SS2 RocketMan Alternative Weapons Pack 1.1

[6743fc6faba64Nameless Voice]

It's a tiny cube.  Named @h01.  That's it.

[6743fc6fabdb0RocketMan]

NV, I recently tried experimenting with adding the vhot attribute to my worm weapons but I was unsuccessful.  I created the cube as you instructed and named it @h01 but when I created the bin file and tested ingame, the shot came from the center of the screen.....  I'm not sure what I did wrong.  I made the tiny cube transparent so it wouldn't show up ingame.  Was that wrong?  Other than that I'm clueless.  Is there some coding that prohibits weapons from using vhot if they were not originally intended to use it?

[6743fc6fabf0dNameless Voice]

I thought the vhots were only used for muzzle flashes and casing ejects, not as the origin of the actual shot?
The actual point of origin of projectiles is defined in the "Player Gun Description" property.

[6743fc6fac1d9Rainalkar]

People using Eldron's Amp and Alyamod have the similiar issue: with the original Amp model the SFX originates from the right place, top of the amp, while with Eldron's it originates from the middle of the amp, I presume, and looks ackward. But, as far as projectiles are concerned, I think NV is correct.

[6743fc6fac2eeRocketMan]

Damn.  I thought you could just add the vhot and it would correct the shot origin.  So I guess you mean to say that it requires gamesys editing?  Can't include that in this mod then...too bad, I was hoping to add that little tweak.

[6743fc6fac474RocketMan]

I was going to wait until this was done to post a picture but based on the development history of this mod it seems that most of my success has been a direct result of user input during the development phase so I'd like to ask for your feedback on the GEOMETRY now before I consider that part done.  Textures will come later and are not the focus right now.  Thanks everyone.


http://h1.ripway.com/RRRocketMan/system%20shock%20stuff/fus_w.JPG


(the server sucks so if the link doesn't work try a couple of times)

[6743fc6fac631ZylonBane]

Regarding the green film-sprocket things, I think that would best be left as texture detail. How about having an outer transparent cylinder though?

One definite area for improvement over the original model would be to have an actual hole in the front for the shots to come out. 

In the final version, it would be great if we could get some self-illumination effects, like Assidragon did with his fusion cannon model.

[6743fc6fac7ebRocketMan]

I guess I should have stated my plans for the features, etc.  I definately want to light up the fusion cannon so don't worry about that.  The transparent outer cylinder is a cool idea and wouldn't be hard to do at all. 

The comment about the hole in the front...are you saying there should just be a hole were currently there's a small embossed cylinder or is the point to make the hole big and detailed like a focal point?  On an unrelated model I once made hollow cannons and someone pointed out it was a waste of polygons so I'm just checking to see what your idea is for this feature.

By green film-sprocket things I assume you're talking about the green sheath or w/e that's wrapped around the black cylinder front part of the gun?

I want to have an animated info screen on the side, that blue part is supposed to be a transparent window through which you can see a loaded prism, the front part of the gun will be lit, there may be some blinking light details slightly aft of that on the gun body and there's a plate on the other side where the prism goes to indicate that that's where you insert it.  The side visible to the player merely has a window in it to see that it's there.

[6743fc6faca9fMarvin]

Why not upload it to a normal image service? The link doesn't work at all.

[6743fc6facba0RocketMan]

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v483/planetmie/?action=view&current=fus_w.jpg

[6743fc6facd0bKolya]

I attached the pic to R-Man's post now.

So what would I like to see... A glass cylinder that fills up with green glowing free floating plasma and as the pressure grows it condenses until bursting from the rifle's muzzle. Make it shiny.

[6743fc6face95RocketMan]

Due to some complications I no longer have the means to finish this gun in a timely manner....so I'm wondering if anyone out there with demonstrated texturing skills would like to take a stab at texturing this gun.  The modelling is finished and may only need minor tweaking if at all so the task at hand would be either to UV map and texture the gun from the 3ds file or to let me UV map the gun and then make textures to fit that mapping.  It's not clear to me which option would be easier for the texturer but I'm willing to help however I can.  Please let me know who would like to help get this gun out to the community.

