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Helldiver's ship repairs and retextures.

H

helldiver

Landlubber
Storm Modder
Started a new thread since I couldn't change the topic title of the other one.

These files do significant changes to some of the ships installed with the Combined Mod 3.2 for CoAS. Keep in mind that with the new build these ships and changes will already be included. I'm posting them here for folks that wish to convert them for use with other games like PoTC. I'm also posting them here as a backup since I'll keep this post up to date. Eventually I (or perhaps Craiggo) will move them to ftp, but for now I'll post them on my webspace. I'm sure this is going to get pretty big as I repair/retexture other ships.

Again please keep in mind that eventually these will be in the Combined Mod for CoAS. Also keep in mind that these are just artistic changes. These are not technical/data/programming changes (such as waterlines, locators, spawn points, cannon data, etc). Also these are not new ships but changes to previous ones. All credit goes to the original authors of the various ships.

What was/will be changed?

-Geometry errors: Several ships have glaring geometry anamalies such as edge flow problems, flipped normals, wrong shadows etc.
-UVW errors: Several ships have wrong UVW assignments, texture stretching/banding, missing textures, or complete incorrect texture assignments.
-Optimization: All ships I repair will be optimized. This means that if I have to rebuild them in Max, odds are I'll be reconstructing them and removing unnecessary polygons, texture usage will be signifcantly reduced as well (part of UVW optimization).
-New textures: I'll be repairing the textures themselves including redrawing them, fixing the pallete so it matches the rest of the game, adding missing textures for hulls 2 and 3 (in different colors), and optimizing textures so that you don't need so many for a single ship.
-New geometry: In some cases I'll be constructing new peices all together (the mermaid on the Battle Frigate for example) if I feel something is missing or doesn't seem right.

I'll be posting new ships as I fix them/complete them :D

Boussole
boussole.jpg


Download: http://www.pyratesahoy.com/coas/HellDiver/boussole.rar

Battle Frigate
battle_frigate.jpg


Download: http://www.pyratesahoy.com/coas/HellDiver/battle_frigate.rar

Colonial Frigate

No in game pic since I haven't found it yet :( Soon as I do I'll change the pic.
colonial_frig_03.jpg


Download: http://home.comcast.net/~acknar/Colonial_frig.rar

Installing: Each file above when extracted should contain both the models and the textures. Simply replace your old ones found in the Resource directory of your City of Abandoned Ships installation.
 
Fantastic work helldiver, well done mate! I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of your work! :onya
 
Thank you!

Website's been really slow.

I tried to get the Colonial Frigate up by today, but I forgot it needed a whole new stern castle as well as a figurehead. So I got tangled up modelling and texturing a figurehead...
 
Seriously really beautiful work Mate! :onya

I've always liked that ship. If only all our figureheads could be that stunning. Well done. :yes

MK
 
Very nice work Helldiver.
me.gif


Just one question OP, the figurehead like that would be period appropriate corrrect?

By the way, I love the ball on the deck Helldiver. Nice touch.
danse1.gif
 
I like the work you've done, helldiver! :woot
I'll certainly import the new Boussole into PotC, to replace our old one.

Just out of interest, which other ships do you plan to improve?
 
Here it is completed. I baked an AO into it to make it more statuesque. I'll probably write a tutorial on advanced UV mapping and ambient occlusion/shadow map generation when I get some time.

colonial_frig_02.jpg


doing the textures for hulls 2 and 3.

Just out of interest, which other ships do you plan to improve?
Click to expand...

Well the plan is all of them. I won't do it in one week, but eventually I'll get around to all of them. Ships that are already good I'll probably leave alone. I started with the Boussole mainly because that hull is shared by a lot of ships. So I figured fixing several ships should be quick. There's another hull shared by a lot of ships as well, I forget the name of it. Basically the general shape is the same with different details, figure heads. So I rebuild the hull and share it between ship projects.

That's why I wrote the tutorial so that ship modellers could perhaps start following some of those tips. So far the feedback has been great and am glad it's helped out. Figuring out how the mesh goes for the complex curves of a hull can be difficult when you're starting.

