Creating capital ship models for Evochron legacy SE

[TraderDan]

Getting close to finishing up one of the ships, moving onto gun placement and thruster flares but It doesn't seem that changing the values of shipspecs.txt is affecting the placement of flares in the editor tool, they seem to be locked at 0,0,0 - changes in gun placement seem to be showing up in the editor and the game but not thruster flares from what I can see.

Changing values for the in game thruster flares seems to work just not in the editor so I have to reboot the game currently to see what effects they have.

[Vice]

I was able to track down the cause and it was due to frame specific indexes being applied to the filename for thruster values, but not for engine values. I've updated the utility to support both filename approaches (so you can use the index specific number in the filename or the global 'shipspecs.txt' name), so it should now work. Same download link as before.

[TraderDan]

Thanks a lot Vice, really looking forward to releasing my first 100% complete capital ship, hope everyone enjoys it.

[TraderDan]

Flares still don's seem to be moving for the Destroyer ID 105, here's the test values I'm currently using, is it possible i'm using some out of range number or did I download the old utility somehow?

I downloaded from: https://starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/c ... me.htm#203

ship1_0.x
105
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4

[Vice]

Thrusters won't be involved since those are reserved for small ships. But for engines, those values would place things pretty close to the center of the ship in the utility. Testing the engine values worked for me with some local files. Perhaps there is a difference between the utility and the game in an offset/multiplier. If that doesn't work and the filenames line up as needed, it may be something else. If you'll send me the mesh file you are working with, I can try testing the behavior between the two to see what may be happening.

[TraderDan]

Yes, the flares do seem really small in the utility though they show up much larger in game, nothing seems to move them from 0,0,0 unless they are so small I'm just not seeing where they land. Here's a link to download the mesh I'm currently working with:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10v3LZk ... sp=sharing

[Vice]

Ok, there were still some lingering issues in the utility from the port over to the new development framework for the SE version of the game. I think I've ironed them all out now and you can use the latest version of the utility (same download link as before) with the mesh you are using and all of the available placement parameters for engines (that should align in-game as well). Here is the version of 'shipspecs.txt' you can use with this latest version of the utility to place the engine exhaust outlets on the outer ends of the nacelles (I've included descriptors for the engine specific values, which you can leave in place for the version of the file you are working with):

Code: Select all

ship1_0.x
104
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
-550.0            ` engine A set left x#
300.0            ` engine A set left y# (depth)
140.0            ` engine A set left z# (height)
550.0            ` engine A set right x#
300.0            ` engine A set right y# (depth)
140.0            ` engine A set right z# (height)
-550.0            ` engine B set left x#
400.0            ` engine B set left y# (depth)
180.0            ` engine B set left z# (height)
550.0            ` engine B set right x#
400.0            ` engine B set right y# (depth)
180.0            ` engine B set right z# (height)

[TraderDan]

Thanks Vice, I'll check it out. I'll put in a good word for you with Starfleet Command :-P

[TraderDan]

Good new is thruster flares are working perfectly however gun positions are not changing. I also noticed that there are only 10 digits before the thruster flare coordinates which wouldn't be enough to plot the x,y,z coordinates for 4 gun turrets. If I add more entries they just corrupt the thruster flare positions while still having no affect on gun positions. This is the current setting I'm working on:

Code: Select all

ship1_0.x
105
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
-65.0            ` engine A set left x#
1460.0            ` engine A set left y# (depth)
-130.0            ` engine A set left z# (height)
65.0          ` engine A set right x#
1460.0            ` engine A set right y# (depth)
-130.0            ` engine A set right z# (height)
-5.0            ` engine B set left x#
1700.0            ` engine B set left y# (depth)
-187.0            ` engine B set left z# (height)
5.0            ` engine B set right x#
1700.0            ` engine B set right y# (depth)
-187.0            ` engine B set right z# (height)

[Vice]

Good to hear that's all working. Turret placements are applied after engine placements. I'd recommend starting with these values:

Code: Select all

ship1_0.x
105
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
0            ` not used for capital ships
-65.0            ` engine A set left x#
1460.0            ` engine A set left y# (depth)
-130.0            ` engine A set left z# (height)
65.0          ` engine A set right x#
1460.0            ` engine A set right y# (depth)
-130.0            ` engine A set right z# (height)
-5.0            ` engine B set left x#
1700.0            ` engine B set left y# (depth)
-187.0            ` engine B set left z# (height)
5.0            ` engine B set right x#
1700.0            ` engine B set right y# (depth)
-187.0            ` engine B set right z# (height)
-0.2                  ` turret 1 x# (port facing)
-0.04                  ` turret 1 y# (port facing)
0.5                  ` turret 1 z# (port facing)
0.2                  ` turret 2 x# (starboard facing)
-0.04                  ` turret 2 y# (starboard facing)
0.5                  ` turret 2 z# (starboard facing)
-0.27                  ` turret 3 x# (port facing)
-0.058                  ` turret 3 y# (port facing)
-0.58                  ` turret 3 z# (port facing)
0.27                  ` turret 4 x# (starboard facing)
-0.058                  ` turret 4 y# (starboard facing)
-0.58                  ` turret 4 z# (starboard facing)

Then adjust from there for the 'turret' values.

[TraderDan]

Thanks a bunch, looks like I had it wrong on my end I appreciate all the help