• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

A second version of the USS Enterprise

Legendary_Spider

Legendary_Spider

Why is the rum always gone?
2D Artist
Provisional
Storm Modder
I was wondering if we could make a second version of the USS Enterprise? She started out as schooner, but ended as a brig. I'm not sure which version we have, but maybe would could make a second USS enterprise so we could have both versions in the game. It wouldn't even require a new model, just new texturing. Idk dumb idea?
dunno.gif


Isn't the schooner version the one that's in the game? Or is it the brig version?
 
We currently have the schooner version; you can tell by the rigging. Compare it to the stock PotC schooner and brig models, and you'll see what I mean.
To make a brig version, it would only require some tweaks to the rigging, which isn't all that hard.
And, since you don't need any modelling experience, this might even be a job for you! ;)

If you're interested, I'll happily tell you how to do it. :doff
 
OK then. Firstly, you'll need Inez Dias' TOOL, GM Viewer and Notepad++. Do you have all/any of them yet?
 
Right, off we go. Sorry for the delay, I was busy figuring out how to go about all this. :hmm

How well do you know the programs I listed above? I don't want to go over stuff that you already know, cos that would be a waste of our time.

I'm guessing 'locators' are totally new to you, though? You'll need to get to know them like the back of your hand, eventually.

Locators are the key to this whole process. No modelling involved whatsoever.
They are what make up all in-game models, by telling the game engine what goes where and what they do.
The three programs all work together to achieve the final results:
  • GM Viewer lets you literally view the game's model files, and can display the locators visually.
  • TOOL lets you add/change/remove locators, or write them to a text file for Notepad++ to read.
  • Notepad++ lets you add/change/remove them in text file format.
So, the first thing for you to do is open up GM Viewer and set it up to read from the right directories.
Under 'Select GM File', browse to PotC/RESOURCE/MODELS/Ships/USS_Enterprise1
Under 'Select TX Directory...', browse to PotC/RESOURCE/Textures/Ships
Then, select 'USS_Enterprise1.gm'. You'll see the hull appear.
Click-and-drag to rotate the model, right-click-and-drag to zoom, middle-mouse-and-drag to move the camera's central position.
See the screenshot below if I've confused you anywhere:

GMViewer_directories.jpg

Using this program, you can look at any of the GM files in the game, but for now we're sticking to the ships (they're the most interesting, anyway! :cheeky )
Now, what we need to do eventually is 'borrow' some models from other ships, in order to change the Enterprise's rigging.
I've drawn out a plan for what I recommend we do, to cut out most of the trial-and-error process for you:

Enterprise_rigging_guide.jpg

What this shows is what we're aiming for. I've chosen Speedy1 as the main 'donor', except for one model from Greyhound1.
Speedy is roughly the same size as Enterprise, so the yard models (known as 'reys', as in the screenshot) are the right sort of size.

Before I carry on, does this make some kind of sense to you, yet?
You'll need to get to grips with the above ideas before we get onto the real work. ;)
 
It's not that hard once you get used to using the tools. TOOL is the one I have the most trouble with because I keep forgetting all the steps.

Last night I took the mast and sails from corvette1 and put them on the fastmerchantman. It looks good.
 
miklkit said:
Last night I took the mast and sails from corvette1 and put them on the fastmerchantman. It looks good.
Click to expand...
Corvettes! I knew I forgot to do something for the ship pack! The new rigging I made ages ago needs copying to all the other corvette models. That's a job for the update. ;)

Quick question, even though this is off topic: is the Fast Merchantman still bugged with reverse lighting on the hull?
If so, I can probably just replace the whole thing with a corvette, and make it use the existing texture.

EDIT: Scratch that. I've only just noticed that the model has had guns removed from the hull, so it's not interchangeable. :modding
I can still give the ship the upgraded rigging, though.
 
One thing Armada did not mention is that once you get GMViewer working and you start using it with TOOL, you will be wanting to turn on "show labels", "show locators", and "3d grid" in the bottom left of the screen. You might also want to create another install only for use with these programs, and only move changes to your game install when you are sure they are ok.




The frigates are the only ones you changed, aren't they? I don't think the light frigates and corvettes have been touched.

