Launch tube effect

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Launch tube effect

jmarso
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Post by jmarso » Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:14 am

Something I've been playing around with going back as far as my first BSG TC years ago. It's definitely getting better. :P

It works like this: I built about a 400m long launch tube in blender and turned it into an OPT. Instead of using a hook to put it in game, I actually gave it it's own slot in MXvTED and equipped it with a hyperdrive. Why? There's a method to my madness.

So when I place it in game, I start the fighter looking down the tube going at full throttle. Then I give the launch tube a waypoint and send it the opposite direction at anywhere from 150-200 MGLT, so the effect in game from the opposed movement is that you are moving down this thing FAST. (In AlliED you tag it with 'limited targetability' so it is invisible to sensors. I also insert a WAV file at mission start with the launch tube sound effect from Buck Rogers. (The only one I've been able to find that works has Buck yelling 'Woo-ee!" as he goes, but that's alright. The Viper launch sound effect would work equally well.

A few seconds after I launch, the launch tube hypers out and is gone.

Interestingly enough, I've put to use a glitch I found when I was working on the Buck Rogers fighter: if you use the word 'laser' in a material, it glows in game. So I did that with the blue and green materials in the launch tube, so they have that glowy bloom effect. In future OPT projects you can use the same glitch to make awesome engine glows apart from the engine glow points added with XWA OPT Editor.

Here's a screenshot, but you really need to see this in motion to do it justice.
Screenshot (26).png
Screenshot (25).png
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jmarso
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Post by jmarso » Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:20 am

Y'know, it just occurred to me as well that with that laser-glow effect, you could make an awesome 'Ship of Light' from those episodes of TOS Battlestar Galactica. Make it glow white and move faster than stink, and you've modded Glen Larson's 'Alien Space Mormons' right into XWA!!

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blue_max
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Post by blue_max » Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:32 am

It would be interesting to see it in motion, though. Feel free to post a video!

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Post by jmarso » Fri Apr 17, 2020 1:55 am

Is there a way to put up video files here?

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Post by blue_max » Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:24 am

I don't think so, you'd probably have to upload it somewhere else (youtube?) and then put the link here.

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keiranhalcyon7
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Post by keiranhalcyon7 » Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:52 am

This begs the question, could a hook be built to enable the use of different hardpoints for launch/recovery?

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Post by jmarso » Fri Apr 17, 2020 6:05 am

keiranhalcyon7 wrote:
Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:52 am
This begs the question, could a hook be built to enable the use of different hardpoints for launch/recovery?
Good question, but anything that involves coding is hopelessly out of my league.

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Post by jmarso » Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:44 am

Here's a pic of version 2 of the launch tube. As fun as the glowy neon was back in the rockin' 1970's, after a few launches I thought I was trapped in Vegas. The warning indicator is already lit on the reticule because I've been working on a cap ship and it's sitting out there inside of firing range as I launch.

Another thing I just noticed from the pic is that the mesh for the catapult track is missing. The live launch happens too dang fast to notice it- I probably need to flip the normals on that mesh. One thing I fixed on this version was the transparency to the sides you can see in the first pic- you shouldn't be able to see the stars through the mesh. That had to do with my Blender learning curve more than anything else.

Here's the new look:
Screenshot (76).png
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Post by jmarso » Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:52 am

Since I've got my mediafire account resurrected, here's a link to the chincy video I took with my phone. The video uses version 1 of the launch tube, and the bloom effect wasn't as pronounced in person as it looks on the vid. That is very much toned down in V2 anyway- the only glowy spots are those center lights on the deck.

Video link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/p5nyr9pp ... t.mp4/file

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Post by jmarso » Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:49 pm

Mulling this over, another idea that comes to mind is making the launch tube the departure craft for the player since it occupies its own ship slot. Then, perhaps a custom hangar opt could be built that matches the look in the screen pic, more or less. Then, when you return, you return to your actual mother ship and recover in its recovery hangar. Something else for me to play around with, although hangar editing is not something I've ever messed with, other than replacing objects.

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Post by Ace Antilles » Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:00 pm

jmarso wrote:
Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:52 am
Since I've got my mediafire account resurrected, here's a link to the chincy video I took with my phone. The video uses version 1 of the launch tube, and the bloom effect wasn't as pronounced in person as it looks on the vid. That is very much toned down in V2 anyway- the only glowy spots are those center lights on the deck.

