How to mod your ship.

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by WickedWitch, Dec 5, 2013.

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  1. 0siris

    0siris Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Thanks for the reply, I downloaded GIMP earlier and see that it has a configurable grid tab - but I'm not sure what to change. Spacing width/height or Offset w/h ?.. And for the measurement part, do I leave it as in. ? And do I set it to 8?

    Also, while designing a ship, do you have any recommendations on where to begin? Should I take an original ship and try to modify it? Like, copy and paste? And if so, what should i do about the floors and things, do I just take the select tool and delete the bottom "floor", then paste it to the roof of the ship..? I am really new to GIMP, so I don't know many probably very obvious features to help me build a spaceship. lol.

    And to be sure; I don't need to do any actual 'coding' to create the ship (dropship.structure) ? It's all made with the image files? Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2013
  2. WickedWitch

    WickedWitch Big Damn Hero


    I would definitely start by using one of the default ships, thats how I learned how to.

    Open the file dropship.structure it has all the colour definition and what blocks associate with them. Take a screen shot of the ship ingame and try and match them up with the colours in the dropship.structure. You can pick your own colours too.

    To configure the grid in GIMP, just alter the spacing value. Width 1 and Height 1 would be 1 pixel. Leave the offset, you shouldn't need it.
     
  3. 0siris

    0siris Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Ah alright, I believe I've got the grid working then. As for the dropshipblocks.. I'm going to take a break and attempt them later.. :unsure:
    I've been practicing the whole ship building process in GIMP and I think I am improving slightly, and I'm getting a bit more used to the program itself. Thanks for another helpful reply.
     
  4. jozzarozzer

    jozzarozzer Tentacle Wrangler

    solution: add blocks that look the same as spaceship walls
     
  5. dominichello

    dominichello Tentacle Wrangler

    its not the walls..its the outside design of the ship ..it would be really hard to make a custom set of blocks to replicate that...
     
  6. aY227

    aY227 Master Chief

    Hello

    1. What is maximum size of ship? (resolution)
    2. How to merge few .png files into one ship?
     
  7. WickedWitch

    WickedWitch Big Damn Hero

    I'm not sure on the absolute size of the ship. I would guess it's to any size you can bother to make it.

    What do you mean merge png files together? Do you mean taking apart 1 image file and using it in another. If that's the case, just select, copy, then past into another.
    If you mean using multiple png files for one ship I don't think you can.
     
  8. aY227

    aY227 Master Chief

    Ok... maximum width is about 2000px - after that you will have to cut your ship into smaller pieaces and use something like that in code to merge them:

    Code:
    "backgroundOverlays" : [
        {
          "image" : "dropshipUL.png",
          "position" : [0, 140.5]
        },
    
        {
          "image" : "dropshipBL.png",
          "position" : [0, 0.5]
        },
    
        {
          "image" : "dropshipUR.png",
          "position" : [241.75, 140.5]
        },
    
        {
          "image" : "dropshipBR.png",
          "position" : [241.75, 0.5]
        }
    
      ],
    Have a nice day - agamemnon destroyer on its way :>
     
    WickedWitch likes this.
  9. WickedWitch

    WickedWitch Big Damn Hero

    That is some good info right there. Thanks for sharing. I now know what you mean by merging .png's :facepalm:
     
  10. Shadewarp

    Shadewarp Pangalactic Porcupine

  11. kitsunespirit

    kitsunespirit Cosmic Narwhal

    This is all horribly confusing to me, which is why I havent done a ship mod yet... but I need to do one for the race mod Im making so might as well slog through it.

    First thing Im wondering about, is it possible to make a ship without the bottom thrusters, or is that somehow needed for the game to work? I am guessing its cosmetic only though.
     
  12. dcsk8erboy

    dcsk8erboy Space Kumquat

    I am trying to get single side boosters/thrusters on my ship with the dropshipblock file, but I guess human ships are only programmed to have double boosters?

    I matter what I try I can't seem to get the top left and lower left boosters to work. Do I have to add the items into the structure file or something?

    Does anyone know about this? Thanks!
     

    Attached Files:

  13. kitsunespirit

    kitsunespirit Cosmic Narwhal

    Im pretty sure you need to add in thruster animation script into the structures for each booster you want and adjust the coordinates up or down.
     
  14. hanleybrand

    hanleybrand Phantasmal Quasar

    Wouldn't a possible fix for that be to make decorative blocks based on the spaceship art?
     
  15. dominichello

    dominichello Tentacle Wrangler

    thats indeed a work around yes...but im at a loss as to why this method of ship building is better? if ive spent ages designing a ship why would i then convert it to custom blocks to be used in game....why not leave it as 1 nice image like the default ship construction is meant to be...
     
  16. WickedWitch

    WickedWitch Big Damn Hero

    The file that tells the image dropshipblocks what booster to use is the dropship.structure file. If you really want, you can change or even add a new booster. In the assets\objects\boosterflame folder. The human one is assets\objects\boosterflamehumanfolder.

    dropshipblocks.png
    Notice the block of blue colour to the left of the image, with the small lighter blue pixel. That whole chunk can be moved to move where the thruster spawns in game.

    {
    "value" : [167, 167, 255, 255],
    "foregroundBlock" : false,
    "backgroundBlock" : true,
    "object" : "boosterflamehuman",
    "objectParameters" : {
    "unbreakable" : true
    }
    },

    This isn't just for humans, it will still work for other races, but you have to use this same code, and the exact same group of pixels in the dropshipblocks.png. They can be moved anyway you want in the dropshipblocks.png.

    If you want split thrusters on your ship use the following instead:

    dropshipblocks.png

    The dropshipblocks.png I created on request for a fellow Starbounder

    {
    "value" : [167, 167, 255, 255],
    "foregroundBlock" : false,
    "backgroundBlock" : true,
    "object" : "boosterflame",
    "objectParameters" : {
    "unbreakable" : true
    }
    },


    As you can see, you just remove the "human" from the line of code and seperate the thrusters in dropshipblocks.png and your done.


    It's purely cosmetic.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2013
  17. Shadewarp

    Shadewarp Pangalactic Porcupine

  18. dcsk8erboy

    dcsk8erboy Space Kumquat

    Thanks WickedWitch for your time! I have actually looking in those object folders and noticed the .png of the booster/boosterhuman files. So I have already tried to take the human off and see if I could use the single booster files, when I do that my double boosters won't work.

    So I just added bother boosterflame and boosterflamehuman and changed the color of boosterflame and added it to the shipblock file and it worked! Thanks for helping! I tried that stuff but i didn't know what i was doing until you confirmed i was diong it correctly, haha :x

    I still have to line up the ship image to the flames but that will take a couple minutes!
     

    Attached Files:

  19. dcsk8erboy

    dcsk8erboy Space Kumquat

    Here's my finished ship, now that the boosters are done everything is perfect, thank you!

    Built and detailed it all myself. The original human ship colors are still there but i spent several hours editing the colors pixel by pixel!

    Thanks for the help!

    http://imgur.com/KLuGZLi


    <a href="http://imgur.com/KLuGZLi"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/KLuGZLi.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>
     
  20. dcsk8erboy

    dcsk8erboy Space Kumquat

    Now does anyone know how to load a blockimage file to a current character? the ship file goes automatically, but the dropshipblock file only seems to load for new characters.
     
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