New ship for EM

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:10 am

Hi there modelers / modding enthusiasts / mod users,

Of all the stuff that can be modded in this game, ships have been addressed the least of all. There are a few ship mods out there, but not many.

In the past I've done some modeling for Freelancer. And although it's quite some time ago, the enthusiasm for modeling is still there. After all, there is not much better than designing something with your own creativity and then later being able to actually see it and fly it in a game.
Recently I've noticed that there are a couple of other guys who either have experience in modeling, or like to try their hands on it.

So I've come up with the idea of creating this community project with the goal of bringing both professional modelers as well as enthusiasts together which will hopefully help everyone involved in learning the skills of eventually putting a ship of their own design in game.
Everyone with an interest in modeling sips is welcome to take part in the project. The purpose of this thread is to share ideas, but most of all to come together and discuss [strike]problems[/strike] challenges (which will definitely be there), talk about different techniques etc, but most of all, ask questions. Don't be afraid that your question might be seen as 'noobish' by others - they will not. Everyone needs to learn and even the most seasoned modelers have had to ask questions to get where they are now. The idea here is that we can learn from each other. I myself certainly don't know everything about modeling, but only what I have learned for Freelancer. Which is probably only a tiny percentage of what can be learned.

Although the process starts with modeling a ship from scratch, that may be a bit too difficult to start out with. Besides, you can find really helpful tutorials on the net, both in writing as well as on Youtube if you do a quick search for them. Most people will probably take this approach and practice in their own time.

So I thought it would be wise to start out with discussing how we get a ship properly in the game. There are quite a lot of ins and outs to discuss here.
So I've done some looking around and managed to get my hands on a couple of (royalty free) models. Working with an already modeled ship will save us a lot of time and frustration in the beginning, while at the same time they provide for excellent practice if you want to see how a model is made up and how you can use the controls of your 3D modeling program to change it.
Here they are (download links at the bottom of this post):

The 'SX3', 6466 polys:

The 'SX1', 1526 polys:

The 'HF2', 905 polys:

The 'Gryphon', 55.812 polys (woooooot!):

The 'Feisar', 889 polys:

Although the game could probably deal with up to 32.000 polys per mesh, this will probably stress out most computers. The reason for this is that each model needs to be rendered by the game (and your computer) in order to see it. The more polys a model has, the more resources this will take. If you are flying around in space and you have let's say 10 ships with over 20.000 polys each also flying around on your screen, you need a pretty good computer to deal with all that. So when it comes to that, the less polys, the better is basically what it comes down to. However, maintaining a max poly limit of around 2000 per mesh / model should be a very save limit for most computers. You could probably go as high as 10.000 polys per mesh, depending on your computer specs.

From the ships shown above, the Gryphon is way beyond the save limit for polycount, and I really just listed it because it looks awesome (maybe not in the screenshot, but certainly in a 3D program) and it provides for a really good example to see how a high poly model is put together. For EM however, it has no real practical use.
There are three ships that lend themselves perfectly for EM because of their relatively low polycount: The SX1, HF2 and Feisar. I would recommend these models to work with. The SX3 looks stunning as well, but its polycount may be a bit too high for some players. Nevertheless you could pick it up to play around with it.

What I was planning to do to start with, is pick one of the 3 suitable models, and put them in game. This may sound simple (and like with all other things, it probably is when you know how it's done and what to pay attention to), but there are a few challenges in the process.

