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Fixed Missing Ropes on Royal Brig

Pieter Boelen

Pieter Boelen

Navigation Officer
Administrator
Storm Modder
Hearts of Oak Donator
I think there's something missing here:
upload_2015-10-15_23-44-43.png

That's the Naval Light Brig.
 
It has always been missing. I tried to fix it when I first started modding and failed due to lack of knowledge. I have looked at it since and can repair it now but always have something else to do. That ship is actually a very time consuming project.
 
I figured it never would have been there. Never truly paid attention to her until I accidentally got her as starting ship.
 
That ship will never be improved as it has the "model could not be read" bug in several GMs. I did recently take a look at it.
 
Hylie Pistof said:
That ship will never be improved as it has the "model could not be read" bug in several GMs. I did recently take a look at it.
Click to expand...
AGH, that indeed does NOT help! :modding

I remember at some point in the past, some of those ships COULD be read by some people, but not by others.
Maybe @Jack Rackham, @Grey Roger, @pedrwyth and/or @Bartolomeu o Portugues could try too?
We're talking about the GMs in the RESOURCE\MODELS\Ships\BrigRoyal folder.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Maybe @Jack Rackham, @Grey Roger, @pedrwyth and/or @Bartolomeu o Portugues could try too?
Click to expand...


I know next to nothing about ships and ship (or any other) modelling and thus I don't know what you need . :modding

I can't read the main brig royale GM file in tool but can load each of the 3 masts I think -but your picture only shows 2?. I take it that's what's missing rather than rigging.

The main model will read in in GM viewer and it seems shows two masts stumps there too. I think I have seen somewhere about exporting an OBJ file from the viewer that can then be used by MAYA but I was out of my depth just looking at the pictures!! :sick Whether Maya would allow you to simply ("simply!?!") convert back to produce a file readable by tool I don't know.

I note a date in Oct 2008 for the main GM. Has anyone got any earlier version of a build than that squirreled away which might contain a readable GM?
 
I can view all files in that folder in GM-viewer.
In the TOOL I couldn't read the main model file + one rey file (a6).
 
GM Viewer always works, but TOOL sometimes doesn't.
For some files it works on ALL computers. And for some, it only works on older configurations.
Apparently, maybe, perhaps. It's all rather fuzzy.

Unfortunately the main hull GM contains the "falb" locators, which are the cause of the missing ropes because PotC doesn't support that type (it is an AoP thing).
I was hoping one of you guys maybe COULD open the main game with the TOOL. :(

In this case, the model was made by @yo ho ho, I think.
I don't think any earlier versions exist that CAN be read. :facepalm
 
Rey_A6 is the spanker and it only has 1 FAL in it which should not cause a problem as it goes from the top yard to the bottom yard.

The hull.GM on the other hand. It looks like it only has 5 FAL as near as I can tell.
 
I have been thinking about that brig and can cheat to get it looking ok. Figuring out the numbering system and then keeping track of it is the hard part as every locator will need to be renamed.

Fire places? Most ships have no fire places. I believe those are places where the ship can catch on fire, or explode.
 
Hylie Pistof said:
Fire places? Most ships have no fire places. I believe those are places where the ship can catch on fire, or explode.
Click to expand...
They are indeed. The game doesn't actually like not having them, so it is nice to add some spots to the ships that don't have them.
But hardly a high priority. :no
 
Hylie Pistof said:
I have been thinking about that brig and can cheat to get it looking ok. Figuring out the numbering system and then keeping track of it is the hard part as every locator will need to be renamed.
Click to expand...

Ok these may well be stupid questions/ideas but... (it's the only way I'll learn)

Opening the GM model in hex editor does indeed show 5 fal (e or b) instances - what would you rename these to to "cheat fix" the model. I would guess (maybe wrongly) that only certain type names are recognized (hence PotC doesn't recognize fal) so would "rope" (b or e) be one?

I wonder since if they are only labels if pseudo -hexadecimal addressing (ie using A to F above normal decimal numbering) would be accepted. If so this simplifies hex editing the fal entries to be rope entries (because you can lose double digits)and fit them more neatly into the file header and you only have seven locators to find the equivalents elsewhere (again assuming that is how locators are used from one element to another?) Of course I presume all the other fal locators in the readable GM files still need changing too but perhaps you can just add +50 (or so - depends what the highest used number is) to the existing fal numeric to keep them clear of existing numbered rope locators?

