Warzone 2100 Forums

Re-directed from "Models by Berg"

Hi Everyone.

Maybe I'm dropping in somewhat late with questions regarding modding.
I've already visited this site quite frequently in order to learn some stuff.

And yesterday, and just now I've been making my very first modding entries and making Warzone 2100 a game personalized for my touch.
I also have created plans to fully throw around some aspects such as models and the technology tree.

and yesterday I started with having success in making my Cobra Tank having a cooler more dark with some red linings body type and used it in my mod.
Today I also have been succesfull in converting the Python body to a second cobra like medium body which must receive some extra feature on the model. I used Blender to add some extra green bagage trays for a quick tryout. But now when I start up a game, the model shows up correctly, but there's no turret being displayed?

Can someone please help? its the only thing that current;y is stopping me, and I don't understand what happens here?


For info: I use WMIT for the model import/exporting including the textures, here I see no issues.
I use blender to work on the .obj files I make with WMIT.


Add: Someone called 'Stiv' said he needed more info... I was under the impression I was fairly clear in what the problem is.
If you ask me to be specific, then also please be specific in the answer.

Thanks.

*Edit: I changed the topic title. As I'm furthering myself through the world of Warzone 2100 modding I find a more broader topic (and title) will suffice.

Below is the pie file do note at the very end is connectors yopu need to replace them because they are the positioning points for turrets etc, without these the turrets have no place to be added to the model.
remember upon changing your model to replace the connectors list!

Ok, that does sound logical.

How/where exactly do I find this list?
When I use WMIT I can only do very, veeery basic manipulation of the geometry, and even that causes Issues I discovered.
As it appears the .PIE files seem very disapproving of using scale, mirror and the like.

.pie can be saved as .obj if you manually type it in.

Attempt with obj conversion, much more universal than pie .

I went .pie to .obj to .iprop

I have an animators cut-scene thread open, I am going to post there the iclone tool + 400 models converted for high render name of download file with sample backdrop of whats included. check out my posts there about how to get past .pie

Follow Berg's advice for the initial problem you have specified. This list of data is essentially the .pie file itself; just open/edit the file with any text editor and you will see all of this data in it. As mentioned, the connectors data is usually lost in the conversion process from .pie to .obj, so you want to copy all of the connectors data as-is from the original model's pie file and paste the data into your new model's pie file in the same location anytime you're going to modify a model's physical geometry/mesh. Of course this typically applies just for objects where a separate object is appended to it such as this case with the bodies.
As far as WMIT, I'm not completely familiar with it unfortunately. I just use it to convert the files as needed and do all the geometry editing directly in Blender. So I personally wouldn't use it for anything else beyond simple scale adjustments if a model isn't the correct size.

Ok, than I'm going to try that. Any text editor huh, should be easy enough then. Thanks for the help so far! In the mean time I've had some successes with just replacing existing models with other bodies. And I did have luck with increasing a turret in size without problems. I'll see if I can showcase some of my work sofar soon.


Edit:
I just tried it out with by changing the Tiger body to an enlarged Cobra model with added green bags (on aft section)
and used the Connector point from the Tiger, and it worked.
Now I have to try and figure out how to change the values to point to the correct desired position

But this opens up a lot of abilities for me now!
Thanks again!

As we dont have a model editor that can adjust connectors you will need to know that the connector format is XZY.
If you look at you points in the text editor you can roughly work out where you want a connector, refine by looking at the model in game...Bit lame I know but its what we have now!

Berg wrote:As we dont have a model editor that can adjust connectors you will need to know that the connector format is XZY.
If you look at you points in the text editor you can roughly work out where you want a connector, refine by looking at the model in game...Bit lame I know but its what we have now!

Yeah that was what I meant indeed.
well, it works pretty fine as far as I'm concerned. I get done what I want to get done.

On another note.
I'm trying to add new propulsion models which have different looks and are designed to fit with specific bodies.
I've found that I can change the code name in the "Body/Propulsion" section from the Stats editor.
I changed the name to my new track set (named: HvyTrack2) But when I then wanted to test out the model in-game, the game crashes on me, saying in the logfile it could found the IMD data.
what have I not done, which I apparently should? I rather not re-use existing model entries.

If you are using 3.1, and are adding new stuff, then you need to list all new files in appropriate WRFs in data/{base|mp}/wrf/*.wrf This goes for new textures, new models, and so on.

If you are using git master version, then you do not need to do this, as it implements loading on demand of both textures and model files.

Per, I thank you kindly! I have the 3.1 + version, but by modifying the .wrf it worked fine for me.
Now I can get to business.

Edit 1:small question.
Parallel to the modding/modeling of the units etc. I also took it upon myself to change the pallette for team colors. They work in-game, but the minimap still shows the original colors for the players.
Does anyone know how to adress this?

Edit 2:Hereby I would like to showcase some preliminary work.
Photo 1: wheeled flamer light tank, wheeled light-cannon tank and two tracked light tanks.


Photo 2: The complete first series, of light, medium, heavy and special tanks.
In the Top Viper Light Tanks, at the right a Cobra Medium Tank, then a Tiger Heavy Tank (mantis look-a-like)Then Top-left two special dual-weapon Crucion Tanks and all in the right-bottom a King Cobra Medium/heavy Tank (Retribution look-a-like)

As you can see I also changed some of the team color, featuring brown here.
I'm planning to redo most of the retextured bodies to actually have something new for the them, the Crucion Tank was my first real try.

Photo 3: a brand new series is being started: the Pulsar Tanks.
A small group of light and medium vehicles.
Left line: wheeled medium repair unit and wheeled light sensor unit. On the right two light HPV tanks and in the middle a heavy HPV Tank.


Photo 4: Commense the attack!

Photo 5: Introducing a heavy version for the Pulsar Tanks.
And... The Monolith Battle fortress, a true powerhouse of a tank.

Pretty cool
What about a neon-themed mod with glow-in-the-dark teamcolors, a bit like far cry blood dragon?
One would need to tweak the ambient light settings in the game to get night lighting, but then I could easily write a custom fragment shader to make the team color emit its own light.

Yeah I was attempting something aling those lines with this first run already. As I'm just getting started I still have to figure most stuff out om hows and wheres.
Like I mentioned above: I managed to change some teamcolors, but they no longer correspond with the minimap display. And I have, as you suggested, looked into making emissives for teamcolors (or just plain textures for that matter) similar to Starcraft II's Protoss units have. I hope to discover how to do those things somewhere in the near future.
But thanks for the support!