[EM] Ships replacement project

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:07 am

Hi all! I just bought the game just a few days ago but I know the starwraith saga for a long time now. I'm a great fan of 4X in space and Ive played with most of them. Evochron was the last on my list of "must have", and I want to contribute actively to the community.

So here is the thing: I'm a old time modder and I just began my first year in a video game school. Ive a project in dev but that's another story. I want to improve graphicaly some ships and stations for evochron (modeling and texturing). But all I know is that in evochron, I cant make a ship model, I have to make a ship body and accessories that can be attached to it.

We use blender in class and for now I only modeled some ships for homeworld 2.

So my questions are:

- What is the max limit of polygons for a ship or station?

- How can I put the existing ships in blender?

- Is there someone that have succeded to put its own model ingame, and how?

Thanks for the answers, and have a good flight!

[Edited on 2-23-2012 by Daedalus]

[Edited on 2-23-2012 by Daedalus]

[Edited on 3-1-2012 by Daedalus]

[Edited on 4-15-2012 by Daedalus]

Raynor · Post by **Raynor** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:29 am

I can't help you with this since i'm no modder and i'm useless at this stuff but since you seem to be really into modding for EM in the near future and are experienced, can i already beg that you consider making one or two cockpits? Pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee. There isn't enough out there for my taste...must..have...cock...pits (yeah you really have to finish that sentence otherwise it sounds really wrong...). That's all i have to say, resume as you were.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:30 am

Hi aedalus! Welcome to the game and community mate!

Having done some modeling in the past myself (although not for EM), I can answer a few of your questions:
1) - I'm not sure on this one to be honest. The models that are in game now look to be relatively low poly models. I'm sure this is done to make the game playable on low-end computers as well. I wouldn't be surprised though, if there was no limit in EM. But for a definitive answer you would need Vice himself, the creator of this magnificent game.
2) - The file type used in EM is DirectX (.x). You can get importers and exporters for different modeling programs to work on them, just google them. The DirectX exporter has a lot of options though, and you need to know the right ones in order for the model to be accepted by the game. Again you will need Vice for these options, or someone else who has successfully put a new ship in game.
3) - How to put the ships in game is clearly described in the customizing kit you can download from >here<. As mentioned, there are people who have put a ship in game before.

There is a thread somewhere about this very topic. I'll see if I can find it for you, it will probably prove helpful.

Good luck!

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:35 am

Well here's a high detail capital ships mod. Maybe you can have a look at these models.
And >here<'s that thread I was on about. As you can see, more people use Blender without problems. If you want to have a go, please feel free to use the files of the ship I posted in there to test if you can get it in game. and if you can, please do post the files up. I would really love to see that ship in game.

Clear skies, pilot!

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:53 pm

Hi Daedalus, welcome to the game and forum!.....Hope to see you out there some time!.....

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:42 am

Is there a way to have all the docs relatives to ships and modules, with pictures of them?

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 4:18 pm

From post: 129914, Topic: tid=8864, author=Daedalus wrote:Is there a way to have all the docs relatives to ships and modules, with pictures of them?

There are some files you could get the information from:

1. The readme.txt file in your Games installation folder and some other .dat or .txt files in that same folder!

2. http://evochron.junholt.se

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:58 pm

From post: 129914, Topic: tid=8864, author=Daedalus wrote:Is there a way to have all the docs relatives to ships and modules, with pictures of them?

It has been my experience that programmers and modders hate to document their work. Or how they work. Your best bet is to start working on a mod, document it all as you go along, and ask questions when you get stuck ... documenting the questions and answers (maybe in FAQ form). Doing so will help both you and everyone else who comes along afterward.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:58 pm

Ok, correct me if I'm wrong: The ships are designed by the inegration of diffrents parts and is constituated of a body, wings, shields, cargo and engine. You can also design your own ships by playing with the shapes of all the parts. So its more difficult than I imagined because you cant just make a whole model and import it ingame. You have to model all the parts and make sure that the whole thing is cool.

BUT! I havent seen any capital ships with this structure. So in tought that in this case I can import a whole model. So i will try to import one of my model of capital ship:

In the end, what my priorities are:

- Trying to retexture the parts of the player ship with a better uvmap and higher resolution textures
- Trying to import my models of capital ships ingame. I'll keep the low poly thing.

Once this is done, what I want to:

- Modeling stations and rexturing it
- Calling for a friend that has already moded cockpits for evochron legends.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:03 pm

From post: 130248, Topic: tid=8864, author=Daedalus wrote:Ok, correct me if I'm wrong: The ships are designed by the inegration of diffrents parts and is constituated of a body, wings, shields, cargo and engine. You can also design your own ships by playing with the shapes of all the parts. So its more difficult than I imagined because you cant just make a whole model and import it ingame. You have to model all the parts and make sure that the whole thing is cool.