So in BrigRoyal.gm I have hexedited the sequence of labels with the following equivalents
ropeb22 = ropebA
falb1 = ropebB
fale37 = ropeeA
fale36 = ropeeB
falb2 = ropebC
falb20 = ropebD
ropee46 = ropeeC

which fits within the confines of the labels and keeps their sequence as was in the file header. Here's the file, in case it could be of use. This presupposes it is the order of the labels in the header that matters, each separated by 00 - rather than the actual length (and thus actual hex start address of each label)
 

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  • altered rope and fal labels.txt
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  • BrigRoyal.7z
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Pieter Boelen said:
@Armada wrote a comprehensive tutorial on locators in the PotC/AoP-based games though that may be of help:
Tutorial - General Guide to Locators | PiratesAhoy!
Click to expand...
A quick glance seems to say that fal gives a thicker lower slung rope in AOP so presumably a rope in PotC is the best alternative. It also confirms that there need to be matched named locators at each end (so that guess was right anyway)

If @Hylie Pistof doesn't mind i'll try altering all the fal's in the readable GMs for BrigRoyal as noted above and see what that produces. If it doesn't work I'll know a little more of what I don't know (as it were). If there are a load more ropes then it might be easier to see if any or rather which need changing for authenticity - a point at which I run for the hills.

PS I tried tool in XP and ME with no read of the GM file accruing.
 
pedrwyth said:
A quick glance seems to say that fal gives a thicker lower slung rope in AOP so presumably a rope in PotC is the best alternative. It also confirms that there need to be matched named locators at each end (so that guess was right anyway)
Click to expand...
Correct. Basically AoP/CoAS models may have "fal" type locators, but that type isn't supported by Storm 2.0 (PotC).
So all those need to be replaced with "rope" types and then have one on either side indeed. :yes
 
Hex editing a GM? I have never thought of that idea for POTC! :bow
That is actually how I started out editing GMs in a completely different game from 1998. That is a very tedious and error prone method and I have been completely spoiled by TOOL. :love

The way I was going to "cheat" was to attach both ends of the rope to the good GM and then just place the end that attaches to the hull so that it looks like it is attached. I have done this before and it involves a lot of trial and error by guessing at where would be a good location and then going into the game to see how it looks. Rinse and repeat as needed.

As far as the actual rope id, numbers have always been used and I have used as many as 4 numbers many times. For example ropee1234 and ropeb1234. This can be done in a hex editor also. You can not believe how complicated it could get when manually editing the left side of a GM to change things on the right side.

Now fal and rope are separate and have their own numbering system so that fal and rope often share the same numbers. When converting fal to rope for POTC it is least bad to just start over from scratch. I would start at the tip of mast1 with ropee11 and ropee12 and make all rope attached to mast1 start with 1. Then all rope attached to mast2 start with 2, as in ropee21 and ropee22. Ditto for mast3. Much hilarity ensues as one moves from mast to mast as ropes and sails go all over the place.

Oh yeah. The difference between fal and rope is that rope flexes in the middle and fal do not move at all. Fal are best used for stays and such.
 
OK It turns out you can't be too cavalier in editing the labels - a bit like dll's it accepts changes that keep the same exact length of label but not shifting them within the file even if you make up the "drift" in the next entry (in other words their exact position or length seems tracked, probably by some form of check sum or something). Anyway long story short I could alter three of the double digit fal entries in the main model and just linked the other two (falb1 and falb2) together (taking a leaf out of @Hylie Pistof 's book) they won't be seen of course so it doesn't really matter where they would be?.

I did just add 50 to the fal numbers (and call them rope) in the editable gm files (the last rope I saw was 49). However I steered away from hexnumbers (in case that was screwing the model file) so added 100 to the existing ropes 3 through 8 so I could use their single digits in hexediting (1,2 and 9 were already in use in the main model).

The Fal in rey a6 started and ended in there (and had a two digit number) so I could change falb11 to ropeb3 and fale11 to ropee3.

I think that will leave two open ended ropes which would have connected to fal 1 and 2 in the main model (in mast3 and now called ropee4 (edit 5) and ropee7 - from when I was trying to break the header in main GM model) if @Hylie Pistof would like to tidy things up.

Here is the resultant model - there are some extra ropes to those previously floating pulley blocks but who knows if they make sense?
 

Attachments

  • BrigRoyal.7z
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System log showed me a couple of bad rope data where I missed incrementing a couple of the Fal numbers changed to ropes. Here's that corrected (mast1). Funnily enough system log is only showing one of the bad ropes (7) and not rope4(edit 5) as I would have expected. Oh well.

EDIT Not so strange I had misnumbered one of the two loose ended ropes too, corrected here also - now the expected two bad ropes are logged. A simplistic answer would be to delete the locators from mast3 to get rid of them
 

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  • BrigRoyal.7z
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Yes normally you don't want to be altering the length of the names but it can be done. I don't know what hex editor you use but I use XVI32 and in the edit section it is possible to rename things to a different length. I normally avoid that as it is too easy to make mistakes. That is one reason why I always keep at least one other POTC install around for a backup. I currently have 3. :pirate07:

I have not started on the brigroyal yet but will soon.
 
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