Video link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/p5nyr9pp ... t.mp4/file
That is excellent! It did give the impression of a launch tube.
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Post by jmarso » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:40 am

Here's a mediafire link to the launch tube opts, one custom sounds file, and a basic guide for how to get the effect working in game. The guide pre-supposes a working knowledge of MxvTED and AlliED.

I'll also post this link in the OP of my 'Shared non-custom OPT Files' thread in the pilot lounge.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/726eq2ftt ... WA.7z/file

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Post by jmarso » Sat May 02, 2020 7:54 pm

Been tinkering with some different launch tube configurations, and I think I have the winner. (The one I'm actually going to use from now on.) Inspired by nuBSG.
Screenshot (115).png
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Post by jmarso » Sat May 02, 2020 7:55 pm

Screenshot (114).png
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Post by jmarso » Sat May 02, 2020 7:55 pm

Screenshot (114).png

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Post by Driftwood » Sat May 02, 2020 8:34 pm

Looking really good so far! If you ever want to do some texture work let me know :P

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Post by jmarso » Sat May 02, 2020 10:05 pm

Those are actually textures from a sci-fi texture pack I bought for about $20. My genuine texturing work is pretty raw. The lighting effect can be achieved with any texture by assigning the word 'Laser' (EX: Lighting_Laser in the .mtl file) to the material type- something Blue Max pointed out when I tried to figure out why an obj file I converted was glowing as an opt. While you generally don't want your whole ship to glow, the effect is coming in very handy for engines and lighting. What I have found in game, however, is that a little bit of that goes a long way.

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Post by Bman » Sun May 03, 2020 9:00 pm

I thought the .mat files have to named exactly like the .opt files. Or how else would the .exe know what's mapped to what ? For example, if my model is name Star.opt and in the Materials folder I renamed it Star_Laser.opt or Laser_Star.opt would that make it glow ?
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Post by Phoenix Leader » Mon May 04, 2020 2:13 am

Will this launch tube serve for the Pilot Proving Grounds? I mean will you launch from the tube before going through the rings?
In case you will, is the tube supposed to give you an acceleration boost or not?

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Post by jmarso » Mon May 04, 2020 3:35 am

No, this doesn't work with the proving grounds or anything like that. It's actually sort of a custom ship that has to be put into a mission using AlliED, not a hangar effect. You can see the OP in this thread for a basic description of how it works, or go the mediafire link and download that file pack which has a bit more of an advanced description.

As for an acceleration boost, it does not give you a real one- it's a visual effect. Your ship starts the mission going at the default speed it was programmed for in the mission editor. The speed 'effect' is created by having the launch tube (which is actually its own ship file, remember), going the opposite way at about 160-200 MGLT. If you are going 'east' down the launch tube at speed 100, and the launch tube itself is going 'west' at speed 200, you will experience a 'relative' speed of 300 going through the tube, even though your ship is only actually doing 100. What I normally do is have the launch tube (which is equipped with a hyperdrive for this reason alone), hyper out about 5 seconds after mission start, removing it from the scenario. If you land mid-mission, re-arm, and re-launch, there is no launch tube effect again. It's basically built in as part of the mission, right at mission start.

The only way to put this in the proving grounds would be to actually edit that mission file and insert it, after modifying your executable with MXvTED to place the launch tube in a ship slot.
Last edited by jmarso on Mon May 04, 2020 3:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by jmarso » Mon May 04, 2020 3:53 am

Bman wrote:
Sun May 03, 2020 9:00 pm
I thought the .mat files have to named exactly like the .opt files. Or how else would the .exe know what's mapped to what ? For example, if my model is name Star.opt and in the Materials folder I renamed it Star_Laser.opt or Laser_Star.opt would that make it glow ?
No, you aren't renaming an opt file itself- there's more to it than that. I also think we are talking about different things regarding materials- I'm talking about materials in a Blender file, not the game itself. Read on. I may be doing this differently than everyone else does it, I'm not sure. This is my work flow for turning a 3D model into an opt:

1. Find the model in a usable form, usually .obj, but it doesn't really matter because in the end I export it as an obj file with the accompanying .mtl file. Or, you can build the model from scratch in Blender.

2. Import the model into Blender. (Or make it, if your project is a 'from scratch' model)

Do any modelling adjustments required, including reducing poly counts (usually by decimating the geometry) and using the 'shade smooth' tool where needed. When you're happy with the model, you're ready to apply the textures. Don't forget to triangulate all the faces or XWA OPT Editor will reject the file later. (In the form of an error msg). Sometimes, depending on the texturing work, it's easier to wait and triangulate the faces after textures are done.

