[MOD] Taiidan Republic | Update: Flagship texturing

I got mine about a week ago too! :slightly_smiling:

That looks very much better :smiley:
It looks meaner and more maneuverable. Excellent!

it should be a parameter that is optionally passed in for each weapon entry in the .ship file. if you don’t pass in those values, defaults are used…

the same should also be true for weapon facing and turret elevation.

since these would be optional, no existing cases are broken while it simplifies modding going forward (less redundancies)

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There’s no easy way to do that in the engine - a ‘weapon’ in a single element of static design data. A ship using one doesn’t edit/overload it. It isn’t that we couldn’t add that - but as it stands it isn’t that way, and those sorts of edits for convenience aren’t worth the risk.

That said, you can create your own system like this - the files are lua. Just have a base weapon - with all of the important data in it. And in your actual weapon files, open that base file, and use the properties in the calls - changing the few you need to edit for arcs/azimuth/etc. If I had time I’d make an example.

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I remeber trying to do either what you describe or something similar elsewhere and discovering that dofilepath isn’t always available in all scopes. I suppose more basic IO could be used instead, but I’d want to verify that was available there before betting on it.

Then again this is a hazy memory that could be way off base.

I think we are overthinking this for the Assault Frigate. The fin is quite thin, the chances of a target being lined up with one of the barrels through the fin and the player happening to be zoomed in on the frigate and actually noticing the clipping as the projectile passes through the fin are pretty slim in my view…

As for weapons, I always thought a few extra parameters in the ship file would be a better way to control the turret rotation limits.

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thanks for that info

Will you UV map and texture these two models after you finish your Assault Frigate? I’d recommned that before you gather a fleet of Frigates, the rest of them can easily wait. Modelling is easy, texturing is hard. Delaying texturing and thinking you’re working on something when you just model and model leads to the “Gray fleet syndrome”.

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That could be a thing ya know…

A full fleet of grayish ships with reallllllly basic texturing used as a tutorial for HWR modding :slightly_smiling:

Gray fleets are already a thing for ten years now.

…But how would that be a tutorial?

For me, modelling is hard, texturing just takes 10,000 years.

The thing is, I was pretty close to writing something like “I know @Pouk will say I need to start texturing” in my last post! My plan for the frigates is to sort of make them in batch: I will model all 3, then UV all 3, then panel and team/stripe all 3, then detail all 3. The thinking is that it will ensure consistency. Also we will have placeholders available sooner.

I cannot argue with that, that’s pretty spot on view on the matter.

Nevertheless, it’s a difficult process and people sometimes keep on modeling instead of texturing the ship at hand, to trick their brain into thinking they’re being productive. While all they’re trully doing is stalling. That has a cruel negative effect, because it makes you gather even more things to texture and that can become incredibly demotivating.

Damn, I’m so predictible! :smiley:

I’ll just say this: Will power is infinitelly more valuable than consistency. And consistency is not that hard to keep in the first place, while motivation is.

But hey, I’m just making sure you’re aware. I did that, that’s out of the way, so I’ll back off now.

Nice ships BTW, I don’t know if I said that. They are good quality models with style.

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Don’t want to be too off-topic but you can reduce it by a few thousand years with

Clones.

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Question: As I have never textured nor had any modding experience whatsoever this may seem like a stupid queston but why cant you use real life photos as textures?

Say you want to achieve a proper metal look, just take picture of some metal and import and adjust?
I realise this wont have an effect on things like specular and reflection layers, but still.

Well you …can:


It’s just not stylistically too in line with Homeworld ships. Nothing wrong with some subtle usage here ant there though.

I think the metal look is of rather secondary importance… the main thing is the tailored details you have to draw yourself. That’s been my experience anyway. Real life photos of metal could be useful if they tile well, but only as your bare base level. The vast, vast majority of the work is still ahead of you at that point, lol.

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Kragle’s response is way better. That’s how it is.

Well done to @Talros for finishing the new Taiidan Republic interceptor, replacing my rather poor quality initial attempt. I think it looks excellent. Clearly a descendant of the Trikkor but also having its own distinctive look. He has made wing folding animations, but I haven’t HODed them yet. For now, here are some screenshots of it in action:

And seen here with a scout squadron:

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@Talros - Is making space-ships your day job? Because you are fan-fcking-tastic! And if not, do you want it to be? Damn.

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