Sinperium Sinperium

Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

Answers from Modders, for Modders who "Ask a Question"

This is the place to ask and recieve specific modding (mod making) questions and answers. If you have a mod making question, post it here.

If your question involves long snippets of entity files and the like, please don't paste the entire file contents here but put them at the incredibly easy to use http://pastebin.com and then provide the link to your paste in your question posted here.

Please do limit  "just comments" here to brief posts please.  If you don't know the answer or can't point to help--don't post.  Please note that a random, uninformed guess isn't an actual answer.  

You can refer people to another source--IF it actually helps answer their question.  This could be in the form of links, outside sites, specific modding-useful programs, direction towards another post or poster, etc., etc.

Remember--specific questions, specific answers.  Only respond to the ones you can help solve.  Also, feel free to amplify, clarify, suggest alternatives to or correct answers seen here if such actions are merited and help provide a real solution. No flaming, insults or put downs here in the answers or other posts please.

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation.  The reason for the rigid rules here is those this thread becomes a usable resource in the future to new people looking for answers.

NOTE: If an answer resolves your issue, please share it here.  These answers will help others coming along later too.  Karma is a great way to respond to people providing help without clogging the thread or bombing their forum mailbox here. Thanks!

 

OTHER SINS HELPFUL MODDING LINKS*

*Links are updated when requested.





The Soase Idiot's Guide

Confused?  No idea where to even start?

Determined to work at it?

This is the place!

 


 

 
   

Sins Modding Wiki

ZombieRus's Eclipse Wizardry

 

     


Tutorials

MyFist0's full modding site.

Emphasis on modeling  and

texturing.                            

 

 

 




                    

REBELLION MODDING TOPICS

Rebellion Modding Q & A

Mesh Editing

Changing Diplomacy Files to Rebellion

IT REALLY HURTS MY BRAIN--HOW TO START

An Idiot's Guide To Getting Started

MyFist0's Modding Megasite!

MOD DOWNLOADS

ZombieRus5's Mod Yard

Directory of Planet Mods

STEAM

STEAM Sins Forums

DEVELOPERS

Sins Developer Journals Forum 2007 to Present

REFERENCE FILES

Research Modifier List

MyFist0's Exported Models & Files

Modifier List

Harpo's Converted Sins Reference Files 2011

THIRD PARTY TOOLS

3dS Texturing Toool & Tips

Ship Fleet Calculator

SoaSE Eclipse Plugin Project

Mesh Resizing Tool--courtesy of the Reqiuem team.

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Dropbox

The Sins Optimization Project (TSOP)

Artificial Unintelligence (Mod and AI info)

Sins Data Converter by BCXtreme

EXPLANATIONS & DISCUSSIONS

Rebellion Updates by Blair Frazier

How to Add a Fourth Race

User-updatable Ship Reference Chart

Sins Modding Dictionary

Adding phase Effects to other weapon types

Culture, Explanation/Discussion

Weapons, Explanation/Discusion

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion-1

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion -2

Graphic Chart of Sin's Counters

Annotated Guide to the Developer.exe

In-Game Map Creator

Weapons Banks & DPS

Combat Mechanics

Rebellion Shield Mitigation & Focus Fire testing

PARTICLE FORGE

Particle Forge Help Thread

GALAXY FORGE

Adding Artifacts

Working Template Examples

SemazRalan's Template Guide

Pirates Base Start Template

SOUND RESOURCES

[SFX] Black Sun SFX/Music Resource for Modders

MODELING & TEXTURING--SOFTIMAGE XSI, 3DS MAX

XSI Texturing, Tutorial

3dS Model Exporter

3DS Max Rigging, Texturing & Exporting, Guide

Modding/Modelling/Texturing/Converting, Tutorials

WIKI'S

Sins of a Solar Empire Official Wiki

 

7,603,840 views 2,761 replies
Reply #1501 Top

Quoting CoronalFire, reply 1501
Is culture rate on starbases affected by culture rate increase research?

I can't even tell you exactly what all those culture research modifiers really mean, let alone if there is any bugs on them. But in theory it should.

Reply #1502 Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 1500

I'd suggest making this ability a fixedlevel0 one which simply requires the research to work. Otherwise, if it uses the research based method instead of fixedlevel0, the AI will waste points by trying to get this ability.

Thanks, and to GoaFan77 as well.  I've just started modding so I was hoping for something simpler but I'll see if I can get that to work.

Reply #1503 Top

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, if not I apologize.  Do the Forge tools work for Rebellion?  On the Downloads page, it says it was updated for Entrenchment, but I do not know if it works for Rebellion.

