TYR

I recently wanted to replay the good old Ufo, as i stomped over that bug issue with the difficulty. Therefor i wanted to use xcomutil to fix that, however my cd version 1.1 does not function anymore as soon as i apply the patch. Strangely the copy protection is still there but refuses to take my entrys regardless if they are right or wrong. I (organized) myself 2 other versions, a 1.4 dos version and the windows gold edition. When i try to apply the xcomutil to the gold version it tells me it is unable to split up the windows exe file. As im running a 64 bit system and have a gforce card i get a black screen on running this version anyways so dos version with dosbox should do the job. So all that is left is that 1.4 version. Indeed Xcomutil works there and the game runs but the new sounds are just horrible, especially the walking sound does not make a difference anymore if its dirt or metal it always sounds like metal. Thats completly unplayable. Any suggestions how i can have the old sounds and xcom util ? edit: nevermind, just reread the setup and recognized that the copy protection is not removed but set to a code for all pages. No wonder the original codes dont work anymore. 1.1 is working now and with the good old sounds

Yes thats correct, and yea you can bet your ass on that this one will look truly astounding

My final masterpiece is close to its completion: A AS50 sniper rifle. http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5279/as50xa7.th.jpg http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5026/as502wc5.th.jpg http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/6991/as503si2.th.jpg

