Modding Help Need some help/advices to (finally) finish this ship mod...

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by Velornar, Jan 8, 2015.

  1. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    Hello everyone;

    Yes This is the second post I make about this (damned ?) ship Im working on...but this the other is older than 90 day...I woulndt commite crime of necromancy by posting in.

    Firstly, this is a little disclaimer...
    (please notice that im not very good in english so I could have some trouble expressing the following problem im trying to formulate as corectly as possible. Sorry by advance if its not understandable enough.
    I cant use any translator because they would probably work even worse.
    So my sentences could be a bit long and I really dont know how to make its shorter :-/ )

    I know this design probably violate some rule about ressources due to the fact its nearly componed with almost every hull of every ship mod based on Human models and of course the last tiers of ship of the nightly build. And I havent read every specifiacation obout modifying assets of the mod (too nuch ship). I will try at least to recover all the names of the creators who created the differents pieces of hull used and make a long list to add excuses or thanks...depending on your reactions.
    The original design is based upon Plusquam's Gilgamesh cruiser.http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/gilgamesh-reborn.1412/

    If there is an unsolvable problem...I promise to draw back every piece of art "borrowed".
    So, when it will be finished (in time with the release of Starbound 1.0 I hope), I will let you decide in a poll if I will keep it for my own personnal purposes or release it, so the communauty could at least use it or its arts for further designs...or simply use it as it is a ressource.
    Its been a year Im working on it (started last january with a basic redesign), and Im actually rushing to finish it.
    This is the design in the right picture format, as proove that its my ship as its yours.


    [​IMG] [​IMG]


    Then...switching to the important part, the question:
    I have almost finished the design of this USCM frigate, dedicated for a multiplayer use (I have another version for single player fitting in a single PNG picture). I tryed to design it with a view to make enough rooms for specific mod like Frackin flora, Starbound npc crew etc...but also to reproduce a coherent repartitions of room in a large autonomous, and scientific military ship created for exploration and people not willing to settle on a planet (to be honnest, I really hate to construct something block by block with a mod because I feel like the ship could only look great from a distant point of view...so almost never in ordinary game...that why I prefer picture design).

    1) But I have still got problem with the coordonate system used. I must associate this picture with a block file.
    It seems that the block file use a reduced version (by 8) of the original design but Im not sure. And there is the problem, I have to synchronise with a very high precision these 2 hull parts together, and of course make sur the design fit perfectly with the differents room part, doors, or eventually items added such as invisible light, hatches open on space...

    I downloaded various mods using this sytem, like Alsher's or Punisherbr's ones (gargantuan olympic star trek ship, vanilla space station, multiversal mothership), but I still dont understand how PNG pictures fits so perfectly with the design.
    Anyone have some tips or solution to deal with this specific part of ship mod design ?
    I would not exceed 2 pictures, because the single player one is really laggy on my laptop...

    2) Just asking...do you have have some idear that would help me to improve the design ? like new roooms, or external shape weapons, hatches, add a deck ...etc. I'm open to every suggestions to improve an mak this frigate as perfect as possible.

    Then...sorry again for my ackward english (switchin all the time between english or american formulation...i dont really know how to differenciate the tow one in fact ^_^) and this wall of text.
    Thanks by advance for your answers.

    PS: I will probably have to slightly modify this thread in the next hours.
     
  2. The | Suit

    The | Suit Agent S. Forum Moderator

    The best practice to designing ships. Build the interiors as boxes with dimensions of a factor of 8.
    Don't worry about the outside. Just make a bunch of boxes [ or rectangles ] - Tier 1 has 1 box, Tier 2 has 2 boxes, etc.

    Then build a design around those boxes.

    [​IMG]


    As long as you place those first - you have nothing to worry about. Just get one box right and work your way in making all the spaces. Add the extra flourishes and external design in the end.

    Doing it from full design to collision map is much harder
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2015
  3. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    Ok...if this is the first step...I'm actually fixing the design to make the rooms compatibles with an 8x8 grid...
    This ship is actually a PSD file containing almost 250 layer for every piece, making every part removable so It wouldnt be so difficult to simply reduce the lengh of some rooms.
    But I still have got some problems wih ths part of the file:

    "backgroundOverlays": [
    {
    "image": "USS Magellan.png",
    "position": [
    8.0,
    -1.0
    ]
    }
    ],

    The position of the second picture I want to add. In fact, I never moved the back part of the ship from its original position because I would make sure some elements like the flame boosters would be exactly synchronized with the thrusters. And know since I have extended the design beyond a single picture I still have some problem to find a way to fix it.
    If you are a ship modder, were you forced to launch at every change to make a new character with the ship, creating a new PNG from every PSD until you find the right modification ?
    Is there a more easier solution ?

