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Topics - Epifire

#1
Released Maps and Mods / Kejim Supplies Depot Alpha
July 03, 2015, 07:40:23 PM
Well the time has come for the alpha testing phase! After recently getting all my stuff back together I've been hard at work to put some of the best content together (that I can possibly provide) in this compact little map. Some of you may remember this project from a very long running cycle that can be seen here at the WIP thread...

http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=6845.0

What I want of course is for people to play test and give me opinions (yay or nay - cool or uncool). Ideas and points about current features. Do note there are some broken elements in the level (since it is an early alpha) but I really do want to hear everything, whether I already know of it or not. What's currently in this version is the working layout that NPCs can properly run. This includes vehicles, turrets and buildings. There's a lot I still want to work on and I plan on packing a ton more detail into the areas for later versions. This is a bit cut and dry as I even have some blank ramp panels crammed in a couple areas to make sure NPCs don't get stuck. So it's not really all that pretty yet. And yes don't worry I will also eventually replace that awful Sky Dome currently being used.

NOTE: For any graphical issues, please do paste me your hardware specs and screenshot if possible should you encounter any kind of visual errors (buildings disappearing, elements missing, etc). I have absolutely no visual problems in this version but I understand a lot of you have differing hardware then me.

In advance I really just wanna thank all the community for supporting me in the past. I wouldn't be getting into game development today if it weren't for this place, so this is me giving back to you guys.  :cheers:

>> http://www.mediafire.com/download/ep4v5dadc9bckch/Kej1_0.1.zip <<
#2
SWBF1 Modding / General Advice/ZE Tweaks?
June 30, 2015, 06:18:19 PM
Hey fellas, I had some stuff to run by you all in an attempt to fix/tweak some stuff with my Zero Edit. Well first I'll start with the two things that are bugging me the most here and go from there...

1: ZE removes random objects... randomly! Just like that, I'll just be doing things (usually not even in the objects mode) and I'll find objects missing later for no apparent reason. This happens with any kind of object, usually most commonly with CPs or vehicle spawns. It seems to be consistent enough to be of an incredible annoyance, as I usually notice it when I reload a map. I'm pretty sure I can just do my whole objects detail pass in one shot at the end if I have to (just to avoid this during).

2: The awful white blinding Generic Specular shader... Yes, I'm sure anyone who's tried to use barriers with any kind of sophisticated layout will know the frustration. From a top down perspective (pretty much the only effective way of placing barriers) you get this horrible white overdraw of specular reflection on the meshes. So basically white on white with no distinction. I ask this because I feel somewhere in the ZE config, someone may have been able to finagle a way to disable/comment it out before. It's not design breaking, it's just a real bloody nuisance.

One fix I found out that manages to stop a critical visual error in ZE is running the thing on one core only. I'd really like to know how to set affinity preferences for certain applications to make the fix permanent. As this fix requires you to find ZE in the task manager each time you launch it. The visual error basically looks like a corrupted/outdated driver. But basically all the geometry triangles stretch from the center to the boarder of your screen making it impossible to use. The only other way to fix it was to restart the computer. This happened with every unit I'd ran the thing off of and made mapping impossible, until I found that nifty fix at least.

So besides my initial questions, I invite any other kinds of general ZE tips and tweaks if ya'll know of any. I seriously would love to get my hands on some kind of, "less broken" and updated version of ZE. Sadly I don't think there's any successful modified versions (at least none that I'd heard of?).
#3
Tech Support / Windows 95 Inquiry
May 01, 2015, 02:34:55 PM
Okay so really random question guys. I'm not sure who can really even answer this other than any of the old timers that may have used this thing. Been going through my stuff as I'm packing to move and I came across this...


That's some image I found of what I have (which is the same thing). An unopened package which looks to either be a manual or the OS. What I'm trying to figure out is if the install disc is actually in there or if it's just a manual with install certificate. I don't want to pull off the wrapping to find out. Right now I don't think these (even unopened) are worth much as I checked Ebay and they're still pretty common. I been wanting to build an old 90s PC (original parts and all) so I'll likely be keeping this guy around. If anyone knows anything about it that'd be awesome, otherwise it's still an interesting conversation piece.
#4
SWBF1 Modding / Animation Munge Error
April 19, 2015, 07:18:58 PM
Hey guys! Thought I'd try animations after all and actually got pretty far this time before running into a problem. So I'm working on this Scanner Pylon with spinning little fins on the mast. The animation is enveloped to the two bones mid and top, looks fine when I play it in XSI. Been bouncing back and forth between FragMe and Sereja's door animation guide to get the idea of how the exporting and munging goes.



