Help to understand ships

[Robert John]

Hi
I have opened up scenery_cfs_ships.bgl in my E:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator 2\SCENEDB\ships, the models are just boxes, Why?

The ships in the root ships folder are MDL's.

In the scenery_cfs_library.bgl the ships are models, one with a wake and one without, but the wake does not show in modelconverterx. ( I have remodled the ship objects) there are no dp's for them in the OBJECTS_DP folder.



Can someone explain this and if possible write something for the cfs2 magazine I create.

Thanks.

RJ

[Allen]

My guess is that SCENEDB\ships is a left over from the early days of CFS2 before ships used .mdl. Things where probably more like CFS1 where ships and vehicles used .bgl

.bgl based ships still sort of work but for torpedoes....

[Shessi]

Hi RJ,
I think Allen's right, you'll find there are quite a few oddities and 'left-overs' from M$'s early flight sim development. I've come across a few things in CFS2/3 that don't make sense and seem to do nothing??!!

Cheers

Shessi

[UncleTgt]

RJ

It might be a ModelConverterX display thing. Some of the older aircraft & objects were made using much earlier software tools, & these don't import/display properly in MCX. Look at some of the Metal Dreams aircraft in MCX & you'll see what I mean, they just display as a simple dart paper airplane, or not at all.

IIRC correctly its something related to Aircraft Animator, to FSDS1 to FSDS2 (& later) modelling progs... Maybe Arno at FSDesign could answer your question?

[Allen]

Using BGL Analyze on the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl shows to me that every object is a square if I'm reading the scasm code right and that they are using the same names as stock CFS2 ships but Sha_Indianapolis is missing from the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl. CFS1 ships are not listed in the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl

To me the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl has boxes that use the same name as the CFS2 ships we still have today but in mdl format.

[Robert John]

Using BGL Analyze on the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl shows to me that every object is a square if I'm reading the scasm code right and that they are using the same names as stock CFS2 ships but Sha_Indianapolis is missing from the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl. CFS1 ships are not listed in the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl

To me the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl has boxes that use the same name as the CFS2 ships we still have today but in mdl format.

Thanks to everyone that replied to this thread.

Hi Allen
Great work. because Sha_Indianapolis is missing from the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl I deleted this file and ran mission builder and everything is in order.

I created a dp with the name of a ship that is in the root ships folder and placed it into the OBJECTS_DP, what happened next! well, the game crashed, so I changed the name of the ship in the scenery_cfs_library and created a dp with that name so I came to the conclusion I am able to


Delete the scenery_cfs_ships.bgl with no affect on the game.
Rename the ships in the scenery_cfs_library and give them a dp.
Create a partial sinking damage model, (this model can be a static model and Idea for ports.)
Remove the "xx_NW" ships from the old_scenery_cfs_library I am creating, because they don't work.


What do you think of the above suggestions?


Shess
Yes I think Allen is correct, thanks

UncleTgt
ModelConverterX has a few limitations.

RJ

[Robert John]

Just a screenshot of my idea of remodelling the ships in the scenery_cfs_library. Might as well use them. What do you think about this idea.
RJ

[Robert John]

Screenshot of 2 remodelled cfs1 ships with damage and oil slick.

RJ

[Shessi]

RJ,
But if you are saying they do nothing, why bother working with them??

Or are you saying that they are 'called' to display as the damaged ship version of the ships in the SHIP folder?? If so, and you can make better looking versions, with oil slicks etc, then great yes, anything for free that improves the look of CFS2.

Cheers

Shessi

[Robert John]

RJ,
But if you are saying they do nothing, why bother working with them??

Or are you saying that they are 'called' to display as the damaged ship version of the ships in the SHIP folder?? If so, and you can make better looking versions, with oil slicks etc, then great yes, anything for free that improves the look of CFS2.

Cheers

Shessi

Hi Shessi
The ships that are in the scenery_cfs_library are not used in the game, they can't be if there are ships in the root ships folder that has same name because if you have a dp file with the same name as in the ships folder the game crashes.
Because I am rebuilding the scenery_cfs_library I thought it would be good to use these ships as static objects in a port and have damage so I remodelled them and gave the ships a prefix "CFS1_name".

I would like to do mdl ships but I have no knowledge of mdl file and how they work in the game yet.

RJ

[No Dice]

Just thinking that maybe they were the way that CFS1 displayed LOD's..........??

[Allen]

Robert John.

What program are you using to rebuild the objects? Ship .mdl is the same as aircraft .mdl

[Robert John]

Hi Allen
I use gmax to compile the bgls.
I will learn to make and compile mds after I finished the remodelling of the scenery_cfs_library.

I use gmax, inventor, and autocad to create the models.
Inventor and autocad is easier to build the models but like gmax has a steep learning curve, I save these models in stl format and convert to 3d using modelconverterx and import into gmax for texturing and compiling.

RJ

[Allen]

Just export the ship as a MDL. If your using the FS2002 plug-in for gmax you should be able to add the below option to the F2002 makemdl.cfg found in gmax\gamepacks\fs2002\plugins

[Options]
CFS2=1