Matrix Cloud City Skin

Started by Phobos, March 11, 2012, 09:43:38 PM

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March 11, 2012, 09:43:38 PM Last Edit: March 13, 2012, 02:33:46 PM by Phobos
well i made this new skin for the upcoming cloud city skin changer mod what do u think?



PM me if you want the tga for this

nice!
now you just need a bunch of agent smiths  ;)
Quote from: Abraham Lincoln. on November 04, 1971, 12:34:40 PM
Don't believe everything you read on the internet

I think some of the buildings look better in this mod. Different hex edit to building mesh the trip city bes2 base used with matrix skin produced this

Glass Matrix

That works far better than the wire-frame version.

Very Nice!   How do u do that?  Hex editing? maybe a little Tut for us? :D

March 24, 2012, 08:45:02 PM #5 Last Edit: March 27, 2012, 05:21:30 PM by Phobos
Click spoiler to view tutorial
[spoiler]The glass matrix / tripmode is hex edit to all bes2 msh with 04s. Normal (with interior glitch walls blocked from view) which support wireframe is 10s.  From testing it appears that 14 and 18 seem to do the same thing as 10. Also 04 and 08 have the same effect in game. This makes more sense after you read the part below:

There are already mini-tutorials on this stuff I will post what I found gametost
Quote from: Maveritchell
Maveritchell wrote:
If you want to enable transparency, open up your .msh file with a hexeditor and find the name of the texture to which you're going to give transparency (search for .tga), say it's rep_inf_sharpshooter_cape.
Once your cursor is on the name of the .tga, move it back a few places to where it says HBATRB - place your cursor on the place immediately after the last "B."
The next 8 places should be:

      04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Change that to:

      04 00 00 00 04 00 00 00

Then save the msh file and give your actual texture an alpha channel.

Quote from: AceMastermind
I'm going to add some more to this for those who like to hex edit.

Transparency and check box options are found 5th place over from ATRB (after "B")

      Hex/Name
      00 = No transparency/no options checked
      04 = Single sided transparency
      08 = Double sided transparency
      10 = Hard Edged Transparency(only) ***See Notes
      14 = Single sided Transparency with Hard Edged Transparency option checked
      18 = Double sided Transparency with Hard Edged Transparency option checked ****See Notes


List of unknown hex found 5 places after ATRB in various msh files:

      Hex/My best guess
      01 = Emmisive color?
      02 = Glow alternative?
      05 = Combination of Emissive Color and Single sided Transparency?
      09 = Combination of Emissive Color and Double sided Transparency?
      49 = ?
      80 = Specular enabled?
      81 = ?
      84 = ?
      88 = ?
      a0 = ?
      c8 = ?

They are unknown because they can not be produced by the options given in our version of Edit Flags though apparently they are still used in the game but must be hex edited into the material.
Pandemic obviously used a more advanced version of Edit Flags at their studio, the BF2_materials.doc shows an image of a different version than we got with the modtools.
Their version was apparently designed for optimizing assets for Xbox and PS2 as well.


Render Types are found 6th place over from ATRB (after "B")

      Render Type/Hex/Rendertype name
      1 ========== 01 = Render Glow (unused? -No shader for RenderType?)
      2 ========== 02 = Render Lightmap
      3 ========== 03 = Render Scrolling *See Notes
      4 ========== 04 = Render Specular (See THIS topic by AQT)
      5 ========== 05 = Render Gloss Map
      6 ========== 06 = Render Chrome (Meshtool's environment map flag)
      7 ========== 07 = Render Animated
      8 ========== 08 = Render Ice
      9 ========== 09 = Render Sky
      10 ========= 0a = Render Water
      11 ========= 0b = Render Detail (Meshtool's "glow" flag) (See THIS post by me)
      12 ========= 0c = Render 2 Scroll (V)
      13 ========= 0d = Render Rotate
      14 ========= 0e = Render Glow Rotate
      15 ========= 0f = Render Planar Reflection
      16 ========= 10 = Render Glow Scroll
      17 ========= 11 = Render Glow 2Scroll
      18 ========= 12 = Render Curved Reflection
      19 ========= 13 = Render NormalMap Fade
      20 ========= 14 = Render NormalMap InvFade
      21 ========= 15 = Render Ice Reflection
      22 ========= 16 = Render Ice Refraction (See THIS post by AQT)
      23 ========= 17 = Render Emboss
      24 ========= 18 = Render Wireframe
      25 ========= 19 = Render Energy **See Notes
      26 ========= 1a = Render Afterburner
      27 ========= 1b = Render Bumpmap (Meshtool's bumpmap flag, also changes 5th place after ATRB to 80) (See THIS post by me)
      28 ========= 1c = Render Bumpmap+Glossmap
      29 ========= 1d = Render Teleportal
      30 ========= 1e = Render MultiState
      31 ========= 1f = Render Shield


      Render Type above refers to the #s given in the BF2 Edit Flags list
      The Render Type name list is based off the BF1 fixed Edit Flags, not Squipples grid.
      Some Render Types also require a texture input or/in addition to alpha channel in order to work properly.
      Some of the Render types are apparently named incorrectly or are mixed up and some may not even work at all on PC.



5th place after FLGS

      00 = Unhidden
      01 = Hidden



Notes:

      *Data0(U or horizontal) -Scroll speed is 7th place over from ATRB (after "B")
      *Data1(V or vertical) -Scroll speed is 8th place over from ATRB (after "B")
      You can use this information to adjust your scroll speeds in the msh file rather than having to re-export the msh, to save time.


      **Data1 -Frequency of the throbbing diffuse texture can be adjusted.


      ***The use of hard-edged transparency will eliminate the "transparency interference" you get when two objects with transparency are viewed one in front of the other.
      Thanks to Maveritchell for this information.


      ****It appears this is used along with Data0 and Data1 according to fel1_bldg_pitcher_M.msh and seems to be used a lot on foliage or plant props





    * I saw no change in the msh file when the Emissive Color, Cast Shadows, or Receive Shadows options were checked in BF2 Edit Flags. It's possible that these options can be used as I have my suspicions from looking through shipped msh files but they may have to be edited in manually because our version of the Pandemic Tools might be broken or is skipping them when converting to msh.
    * If you're curious as to which flags Pandemic used in some assets then you can look in the msh file and see which ones by looking at the 5th or 6th place after ATRB and compare it to my make-shift table above. :P
    * cis_tread_tank.msh has hex 02(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB, not sure what this one is, could be something meant for XBox or PS2.
    * kam_bldg_pod1.msh has hex 01(unknown) 5 places after BATRB
    * dea1_bldg_blast_corridor.msh has hex 80(unknown) 5 places after HCATRB and a hex 88(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * hoth_prop_command_console_c.msh has hex 09 (unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * dea1_bldg_froom_spinner.msh has hex 81(unknown) 5 places after BATRB
    * rep_bldg_forwardcenter.msh has hex 05(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * fel1_bldg_bladder.msh has a hex 84(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * com_sfx_muzzleflash.msh has a hex 49(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * imp_inf_darthvader.msh has a hex a0(unknown) 5 places after AATRB
    * com_sfx_buff.msh has a hex c8(unknown) 5 places after HBATRB
    * The 2 places before ATRB such as A, B, C, HB, HC are where the specular intensity is stored for the material.
    * In theory you should be able to use Rep's MeshTool4 to insert some Flags that require an input texture and just open the edited msh with a hex editor and change the flag that is used(6th place after HBATRB) and rename helmet_envmap to something else as long as you keep it at least 13 characters in length.



I'll post more when I find the time........

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