Hello and welcome to my first tutorial for AL. Please note that this is an intermediate level tutorial, it is highly recommended that you do the basics first before you start this. For Vfstool handling check out Shadowarrior's tutorial and Afterlight Modding Tips FIRST. If you are already familiar with the Vfstool and the basic file structure handling you may proceed as I do not want to answer unnecessary questions like "how does the meshexporter work". I will describe it shortly but if you have troubles as I said there are basic descriptions available already so I will concentrate on the further steps. How to export a model and why we need it Okay so let's start right away. I assume you extracted the gamedata.vfs already and have stored it in a separate folder. We call this folder EX-Folder here. In this folder you should have placed the meshconverter tool, which has been provided kindly by ALTAR. You can download it here. To have the meshconverter work properly, you have to have it in your ex-folder as it will fail to convert the file you want to extract properly if not. Note that on some files you will have to have the scenes.vfs folders extracted as well, this counts for all items that store further data like animations, including aliens, humans, and even some special weapons which have their own animation like the "bossgun" or the gatlingun. Now let's convert a model and I will tell you why we need it. You can either convert files manually or use the binconverter, or the tool written by stucuk implemented in his ufo editor package. I rather do it manually though, it's more fun that way and besides I want you guys to learn it so you better do it manually So let's pick a model we want to export, they are stored under items\models in your ex-folder. I already have selected a model for you so don't bother with it, let's start our command console window application via start cmd. Switch to your ex-folder and convert the file with meshconverter bt items\models\wu_h_ancient_rifle.txt ancient-rifle-ex.txt . This will extract the file we have specified and adds it to our ex-folder under the given name ancient-rifle-ex. Here's an important note: Think of a proper naming in advance and stick to it. I call my extracted files always with an -ex and my import files with an -imp, so I will know later what it is because we will mess up the ex-folder pretty quick but more on it later. Now we have converted the binary file into a textfile. Just leave it where it is now, although you can view it in the ufo editor, or convert it there to .obj format to view or modify it in a 3d tool. Note that it is not supported yet to save files properly with ufo edit yet, (saving only works from obj. -> textfile direction) it will screw up the data, and therefor reconverting the file to bin format will fail! Instead we do the "Bodysnaptrick" as I call it. The BODYSNAP trick I assume you already made your own model ? If not we can modify an existing one, however we cannot export/import it directly, instead we have to use an existing converted modelfile as a body. UFOEDIT only supports .obj format atm so you have to export the model you have made to this format. Load it with ufoedit. A popup window will appear and asks how to map the texture. Click on FLIP Y axis, as the engine has a different coordinate system which will mess up your texture if you dont flip it. Also you can vertically flip your texture in Photoshop but don't do both. You can preview your model with texture in UFOedit, but the important part is you can save it to AM format. [DO NOT SAVE AS AS/AL] I said saving does not work before, yes but we only want to save our vertices data therefor the tool already does the job, however we cannot store any other data YET. Now we have 2 files, 1 is the converted original and the 2nd our .obj file that we converted to textformat. Open up both in your favorite texteditor aka notepad Now select your made modelfile and select all numbers including VERTS 00000 down to the last line of the number block you see PRIMITIVE_GEOMETRY_GROUPS 1 or something similar. Copy paste it into the original file, make sure you overwrite all data from VERTS to the line GENERIC_ATTRIBS. Now do the same for COUNT and copy paste this into the original file. We now have bodysnapped our new model into the original file. Why do we do this ? Because the file holds some more data like helpers, texture infos, and more complex ones refer to animationfiles and bones, however this is not possible to edit yet. Now save the file but don't overwrite the original as you can use it again and again as your body, save the new file under "mynewweapon"-imp.txt, so you will know later what it is. Store it in your ex-folder\items\models folder. Now you can close the file we have copy pasted our modeldata from but keep the newweaponfile file open.... How to edit helpers Load it into ufo edit. Click on the rider model and select show helpers. Now you will see some Pivots as they are also called, these little helpers define some special connection points for the game engine. Now what do we need them for ? Weapon files always have 5 helpers, you can select and highlight them with the drop-down menu, the first is called point-f which indicates the starting point for the muzzle-flash of the weapon, the second is called muzzle, it defines the length of the muzzle-flash, scope and underbarrel mark the points where the add-ons are mounted, and eject defines the eject point of the bullet case. As you may see these points do not correspond correctly with your model. Well that alone is not a problem but it may look weird when you add add-ons. So we have to fix them. NOTE: you cannot save in ufoedit yet properly so we have to edit them manually. However we can already move them around in ufo edit and find the right spot. As seen on the picture. http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9367/ufoeditoj8.th.jpg When you are done open your mynewweapon-imp.txt if you have it closed and edit the helper data manually. The helpers are stored at the top of the file, each helper as actually a parent helper below, its the position of the model itself, only edit the first one! The values are a bit cryptic so you can always view into the editor to see its original value and figure it out which is XYZ, as these are stored in a 4x4 grid, like rotation and 3d coordinates. Basically it should be every 3rd value so 3 6 and 9 for xyz, a little trick to make sure you change the correct is to leave the values behind them, when you change them in ufo edit to adjust a helper, as they where so you can find the corresponding value in the file new weapon file. Edit the xyz values in the new weapon file manually and then save the file by clicking ctrl-s. Later it will be possible by saving this via ufo edit, however again this is not implemented yet. Game implemantation Now we are almost done, if you use your own texture you have to edit the texture file paths as well, the game uses 4 diff, spec, bump and normals. You will only need diffuse however to make it look real good you will need the others as well, I'm still experimenting on it, it's a bit tricky, so using original textures on your model is much easier. Now you also have to store your new textures (if you made them) in the ex-folder\items\textures ,as the meshconverter will look for them. Convert the file back with tb items\models\mynewmodel-imp.xt mynewmodel.txt. The new converted file will be stored in ex-data folder again. Place it properly with your textures in your modfilder according to the file structure and compile them into a mod.vfs file. NOTE: To actually see the model ingame you have to give the file a name of a model which is actually stored in the equipment.txt and the entitiy.txt. For testing issues you can name it wu_h_ancient_rifle.txt for example. It will replace the model of the original fn2000 ingame, but still have the same stats and description. How we edit these I will explain in another tutorial -

Feel free to try out my 21CW mod, it adds a big sniper rifle with a own type of ammunition, as projectile weapons are somewhat less effective against advanced enemys, while this weapon will kick their asses. It has a greater range but in the current version its only possible to do a aimed shot though as this weapon is ment to be a hull cracker against heavily armored targets. As i dont have the time to test out every possibility i would appreciate some feedback and suggestions.