    Its seems that I initiated the project by the wrong part...I didnt know it would be as difficult.

    By the way this is also the blockfile from the single player version, because I have got some problem to recognize wich is the center of an item.

    [​IMG]

    I didnt move the thrusters but it seems that there is a weird coordinate problem because the distance between the last corrected room block and the center of the boosterflamme picture is not a multiple of eight...and despite of this it was perfectly synchronized with the thruster in the last version. Do every object like these obey at the same placing rules ?

    PS: I forget to remove some invisible light...seems that is why the ship is so laggy ^^

    Edit:
    ...Ah...argh....given the fact that it was already Alsher who gave me on the last thread the beginning of answer, I will try to be sure I cant deal otherwise before to ask him any question...I dont really want to bother him.
    Anyway, I m on the way to fix the collision box map...and actually almost everything work with only a gap of 2 pixel on the frame somewhere after measurements...That shouldnt take much time.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2015
  4. The | Suit

    The | Suit Agent S. Forum Moderator

    I only know the basics from the simple methodology i took to learning [ start small and work your way up ] - objects render with a collision box in a factor of 8.
    If you want better help I suggest contacting this @Alsehr

    He makes a ton of ship mods and he can provide more insight than me.
    The only thing I made was a simple box ship for sake of experimentation and learning
     
  5. Alsehr

    Alsehr Pangalactic Porcupine



    I'm flattered. Really, making ships is much easier if you use a program for making pngs like Gimp and edit everything on an 8x8 grid, then build a shipblock file on another layer and resize it to exactly 1/8th the pixel size when you do the shipblocks. It's a little more complicated than it sounds, but really the hard part is just making sure to edit your png so that it sticks to that 8x8 grid.

    When I redid the space station and did my first mod, the Mitarus, I was simply resizing and cleaning up the developer's materials because it hadn't been properly sized to that grid, and ended up being super messy when the block map was overlaid. If you still need help, let me know. Additionally, I think most (if not all of) the resources you used had a cathedral policy on copyright. I allow anyone to use my resources (With attribution, and thanks.) and so did the gilgamesh cruiser, and beeftime as well.
     
  6. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    *bump*
    Hi everyone...I post here a new reworked version of the deeps-space USCM frigate in its original PNG format that you are free to use to make your own human ship design. If I extend it, i will probably move to some kind of ship carrier design, or simply layer it, since it has become possible.
    In fact, i cant really make a definitive best answer because it would close the thread, designed to bear multiple questions.
    So I have got the art for the background and almost everything is fixed to make the different rooms fit in a 8x8 grid.
    I'm actually working on the collision scheme.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    I still have got some question to finish the mod and post it.
    This ship is a very long one (almost as many space station) so It require a good computer config to make it usable without unplayable lags. But in order to reduce the lag and make it playable on lower config (like laptop), what should i care about ? what should I remove to reduce these lags in the ship structure ? I will certainly reduce the amount of invisible lights but that will certainly not be enough. have you gots any tips to make it work ?
    I also have got some problem with low thruster (the original ones from the gilgamesh cruiser), the animation while orbiting a planet is still the same like jumping. But the frame are existing, what should I do to edit the frame file ? how could I "tell" the animation that there is a "jumping time" and a "orbiting time" and differenciate the tow ones.
    But I may also have to wait the official release. many things on ship mods could change from enraged koala...

    Otherwise, if you got some idear to improve the design, critics, suggestions to fix some problem seen, feel free to post ^^

    PS: I'll try to also fix my english, if I have no problem to read, expressing myself correctly is really difficult...still awfull sorry.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2015
  7. AstralGhost

    AstralGhost Pangalactic Porcupine

    Just for reference, if you are indeed still using enraged koala (stable), I can tell you now that things will change once they update.
    Ships now have a different tiers because you can upgrade them. There isn't just one ship for each race anymore, there are 8 of them. One ship for each upgrade.
    There will also be various other changes. One, for instance, is that the AI upgrades the ships for you and therefore to properly add your modded ship into the game you'll need to edit the AI files to give you your mod-ship instead of the default one.
    Another change is that the rendering system was tweaked to work better, so your ship may not have any lag problems anymore after the update.
     
  8. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    ok...so ill wait for the release, to understand how will work the next ship system.
    But at least I will try to make a version compatible for enraged koala I will share by this thread (if anyone willing to test it is still playing this uncomplete version ^^)
    I hope the future ship mod wont be forced to use 8 different upgrade because it will probably strongly limit creativity/spontaneity of people willing to design their own ship not block by block.
    Its possible for me to create 4 gradually size-increasing design from past versions but 8 is maybe impossible...
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2015
  9. The | Suit

    The | Suit Agent S. Forum Moderator

    You don't actually have to design 8. You can just keep the same design 8 times and just rename it if you wish.
     