So what do we need for this to succeed:

First of all, the CustomKit provided with this game. You can download it >>here<<.
We need the customkit to check how we should export files the right way, and how to name them correctly.
A 3D modeling program, such as 3dsMax, Blender, Lightwave, Cinema4D, etc.
Obviously, we will need a program like this to design or edit the ship mesh.
Most of the programs I mentioned are all professional (and excessively expensive!) programs, but there are also free ones that will do what we need. Do a search on the net and you will find it.
Blender is open-source and 100% free. It is also a very popular 3d modeling program. You can download it >>here<<.
Autodesk, the producer of (among others) 3dsMax, offers student versions of his programs. They are free to use and have no limitations but leave a watermark if you render the model. Besides that it will do the same as the normal (expensive) 3dsMax. you can download it >>here<<.
A graphic design program, such as Photoshop, Paint.NET, Gimp.
We need a program like this to design or edit the texture of the ship.
As most of you will know, Photoshop is also extremely expensive, but there are a lot of good graphic design programs out there such as Gimp and Paint.NET. the best alternative to Photoshop is probably Gimp, which is open-source and free. It can do the same and arguably even more than Photoshop. You can download it >>here<<.
Vice has made a post listing a collection of very useful programs needed to mod files. As far as I know, all the programs he has listed are free to use. You can find the topic >>here<<.
In addition, I would like to recommend Milkshape3D. It's hard to call it a full 3d modeling program. It is a bit of a buggy program though. For example, sometimes you have to re-assign materials even though you saved it properly, or it may randomly flip a model around its axis when you export it. It can come quite in handy sometimes, but nevertheless I recommend using it only for scaling / orientating models. Exporting the models into their final DirectX format is best done by one of the other programs using a proper exporter.
You can download Milkshape3D for free >>here<<.

Note that most, if not all professional programs like Photoshop, Blender, Cinema4D, 3dsMax etc have a trial period of 30 days; which means you can use them for free as long as the trial period runs.
Personally I use 3dsMax for modeling, Gimp for graphics work (designing textures and maps) and have Milkshape3D on the side for small chores, so I will be able to answer most questions related to those programs.
Since I'm a big supporter of open-source programs however, I will also look into Blender in the time to come.

And here are the download links for the ship models. I have provided all models in .OBJ format, which as far as I know is the most commonly used file format for 3d models, and supported by most if not all 3d modeling programs. Along with the .obj file comes a .mtl file. It holds the maps and textures for the model. You don't need to actually use this; the 3d program you'll be working with needs this when it imports the .obj file to project the textures on to the model.

If anyone is experiencing issues with the download files linked below, please let me know about it.

Please note that Evochron Mercenary uses meshes that are way smaller than average, and all of the above ship models are many times larger than they need to be for the game. These need to be scaled down before putting them in game, or they will be larger than a capital ship, and probably won't even work properly.

The SX3 model has been resized properly to fit the other ships in the game for the upcoming expansion, where all of the ships are a bit larger than they are now. I have done this to save you some work in rescaling and provide for a size sample for when the expansion is released. It is however still a bit too large for the current version of EM, so if you want to use it in the current game, you will need to scale it down a bit still. You can use the 'frame40-SampleMesh' from the customkit for this.

What do we need to do to get a ship model in game:

Import it into your 3d modeling program.
Change the model as you see fit, or just run with it the way it comes.
Resize it to a proper size for EM.
Export it as a DirectX (.X) file. When doing this, pay attention to the following options:
- Export as ASCII/text (not binary).
- Include UV mapping data (can also be referred to as 'export textures' or similar).
- Include normals. If you don't include normals you will probably not see a texture in game.
- Make sure you export the model as a single mesh. If you get an error while loading the game that says something like 'you need to connect limbs', or words of similar meaning, you know that this has probably gone wrong.
Create a good texture for the ship, edit the one it comes with or just use it as is.
Note that texture maps need to be saved as .DDS files, using the DXT5 compression method.
Create additional specular, normal and emissive maps for the ship, or use the ones it comes with.
Assign the proper names to each file and apply the correct compression methods.

Right, it has become a bit of a large post, but I wanted to include all relevant info.
Everyone who would like to have a crack at this, please feel free to join the party. If you run into any issues - ask away.
And don't forget to post your screenshots when you get your model in game!

Good luck!

~ Viper.

[Edited on 11-15-2012 by Viper]

hank · Post by **hank** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:36 pm

A great post Viper. I hope those with more time in RL jump in on this project. If RL work demands didn't eat up so much of my time I'd start on ships immediately.