Only issue right now is that those ships I do will beep when once or twice when you load a scene... I figured you guys won't mind. They beep because I use Inez's tool to import the locators. We also badly need a reinitializer for CoAS so that we can change ship data like waterlines without having to restart a game, as well as a method to allow us to spawn/obtain a specific ship. Like right now I don't know a way (other than going out and hunting for one) to get a Colonial Frigate so that I can check it in game :(
 
Wow man. That is some amazing detail mate. How what is her poly count?

By the way, I do get the beep when I load my game with her. Both the Bousseole and the BattleFrigate.
 
Craiggo said:
Wow man. That is some amazing detail mate. How what is her poly count?

By the way, I do get the beep when I load my game with her. Both the Bousseole and the BattleFrigate.
Click to expand...

2000 polys for her (that includes wings, stand, etc). Regardless, old Colonial Frigate was 60,000 polys, new Colonial Frigate is 45,750 polys :)

The reason why it looks like she has a lot of polys is because I baked an ambient occlusion map. I also did a green channel normal map trick to make it seem like some parts are 3D when they are really flat.

colonial_frig_04.jpg



Nothing I can do about the beep mate. It's because I import my GM (I use Maya to export) into Inez's tool so I can reapply the locators. I guess another way around it would be to put the locators in Maya? Ouch... :(
There is no GM Import tool for Maya? Cause another trick could be I could import my final GM back into Maya to re-export. So far the only plugin I have for Maya is to export only.
 
Dayum. I'm thinking about installing COAS just to get those ships. :ty


This may sound dumb, but the things you are complaining about like choosing your ship in game can be done in PotC. Changing the waterline still requires a restart. Just food for thought.
 
helldiver said:
............ as well as a method to allow us to spawn/obtain a specific ship. Like right now I don't know a way (other than going out and hunting for one) to get a Colonial Frigate so that I can check it in game :(
Click to expand...


If you have the mod ( CM3.2 ) Combined Mod 3.2

There is a console in the Program folder :yes

in the console:-



void ExecuteConsole()
{
ref pchar = GetMainCharacter();
if (!bSeaActive) ref lcn = &Locations[FindLocation(pchar.location)];
ref ch;
int i;
int limit;

// Give ship
// ------------------
// GiveShip2Character(pchar,pchar.ship.type,pchar.ship.name,-1,PIRATE,true,true);
// GiveShip2Character(pchar,"NL_Amsterdam","Amsterdam",-1,HOLLAND,true,true);
// GiveShip2Character(pchar,SHIP_CURSED,"Black Pearl",-1,PIRATE,true,true);
// GiveShip2Character(pchar,"CursedDutchman","Flying Dutchman",-1,PIRATE,true,true);
// GiveShip2Character(pchar,"FR_SteamFrigate","Jeanne d'Arc",-1,FRANCE,true,true);


Log_SetStringToLog("Executed Console");
}


add the GiveShip2Character code as in Bold Above ( this is taken from PotC console - I don't know if it has to be changed for CoAS)


put the ship you want in one of the lines and remove the // from that line only - Load game and then Press F12 - hopefully you will have the ship you want.

:cheers

EDIT:- I just tried this to see if it worked - it didn't :modding either it is not the F12 key or the code is different for COAS. --- Perhaps one of the CoaS modders could help.
 
helldiver said:
Just out of interest, which other ships do you plan to improve?
Click to expand...

Well the plan is all of them.
Click to expand...
That's one helluva job you've given yourself! I look forward to seeing more of your work. :woot

helldiver said:
Only issue right now is that those ships I do will beep when once or twice when you load a scene... I figured you guys won't mind.
Click to expand...
Uh oh. I think I'll hold off importing them to PotC for now... that beeping issue is one we really don't like. :modding
The ships you fix which are relevant to PotC would be great additions to the upcoming ship pack, or perhaps even a pack of their own, but while we ourselves might be able cope with the beeping, many people out there will not.
No doubt we'd get several complaints about it if released publicly, since many would consider the beeping a concerning problem for their computer.
Even if it's harmless, we can't publicly release ships with that bug, if you get my point.

So until you find a way to get around that, I'm afraid I won't bring your fixes into PotC... :(
I'm sorry if that means more work for you; I know how annoying locators can be.
 
Well I figured since some of the ships beeped in CoAS I figured it was a livable bug, at least for CoAS. It seems some folks converted ships from PoTC to CoAS using Inez's tool.

