WIP Screenshots - Cethlenn and Danu - New models.

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Mon, 8. May 17, 00:38

Some screenshots of two models I've been busy on using existing colladae meshes from X-Rebirth models.

The Cethlenn Multigun Corvette. (craft in the middle)
The Danu: Canteran Mining ship.

Cethlenn (wife of Balor). A small Corvette/Light Destroyer size craft to complement the Balor's barrages. Not sure about weapon loadout yet. A Multigun Corvette would make sense IMO and one a big oompher at the front. It should be a very nimble craft that brings its front big bertha to bear on larger targets. The smaller multiguns should keep the fighters at bay.

The look of the ship is very loosely based on the USR Pioneer from Fractured Space:

https://www.fracturedspace.com/uploads/ ... efault.png

The other ship is a Danu. I'm thinking about giving the Canterrans their own industrial ship look and get rid of all craft with 'Elven Ears', which I am not really fond of. The Danu is quite simply a Lepton turned upside down with the 'Ears' removed, and 2 tanks popped in on both sides.

Here are the screenshots of the WIP in Blender:

Needs a few more details added to it, then I need to find out how to merge the nodes with the same textures and test it ingame, if I get that far.

Post by **linolafett** » Mon, 8. May 17, 10:23

Good luck getting the models into the game. Its not a simple task.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 8. May 17, 18:02

i can help you with the Command line of the converter tool and how to set up everything in the game (i have some experience with kitbashing), so feel free to contact me about this

but i cannot help you with setting up everything in your dae files properly so the tool can work with it because i am not a modeller.

ezra-r · Post by **ezra-r** » Mon, 8. May 17, 22:53

The tubular ship looks amazing!

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Tue, 9. May 17, 21:16

@Linolafett & Ezra-r

Thanks!

@unitrader

Thank you that would be very helpful. Since you made the Rahanas M, combining 2 models into 1 ship, which is the same as I did with the Cethlenn all tips you can share are welcome.

I looked into the modeling tutorial by Observe and found another forum post with some information on how to set up the nodes in blender.

The following questions arise:

When placing the turrets, bridge, drone launch pad and other surface elements on capital ships, is there a way to find out at what xyz-coordinates to place them at instead of trial and error? Is there a relationship between the coordinates in blender and the offset xyz figures in the XML documents ingame?

Since the Rahanas M is also 2 ships joined into one, did you achieve this by xml only or did you use blender to merge both ships into 1 colladae mesh?

I might have more questions later, so far that's about it I think.

KrYcHokE · Post by **KrYcHokE** » Tue, 9. May 17, 21:59

Cethlenn is cool

Some tutorial from german thread i use: https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=392746

Also some my designs: http://imgur.com/a/ZObZL

Post by **UniTrader** » Tue, 9. May 17, 22:50

my Rahanas M Mod was done via xml edit only, moving and rotating the parts of both Ships (and iirc it way the very first kitbash mod at all, was available before arc_ published his converter)

also the coordinated in XR files are all in meters if not specified diffrently, and it should be the same in blender / the dae file. Maybe it helps to import the dae file of the original bridge? or reference it somehow?

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Wed, 10. May 17, 21:30

Putting detail greebles on the thing is time-consuming, esepecially since kitbash building is less easy than creating new content. Still... progressing at a steady pace.

@ KrYcHokE

Thank you didn't know about that one. Will come in handy.

@Unitrader

Will have a look at that then since I might need to do a similar merge that you used on the Rahanas M on this ship as well. Not sure if you noticed or if you still update the Rahanas M, but there seems to be a bug with it. It does not seem to have shields anymore and the boost engine is not used while it flies from one zone to another. I built one in the shipyard, not a captured one.

I will do a test to check xyz figures in blender and ingame and see what gives.

Some screenshots before starting the node renaming business:

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Sat, 13. May 17, 02:08

Does anyone know why a craft converted from xmf to dae and back to xmf with Arc's tool not seem to show up?