Please see the screenshot 2 posts above for the work in progress.

[6743fc6fad098RocketMan]

I wonder if some kind soul who's had a chance to work with the new patch could help me with some details so I can release this:

Image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/planetmie/goodfusion.png
Image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/planetmie/goodfusion2.png

I need the following:

1. How to increase texture anim rate for individual textures
2. If light sources can be added inside a model so that a part of the gun can glow and not the whole thing.
3. If I need to do anything special since the patch to make the gun work that otherwise I wouldn't have to worry about.  I'm thinking of those material things or maybe DMLs? 

I dunno really.  Since the patch I don't know what I'm doing anymore.  All I know is, I'm done with this thing and I want it off my hard drive

[6743fc6fad211RocketMan]

I take it by the silence that the gun is good enough as is?  Guess I'll pack it up for download then

[6743fc6fad3a5voodoo47]

1) mtls, probably
2) no idea
3) nothing special should be required, I think

yeah, just release it, so we can check whether everything works ok.

[6743fc6fad594RocketMan]

Update 1.1

I thought I was never going to finish the fusion gun but what can I say, I'm tenacious... so it's done now.  I didn't do the texture work in case you didn't figure that out but the source of the work has decided not to credit itself so I'll just say I was lucky enough to employ some fine talent.  I'll also disclose that the model is mine but has been very lightly edited by said "talent" and I've also edited the textures after the fact so everything's a bit of a mishmash.

The gun requires the new patch because the textures are bigger than 256^2.  Theoretically this mod could be compatible with old shock by scaling the textures down below 256 but that would lower the quality enough to make the text illegible.

The gun is still pretty massive when equipped and I've shrunk the hand model just enough to make gameplay reasonable but I firmly believe that it should remain fairly huge because it's a big powerful gun and so it should have big powerful presence.

Please provide feedback as usual because I didn't have the benefit of developing this gun with the community as I did with my other guns.  I "may" or may not be able to fix whatever you find but let me know anyway. 

One more thing.  I've been playing with the gamesys for this gun and I'm going to release a DML soon to modify its behaviour slightly.  It will be an optional download but I recommend it if you want a slightly more realistic experience.

Have fun.

[6743fc6fad6a8voodoo47]

just one note - bmp is a slightly impractical texture format, I would suggest pngs. apart from that, it's quite nice, although it takes up maybe 40% of the screen when equipped, and I must say I would prefer it to be somewhat closer to the original.

[6743fc6fad789RocketMan]

Agreed on bmp but didn't this gun always take up the whole screen?

[6743fc6fad8e3voodoo47]

it's always been on the larger side, but definitely not as much, see for yourself:

[6743fc6fada5aRocketMan]

Hmmm... something's going on there.  Maybe mine is too close to the reticule.  Wtf though I mean in my modelling program the proportions are identical and I reduced the hand model by 15%.  Maybe the original was also artificially reduced.  Maybe I'll shrink it some more.

[6743fc6fadb7cvoodoo47]

it sits way too high, if you ask me. but quite fun, in a way - first time I've equipped it, I was like look mum, I'm a warmech.

[6743fc6fadcc2RocketMan]

Lol I never played mech warrior but I'm getting a sense of it anyway.

I think I'll shrink it to 80% (from 85%), translate down and tilt up a bit... if that's possible.  When I was playing with 3dstobin, none of those parameters had any effect for some reason.

I have to wonder though, how exactly are you supposed to hold this thing?  Do you hold it like a sub-machine gun or like a rocket launcher?  It's pretty big so I'd think shoulder mounted makes more sense but the original model doesn't confirm this at all.  I'll just stick with matching the original.

[6743fc6faddc5voodoo47]

it's pretty big, but it does not look like it should be shoulder mounted. looks more like a big and heavy assault rifle.

[6743fc6fadf1bBriareos H]

Maybe it's due to its size, but I don't think it looks particularly better than the original. The camo texture is the main culprit IMO.