Getting this error in the console when I try and munge, so while I go and try to figure out what I did wrong I figured I'd also go and ask around.

WARNING: While correcting joint base pose matrices, no skin was found!
WARNING: Bone <bone_mid>may be a floating bone
ERROR: No Skin model in MSH?


After that it ZenAsset.exe crashes immediately thereafter. I think part of the problem may be in my bone hierarchy (as I mostly followed the FragMe tutorial). One difference in the tools I use vs the old method, is I usually don't make a dummyroot parent null by default, (since the Andewedget tools make one on export). I could be wrong but I've never had to actually use a dummyroot until this animation stuff, so that may be the problem.

Secondly I'm not sure if "Current frame as base pose" was supposed to still be checked on the second animation export (NOT the first basepose that's squished to frame 1).

Thirdly I moved the actual animation bones into position around the model (without freezing their transforms). Are bones supposed to be zeroed out on the x,y,z axis, or do they need to retain their positional data for the animation to work?

Just trying to fish around to figure out what I'm doing wrong, cause if I can nail this down I may be able to make some other animations much quicker for future work in BF1 maps.
#5
SWBF1 Modding / Painting Rock Foliage.
April 15, 2015, 10:06:06 AM
Welp as you can guess by the title I'm trying to use the foliage system like how Pandemic did with their rocks on Rhen Var. Just a simple set I made here that were all separated to use by the population placement system. [spoiler][/spoiler]

So far I'm just getting nothing in ZE which is sorta strange, cause there's no typos in the .prp file I made and I've cross referenced it with several other stock .prp files. Do the referenced meshes need to be in the regular MSH folder or somewhere else?
#6
SWBF1 Modding / Spec/Bumpmap Questions.
April 09, 2015, 11:48:02 AM
Hey all, been doing some polish work on some of the stuff for my Supplies Outpost map but I figured this required it's own topic.

So basically I've come to my whits end trying to get spec maps to work. I've flagged the object in XSI I've even just given solid alpha channels which should have made the thing go horribly bright, but nothing...

I get in Zero Edit and the objects the texture is applied to show the alpha channel's transparency. So I know it's active (or at least partially) but it's just not working. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong in Ande's exporter tool but I'm just checking specular and putting the spec map in the diffuse texture's alpha channel. Still not working though.

Now with bumpmaps I think I actually do have them working, but they're just like near to non-existant. Maybe I'm expecting way more grand results being than I'm used to handling normal maps (not grey scale height maps). I'm just kinda referencing the option files and existing bump maps in existing maps. It may be a combination of things, but if anyone had any advice I'd love to hear it.
#7
SWBF1 Modding / Map Ambience Questions.
August 23, 2014, 09:52:49 PM
Hey guys! I'd been going over the environment in my new map and I'm still not content with what I've got in it. Well basically I really hate how stale my map is and while I wanna setup the official layout yet, I also wanted to set some goals after I accomplish that. Since most my knowledge is tied up in the modeling specifics, there are a rather large amount of things that evade my understanding. To make it more clear I have ideas but not much to go on for executing them. Ideas in question are...

Neutral Droid Faction: Fairly simple in concept, as I wanted to make some droids that patrol go around the map and check things out (repairing stuff probably). Since it would be a repulsorlift powered droid I could probably just model it out and give it recon droid specifics for how they'd move around (maybe some idle/movement animations too).

Now the big issue is that I know nothing about adding or editing in an additional faction. I thought I recall basic (non-hostile) NPCs roaming maps before, and basically all I'd be doing is insert a a droid mesh with hovervehicle properties. Since it wouldn't walk it wouldn't need bones or complex weights/rigging. Either way I have no clear idea on how that'd work but I think it's possible. If so, does anyone have any good suggestions on that note?

- - - But wait, there's more!