3. In Blender, assign materials to different parts of the model. This is the step where you name something xxx_Laser if you want it to glow in game. Whatever texture you assign to a material with Laser in its name is going to glow in game whether you want it to or not. If you don't want the glowing effect, don't use the word 'Laser' in the name of the material. This was something I stumbled on when Blue Max looked over a file for me and mentioned that. Because that particular model came in obj format and was already textured, I had to go into the .mtl file and rename a couple of materials to get it to STOP glowing!

4. Assign textures to the various materials in Blender.

5. Export the finished product as an .OBJ file with the associated .MTL file containing the texture names and mapping information.

6. Open up XWA OPT Editor and import the OBJ file. The textures should show up. If for some reason they don't, you may have to dig into the .mtl file and investigate. I've found that 100% of my problems with textures not showing up during an import has to do with the .mtl file assigning filepaths to a file where you don't want it to. The way to avoid problems like that is to pick a folder to work from, copy every file associated with the project into that folder, and only access those files FROM that folder in Blender. Don't move ANY files around between exporting your OBJ file from Blender and importing it into XWA OPT Editor. One interesting thing I've noticed is that your different materials in Blender show up as your meshes in XWA OPT Editor. For example, if I used 5 materials in the Blender model, in XWA OPT Editor I'll have 5 meshes corresponding to those materials. A Blender model using multiple objects will also translate to additional meshes, as you would expect. If desired, in XWA OPT EDitor you can merge meshes that you want to be whole. For example, I wound up with a bunch of different meshes with my carrier project due to assigning numerous materials for texturing, but after importing it into XWA OPT EDitor I merged all those meshes and renamed it 'Hangar'. Textures are preserved just fine when you do this.

You will NOT see this glowy effect in XWA OPT Editor, and it has NOTHING to do with whether a texture is marked illuminated or not. It is a weird materials property, and I don't know how or why it works, only that it does. I started out referring to it as a 'glitch', but I'm sure it's not. Like Connor MacLeod would say, it's a kind of magic. I just push the "I believe" button and it works in the game. Someone who's versed in the coding of all this stuff might be able to ferret out how and why.

7. In XWA OPT Editor, the first two things I always do are scale the model for the size it needs to be in game, and make sure the textures are all either 8 bit or 32 bit. The .opt won't work with a mix of 8 and 32 bit textures. Because all the texturing was done in Blender, the only thing I need to do with textures in XWA OPT Editor is illuminate those areas I want illuminated. I have not yet figured out how to do flight group colors, but this would be the time to do those as well. I figure my issue with this is the way I texture stuff in Blender and not with the OPT tools themselves.

8. Name the hull sections, assign hardpoints, weapon types, and engine glows.

9. Save the file as an .opt file.

10. Place it in game, with the .opt going into the flight models folder and then either modifying an existing ship or creating a new one with MXvTED to make use of the new .opt. Or, if your .opt is simply a newer version of an existing ship, back up the old .opt file and rename your new one to match the old one.

11. Test it in game.

One thing I've learned the hard way, particularly with capital ships, is that using this workflow, you don't want to start step 8 until you are happy with the model and textures. Put it in game in a test slot with no hard points, and fly around it. You'll spot things you don't like or want to change, or notice a face has its normals pointed the wrong way (making the face look invisible in most cases), or that you've got a little hole in your mesh geometry that you missed before. Then you go back to Blender, fix that stuff, then re-export and re-import into XWA OPT Editor. There are probably ways to fix a lot of stuff with OPTEch or something like that, but I haven't figured it out, and you can do some amazing stuff with Blender.

Believe it or not, 99% of everything I know about this .opt making stuff I've learned since mid-March. :kopfwand:
Last edited by jmarso on Mon May 04, 2020 4:34 am, edited 2 times in total.

jmarso
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Post by jmarso » Mon May 04, 2020 4:33 am

Side note:

If you wanted to ADD the glow-effect to a portion of an existing opt, you could do it by exporting the opt file to obj format, importing it into Blender, and then going through the processes I describe above, and re-importing it into XWA OPT Editor for conversion back to an .opt file. That is assuming there isn't some far easier way to do it with the OPT tools themselves that I am ignorant of.

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Post by Bman » Mon May 04, 2020 6:05 am

Thanks for detailed steps. I assumed you meant the materials subdirectory inside the XWA directory. I was way off.
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