One thing I can add is for anyone who is interested who is not familiar with modeling for games, a specific method is used that helps create low poly models. If you search the internet for "subdivisional modeling" or "subdivision surface modeling" you'll get a lot of hits with video tutorials and other resources. This is what many game developers use.

Subdivision modeling is much different from modeling 3D objects with programs such as AutoCAD (and its sister programs), Rhino3D, or the other engineering oriented programs (SolidWorks, SolidEdge, etc.). Those engineering programs tend to create models with too many polys for games. You can modify models with those programs to reduce poly count but its not as reliable as starting out modeling with a low poly count and work up to a level that's acceptable to game engines. (this is what I've found out but I could be wrong ... I model machinery and process plants so poly count isn't an issue in my work)

I was told many moons ago I had to model low poly armored vehicles for Steelbeasts and the engineering software I've used for 20 years would not work. Thus my search for "how to model low poly objects".

I found a free program called Wings3D that has a very intuitive (easy to learn) interace or GUI. Its an older program but still a good learning tool. When I get time that is what I'm using. Also, I have Blender on my machines and as far as I know its also free (but I may be wrong because I've opened it up only a few times).

Viper, if I've said anything wrong here please correct me and I'll edit my post.

Good luck to all.

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by hank]

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:45 pm

I'll definitely not contradict you in any way as you seem to have more experience in modeling than me. Perhaps I could learn something from you rather than the other way round.

From post: 148283, Topic: tid=9963, author=hank wrote:A great post Viper. I hope those with more time in RL jump in on this project. If RL work demands didn't eat up so much of my time I'd start on ships immediately.

Yeah it is quite time consuming indeed. The only reason I had time to set this up now, is because I'm currently without work. This will hopefully change soon again so I figured I'd best get this sorted out right now.

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Viper]

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:19 pm

Ok I've had a go at the SX3 ship. I made a new normal and specular map for it, but the specular map needs to be revised and smoothened out.

Here's the result so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3Hy35R ... e=youtu.be

Edit:
The video seems a lot darker than everything in fact is in game.

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Viper]

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:55 pm

Great U-tube vid, Viper! My "esthetics trigger" got pulled by the Feisar and the Gryphon frames, just as they appear in your above post. Maybe, when we're done (more than somewhat) with the beta focus, we might attempt a collaborative effort ? It seems like a lot to wrap my skull around, never done stuff like "actual" modding before. Always used the "slap-dash" routine. To coin a phrase from DaveK - "bits and bobs", pulled from here and there - from others labors. Profusive credit given, as am always and everywhere appreciative; but never my own work. Looks like a real trudge - but, it also looks be fun and a challenge for me. Yep, just what I need...... another one !

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Busch]

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Busch]

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Busch]

-splosives- · Post by **-splosives-** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:16 pm

What Software did you use to record game footage?

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:22 pm

Nice!:)

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:25 pm

Yeah, nice. Some of those ships match up really well with the AA cockpit (wings out of sight and windscreen struts in the proper location). I might need to brave the garage and crank up the graphics computer before Viper gets too far ahead in his tutorial.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:03 pm

Lol Marvin.

I used Fraps to record the in-game footage. It's a free program and you can get it >>here<<.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:17 pm

Doesn't FRAPS leave a watermark unless you pay for the "unmarked" version?

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:20 pm

Hmm that could be. I know that you can only record for 30 secs on end with the free version, and you could also be right about the watermark.

JayStar · Post by **JayStar** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:44 pm

viper i love the The 'Feisar', 889 polys.. but sadly i have no idea how to get it from model to flying in game.. i have most of the programs needed but still very new to them..

great looking strike craft love it

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:08 pm

Well the download comes as an OBJ file. So I recommend starting up two separate instances of Milkshape 3D, importing that into the program and import the XS3.obj model into the other one. Zoom in exactly the same amount in both windows, and rescale the Feisar model using the SX3 model as a visual guide. To do this, first you need to hit the 'select' button in the control window, select all (do it manually or press ctrl+a), then hit the scale button, enter a number which you think is appropriate in the x, y, z boxes (you need to scale it down a whole lot, so start with like 0.1 to scale it down 90% with each click) and scale the model down until it is the same size as the SX3.
Once scaled down, you will notice that the ship is not sitting in the dead center of the grid. Select all again, then move it around playing with the values in the 'move' option, until it is dead center in the middle. Remember that the center of the model determines how it rolls on its axis in game.

