WCP/SO Capship conversion
Converting a model into capship format for WCP/SO is not very different from making a
corvette. The main difference bettween a corvette and a capship, are the components.
The components are the bridge, engine, shield generator, and so on (turrets dont count).
In case you didnt readed the model conversion tutorial, i advise you to, since there is
no sense in repeating all the basic steps here.
To create a capship, you have to start with the model itself. Each of the components
must be separated from the main hull model and saved in diferent files.
Atention: While having separated components means you can have more polys, since
they are after all, diferent models, each component still should have no more than 1200
polys.
There is also need for a damaged version of the components (the hull component excluded),
so the bridge, for example, wont look exactly the same once its destroyed. Damaged
components can be done just by adding damage effects for the original textures (make
it darker, add some scratchs, dark spots and so on), or dents in the model itself to give
an improved effect.
Once all components are split, go through the usual corvette style conversion for all
components, hull included. Its important to not forget to make the colision tree for
each of the model components, so a torpedo wont fly right through the model without
hitting it, also you need to get the proper locking position coordinates for the torpedo
to hit it, so with collsphr tool or a turret editor get the coordinates of the center
of the component mesh and compile it again, adding those coords to the mesh script,
like this:
...
FORM "COLL"
{
CHUNK "SPHR"
{
float 350.0 // x coord
float -20.0 // y coord
float 83.0 //z coord
float 100.0 //scale of the brackets that appear when you target the component
}
...
Its also a good idea of setting the RADI Chunk info of the components to around 1000
or more depending of the ship size, to avoid the component from beeing invisible at
certain distances.
...
CHUNK "RADI"
{
float 1000.0
}
...
A note about the colision tree: If you cant get a suitable colision tree for determined
component, or the hull itself, you can build a very simple, low poly model of the same
structure and use it to create the tree. It will also help to reduce the final mesh file
size.
Now to join it all into a proper capship.
First thing is to get a hardpoint to attach the components into. It can have any
name, and you can attach as much structures to the same hardpoint as needed.
Make sure the hardpoint coords are set to 0,0,0, to not mess with the components
position.
There is a component structure, wich is stored into the ship iff:
...
FORM "BRID" //component type
{
CHUNK "DATA"
{
cstring "midway_bridge" //hardpoint
cstring "midbr01" //mesh
cstring "midbr01d" //destroyed mesh
float 2000.0 //hitpoints
}
}
...
Here is the midway ship iff for example:
IFF "F:\B5_tc\Babylon5\ships\midway.iff"
{
FORM "CAPS"
{
FORM "VERI"
{
CHUNK "SPAC"
{
long 11
}
CHUNK "CAPS"
{
long 27
}
CHUNK "FRMA"
{
long 15
}
CHUNK "EXPL"
{
long 31
}
CHUNK "SOND"
{
long 226
}
CHUNK "BULL"
{
long 23
}
CHUNK "MISL"
{
long 33
}
}
CHUNK "TYPE"
{
long 5 //capship AI
long 23 //VDU display
long 0
}
CHUNK "BASE"
{
cstring "midway" //base mesh (hull)
}
CHUNK "PHYS"
{
float 200000000.0 //mass
}
CHUNK "POWR"
{
float 100.0
long 0
}
FORM "PSYS"
{
FORM "ENGN"
{
CHUNK "POWR"
{
float 100.0
float 0.0
float 200.0
float 200.0 //speed max
float 200.0 //speed std
float 80.0 //speed min
}
CHUNK "DATA"
{
float 45.0 //acceleration
float 80.0 //afterb. speed
float 45.0 //afterb. acceleration
float 0.0 //afterb. fuel
float 5.0 //Y
float 5.0 //P
float 5.0 //R
float 3.0 //YPR rate of change
}
}
}
FORM "COMP"
{
FORM "BRID"
{
CHUNK "DATA"
{
cstring "midway_bridge" //hardpoint
cstring "midbr01" //mesh
cstring "midbr01d" //destroyed mesh
float 2000.0 //hitpoints
}
}
...
}
FORM "TLST"
{
FORM "GTUR"
{
CHUNK "DATA"
{
cstring "turret_01_midhtr" //hardpoint
cstring "midhtr" //mesh
cstring "" //destroyed mesh
float 800.0 //hitpoints
}
CHUNK "BULL"
{
long 10
}
FORM "MOVS"
{
CHUNK "LIMT"
{
float 180.0
float 180.0
float 90.0
}
CHUNK "BARL"
{
cstring "midtrhg"
}
}
...
}
FORM "EXPL"
{
CHUNK "TYPE"
{
long 0
long 3
long 16
}
CHUNK "CHLD"
{
long 0
long 11
long 1
long 11
long 2
long 12
long 3
long 12
long 4
long 10
long 5
long 10
long 6
long 12
}
}
}
}
For component types, you can have:
BRID : Bridge
ENGN : Engine
HANG : Hangar
LAUN : Launcher
PLAS : Plasma Weapon
EMIT : Shield Emitter
ANTN : Antenna
TWRX : Tower, when X can go from 1 to 7 (TWR1...TWR7)
The tower component, wich is used in the wormhole, can be destroyed by regular
guns, what can be used for gameplay, since you can change into targetid.eng to show
up as a bridge for example. However, HCl guns' damage patch can give the guns ability
to damage capship components, like the devastator plasma weapon.
About the capship turrets: I havent found a limit for the number of capship turrets yet,
but apparently its very high.
A note about the capship hardpoints: Any hardpoint from the capship base mesh will
show explosions when the capship is destroyed, so if your capship doesnt have much
hardpoints, you might want to add a few for visual effect.
About the capships in the briefing: If you make a briefing for a mission using a new
capship, the briefing will only show the base mesh, so you will need a converted model
of the whole ship as a corvette, but it wont need colision tree or textures, since it will
only be displayed in the briefing as wireframe.
Tools:
Collsphr and hardpoint editor ............................ by Thomas Bruckner
Tutorial by KillerWave
