruise_disrupt_effect = gf_li_cruisedisruption
trail_effect_player = gf_li_smallengine02_playtrail
cruise_charge_time = 5
cruise_power_usage = 20
character_start_sound = engine_li_fighter_start
character_loop_sound = engine_li_fighter_loop
character_pitch_range = -50, 25
rumble_sound = rumble_h_fighter
rumble_atten_range = -5, 0
rumble_pitch_range = -25, 25
engine_kill_sound = engine_li_fighter_kill
cruise_start_sound = engine_li_cruise_start
cruise_loop_sound = engine_li_cruise_loop
cruise_stop_sound = engine_li_cruise_stop
cruise_disrupt_sound = cruise_disrupt
cruise_backfire_sound = cruise_backfire
indestructible = false
outside_cone_attenuation = -3
inside_sound_cone = 60
outside_sound_cone = 180

misc_equip.ini

[Power]
nickname = plane_power01
ids_name = 263721
ids_info = 264721
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
DA_archetype = equipment\models\hardware\li_fusion_reactor.3db
material_library = equipment\models\hardware.mat
capacity = 800
charge_rate = 1
thrust_capacity = 1000
thrust_charge_rate = 100
lootable = false

shiparch.ini

[Ship]
ids_name = 237034
ids_info = 66570
ids_info1 = 66571
ids_info2 = 66608
ids_info3 = 66572
ship_class = 0
nickname = plane
LODranges = 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_shiparch_Liblf
mission_property = can_use_berths
type = FIGHTER
mass = 100.000000
hold_size = 25
linear_drag = 1.000000
fuse = li_fighter_gas01, 0.000000, -1
fuse = li_fighter_smoke01, 0.000000, -1
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship02, 0.000000, 400
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship03, 0.000000, 200
max_bank_angle = 35
camera_offset = 6, 22
camera_angular_acceleration = 0.050000
camera_horizontal_turn_angle = 23
camera_vertical_turn_up_angle = 5
camera_vertical_turn_down_angle = 30
camera_turn_look_ahead_slerp_amount = 1.000000
nanobot_limit = 12
shield_battery_limit = 12
hit_pts = 1300
DA_archetype = ships\liberty\plane\BiPlane01.cmp
material_library = ships\liberty\plane\BiPlane01.mat
material_library = fx\envmapbasic.mat
envmap_material = envmapbasic
cockpit = cockpits\liberty\l_fighter.ini
pilot_mesh = generic_pilot
explosion_arch = explosion_li_fighter
surface_hit_effects = 0, small_hull_hit_light01, small_hull_hit_light02, small_hull_hit_light03
surface_hit_effects = 150, small_hull_hit_medium01, small_hull_hit_medium02, small_hull_hit_medium03
surface_hit_effects = 300, small_hull_hit_heavy01, small_hull_hit_heavy02, small_hull_hit_heavy03
steering_torque = 24000.000000, 24000.000000, 58000.000000
angular_drag = 15000.000000, 15000.000000, 35000.000000
rotation_inertia = 2800.000000, 2800.000000, 1000.000000
nudge_force = 30000.000000
strafe_force = 20000
strafe_power_usage = 2
num_exhaust_nozzles = 1
HP_tractor_source = HpTractor_Source
shield_link = l_fighter_shield01, HpMount, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_gun_special_1, HpWeapon01
hp_type = hp_fighter_shield_special_1, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_thruster, HpThruster01
hp_type = hp_mine_dropper, HpMine01

Mini_Me wrote:
I’d recommend checking your flspew (FL’s log file) and looking at the last entries leading up to the crash. There should also be a little tool here in downloads, just a simple VBscript which makes reading flspew a bit more use friendly. The script is editable in Notepad or whatever text editor you are fond of, so you can look within at the path it is using and find flspew to look at raw also. Either way, it’s good to know where that file is, especially for modders introducing new models, as it often shows what part in the model is causing problems, or what texture is missing, etc…

that’d be useful it seems.

J.Walker wrote:
first thing to check is to ensure that your texture is in either tga (uncompressed) or dds image format.

It is rather easy to put in the wrong texture format. When i make models for fl i use jpg and png images, then convert them to tga later when i am ready to dump the model into fl. Sometimes i forget that little step and end up with jpg or png in the mat file. Sometimes even when i do have tga textures i sometimes import accidentally the wrong file into the mat file.

Also ensure that your texture and material nodes in the mat file are spelled/named correctly.

if any of these apparently simple things are out of place FL can act pretty touchy over it.

After reading this im pretty sure i would have missed some of those important things, i will try the texture thing again to see if it works any differently.

F!R wrote:
Try if this one works

=> Bi-Plane

that was very strange…

i connected your files into freelancer instead of mine, and the ship was not on the dealer floor or in the UI window, BUT, i could buy the ship without it crashing now, (i think maybe because i did some tweaking based on everyones feedback here in this thread)

the strange thing was, when i bought the ship and exited manhattan, it showed manhattan relly close up for about 4 second, (like so close you couldnt see anything but a blurred blue texture) and then i was thrown 37k away from the planet into one of the debris fields with no shield or anything and i can only move sideways too i get no forwards or backwads move speed.

I dont know if this is progress, but at least i can get into space now.

Thanks people.

due to your feedback, and help from Sushi -one on one, ive managed to be able to get the model textured in game and stuff. from start to finish.

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

here is a short video of the progress ive made after all your help.

my questions now are, how do i get the Pilot model to be displayed? so that its not just a ghost plane with nobody flying it.

and

how do i get the ship to be displayed on stations and planets, and in the UI window?

after that i will start looking into the creation of the information ID for the ship, so that it doesnt have the stats page of a Patriot.

thank you all again for your help and feedback

Timmy51m wrote:
Did you use a stripped down total conversion mod for this?

No i didnt, well not yet at least.

Timmy51m wrote:
You need this entry to be at the top of your shiparch.ini:

[Simple]
nickname = generic_pilot
DA_archetype = equipment\models\pilot\ship_pilot.3db
material_library = Equipment\models\pilots.mat
LODranges = 0, 150
MinSpecLOD = 2

Check it’s there.

aye, it was right at the top just as you wrote it. however the thing that helped me was when you said

Timmy51m wrote:
Then all you should need is to add the hardpoint to the ship. HpPilot from memory I think…

I remembered that my pilot hardpoint may actually have been called HpPilot01, and it was, so i redid the hard point and it is now all correct.

so, thanks Timmy51m my ship now has both a pilot, and can be seen on the planets and bases.

brofist