Additional Animated Props: Fairly static in nature besides a basic active animation, buuuut I've never put an animation into BF1. I've read over some dated and rather sketchy details on how it all works but I think it's simpler than I'm making it out to be. I mainly wanted to just have some reciprocating equipment, such as mining/ore processing machinery. It would be one animation that would loop, but would also have a sound accompanying it. I think this is actually the easier map improvement as when I could figure out scope of it. Once figured out I'd just make about three props that would kinda add some ambient motion to the environment. So I pretty much just need a guide on how to make an animation. Most my stuff I need to know is XSI specific things but ones that can comply with Ande's tools which I'm using.

If I could figure at least one of these out, or both! It would be the last big thing I'd have to get out of the way. Most my work at this point is just working on extra detail models and setting the final layout. So mostly art specific.
#8
Tech Support / What's Your Nvidia Driver?
July 30, 2014, 08:04:27 PM
Hey guys, I'm having a weird rendering error in my ZE viewport. I have a newer Nvidia card and I assume it's a driver issue since I'd had this happen in a game that had a similar issue.



Now basically the skybox and other various tris and quads get stretched across the viewport making this heap of garbage. Most people I talk to about this tell me they don't have this problem. So since I'm guessing ZE just doesn't like my newer drivers, I wanna know the ones you other Nvidia guys use?

This may help to find out what you're driver is... http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

If I know what you guys are using then I might be able to roll mine back and see if that fixes it.
#9
General / Star Wars Funnies
June 14, 2014, 12:27:56 AM
I've been looking for a thread to put all the dumb Star Wars related things I find, so until I do this is gonna have to work! I swear we used to have one years ago, but common (I did say years). So I'll start...


Some things just would have made more sense if you think long enough about it.  :P
#10
SWBF1 Modding / Zero Edit Graphical Error
June 09, 2014, 12:25:35 PM
Hey guys, during the ongoing development of my new map I've been having this visual error come up periodically. Generally every four to five times of having closed/reopened Zero Edit. Only way I've found ti remedy it is to restart my XP-machine. That takes forever though and I'm looking for a way to fix it...

#11
Tech Support / Speed/Acceleration Issue
September 22, 2013, 09:47:56 AM
Hey guys, just got a hold of two, "XP Machines" for all my BF 1 modding needs. Now I can play on my regular rig just fine but on these (even with settings cranked down) the maps load with everything going fast. Like Muhammad Ali on Steroids fast. Oh and the commander lines that play objective commands loop endlessly when this happens.

I'd assume it's a acceleration issue with the GPU these units pack but I'm not so certain. Soooo I figured I'd stop in and ask if anyone has heard of this problem before?
#12
SWBF1 Modding / [WIP] Supplies Outpost
July 24, 2013, 05:10:11 PM
Okay so there is a lot I cannot say about the theme of the map cause it's still undecided. I know BF 1 has pulled off snow areas really well in the past (with it's full bright textures, etc) but suggestions are welcome. So basic story is that the Rebels have taken hold of a Imperial supplies outpost and are trying to lay claim to the whole place. However they tripped the base security when capturing the main facility and the outlying imperial garrison (in vehicle docking have been alerted).

We would assume the Imps would just take off and alert the rest of the fleet, but with a possible Turbo-Laser to shoot them down they can't take that chance until that threat is removed. With both teams packing full tank and infantry armament, it's a race to capture the turret hard point and remove the opposition in the process!

So the strategy behind the design is that the Turbo-Laser is a game changer. So whom ever controls the middle of the map can take on the enemy vehicles with ease. It can be flanked and the gunner will be able to be shot out of the chair, so it's also open to being flanked. I wanted to make something that forced team work to win, so there will always be a point of contention that serves great importance.

Map layout is relative and likely to change


Additional Screenshots
[spoiler]





[/spoiler]

Turbo-Laser Progress (previous untextured)...

[spoiler]




[/spoiler] 

Later images will be rolled back to this post. They have a great bumping capability so they will be posted as progress before a finalized version is tossed up.

I'm no expert when it comes to info regarding ZE or engine specific stuff I run into problems with. I plan on keeping this as performance friendly as possible. Feel free to chime in and comment with the ongoing progress of the map. Do note that once the map is completed all the assets will be available for free usage in the community (with due credit of course).

