Bringing Elite: Frontier ships into X3 Reunion

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Reunion.

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Supershandy
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Bringing Elite: Frontier ships into X3 Reunion

Post by Supershandy » Sat, 30. Jan 10, 18:17

I recently played Frontier just for a nostalgia kick and thought to myself, why hasn't anyone tried making the ships for X3? So I set about making the Cobra MK3........which I failed at, I'm not very good when it comes to creating objects for games in 3D programs, but when I looked at it in the 3D program, it did look quite good....

So my question is, would anyone be willing to recreate some of these classic ships?

[ external image ][/img]

andrew turner
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Post by andrew turner » Mon, 1. Feb 10, 21:21

I think that a game like frontier should be left where it belongs, in the past. X3 is a game that excels in every respect to that early game and as an offline game of the type i believe has no near competition. My only regret is that it does not seem to work 100% on vista or windows 7 as i cannot get the PHQ or the special paranid ship as they are graphically invisible on screen

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Tue, 2. Feb 10, 00:30

you could be right on frontier being left where it belongs, but for some fans of the original game, i'd like to see some of the ships flying around in the X universe, would also give some idea of what the new Elite (If it ever gets done) would look and feel like, minus the newtonian physics. To me, it's just personal choice, some people would not, like yourself, want to see it, but then some people like myself, wouldn't mind seeing it, I have bod files made up of the ships, but i can't seem to get them to appear in the game for some unknown reason.....

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Tue, 2. Feb 10, 18:49

andrew turner wrote:I think that a game like frontier should be left where it belongs, in the past. X3 is a game that excels in every respect to that early game and as an offline game of the type i believe has no near competition. My only regret is that it does not seem to work 100% on vista or windows 7 as i cannot get the PHQ or the special paranid ship as they are graphically invisible on screen
actually its perfectly compatable with Vista, and i think Windows 7 as well.

your problem is most likly that the patch wasn't installed correctly, or your using a mod thats not compatable with the game version your running.

if it really was a problem with the OS, it would most liky effect other ships, not just the stuff that was added in a later patch

MarkusXL
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Post by MarkusXL » Tue, 2. Feb 10, 20:05

I am running my X3:R setup on Vista™ and my PHQ is visible / dockable.

I haven't gotten it to start ship production yet... still working on that. And, it seems the "spray shop" - the ability to "paint" or tint your ships is nerfed.

No other problems with Vista™ - BUT make sure you run Plugin Manager and the game "as Administrator" or your CAT/DAT files can be screwed up royally.

Tip: Make backup folders for the entire main game folder, stash them and date them. If you are installing ships, do so ONE at a TIME and test and save your game thoroughly before installing the next one!


As far as modeling old ships - learn the 3d modeling that's needed to make .XSP packages and do it yourself!! It looks like you are very close!!

I will have to myself, because I really want to have one particular old ship in my game.

Its The Liberator from the old brit sci-fi tv show Blake's Seven:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_(Blake's_7)

"Zen, raise the radiation flare shields and clear the Neutron Blasters for firing!"

:lol:

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Tue, 2. Feb 10, 22:08

Well I got as far as making the ship, doing the scene for the ship.......and that's about it, after that I get pretty stuck, i don't quite understand how the ship creator plugin works and there doesn't seem to be much help on it, if i can figure out how that works or if someone can tell me how to work it, i can complete what i started and if it looks good in-game, I might start work on other ships from the eras and make them available for download

MarkusXL
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Post by MarkusXL » Thu, 4. Feb 10, 17:49

A worthy endeavor!

Help me get up to where you are at! I think there are enough notes posted around that we can figure some of this out.

Firstly, what 3D modeling software do I need? Is it 3DS Max? Where should I get it (best price)?

Secondly, have you been able to bring up a finished ship model from a .XSP package into 3DS Max (or..?) and then perhaps be able to modify it?

:lol:

I'm on a quest for the "perfect" UT Trader, Mining Ship, and M6 patrol watchdog ship. It would be great to someday be able to create my own. Gotta start somewhere!

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Thu, 4. Feb 10, 17:53

I use 3DSmax, and i wouldn't know how much it is as i borrowed it from an old uni mate, best look is on the internet, and yeah, i managed to get the nova into 3ds uding DBOX tools, the main problems i have is reallyt where to put everything, textures, Scene files etc and the biggest problem is the Tship file, I really do not have a clue how that works....