Not necessarily. You can import a whole model, as long as you make sure you replace one of the military ships with it. The military frames don't have any separate model groups.

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:11 pm

ok! That's awesome, Ive a bunch of fighter concept waiting to be modeled.

Since I'm new in the community, if there is something that need an immediate modding, say it, I'll see what I can do.

[Edited on 2-13-2012 by Daedalus]

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:13 am

Flash Gordon's rocket ship. With accompanying smoke trail.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:40 pm

An awesome cockpit like the one "can't remember his name" designed for Legends. I'll try to find the topic for you.

Edit:
>THIS< is the one I meant. It was designed for Renegades, by the way, not for Legends like I said.
I really like the open style the guy used for this cockpit, would be awesome to see something similar for EM.
I have plans to design a completely new and different style of HUD for EM when I have some time to spare. Maybe it would go nice with a cockpit like that!

[Edited on 2-13-2012 by Viper]

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:21 pm

Ive talked with a friend who had designed this cockpit for evochron:

http://uppix.net/d/c/b/d46f6c9e0a093cb1 ... 9bd7tt.jpg

He will help me, if he has the time.

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:35 pm

That's a pretty cool one too. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would love it if he'd make it available here.
By the looks of it though, it seems that the spacing between the monitors is different than the original one. Keep in mind that it is a lot of work to realign all the graphics on the HUD to function properly and in the right place, if the locations of the displays are different than the original.

It also does raise the challenge of designing an Uber cool HUD for such a cockpit too, though.

Raynor · Post by **Raynor** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:52 pm

From post: 130462, Topic: tid=8864, author=Viper wrote:An awesome cockpit like the one "can't remember his name" designed for Legends. I'll try to find the topic for you.

Edit:
>THIS< is the one I meant. It was designed for Renegades, by the way, not for Legends like I said.
I really like the open style the guy used for this cockpit, would be awesome to see something similar for EM.

Yeah i keep wishing someone will adapt this cockpit to EM.

And yes Daedalus, tell you friend we want his cockpit!

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:12 pm

Yes, I remember that one, I used Carwash's cockpit mod also for a while back in those days. that was indeed a cool one!...

:P

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:29 pm

Right now we are creating a file with various parts for ships and stations, and we mix them together to make a bunch of ships with the same identity.
Our team is working slowly but we have some nice things to show: Here a navy transporter, 2/3 finished, uvmap and texture on the way:

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:52 pm

greetings.

just read this post. an idea (although you are beyond that point):
you don't need to model all the parts for the civilian hulls.

its surely not intended that way and a kind of waste, but:
put all detail into the frame you want; just make it big enough so all the components can hide inside it.

nice work.
happy unwrapping!
(:

Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:07 am

new version of the transporter, with a few adjustments:

Twilly Frost · Post by **Twilly Frost** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:40 pm

Those ships definitely have a Homeworld flavor. Not that I mind though, that's an awesome game and the models look great. That open cockpit design would be a fantastic addition. I'd like to try my hand at modding, it's tougher than I thought. I replaced all of the Vonari ship models with squirrels, makes them less intimidating, but also harder to kill.

They're so cute, drifting around in space like that.

[Edited on 2-23-2012 by Twilly Frost]

Nova_Solo · Post by **Nova_Solo** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:55 pm

Just a suggestion,

I think it would be awesome if there was a redesign of the military carriers. And that redisign turned out to looking like the Battlestar Galactica, or even the Battlestar Pegasus. It may be difficult, considering there are 2 landing pads on a battlestar, and only 1 coordinate associated for the docking area.

Letoras · Post by **Letoras** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:55 pm

From post: 130479, Topic: tid=8864, author=Daedalus wrote:Ive talked with a friend who had designed this cockpit for evochron:

http://uppix.net/d/c/b/d46f6c9e0a093cb1 ... 9bd7tt.jpg

He will help me, if he has the time.

I want the pip boy cockpit!!!!!

p.s. the design of the ships are really amazing, cannot wait to try them.

Nova_Solo · Post by **Nova_Solo** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:59 pm

From post: 131713, Topic: tid=8864, author=Twilly Frost wrote:...I replaced all of the Vonari ship models with squirrels.

[Edited on 2-23-2012 by Twilly Frost]

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Daedalus · Post by **Daedalus** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:49 am

Kotaku wrote an article about the art of Homeworld

Rob cunnigham is my favorite game artist, Its maybe for this reason that my work kind of look like homeworld ships.