ALPHA TEST BUILD HERE http://www.swbfgamers.com/index.php?topic=9364.msg122443;topicseen#new
#13
SWBF1 Modding / Maximum SALLY Engine Capacity?
July 23, 2013, 06:19:19 PM
Hey guys, I've done some dabbling in the past with trying to model some maps from scratch but I'm wanting to know what the modern detail capacity for BF 1 is?

I wasn't entirely sure if the capacity could be increased be editing memory pool amounts, etc, but I wanted to know just how far I should be able to push the engine. Old rates in old documents don't seem to apply nowadays and while I know modern PCs can take a lot, the engine still has it's restrictions.

So my primary concerns are...

-Poly count, just how many polys can the engine handle and at what rendering distances should higher counts be used? What would be suitable low res/high res LOD for a classic sandbox map?

-Texture sizes. I know the engine can take a lot but I don't want to have objects disappearing because I'm boosting something too far. Again what is the appropriate size for proper low res LODs?

I want to make an imperial outpost that combines a ground assault and tank combat that would also use lots of interior modeling. The outpost will boast at least one or two large Turbo Laser turrets (the full sized tower version) if the project reaches completion. I've already started to work on it but I'm not sure how much detail the thing should retain cause as I recall 4,000 polys was a big thing for a single model...



I can always break down the high res version to a more suitable one but I like to push the polys where I can. Thanks in advance, hard numbers are what I'm looking for right now.
#14
General / Just A Tiny Wee Visist
June 04, 2013, 12:10:13 PM
Just came back around to check on things and how stuff is going around here. Still amazed this is still a community but I gladly support for what's left.

Got the reminder for my birthday I found in my E-mail and I started remembering when I started here back around when I was about thirteen. Back when this was still MPCgamers when I began modding was a fun time and I often think about it. I'm eighteen now, about to graduate and moving into game development as a career working mostly in modeling and animation. Don't know how many of the old members are still around but I still wanna thank them for the advice and time they gave me back then. Without the help I was given back then I doubt I could have moved on and I never would have progressed to where I'm at now.

A lot of good memories here having been my first community and it's nice to see it still has activity. I still run my Xfire when ever I'm on my PC for the core reason if someone wants to hit me up for some action in BF 1. I still have the mod tools for the old game but most of it is incompatible with my OS and whatnot now anyway. Still tempted to reboot my old setup and get a really well built map for my last submission to the community too.

Currently I'm trying to refit and finish my SP, back story mod in Source but who knows. Wish you guys the best and it's always nice to talk or scrounge a couple people together for a couple multi-player matches.  :cheers:

#15
Requests / Looking to recruit two modders.
February 27, 2012, 10:24:30 PM
I don't know if there is much of a draw to this kind of thing anymore but I wanted to make a old map idea that I had in the start of my modding days.

I wanted to create a map in the sky (like bespin platforms) but having two towers reaching down into fog of some sort. The two towers would be connected by a rather large bridge, and there would also be a lot of airship spawns as expected. The whole idea and concept is there, but I need a lot of textures to fuel this map. The BF 1 development pipeline has just been increased by a lot for models since the new release of Andeweget's new XSI tools.

I am great with models, but I am not the best for making my own textures (well at least not for a project this big).

Here is a picture of the general layout...


-Expectations would be to provide textures for the new structures for this map. I would most likely help in the texture creation for smaller props.

-Bumpmapps for the outer building textures would be nice but is not a must.

-Some alpha textures for some access panels across the map would be very nice.

If anyone is interested and is competent with texture creation please do post. All of this is up for discussion, and I am really excited to see this start up.  :tu:
#16
SWBF1 Modding / Hex Editing Textures.
December 02, 2011, 07:36:44 AM
Hey guys I had asked this question a good while back in a Game Toast forum but didn't really get what I was supposed to do then. What I want to do is to add bump mapping to my models. I already have a good program to create bumpmaps with but I do not know how they should be applied to BF 1 models.

I use Meshexbeta3 for exporting purposes, and only have the Modtools version of XSI. So I heard that once you apply a texture with bumpmapping available you are supposed to edit a small string of numbers in one of the Hex Edit lines for it to be enabled. Now this was quite a while ago and I don't have any way of knowing how to go about this.

