First Aid for Developers

[RingoW]

First i want to say, i have spend a lot of time in searching for tools, i needed to create models.

For a beginner like me it would be helpful, to have a collection of links, to save time. Better is to spend the time in creating models, than searching. This will help Igiss too, because the model submissions can be almost completely.

Every member of the community feel free to post links in this thread, where anyone can download the different tools for modding, editing and for modelling. Also links for 3d programms and their tools are welcome.

Please post no comments, just a small description of the tool or programm and the link.

!!!Important!!! No links to sites of cracked programs or other illegal made copys.

I will start with a very easy Milkshape tool to export a *.sur file. I made a *.sur file in five minutes.
Not changing an existing one. It is a new, especially for my model.

!!!Attention!!! It is possible, this exporter doesn't work. I had problems with the .sur files i generated with, out of MS3d version 1.8.1b. The game crashed after a while or it was impossible to start from stations. Reason therefore was definitly the .sur file.

On this site the developer may find some other useful tools like the HardCMP editor.

=EOA=Players Consortium

O.K. fellows now its your turn and i want to beg all to keep this Thread updated.

[Treewyrm]

Well I'm finishing a ship right now (can't show it, sorry) and then I'll be making another one, so I had the idea to make a tutorial, complete with modelling, optimizing, uv unwrap and painting textures for it, all done with 3ds max, photoshop and texture maker. If there are people interested I can make the tutorial, either just text with images or video with narrative (that way you'll have to bear with my horrible engRish and my russian accent). Not specifically for Freelancer, just lowpoly model, from sketches to final textured model which then can be used in Freelancer or any other game you want it in.

[RingoW]

edit: deleted the link to Lancers Reaktor. Site is down for quite a while now.

AoM

[mohr]

This is a great idea. Okay, I will dump into this post any links I can find, plus any notes of interest. I will update it as I go.

First, a general timeline/process I use and what programs are used. This is not meant to be a tutorial, just an example of my process to make a Freelancer model.

Programs I use and how I use them:

Maya - For modeling and texture mapping.

Photoshop - For converting textures to TARG and altering existing textures, haven't made my own yet.

MilkShape3D - Used in conjunction w/ three pluggins to do multiple things;

-CMP importer - Used to import Freelancer textures and models; the textures I use are primarily existing
Freelancer textures. The model that is imported I use for proportion comparison on my
models. (NOTE: Does not work on current version of MilkShape, I use 1.7.8)

-CMP exporter - Used to make the in game models.

-MAT exporter - Used to make the texture MATs for models.
I also do the final orientation and sizing in MilkShape with the help of HardCMP.

HardCMP - Allows the viewing of existing freelancer meshes, used by me to compare sizes.

Freelancer - The final test is in game, I just replace the MAT and CMP of an existing ship with the ones I
made (while changing the name of them) and get view the ship in the game. WARNING: This will
alter the game unless reversed, do not play online before correcting changes you make. This
can cause problems. I have not worked out adding hardpoints ar altering the game to fully test
a ship in game.


So, the important websites are already linked by Angel of Mercy. I will post link when I find them. If you have suggestion on improving my contribution to this thread PM me.

Mohr

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[Vaporlinx]

Id like to add gimp, its a free programm that is a big step up from ms paint, and one of the few alternatives to adobe's software ( www.gimp.org )

Another image editing program i use is Infranview, its really usefull for converting between various formats (and a little bit simpler than gimp) Again its free. ( http://www.irfanview.com/ )

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[Snip3rNife]

WinRAR for easy FLMod files and backups of your freelancer folder. Google it.

Speaking of which, if you add ship to the game to test it, make sure you do it in an alternate FL directory. What I mean is, make a copy of you Freelancer directory and add your ship into the copy, while your main one is for actually playing. I do that when I download mods for Sonic Adventure DX.

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Known as on Discovery RP 24/7:
Thomas_Hill - Train
[KNF]TakajiKimura - Chimera
You may also know me elsewhere as I'll Begin or something including "Volbeat"

[Dopamino]

I use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator a lot. For those who don't have access to programs like that, i highly suggest Paint.net (www.getpaint.net)

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I mostly lurk around Media Center these days.

[RingoW]

edit: Same as above. Deleted the invalid links.

AoM

[RingoW]

Thanks to Igiss, who pointed me to look for a DDS plug in for GIMP (very good freeware to create texturess) i found this:

DDS plug in for GIMP

DDS and TGA are the picture formats Freelancer can handle. DDS is preferable, because it shows better results and with DXT compression it is keeping the Mat file small in size.

AoM

[RingoW]

The DDS plug in for Gimp wont work without GIMP.

I know Vaporlynx has mentioned it, but here is a download link for:

The GIMP

The Gimp is a mighty image editing program and the best: its freeware.

For those, which wont spend the money to purchase Photoshop, the GIMP should be the first choice.

AoM

Edit: Unfortunatly i have figured out, the newest version of GIMP (2.4.1) does not work with the current DDS plug in.:angry2:
I have the older version of 2.2.17. This one can use the DDS plug in. If anyone is interested i can send it via mail.