WC4 Mod For Homeworld 2 In The Works (June 5, 2006)

[c0mc0]

L.I.F. - can you send me a couple of textures for various Kilrathi ships? I'd be interesting in experimenting with 'upresing' them - throw me some ships you're least happy with and I'll take a stab - no promises, but I'd be interested to see if I could put together some Photoshop base layers that could be used as a basis to apply across a whole bunch of Kilrathi models. Same goes for the Confed stuff - if I could come up with a default Confed 'capship' panelling base texture, this would be reasonably easy to take and upres the entire fleet.

 

[L.I.F.]

L.I.F. - can you send me a couple of textures for various Kilrathi ships? I'd be interesting in experimenting with 'upresing' them - throw me some ships you're least happy with and I'll take a stab - no promises, but I'd be interested to see if I could put together some Photoshop base layers that could be used as a basis to apply across a whole bunch of Kilrathi models. Same goes for the Confed stuff - if I could come up with a default Confed 'capship' panelling base texture, this would be reasonably easy to take and upres the entire fleet.

I'm using the textures from the files found here for thr Kilrathi ships:

http:// wcmdf. solsector. net/ meshes. htm

If you want to take a shot at it, be my guest.

I'm high on coffee, understanding more things about modding in one month than in litterally ten years and I fething love it! If we can get high-res models for all factions, this could be a top Tier mod for Remastered!

 

[c0mc0]

Cheers - I'll take a look. Any special requests to start with ship wise?

 

[L.I.F.]

Cheers - I'll take a look. Any special requests to start with ship wise?

Not particularly. I think I can get a pair of fighters ingame every evening, though they will not be completely functional. I'll then work on getting their guns to fire correctly. The big need will however be for the capship models indicated before, but even before that, I should be able to get some good stuff going.

Thanks!

 

[c0mc0]

So, having a look at this tonight, most of the capship models on that site have a huge variety of textures - 10-15 on some of them. This is surely not how you'll be bringing them in-engine? Are you rolling up the UV maps to create a couple of larger textures?

 

[L.I.F.]

So, having a look at this tonight, most of the capship models on that site have a huge variety of textures - 10-15 on some of them. This is surely not how you'll be bringing them in-engine? Are you rolling up the UV maps to create a couple of larger textures?

I haven't looked too much at the capships yet, but even some fighters like the Paktahn have several texture files. When I'm converting the .3ds file to a .obj one, I have to take care to maintain the list of "materials" associated with the various parts of the ship (for example, the Paktahn had one section for the "daggers", one for the cockpit and engine block, one for the links). Then, in the .hod editor, I integrate each texture file, converted into a .dds (which needs the power of two size, that thankfully several fighters' textures have) associated to a material, and they get positioned right as planned in the original .3ds file, as you can see in the screenshots.

In short, though, Homeworld 2 uses a .hod file for the models. It includes:
- the 3D mesh
- the various textures
- the "hardpoints" information, like the engines position, the weapons, the possible turrets and so on.

Everything is included in that single file (for which I have a very nice community-made editor) and is then referenced in the other files like the .ship or the .events one.

 

[ravelin]

I've been trying to figure out how to get the models out of this viewer to no avail: http://www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/

I found the IFF and json files, but cannot figure out how to get them into 3ds max or anything (I am just learning about 3d modeling and modding in general). If anyone has some insights into that, that would be a starting point for L.I.F. to get the ships he needs at least. Probably .obj would be the preferred format. (or maybe you already can figure out how to do that L.I.F)

Here are the ships L.I.F. asked for, as seen in the viewer:

Ralarrad: http:// www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/ viewer.html ?file_offset=0&pal_offset=1&files=[%22main/wc3pc/kdes.IFF%22,%22main/wc3pc/pal.json%22]
Ralaxath: http:// www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/ viewer.html?file_offset=0&pal_offset=1&files=[%22main/wc3pc/sdnew.IFF%22,%22main/wc3pc/pal.json%22]
Kamrani: http:// www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/ viewer.html?file_offset=0&pal_offset=1&files=[%22main/wc3pc/kcorvx.IFF%22,%22main/wc3pc/pal.json%22]
Bhantkara: http:// www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/ viewer.html?file_offset=0&pal_offset=1&files=[%22main/wc3pc/kcar.IFF%22,%22main/wc3pc/pal.json%22]
Sha'Kar: http:// www. wcnews. com/ shipviewer/ viewer.html?file_offset=0&pal_offset=1&files=[%22main/wc3pc/ktrans.IFF%22,%22main/wc3pc/pal.json%22]

 

[L.I.F.]

