• 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!

Released NL_pinnace

Hylie Pistof

Hylie Pistof

Curmudgeon
QA Tester
Storm Modder
Pirate Legend
I have been wanting to make a part time project out of this ship for some time. It is very interesting to me because of its unique hull shape, good masts, and the toy soldiers.
But it has a problem with the flagpole being too high. I have tried many times to split the hull into 2 parts in TOOL, but the parts get corrupted every time. It splits easily with one part being "hull" and the other being "desk".
Could someone who knows how to use Maya split this hull for me? :oops:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/76702168/POTC screenies/NL_Pinnace.jpg
 
I might be able to do it this weekend if I get a chance, but I'll make no promises. :wp
 
Hehe. I've been asking off and on for almost a year, so it's not exactly a priority.
 
Well, why put if off any longer? I've now managed to split the model and make a couple of cosmetic upgrades in the usual way.
Replaced the gun barrels with high-detail ones, but retained the bronze colour of the small ones on deck.
I also rearranged the anchors, replaced the capstan, and removed the wheel (should use a tiller).

NL_Pinnace_upgrade.jpg


However, TOOL refuses to cooperate and simply corrupts the collision detection when adding locators, so we'd get a lovely BEEP in-game.
I'm not sure what's 'wrong' with the model, so it's a difficult one to fix. I hate TOOL so much... :facepalm
 
Thank you for what you are doing. This is more than I ever expected. :cool: Those AOP ships do have their problems, but I thought this is one of the better ones. :facepalm

PS: TOOL hates renaming GMs and the locators in them. Perhaps all new ones would work?
 
No problem, I'm getting much quicker at making these upgrades, anyway. Small changes can make a big difference. :dance

I tried adding a single locator to the model, but it still reduced the file size by more than half, so again the collision detection was lost.
I'll have another look at the Maya file and see if I can find anything 'wrong' by TOOL's standards...
 
Hmm, now this is unexpected. I've now found evidence to suggest that the model was already corrupted before I even added locators in TOOL.
If you open a model in TOOL and go to View -> Details, a screen should appear (after a short/long wait, depending on how detailed the model is) which gives various statistics about the model.
What I did was compared the new NL_Pinnace's details to the existing one, and several other ships, and found a couple of key differences.
The first is under the Model category; the value of 'a' (whatever that means) for all working models I checked was 2.
For the new NL_Pinnace, 'a' is 0, which according to the text means it has no 'BSP Tree' (collision detection, I guess), even though the model's file size has not yet been reduced.
TOOL_details_screen.jpg
Further down, you can see a 'Polygons' section. This is usually an expandable category, but in the example above, there is no option to expand it.
The surrounding sections labelled Numbers, More Triangles and More Points are also empty, but should contain some information in a normal working model.

So, all this seems to suggest that it is in fact something not working in the export process, and that TOOL has nothing to do with losing the collision detection.
I managed to export the now-separate flagpole model in the exact same way as the hull, but it had no issues at all, which is even more confusing. o_O
 
This is time consuming but ultimately very worthwhile because this problem happens to several other ships, like the Spanish Galleons. It could be a very long time before they get replace.

I'm following your explanation in TOOL and see what you are talking about.
 
Good point about the Spanish Galleons; they also show up as having the wrong details. Reminds me of a fix I made for the Fast Galleons ages ago, which seems to have been forgotten about.
I think it was to do with the masts' alignment and bow wave, the latter of which wasn't successfully fixed. The locator-less GM I still have shows the correct details in TOOL, though.

Still, if I can figure out what the problem is in Maya, it should hopefully mean that all later upgrades will work properly...
 
Well, I've finally succeeded to get the ship working properly, but still haven't figured out what the problem was.
I tried exporting each component one at a time, and found they all worked properly individually except for the anchor hooks.
However, exporting all components together without the hooks just causes a 'Model could not be read' error.
The combination that does work is the hull+deck+cannons in one file, and the hooks+anchor ropes in another. The latter cannot be read in TOOL, but they're just for decoration anyway.

So, here are the working files! Part1 is the anchor ropes and hooks, and Part2 is the flagpole.
Looks like there are plenty of 'fal' locators to keep you busy. ;)
By the way, mast4 needs hex editing to use desk.tga instead of deck.tga.
 
:onya :onya :onya :onya :onya

This is gonna be a fun cruiser ship. Did you know that the toy soldiers are historically correct? :read
 
I didn't know about the soldiers being realistic. Never really took much notice since I haven't sailed the ship myself.
Nevertheless, it's nice to have some authenticity, especially now the model has had a minor facelift. :keith
 
I accidentally killed the game I was working on this ship in, so it is on hold for a bit. :facepalm This is just a reference pic, but it shows how it was progressing. It turned out the yards were from 2 or 3 other ships and needed replacing, so I searched for other ships with a similar layout. The yards from the FWzP and Revenge are too big and the Neptunus are too small, but the Postillionen's seems to be just right.
That pic shows what rope stays look like. They seem to work best on small ships. Also, methinks there is a way to get the lateen to behave well. Just delete the rope going from the lower rear corner of the sail to the rear of the hull. It looks ugly with no rope there though. :oops:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/76702168/POTC screenies/NL_Pinnace-1.jpg
 
I really didn't want to start a new thread about this, but could some kind soul who knows how to use Maya please fix the reverse lighting bug on the masts of the Carrack? After sailing so many new ships the older ones with bugs like this are really irritating.
 
Your progress so far certainly looks promising. The rope stays looks fine to me. :onya

Hylie Pistof said:
Also, methinks there is a way to get the lateen to behave well. Just delete the rope going from the lower rear corner of the sail to the rear of the hull. It looks ugly with no rope there though. :oops:
Click to expand...
Hold that thought! I may have a way of avoiding that problem. :read
Instead of one rope, use two ropes. One rope, attached to the end of the sail, is extremely short, and has both ends on the yard model file.
The other rope links the end of the short rope with the hull, so one end is on the hull file and the other is on the yard file.
In theory, that should replicate the rope set-up on a spanker boom, and the lateen should behave properly (provided it isn't modelled at too much of an angle).
The only potential downside is that the two ropes may look a bit odd when the sail is furled, but we'll see how it goes.


As for the reverse lighting on the Carrack masts... would you be willing to try fixing them yourself if I finish my tutorial in Storm Engine Modelling Basics?
I've just added the second part, which is relevant to fixing this bug, and I'd like to know if you can follow it well enough.
 
Well, your idea worked. The lateen now works well. The downside is that at battle sails or no sails there is this rope sticking off the side of the ship. Maybe no rope would be less bad.

I will study Maya again and see how it goes. :eek:
 
Hylie Pistof said:
Well, your idea worked. The lateen now works well. The downside is that at battle sails or no sails there is this rope sticking off the side of the ship. Maybe no rope would be less bad.

I will study Maya again and see how it goes. :eek:
Click to expand...
I'm glad someone finally got it to behave correctly. If we could get a screenshot I could tell you how accurate the sail is when it's set so we can determine whether the extra line is worth it or not.
 
Ah, you need to put the rope end, which links to the sail, in the sail locator group, otherwise it won't move when the sail is furled.
 
I tried that, and it acts exactly like it did before with the sail on the wrong side of the mast.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top