Perhaps not the PoTC build, but perhaps folks will individually decide to replace them one by one. Also, I didn't think the PoTC ships had many issues since in PoTC they show up correctly without smoothing errors? I think its mostly the ones converted over to CoAS. So technically if you're running PoTC there isn't really a need to get the ones here. Besides that, a guy could always convert the GMs here to obj using Inez's tool, import into Maya and reassign the Locators.. :D

Regarding the locators; I don't know Maya at all. I know how to place the base locator and that's it. Maya's tools are backwards to me and everything about it seems foreign and just aweful (no modifier stack, horrible viewport interface, not mouse friendly, attrocious material editor).

I'm thinking by locators they mean dummies (max)? If there was a way to import them into Max (as well as be able to export them with the obj) then I'd be able to add them in very quickly. Unfortunately the Obj format doesn't export dummies (though I can work around that by making them normal boxes with correct dummy names). Now the problem with that is that in other games, as long as your dummy is named correctly (for example "rope123" instead of "Box02") the exporter treats it as a "dummy" and not as a renderable box. So far in Maya, I noticed locators are their own thing and I'm not sure if a box can double as a dummy :(

Something I'll probably experiment with in the future with the ship I'm working on in the tutorial. If it works then adding dummies to the other ships should be a snap.

...if only we could get Inez to update/fix her tool...
 
helldiver said:
Well I figured since some of the ships beeped in CoAS I figured it was a livable bug, at least for CoAS. It seems some folks converted ships from PoTC to CoAS using Inez's tool.
Click to expand...
I didn't realise it was a common problem in CoAS. But what's more, I can't see how converting from PotC to CoAS could cause the beeping issue.
I've done it vice versa many times without errors, since it just requires some minor locator work, followed by coding.

helldiver said:
Also, I didn't think the PoTC ships had many issues since in PoTC they show up correctly without smoothing errors?
Click to expand...
Is that really true? Since any models used in both games should be identical besides locators, that seems to suggest the CoAS game engine itself would influence such smoothing errors.
And I hope THAT's not true, since we ultimately want to move the whole Build Mod onto the CoAS 'Storm 2.8' engine...

helldiver said:
Regarding the locators; I don't know Maya at all. I know how to place the base locator and that's it. Maya's tools are backwards to me and everything about it seems foreign and just aweful
Click to expand...
I know, Maya's a pain to get used to. It's no wonder most of our modellers use different programs for the actual modelling process. :wacko:

helldiver said:
...if only we could get Inez to update/fix her tool...
Click to expand...
Now that would be excellent! TOOL is great when it works, but for every good feature, it seems to have a few undesirable side effects or glitches.
Perhaps one day an experienced coder might have a go at sorting the program out...
 
If you have the mod ( CM3.2 ) Combined Mod 3.2

Actually all you have to do is open the console that is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\Program:


void ExecuteConsole()
{
ref pchar = GetMainCharacter();
if (!bSeaActive) ref lcn = &Locations[FindLocation(pchar.location)];
ref ch;
int i;
int limit;

Log_SetStringToLog("Executed Console");
}

type in this command:


{
ref pchar = GetMainCharacter();
if (!bSeaActive) ref lcn = &Locations[FindLocation(pchar.location)];
ref ch;
int i;
int limit;
Pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(SHIP_Boussole, true);

Log_SetStringToLog("Executed Console");
}

and then load the game and when you game loads, push the F4 key then go to a different location and then back, such as go to the world map mode then back to sea mode and your ship will be the one you are on.
icon_wink.gif


The beep is a "Tool" problem that everyone has. Their is a way to get rid of the beep because Pgargon has fixed it before but he has yet to right a tutorial the has been requested so know one knows how to do it. You only get the beep if you open a GM in the tool and modify the model with the tool edit scene then save the GM. If you open the GM then use the view locators and edit the locators to include the (path, deck, masts or what ever) then it does not beep.
 
Hi,
This beeping problem appeared first in AOP 1,CT(unmodded)...so probably not a TOOL problem, but a locator\engine problem.

damski.
 
I'm just saying that if I take a ship model and modify it using the edit scene funection in the tool such as add an anchor or so, then the ship will have the reverse lighting bug and it will beep when loaded. So I think it is a tool problem or some type of locator issue that the engine has that the tool produces in the exact way to cause the engine to make the bug.
 
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