Reply #1504 Top

Quoting Wizaerd, reply 1503
I don't know if this is the right place to ask, if not I apologize. Do the Forge tools work for Rebellion? On the Downloads page, it says it was updated for Entrenchment, but I do not know if it works for Rebellion.

No, if you have Rebellion do not use the tools from the download page. Those are only for Diplomacy and earlier. The Rebellion tools (Galaxy Forge, Convert_XSI etc.) are now included in the Rebellion install directory (in the steamapp folder) so they are always up to date. That said, the forge tools download does have some basic modding documentation PDFs. While much of the specifics might be out of date, you might find it useful if its your first time modding. But ignore everything else.

And yes, this is a good place to ask that question.

Reply #1505 Top

All the resize tool links seem to be 404. Harpos link works but has had to  much traffic and has been disabled can someone rehost a resize tool plz,k, thx

Reply #1506 Top

Alright, anyone know what causes this error?  It seems harmless but...well...I don't take chances with errors if I can avoid it....

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\main\CodeSource\Engine/File/FileSystem.cpp(308)

bResult == TRUE

Reply #1507 Top

Another question....

On multi-star maps, you have those colored galaxy spiral textures that engulf each star when you zoom out...seems there are 2 or 3 sizes, and the biggest ones are always used by the stars with the fewest (or no) planets...

How can I reverse that so that the stars with the most planets are the ones with the biggest galaxy spirals?

Reply #1509 Top

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 1508
How can I reverse that so that the stars with the most planets are the ones with the biggest galaxy spirals?

I noticed that in galaxy forge INCREASING the galaxy radius REDUCED the size of the spiral. I'm guessing this variable is either poorly named or is on an inverted scale for some reason. I assume it would work backwards.

Reply #1510 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1510
I noticed that in galaxy forge INCREASING the galaxy radius REDUCED the size of the spiral. I'm guessing this variable is either poorly named or is on an inverted scale for some reason. I assume it would work backwards.

You know, this sounds like a bug, as if someone put in a negative sign where they shouldn't have, or should have, as the case may be.

Reply #1511 Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 1511
You know, this sounds like a bug, as if someone put in a negative sign where they shouldn't have, or should have, as the case may be.

Yeah, it might be. For my map I just give the galaxies the same radius. You can put planets outside the radius so it doesn't really seem to matter from a gameplay perspective. Or if its a single galaxy you can just put the planets closer but change the scale so it still takes about the same time to phase jump between them.

Reply #1512 Top

Ty, harpo luckily I had a backup on my flash drive woot! 

Reply #1513 Top

Can someone point me to the ah hell what do we call it... um Character selection screen? Adding Fourth race seems to be a bit harder since we have this pretty selection screen. 

 

PS-- Do I break something if I give the Rebel Faction a different battleship than the loyalist? Doesnt seem hard to change but Im wondering what underlying engine code wont like me if i do this? 

Reply #1514 Top

Argh of course I find it just as I post ... "factionselectionscreen" now to photoshop my night away! 

Reply #1515 Top

Quoting Haiyooo, reply 1514
Can someone point me to the ah hell what do we call it... um Character selection screen? Adding Fourth race seems to be a bit harder since we have this pretty selection screen. 

 
PS-- Do I break something if I give the Rebel Faction a different battleship than the loyalist? Doesnt seem hard to change but Im wondering what underlying engine code wont like me if i do this? 

You know, you can just disable that faction selection screen instead, right?

No, it doesn't as the rebel "faction" is in truth another race coding wise.

Reply #1516 Top

Okay, does anyone know exactly how the game determines which color of ambient light is produced. I was sure it was the SkyBoxProperties.skyboxbackdropdata file, but despite setting all of the skyboxes to the same data, I still get this just for this skybox with what was formerly the green skybox.

Reply #1517 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1517
Okay, does anyone know exactly how the game determines which color of ambient light is produced. I was sure it was the SkyBoxProperties.skyboxbackdropdata file, but despite setting all of the skyboxes to the same data, I still get this just for this skybox with what was formerly the green skybox.

Alright, got an update. I've tracked down the problem to the skybox04environmentcube. It was unchanged and thus causing reflective hulls to show the green from this file. However, on copying a 256x256 section of the skybox I replaced it with and replacing the default cube, I get the following warning form the dev.

DirectXAssert: [!FAILED(dxVerifyHR)]
Context: D3DXCreateCubeTextureFromFile( g_Core.d3d9->GetDevice(), fullFileName, &d3dCubeTexture)
HR: (E_FAIL)-An undetermined error occurred

Does anyone know any of the other parameters that must accompany this file, such as it needing to be tilling texture or something? It seems the game just ignores the environment cube with this error, so that does solve my problem, but I'd like to do it correctly someday.