If some one with more knowledge in this area could help clarify this for me then that would be great.
#17
SWBF1 Modding Tutorials / Meshexbeta Error List
June 18, 2011, 01:45:50 PM
Here are some things that can slip past people with out them realizing it, and before you know it you can completly screw up a model with out even knowing what happened.


So some things you may already know, but these are some things I have found out in trial and error. NOTE: Meshexbeta 3 is a third party developed exporter so it does have its handfull of  "fluke errors".


Ok so lets start with some of the simpler things that can happen. In order to do that I will list the basic things you are supposed to do. Quoted from its builder RepSharpshooter. Here is the link so I don't get sued :P

***********************************************************************************

http://www.gametoast.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=15082

Instructions:

"Put everything you're going to export under a null (not the scene root).

In the scene explorer, middle-mouse click the name of the null.Go to File, Crosswalk, Export (it should be on 6.0 text when it pops up).

Click the Settings tab.

Select a filename/filepath.

CHECK "EXPORT SELECTION ONLY"

CHECK "CONVERT GEOMETRY TO TRIANGLES" or "CONVERT MESHES TO TRIANGLES"

CHECK "EXPORT XSI NORMALS"

UNCHECK "Keep referenced paths relative"Press Export.

Run mshex in same directory and convert file to a msh. (put the .xsi file in the same folder as mshex.exe and hedr.msh, then double click on mshex. Then type in the .xsi name such as box.xsi)"

****************************************************************************************


So okay things he doesn't tell you are...

You can't export straight up primatives (meaning don't just texture a sphere, change its geometry so that its not at its default state).

Do not have textures that have numbers in their names on your model. Here's why. For some reason when exported from "meshex" it will give the model's information on that texture by its number. Other wise in some cases the model will give information that it needs (for instance) *1* when really the actuall texture name may be *crate_corner.1*. So word of warning, other wise you can end up with a model that has blank spots where it requires that texture.

So in order to work around this you can either re-name the texture, and re-texture in XSI... or you can simply name the texture its looking for by the number its listed. Then those blank polys should be fine.


If not then you also may have to consider that your texture has RLE compression. So here is a way to work around that. All I do is a load the texture in Gimp, and save it as a tga with out  RLE compression.

Ok so two other things I do to often then not is I forget to middle click on my dummyroot before exporting. Another thing is freezing inputs. So about freezing inputs... I find it handy to select by the null to freeze the model's inputs, as well as selecting the model and doing the same again. It never hurt anything to Freeze inputs, but it definatly will if you do not.


Hope this helps, if I come up with more things to post on I will do that.
#18
Tech Support / PC Not Working.
November 12, 2010, 03:08:25 PM
Well I wont be on Xfire or steam for a while cause my PC is not in working order.  :bye:

So after the weekend I will get it serviced and hopefully it will not be to expensive. So from here on out I will not be modding or playing on my PC for a few days. I will how ever be on my Xbox alot at that point so I can talk and play online there.
#19
Other Games / Reach Map For MPC.
October 20, 2010, 08:40:36 AM
Since I just got my Halo: Reach package, yesterday I got the idea of making a arena map on Reach's forge. Then I had a better idea and desided to name and dedicate the map to MPCgamers.

Really like you guys here and I thought it might be good to have some thing other than our selfs representing us on Reach.

Oh I might as well explain the map settup real quick as its not to complicated... Its like I said a arena map, and it is enclosed on the forge worlds valley. It has two levels for making things a little more strategic (its also a bit of a grenade mania). Between having walls and many other things in the middle this will definatly be a close commbat map.

Hope you guys might like it when its finnished, in maybe a day or two depending on how long it takes me.  :cheers:
#20
SWBF1 Modding / Texture Rendermap Issue.
October 14, 2010, 02:40:43 PM
I have constantly had texture errors when sending other models to people. I also use modtools 6.0 so I cannot format to tga myself. Now I had the idea of making one whole UV map out of the entire texture selection so that I would avoid all errors.

http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac254/Epifire/?action=view&current=Rendermap_Question1.jpg

That should help a bit cause I allways like to let people know what I am talking about.  :XD:

Ok so you see I have hit Property/RenderMap, to get to this menu. I can do most else except for the X resolution, cause when ever I test different scales my PC can't handle that. So what do I do for it to come out right?  ???