UPDATE: I proudly present 21CW mod 1.0 The first release version of the 21CW mod after bringing you already 2 sneakpreviews. The current version adds the following items to the game: ancient Colt, ancient Pistol and ancient Rifle become producable once you researched basic firearms. Same rule applys to Type95 and M950. Changes: Type95 Assaultrifle (positions and muzzleflash corrected) M950 Automatic Pistol (positions and muzzleflash corrected) New Content: IWS2000 Anti Materiel Rifle Model added, including icons, description and a ownn ammotype called fleschete, which has incredible range and armorpiercing abilitys. Will be aviable as soon as sniperrifle. Jackhammer Shotgun Model added, including icons, description and a new closecombat expirience thanks to the automode which actually doubles the firepower of the conventional shotgun Will be aviable as soon as shotgun. Note that i have tested those on hard difficulty, they will be insta killers on medium or easy probably, feel free to post your expirience of pwnig the little jerks with these tools of destruction Some of these will find their way into the WR mod, although not all of them. Calico m960 (included in WR already) [Note the corrected muzzleflash] http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8938/sshot20070220230736pa3.th.jpg http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/363/sshot20070221181114ve6.th.jpg Brandnew Jackhammer (Hammer the jack out of your enemys) http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/6192/sshot20070223104524gk6.th.jpg http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6293/sshot20070223104038ek5.th.jpg Okay now here it is in its full pride IWS2000 (actually it really exists!) http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3192/sshot20070223104020dc5.th.jpg http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5899/sshot20070223104203sv4.th.jpg oh and here is the link ;-)

I doubt it as without a proper exporter i see no way to edit files, as for maps i have no clue yet if they are editable at all.

the weapons look very cool, they would be a nice addition, the problem is as reference images they dont make much, for modeling it would be needed to have better quality ones, it would be a difficult job to model them from that only

Nope whats that ? I just finished the model for the iws2000 rifle, was quite a pain as i only have like 2 reference images, which makes modeling more like hocus pocus than accurate building. http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/226/iws2000vw7.th.png

Im afraid there is no proper tool to export bonedata/animations from AM, there is 1 tool aviable which is beeing developed to support this in the near future though. Its called Meaaov Ufo edit. Check the filessection. As for learning char animations, i would like to have a proper tutorial as well

Here are some ingame screenshoots of my latest model. I used an original texture for it, as you see it does match the original weaponry quite well. I will experiment with that further, probably the martian developed weapons will get all some more martian style, while the ones of earth origin keep their real world style. http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3091/sshot20070218114443dy6.th.jpg http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/3273/sshot20070218123923ld5.th.jpg

Yes i had an inspiration, ill try to keep it up 2nd Preview Version of the 21CW released Changes: M950 Pistol Added. Update The first version was oddly corrupted this one works New Link

Yes i had an inspiration, ill try to keep it up

The game may not be out in Australia yet, but the first preview version of 21CW is already out The Updated File is downloadable here: http://www.mediafire.com/?dymk3jd1gjk It does change add the following things: Adds a new ancient rifle model (Type 95) which is producable as soon as you research basic firearms. Enables the ability to produce FN2000, Colt, Pistol, and their ammo as soon as you research basic firearms. Please tell me what you think

Seesh thats just a first preview , i will adjust everything as soon as i figured out the rest with the textfiles of AL. changing the size of the model isnt really a big deal, the problem is to adjust them to the game, because the original game models are all somewhat bulky, take the fn2000 for example. It would probably make sense to adjust the new ones to this style. I will consult the web databases on weapon dimensions to though and then see how they work ingame. If you like you can dig into the textfiles, i need to figure out what must be added, like the description, production of items, research and so on.