  10. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    hello again...
    I'm actually rushing to finish the Enraged Koala's version of the ship, wich have also been renamed.
    I give up the idea to make 8 layer, but instead, I will try to lock specific rooms wich ones could be unlocked at each tier.
    But I still have some problems to fix the blockfile to make it match with the design, mostly because of the coordonate system forcing me to move some element misplaced in the 8x8 grid like back thrusters...And then, it would be mostly easy, if only i was able to create a new character+ ship one time to measure the difference in the number of pixels between hull picture and blockfile.
    I also took the massive thrusters from the Human dreadnough ship (here: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/human-dreadnought.416/ ) to include it in the mod (I will also probably modify the design to make it feel more powerfull) . But for some reason I couldnt make it work despite of a right position on the grid.
    This is the crashlog I got every time...I guess its related to a mistake in the .object file syntax...but since their is not really any default blueprint for each file existing, I have no idea how to fix this problem without making even more syntax errors.


    Info: Preparing Star::Root...
    Info: Loading Star::Configuration from '..\starbound.config'
    Info: Done preparing Star::Root.
    Info: Client version 'Beta v. Enraged Koala - Update 8' Protocol: 643
    Info: Running from : C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Starbound\win32\starbound.exe
    Info: Starting from the title screen
    Info: Initialized SDL
    Info: Initialized SDL Video
    Info: Initialized SDL Joystick
    Info: Initialized SDL Sound
    Info: Opened default audio device with 44khz / 16 bit stereo audio, 2048 sample size buffer
    Info: Initializing SDL Window
    Info: Loading Star::Root...
    Info: Loading Star::Configuration from '..\starbound.config'
    Info: Created initial window 1000x600
    Info: Initializing SDL Window
    Info: Re-created window 1366x706
    Warn: Missing inventoryIcon for chestplant1, using default
    Warn: Missing inventoryIcon for barvent, using default
    Error: Error loading object file /objects/generic/boosterflamedread/boosterflamedread.object: VariantException: Improper conversion to double from string in get("size")
    float Variant::tget<float>(String, float)
    Variant::getFloat(String, float)
    Particle::particle(Variant, String)
    ObjectOrientation::parseParticleEmitter(String, Variant)
    ObjectDatabase::readConfig(String)
    ObjectDatabase::load()
    Root::reload()
    _Function_handler<void (), _Bind<ClientApplication::preSplashInitialization()::{lambda()#1} ()> >::(_Any_data)
    ThreadImpl::runThread(void*)
    BaseThreadInitThunk
    RtlInitializeExceptionChain
    RtlInitializeExceptionChain



    I also added a download link to share how the mod is actually.


    This is probably a single error amoung many other ones since I really of experience and skill in modding. i'm sure fixing this one will reveal another one etc :/
    But if i'm able to load in the game this mod, I'll be able to fix the disgn and make it match with the collision grind.

    Edit: I have been trying to solve this problem all the night but nothing change, same problem with the object bigboosterflamedread...I'm completly despaired. I cant find any mistake in the syntax, its inexplicable for me.
    I have no more choice than playing the incomplete vanilla ship...and among evrything, asset file cant be unpacked so I cant see how work ship mods in upbeat giraffe.
    I'll wait for a modding tutorial instead...
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2015
  11. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    *up of the thread*
    I dont know if I'm alowed to do so...just double posting on the thread, despite of my last post was a month ago.

    I'm really close to finish this mod, and make it compatible with human tiering and progression.
    But I still got problems, I dont know if i will be able to make it work fine one day. I'm sure only very few things need to be fixed to make this mod work and this is really driving me crazy. Every crash is now playing with my nerves, mostly when its almost the seventy'th...
    Actually, I have got a black screen when I create a new human charater, I couldnt move despite of the interface loaded...after a few minutes, the game crash, and the log seem to indicate a problem with the humant0.structure file (I gave up the idear of patching, the JSON coding could be as valid as possible, it will always crash whatever I try).
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    I have tried many solutions; to make a patch, change the coding to make it match perfectly with vanilla file except for values I needed...
    Thought it was a problem of spawning point...but nope. Even been looking for stupid mistakes in the syntax, but once all corrected, I still get nothing but this black and empty shipuniverse file.
    I'm completely stuck without any more ideas.

    I'm almost begging you to help me...but If anyone have some skills in modding, I leave here a link to download the actual version of the mod so you maybe could take a look. I only need to make it work even once to fix the coordinate system. Thanks by advance if anyone have an idear to make (finally) work...
    Otherwise, maybe I shall wait for a template, so much time wasted.

     

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