The fastmerchantman hull still has the reverse lighting bug, and has the cannons removed but the gun ports are still there. Fixing that bug is all that is needed now.

I'm currently sailing all 3 of the class 5 "balanced" ships and they all have reverse lighting bugs. The Carrack now only needs the masts fixed, the Indiaman (fastmerchantman) needs the hull fixed, and the Grand Schooner seems to have reversed sails. I've gone as far as I can on the 1st two and now need to look into the GS. :j3
 
miklkit said:
One thing Armada did not mention is that once you get GMViewer working and you start using it with TOOL, you will be wanting to turn on "show labels", "show locators", and "3d grid" in the bottom left of the screen.
Click to expand...
I was getting to that next... :rolleyes:
I agree that a separate install might be a good idea to test any experiments out.
Never thought to do that myself, because I've just used my current install as a testing facility. The last time I played a storyline properly was... uh... I can't remember. :facepalm

Anyway, I'll carry on the tutorial soon, but I have other work to do right now. Sorry to keep you waiting.

miklkit said:
The frigates are the only ones you changed, aren't they? I don't think the light frigates and corvettes have been touched.
Click to expand...
I think I only changed Corvette1, RN_Light_Frigate and FR_Corvette, and haven't yet got round to putting the rigging on all other Corvette models.
I don't recall changing the Frigates... though I did work on the RN and US Heavy Frigates one time.

If you have made any progress on the Carrack which is release worthy, can you please upload it? I'll probably fit it into the ship pack update.
 
You changed corvette1? I only picked it because it was the 1st one I saw. That means I should change the other sails on the Indiaman also. :cheers BTW, I posted a video featuring your RN_Light_Frigate over at MODDB.

Is the Carrack release worthy? Only if you can live with the reversed masts. I did some repair work on the jib sail that is an improvement, relocated some ropes, reversed the lateen, raised her out of the water a bit so the gun ports aren't awash with full holds, and changed the number of guns from 30 to the actual 28. Here are 2 screenies to help you decide. Note the glowing cabin windows of the carrack in the night pic.

Here it is. Maybe someone who knows what they are doing can fix the masts. :shrug
 
miklkit said:
You changed corvette1? I only picked it because it was the 1st one I saw. That means I should change the other sails on the Indiaman also. :cheers
Click to expand...
By all means, go ahead and change the Indiaman too. :yes Be sure to upload that and the FastMerchantman changes so I can include them in the update.
The only other similar ship which needs addressing is the Amsterdam; most notably, that is meant to have a lateen sail astern, NOT a spanker. Do you reckon you could make that change, too?
Honestly, did nobody else ever look at Pieter's sig picture and think "Our Amsterdam doesn't look like that..."? :rolleyes:

miklkit said:
Is the Carrack release worthy? Only if you can live with the reversed masts.
Click to expand...
I'll take a look at your work and see what I can do to it, then.
If all else fails, we may as well include the reversed masts anyways. They do look better than dislocated masts. Those are plain weird! :blink:

Oh, and we should probably take this discussion elsewhere. I think this thread has sort of become distracted from its namesake. :facepalm
 
Armada said:
The only other similar ship which needs addressing is the Amsterdam; most notably, that is meant to have a lateen sail astern, NOT a spanker. Do you reckon you could make that change, too?
Honestly, did nobody else ever look at Pieter's sig picture and think "Our Amsterdam doesn't look like that..."? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Me neither. I was already happy the hull looked recognizable. :cheeky

Armada said:
If all else fails, we may as well include the reversed masts anyways. They do look better than dislocated masts. Those are plain weird! :blink:
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to close up that cabin again and have thing back to the old normal state?
 
If the old version of the carrack is used, would it be possible to opaque the cabin windows so we can't see the water sloshing around in it?

I moved to the modelers forum for this discussion.

The sudden silence of Legendary_Spider seems to indicate that he is hip deep in learning these tools. :onya
 
Yes I've been reading all the tutorials on the forum and the ones sent to me extensively. And do some trail and error figuring stuff out on my own.
readon.gif
 
Did the Carrack have opaque windows to begin with or not? Might be as easy as just converting the texture file without alpha map.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top