Export the ship again as OBJ (Milkshape 3D's DirectX exporter sucks) and load it into your 3d modeling program. From there export it again as a (Panda) DirectX mesh. Before that, make sure whether or not you need to flip it on its Y axis (turn it backwards).

That's basically it, although it can be quite tedious. Good luck and if you have any questions, please ask.

Chronathan · Post by **Chronathan** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:49 pm

Well, I got the Feisar model to appear in game at the correct scale and (I think) the correct orientation. But anyone know why there is a Richton engine seemingly molded right on the front end?

Textures are weird too. Still need to figure those out I guess.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:18 pm

Yes, I had the same thing and was just about to post about it. I wanted to have it sorted out first, though.

I'll quote Vice on this:

The game intentionally adds the engine mesh as part of the mesh assembly. You get some flexibility with civilian ships in terms of placement since you can relocate them in the game. But otherwise, you'll need to either include an engine sub-structure in your mod (engine9.x) or import a design that's just a really tiny panel or something hidden inside, then modify your ship to line up with the required exhaust outlets using its base structure only. The easiest way to do the latter is just to move and scale the entire ship until it lines up with the exhaust flares.

Personally I have chosen for the first option, to replace the engine mesh (engine9.x) for a tiny cube that is just too small to see. I then scaled my ship model down a bit to have the exhausts fit the engine effects and for the thruster effects to be emitted on logical places (not in the middle of the cockpit glass for example), and moved the ship back and forth on its axes to have the engine effects come out at exactly the right point in the exhausts.
This option has one big downside though, it will affect each ship in game that uses the engine9.x. It will not be displayed on any ships anymore (well, it will but because it's such a tiny cube you can't see it), nor will it be visible in the shipyard anymore.

You could also go for option 2, but it would force you to scale up your model so much that it would be out of wack with the rest of the fighter-type ships in game.

By the way, I have updated the download link for the SX3 with the rescaled and repositioned version to match the engine effects.
Also, to save you some work I have uploaded my engine9.x. You can download it >>here<<.

Good luck.

~ Viper.

[Edited on 11-10-2012 by Viper]

Chronathan · Post by **Chronathan** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:44 pm

Aha I see. Added the engine and now it has disappeared. Now the lining up haha what fun.

Ok so texture question now. The Feisar comes with the diffuse and specular maps, I load it up in Metaseq and under the material section the Diffuse.bmp is used for the textures. There is two other file paths, one for the alpha and one for the bump. Do I load the specular under one of those? I see nothing about a normal map or a UV map. Do I have to paint the UV map myself? I can see the textures applied in Metaseq but when I load it up in game it is see through.

Ahh so many questions. Sorry for the amateur hour over here.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:58 pm

Ha don't worry, I'm an amateur myself lol.

Not familiar with that program but as far as I can tell, the diffuse map is used for the normal texture, the normal map should be applied to the alpha file path and the specular map to the bump filer path.
The term 'UV or UVW mapping' is of a collective name for the mapping system applied on a 3d model, so I think you're referring to the normal map, which is mostly blue-ish/purple-ish. If it's not in the download, you will have to make it yourself. I have to admit that I didn't check. You do need a normal map for EM so there's not really a way around as far as I know. But try to google it, you will probably come up with something. I never created a normal map before today, but did the same thing and it wasn't that hard. It could be though that you need a plugin for your program to produce the normal map though.

Good luck.

~ Viper.

Chronathan · Post by **Chronathan** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:03 am

Cool thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Got something to keep occupy some free time now. Hopefully I can get this in the next day or so and then I'll throw it up here.