 

Reply #1518 Top

While I admittedly have no idea how to fix it, I know someone who does; NovaC of NU. I'd shoot him a PM.

Reply #1519 Top

Quoting Lavo_2, reply 1519
While I admittedly have no idea how to fix it, I know someone who does; NovaC of NU. I'd shoot him a PM.

Thanks, I bet he would know. I might check out how he did those skyboxes in SoGE as well, but some sort of explanation would be greatly appreciated.

Reply #1520 Top

Can there be race specific Artifacts in Rebellion ... or Trinity? Better yet, can there be artifacts that have an 'either/or' aspect if you are one race or another?

Reply #1521 Top

That's  really good question.

Reply #1522 Top

Quoting boshimi336, reply 1521
Can there be race specific Artifacts in Rebellion ... or Trinity? Better yet, can there be artifacts that have an 'either/or' aspect if you are one race or another?

Not really no. What you can do is make an artifact that does nothing, but is a prerequisite to a research that then does something, which only a particular race could get. Of course unless all races can make use of that artifact somehow, that would kind of suck to find an artifact and get nothing out of it. ;)

 

Reply #1523 Top

How are Rebellion normals created? They look like grayscale normals but 3 of the channels are identical. Is it enough to grayscale a regular normal?

Does XSI 2011 or 2012 co-operate with ConvertXSI? Is max smoothing data still converting properly? Do max normals have an impact? Does the game even use tangents anymore?

If I turn a planet into a very large hollow object that occupies the vicinity outside of the gravity well, does it get culled if the camera is not seeing the origin (e.g. viewing inner to outter of that gravity well)? I want to create a high-detail space cavern.

Did Rebellion add any AI-mandatory ship types besides Corvettes?

Is there any way to bypass the texture animation limit? Or is there more specifics on how it works? Animated textures have an entry limit of 16-20 or so it seems. Any higher and they usually flip their shit.

Did Rebellion add any functionality to particles? So far it seems not but I haven't looked much.

Is there still a way to make particle meshes emit light? How performance intensive is this? Where does it derive light data from?

Why do ships chase scouts down phase lanes without jumping?

Is there a way to give ships the ability to jump within a gravity well with an ability that the AI will use? Does this use existing jump data (e.g. gameplay.constants) or can you define new attributes (graphic/sound/speed)?

Does the fleet formation entity file actually do anything yet and does it have an impact on the AI?

Reply #1524 Top

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
How are Rebellion normals created? They look like grayscale normals but 3 of the channels are identical. Is it enough to grayscale a regular normal?

It would seem that this is the case, though also the alpha is an inversion of the other layers. Perhaps this is why they are grey scale, since channels are only grey scale. I don't know for sure, but it works like that.

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
Does XSI 2011 or 2012 co-operate with ConvertXSI? Is max smoothing data still converting properly? Do max normals have an impact? Does the game even use tangents anymore?

The xsi. files are written differently 2011 onwards( could also be the case for previous builds), so no. Looking at the files differences, it would appear its just the order that's different, but I don't know for sure. I am dumb at code.

I wouldn't know about your other questions.

Reply #1525 Top

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
Does XSI 2011 or 2012 co-operate with ConvertXSI? Is max smoothing data still converting properly? Do max normals have an impact? Does the game even use tangents anymore?

Yes it uses tangents. Had Psy test some SoA models I converted to Rebellion.

I convert the Softimage scene to .XSI and import that to XSI mod tool. Have to delete the all the tangent data and re add a tangent map to the 2nd UV that still there. Delete the extra camera and light, drag the mesh and rootpoint to the Scene_root and you're good to go.

I have 2010 which opened SoA models and Psy got the trial of 2012, he could open my saves but I could not open his. He modified the meshpoints and exported to FBX and I imported the FBX. I am saving them all to XSI mod tool scenes (.exp) so any of our team can edit.

 

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
If I turn a planet into a very large hollow object that occupies the vicinity outside of the gravity well, does it get culled if the camera is not seeing the origin (e.g. viewing inner to outter of that gravity well)? I want to create a high-detail space cavern.

You cannot fly inside a model, you are limited to the bounding box size. You can manually change the bounding box size in the text .mesh if you want to experiment. I added binary planet, 1 orbiting main, if the camera gets close and you're inside you are looking at the back of the poly which shows as see through, every poly would need to be double sided. Imagine a 1 way mirror, the mirror side shows the texture and the other side shows through.

 

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
Is there any way to bypass the texture animation limit?

Any of the limits that can be increased will be in the Settings/user.settings. open in notepad

 

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1524
Is there still a way to make particle meshes emit light?

These should be just like a regular ship which gets its light from the -da texture attached to the .mesh