As a test, I did this:

Converted the small pirate fighter with arcs tool from xmf to dae - loads up fine when imported dae in blender:

https://roguey.co.uk/xrebirth/ships/domelch/

Now, to make it show as a Camulos Raider, (not using xml but simply swapping meshes here) I opened the Dae file with Notepad++ and changed the name on line 648 from

Code: Select all

<library_visual_scenes>
    <visual_scene id="myScene" name="myScene">
      <node id="units_size_s_ship_pirate_01" name="units_size_s_ship_pirate_01" type="NODE">

to

Code: Select all

<library_visual_scenes>
    <visual_scene id="myScene" name="myScene">
      <node id="units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01" name="units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01" type="NODE">

I converted that file back to XMF files and put all of them in the following directory:

X Rebirth\extensions\testCamulos\assets\units\size_s\units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01_data

those were:
part_main-collision.xmf
part_main-lod0.xmf
part_main-lod1.xmf
part_main-lod2.xmf
part_main-lod3.xmf

Now I was expecting to buy a Camulos Raider with the looks of a Domelch. That was not the case. The Camulos model still showed.

Now my question is this: What am I missing here?

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Sat, 13. May 17, 02:16

I'm running into a couple of issues when exporting from Blender. Since the XMF format and the DAE format are based on plain text (xml) I can compare the results in notepad++. If I have a working dae file that I can use to export from back to XMF with Arc's tool, I can see about editing the errors blender makes when exporting dae files, as opposted to the ones that Arc makes.

Some errors are:

units is meters instead of centimeters
Z-Up instead of Y-up
Texture path is not relative

and a few others.

However, I cannot seem to get Arc's XMF files created from Dae to show up ingame either, or I am goofing up something major here.

It would obiously really open up modding for this game if Blender could be used opposed to 3Ds Max.

Post by **UniTrader** » Sat, 13. May 17, 08:47

dertien wrote:Does anyone know why a craft converted from xmf to dae and back to xmf with Arc's tool not seem to show up?

As a test, I did this:

Converted the small pirate fighter with arcs tool from xmf to dae - loads up fine when imported dae in blender:

https://roguey.co.uk/xrebirth/ships/domelch/

Now, to make it show as a Camulos Raider, (not using xml but simply swapping meshes here) I opened the Dae file with Notepad++ and changed the name on line 648 from
Code: Select all
<library_visual_scenes>
    <visual_scene id="myScene" name="myScene">
      <node id="units_size_s_ship_pirate_01" name="units_size_s_ship_pirate_01" type="NODE">
to
Code: Select all
<library_visual_scenes>
    <visual_scene id="myScene" name="myScene">
      <node id="units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01" name="units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01" type="NODE">
I converted that file back to XMF files and put all of them in the following directory:

X Rebirth\extensions\testCamulos\assets\units\size_s\units_size_s_ship_ar_military_01_data

those were:
part_main-collision.xmf
part_main-lod0.xmf
part_main-lod1.xmf
part_main-lod2.xmf
part_main-lod3.xmf

Now I was expecting to buy a Camulos Raider with the looks of a Domelch. That was not the case. The Camulos model still showed.

Now my question is this: What am I missing here?

file replacements dont work by putting stutt in the mod folder or the ext_01.cat/dat. you hate to put them into a subst_01.cat/dat.

Post by **Sparky Sparkycorp** » Sat, 13. May 17, 09:26

A beautiful project!

I guess you are aware but just in case you didn't know, have you seen linolafett's thread about about art and sound?

It's linked via the wiki on the modding support page here.

Good luck,
Sparks

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Sat, 13. May 17, 11:46

@ UniTrader

I could kiss you on the forehead... not sure you're going to like that though

- I just spent fiddling 4 hours with a correct file having the wrong name. Facepalm!

In short: Thank you this helps a lot, it works now!

@ Sparky

No,

I didn't know about that, I just kinda found relevant stuff via Google and the forums, but this is a great list I was not aware of. Thanks for sharing.

Now I can move to the next step... Getting the Cethlenn model to show up as a placeholder for something like a Titurel...

Fingers Crossed... we'll see...