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Thu, 4. Feb 10, 18:04

the ship creator is mainly for the end product, u really need to get the ship in game and working before thinking about using the ship creator to package it up.


i assume u have managed to to export your model/scene into the correct format, the bob/bod files ?

next thing you need to do is create your TShips entry, which you can do in the X3 Editor, this is where you tell the game how to use the scene file.

once you have a TShips line, you can then import that into the ship creator and use that.

althou usually its better to create the sship mod manually first, which will help you learn what your doing

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Thu, 4. Feb 10, 18:15

Yeah, i managed to export the files into the right formats, that wasn't a problem, but how does the TShip entry work? how exactly does it work?

And how do you mean "Create a ship mod manually"?

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Fri, 5. Feb 10, 00:58

and dammit, if i'd known you were in lemington spa, i'd have come and asked you personally, was there a couple of days ago :p

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 17:24

there are 2 ways you can create the TShips file.

either using the X3 Editor, open TShips, copy an existing ship then make the changes your require.

or you can use the Ship Creator.
goto File -> New Ship

then you need to add you scene files, in the scenes section, add the name, and file for your scene.

this has 2 sections, ship scene and cockpit scene.
the top box is the name of the scene file, this is where it will be created in the mod, and uses that for its TShips entry

the bottom box is the file itself which will be added into the ship file.

then to create the TShips line, goto the Customize Ship button, all the options in there will be used to create the TShips and TCockpits required.

the guns selection is where you define what gun positions you have in the scene file, you need to add each entry and select the one from the scene file to link to

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Sun, 7. Feb 10, 14:24

I still can't get it, i have the models and everything, i kinda need a step-by-step guide and an explanation of how things are done, scene files make no sense to me, i can place the gun on the ship, but what do i select for the scene to export it, also, where do i put all the files and then how do i put it together in laymans terms?

I'm not exactly thick when it comes to computers and can do quite a few things.....but this has completely thrown me

apologies

dertien
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Post by dertien » Sun, 7. Feb 10, 19:10

If you're interested in a high resolution version of Frontier with remodeled ships, this retains the original gameplay:



http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Hires/hi ... tml#ffed3d

download here:

http://www.spacesimcentral.com/downloads.php?cat=37

have fun.

You can probably use those files to import them in x3, let the russian guys know that you are doing that though.

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Sun, 7. Feb 10, 19:14

Wow! that's pretty much what i was looking to do....but i'd rather do it all myself so that i can learn how it all works for future ships etc

But thanks though, they look great

MarkusXL
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Post by MarkusXL » Mon, 8. Feb 10, 05:00

I'm on my way!

My good cousin can get full version 3DS Max for $350 US.

I took some notes from our conversation!

He says its pretty much an industry standard. Models you make here can be converted over to pretty much anything out there.

Its a popular one for making 3d models for games. Duh.

There is a 30 free trial available too.

You have to start with low polygon count models or you will go mad.

Texturing and lighting are tedious trial and error affairs. You DO NOT actually have to write the mathematical code to do stuff like reflections, BUT you do need to click through a lot of option settings.

More as I learn it...

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Mon, 8. Feb 10, 18:53

that isn't the problem though, i can make the models and everything (and they are very low poly, the wonders of simplicity and iconic imaging :D), it's more how to get them into the game, I have DBOX tools, but as i said before, the rest of it is just a minefield of problems for me, i appreciate cycrow for posting what he did, but i kinda need an idiots guide to adding the ships, like "this goes in this box", "This does this", "These numbers do these, "Ship model goes in this area", "Ship scene goes here", "Texture goes here".....I know i'm sounding like a noob, and i guess i am when it comes to this part of the process....seems kinda complicated to me haha, now that is a noobish thing to say :P

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, once I know how to do it, i can rework the textures to make them look more realistic and smooth out the ships a bit more so they're not so...blocky.....the image was there just to show that I can do the modelling, but the coding part...again...is a different question!

I'm liking the feedback on this though :)

magrathean monkey
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Post by magrathean monkey » Fri, 12. Feb 10, 15:05

Hi Supershandy,

I wrote a guide on adding a model into X3 a while ago, it might be of some use to you. The guide assumes that you already have a model that you want to add, and takes you through the process of setting up Cycrow and Doubleshadow's various tools, then describes each step to get your ship in-game. Here's the link:

A Monkey's guide to adding ships to X3

I would love to fly some of the Elite ships again, I can't wait to see them up and running!

MM

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Fri, 12. Feb 10, 21:21

thanks for the support MM, I'll give it a try over the weekend after i've finished going over my books and see what i can get done, if iI get stuck, you'll be sure to here from me again haha

Supershandy
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Post by Supershandy » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 16:45

I've had some partial success, I finally got the ship to appear in game, there are a number of problems though

1. The ship is black, there are no textures on it, even though the model picture I posted has one

2. The guns will not fire

3. The ship flies backwards, In other words, the model is facing the wrong direction when flying forwards

I'm at a loss so far

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