Thanks for the help, it means a lot for me to see people willing to get into it.

As for an update, here's the current roster of Kilrathi ships ingame:

They look completely functional as of now, and I'll try to get the other fighters done ASAP. I'll get a look too to Klavs' models to see if I can get them ingame in their glorious HDness.

 

[ravelin]

I also wonder if WC Saga would be willing to share assets?

http://www.wcsaga.com/database/capital-ships.html

 

[L.I.F.]

I also wonder if WC Saga would be willing to share assets?

http://www.wcsaga.com/database/capital-ships.html

I just sent them a mail. We'll see whether they are or not.

Edit:

New fighter done!

The hairless monkeys shall not reach their target!

 

[ravelin]

Sorry if I'm monopolizing this thread, I am just very excited about this project! Thank you so much for maintaining and improving on this mod L.I.F.!!

FWIW, I was just now able to get one of Klav's models in game! I did use 3ds max to auto-optimize it, and cut the poly count down. Still looks good, and now that I've got one in, I'm not so sure cutting the poly count was necessary.

Edit: I should add that it has taken me several weeks to get this working.

 

[L.I.F.]

Sorry if I'm monopolizing this thread, I am just very excited about this project! Thank you so much for maintaining and improving on this mod L.I.F.!!

FWIW, I was just now able to get one of Klav's models in game! I did use 3ds max to auto-optimize it, and cut the poly count down. Still looks good, and now that I've got one in, I'm not so sure cutting the poly count was necessary.

Edit: I should add that it has taken me several weeks to get this working.

View attachment 7521

You aren't monopolizing the thread, on the contrary.

Great job for the model from Klavs! How large is the .hod file?

(I'll keep on getting the low-res files integrated to have a homogeneous mod for the time being)

 

[ravelin]

it's about 27 MB

 

[L.I.F.]

it's about 27 MB

OK, so we're reaching the level of a HW:R capship here. That might be a problem, especially if there's a large number of fighters ingame (a fighter .hod is usually 4 or 5 MB). Did you use several levels of detail in the file or is there a single one?

Edit: Sthraka are in.

 

[L.I.F.]

A family picture:

All the normal Kilrathi fighters are now in (need to add the Sorthak and the Asteroid Fighter before starting to work on the Fralthi and the Hvar'Kann).

The Dhralti texture is quite too dark, though...

 

[ravelin]

Just the one. Klav's Dralthi is about 50k polys, I got it down to about 30k before getting it in the HOD format.

 

[L.I.F.]

Just the one. Klav's Dralthi is about 50k polys, I got it down to about 30k before getting it in the HOD format.

Yep, I think it'll be necessary to do some stress tests of the engine if we get all his models into .hod files. Normally, it should be OK: I mean, I've been playing with dozens of Star Destroyers firing hundreds of turbolaser bolts everywhere several years ago, so I'm not too afraid, but still, that would be nice just to be sure. And we will probably use the low-resolution models I'm integrating now as a secondary Level Of Detail layer.

Anyway, gotta go, it's 1 am here.

 

[Dundradal]

Thank Sivar! This looks amazing guys!

 

[Deathsnake]

If the WC Saga Team give me the ok to share it with you - I could give you all the old Saga Models what should use with the prologue. Final Saga had new models from Scooby Doo.

So there would be the Kilrathi Troop Transport, light/heavy destroyer, cruiser, carrier, the Harrier Class, Jutland Class, light confed cruiser, Confederation class And the two big one ^^

 

[L.I.F.]

If the WC Saga Team give me the ok to share it with you - I could give you all the old Saga Models what should use with the prologue. Final Saga had new models from Scooby Doo.

So there would be the Kilrathi Troop Transport, light/heavy destroyer, cruiser, carrier, the Harrier Class, Jutland Class, light confed cruiser, Confederation class And the two big one ^^

*crosses fingers*

That would be damn awesome indeed.

Hell, to do justice to these models, I would have to make a separate mode in the mod, with only the HD factions against one another, then try to see if I can get HD versions of the WC4 era ships...

Edit: uploaded the mod to ModDB: http://www.moddb.com/mods/flag-commander/

The site's admins will check the file before it can go live, so the link should be working in the next few days.