Something I would be really interested in adding is more ship components. Engines, wing sys., perhaps even different looking cargo bays and misc. stuff. However, it appears to be only possible to replace these items at this point which would defeat the purpose. The purpose being more options in ship customization. Does anyone know how you would actually add these items? Or is this something that will need to wait for EM2?

_-Caleb-_ · Post by **_-Caleb-_** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 9:29 am

Hola.

I think this about this thread....

IS A GREAT IDEA

Why not start a project in a website like a Evochron Basics School

The Evochron Mod Basics School... sounds great

Â¡Saludos!

EDIT: Hunter please do not dirty this thread, i think it's important for the community

[Edited on 11-11-2012 by AdamSelene]

[Edited on 11-11-2012 by thetiebers]

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 1:11 pm

Thanks Adam, glad you like it. Let's have some fun together eh?

[Edited on 11-11-2012 by Viper]

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:59 pm

Great Thread, I wish I had time for modding.......sigh!.......

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:04 pm

uh. cool. i'll join the party.

are we nitpicking here?

From post: 148283, Topic: tid=9963, author=hank wrote:
One thing I can add is for anyone who is interested who is not familiar with modeling for games, a specific method is used that helps create low poly models. If you search the internet for "subdivisional modeling" or "subdivision surface modeling" you'll get a lot of hits with video tutorials and other resources. This is what many game developers use.

Subdivision modeling is much different from modeling 3D objects with programs such as AutoCAD (and its sister programs), Rhino3D, or the other engineering oriented programs (SolidWorks, SolidEdge, etc.). Those engineering programs tend to create models with too many polys for games. You can modify models with those programs to reduce poly count but its not as reliable as starting out modeling with a low poly count and work up to a level that's acceptable to game engines. (this is what I've found out but I could be wrong ... I model machinery and process plants so poly count isn't an issue in my work)

Viper, if I've said anything wrong here please correct me and I'll edit my post.

Good luck to all.

the mayor difference between autocad and programs like max is:
cad is a volume modeler; max is a surface modeler.

while cad is very strong regarding precision, (thus its used for construction- max and co are rather used for vizualisation) one usually starts with splines in cad.
(lines/shapes, as in adobe illustrator or corel draw - just in 3d) which then get converted to meshes. you build a cage.
in max you'd call that workflow'spline modeling', which i find rather difficult.

subdivision modelling is a way of dealing with high poly models, too. its in the name allready:
you have a high (subdivided) poly mesh which you transform via a hand full of control points, instead of poly by poly. (freeform mods, soft selections..)

what you see raher often in production is high poly models getting retopologized (some poor guy has to paint a low poly surface over a high poly mesh). 'retopo'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD7M-fVS4P8
mesh details then get baked down on the low poly mesh via nifty textures.

how ever:
people interested in modeling should look into 'box modeling' tutorials for their app. its the easiest way to get started.
i made some tutorials for a class here but those are in german and dedicated to max. maybe i can do sth about it.
the'maybes' are strong with this guy....

btw: blender is open source. (since viper listed it with commercial programs). its free.
autodesk offers free student versions of their software since a while. no limitations but watermarks in the renderings. (which shouldn't disturb upcomming modelers)
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:22 pm

Thanks for your input ijon, great to have you in the thread!

Didn't know about Blender being open-source, never really looked into it I guess. Also forgot to list the student versions of Autodesk programs, thanks for pointing both things out, I'll edit the first post to include them.

~ Viper.

EN4CER · Post by **EN4CER** » Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:14 pm

Any chance you have something similar to a capital ship? I'm trying to work on a custom poster in Blender using ray tracing. I've got the landscape and the city but I just can't get a capital ship right. Part of the problem is that the model is the centerpiece so it has to look good and I'm definitely an amateur at modeling.

I saw the cap ship mod but I'm unable to import those files into blender. I haven't tried in 3dsmax yet as I just got it a few days ago.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:32 pm

Working on it. I'll have something up today or tomorrow.