amazing, thanks for that, hopefully I can start getting things done now, great help lads, cheers.

Thank’s for that, I tried the modified cmp exporter and that’s crashing my version of max so guess I’ll need to find an older version.

That looks very helpful, thank’s for sharing the additional guide. I tried a cmp exporter for max, but think possibly it was for an older version and crashed max upon loading.

All I am trying to do, is replace the existing asteroids in the game with refreshed versions so the guide should help me with that.

This is probably a big ask, but… does anyone have one of these or can anyone make one. Something that would allow me to avoid using Milkshape?

I really want to contribute and do stuff, I have even made things already but milkshape is just terrible, it’s holding me back, I cant get it to work properly, it either crashes constantly or the exporter isn’t working right for the thing’s i’m trying to accomplish.

Naw, I know my limitations, I’ll dabble a bit in the design end of things, but the game end is too much for me and not particularly appealing. I’ll leave the files here, should anyone wish to use them.

I cant seem to make this happen, it’s putting my head away. I have rared all 16 of my so far remastered freelancer asteroids including texture and bump .dds files, 3dsmax master files and .3ds files.

http://www.filedropper.com/asteroids_2

It’s right there on a platter, somebodies gotta take a swing at it.

I’n going to continue remastering the models on the assumption that I’m just not very good at the modding end of things, though evidently, some folk around here are brilliant at it.

I’ll stop if someone confirms it’s simply not going to happen.

I’ve been trying to get them in game tonight but not working. I think it’s a problem with the Freelancer CMP exporter for Milkshape. Upon exporting the asteroid file, I have a sneeking suspicion it’s exporting as a blank file. The rock’s do not appear in game and upon trying to reimport the file back into Milkshape, it appears either blank, or it crashes.

So… yeah… that’s a brain melt.

I winrar’ed the 3dsmax master file i’m using along with each asteroid in .3ds and the associated texture files in .dds if someone wants to try for themselves, welcome to do so.

http://www.filedropper.com/asteroids_1

Not sure wot to do, but then I’m not particularly knowledgeable in the modding, more so the modelling.

To quote Oddball, have a little faith baby… have a little faith.

Hope not, otherwise this might prove a big waste of time though im keeping my fingers crossed.

with bumps

Admittedly, i’m not using the original textures but am trying to make it as close to original as possible. The rock based platforms and stations I’ll get too eventually, worrying though it might be.

Anyway, so the left shows my new asteroids and the right shows the original, I think it’s a reasonably good recreation.

Yes, this shouldn’t represent too much of a problem, I’ll bundle and upload them here when done.

Tonight i’m going through each asteroid in the game with the intent on increasing the poly count on each by a small fraction and re-doing the textures at a higher res. I could much more easily just knock together a bunch of all new asteroids but don’t wanna risk it for fear of it not looking original.

I’m just gonna take them one at a time, there’s quite a few to do though so might take me a while.

Able to extract most models and stuff, which is fab though cant seem to find the textures for planets, I gather these are hidden within libraries or something.

Gosh the potential’s so amazing, though I doubt I’ll get much done by myself because most of it goes over my head but I might at least be able to start creating some decent stuff but most importantly in the spirit of the original game.

Tell me this, how difficult a task would it be to rip out say… the Manhatten city scape along with the textures for it? I really enjoy 3D Modelling, perhaps to a lesser extent, the UVW Mapping. I can do the mapping, i’m just not as good as an artist would be

I would still love to at least try to redo it, but not if it’s a technical nightmare to put it back into the game, I don’t have the knowledge or skills for that end of things.

Shame really, I’ve played some the more recent space games, didn’t like any of them lol. Freelancer is about as good as it gets for me, It should have been remade in HD either by Microsoft or a group of enthusiasts, maybe then a community would still exist for it.

If anything I at least got to explore the intricacies of planet making
again, an art form in which I am no expert, but a fun challenge
and probably a bit better than freelancer’s original style

Admittedly, I am unfamiliar with all the mods produced for Freelancer to date though ones I am aware off have focused either on total conversion or massive expansion in regards to ships and systems.

Considering what has become a small community, my idea goes very much against these prior ideas and is a massive shrinking off the game in exchange or something a bit more high octane.

One System
One Star
2 planets
2 Factions - Blue Team & Red Team
2 Ships for each faction - Fighter Class and Freighter Class.

2 Mineable asteroid fields, one local to each factions planet.
Though for each faction, mining the opposing sides asteroid fields net’s greater income.

The only way to make money is to successfully return ore back to your factions planet, can the revenue be evenly distributed across current online players?

So the only way for anyone to advance any, is to make sure their factions freighters get home safe and sound, while making sure the opposing side’s freighters fail to return home.

Simple as that.

However, because the mod is so small, it also means we can make it all HD by re-doing the ships, planets, skybox and asteroid fields while condensing all available players into a single sector for frequent contact and fighting.

That was simply the idea’s that sprung to mind.

I think the question of the subject has been answered, at least to my satisfaction. This is evidently not a job for 2 or 3 people and I simply consider it a shame it was not done at a point when the community had the man power and the will power to pull it off.

That is by no means a fault of the community, as clearly it was massively involved in a variety of other mod related projects. The community made a decision on what it wanted to do, and did it.

Points taken and considering what’s been said, I suspect this is probably not a good idea and can be dismissed as such. Swat thank you for letting us all know how good a 3d modeler you are, I’ll keep that in mind.

I can say without any doubt in my mind that this is
not a one month job, it would be a labor of love for
the most committed of enthusiasts.

It’s ok if the support is not there, I can live with
that and maybe look towards other idea’s instead.