Heres a first ingame screenshot of a Type 95 assault rifle! http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5439/type95ingamevv5.th.jpg The model is not yet textured and the positioning will need some correction, but in general it works! probably there should be a limitation of such weapons to light suits, as they would be impossible to handle with such thick gloves imho. EDIT: An here i prodly present the first textured modded weapon ingame http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/713/sshot20070214090501ni3.th.jpg http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/825/sshot20070214090850kn5.th.jpg http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3434/sshot20070214105545dg7.th.jpg I still have to replace the bump,spec and reflectionmapping, but thats rather polishing work, also the correct position of the weapon in the hands of our combatants is abit of trial error, but thats really just cosmetic stuff. The next thing to figure out is how to properly add weaponinfos and images for ammo/weapon in the equipmentwindow + the research options, i do hope to get some help there, since im not too familiar with this

There you are! I already assumed you have been assingend to a mission to "mars" yourself But i can change that if you dont send me the pics you promised me asap And how do you like the latest outcome of 21cw mod ? Hell yea i wonder if slaughter has something to do with it while he was visiting them last time... Probably they had a drink or two ? Thats a great idea!!! That would be a perfect implementation and would make perfect sense. I do hope this value is editable but since its an scripted event im not 100% sure. I just modded the warpguns to 200 dmg, thats still quite alot but not that unbalancing anymore i hope. http://www.filefactory.com/file/b59426/ there you can load the "mod" it only changes the damage from 999 to 200. Thats still quite alot but thats without resistances. It does work for savegames also.

Okay so i finally recieved the package from earth and i was shocked as i looked at the stats of the warp weapons (999) dmg !?! I still fight with minor rifles and pistols, (yea a bit behind but it works) just recently researched advanced human weapons and laser guns and now this... IS that a bad joke or what ? I finally got used to the continious lack of ammo due to the fact that on hard difficulty everything takes alot to kill especially the captains, but guess what 1 shot from this warp rifle and the captain goes down, with about 700 dmg hit. This is redicoulos and just ruined my day. They need to be nerfed asap to like 100 dmg max and they should have their own research entry, why the hell do they know how to use and recharge warp weapons if they can hardly build basic projectile weaponry !? This just does not fit in the image no way

Sorry, i wanted to avoid beeing precise so someone who reads it does not loose a part of his game expirience. Just wait and see, or better run when u see a ball coming Tornados are nasty sometimes because they always show up in the middle of a firefight and i have to move my team members, just avoid them. Well and i guess when you say that a mech becomes a pile quick you dont play on hard, there they take about 50 bullets or something. I usually try to place dynamite close to them otherwise they are unkillable, especially if theres more than one (lack of ammo) I wonder if its possible to mod dynamite throwable, actually every single item should be throwable !?

That missions is really unfair, despite the fact that i still have huge ammo problems (even much later) the only way to do this mission without risking your ppls lives is to set a dynamite charge next to the mech once hes down, while one guy keeps him down with a buzzsaw the other places the charge, once placed rush out and wait for the company. I managed to kill all 4 or 5 beastmen but the real problem are those rolling balls... I dont know what the devs thought as they made them but on hard they are unkillable! At least with the basic weapons, a super flatster the nightmare of any gameplay. edit: Oh and the maps are way too few and too small, in some missions you pop on a narrow corner while they are waiting for you upside shooting with very nasty stuff, and the only way to win is rush up and prey

Well theres a import/export tool in the work but it will take some time, the game itself is not bad, although they still made some old failures (maps too small, ai non existant) but i do hope we can make some changes here and there

I just tryd to figure out if i can buy it here in vienna today, i havent found any retailer yet they all show the end of february or march for german version

Okay and heres the next: A Jackhammer shotgun! Although not textured atm shes a real beaty http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1566/sidepp6.th.jpg http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4594/leftsi4.th.jpg http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8283/perssm2.th.jpg http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4720/rightwm6.th.jpg

Holy crap I wonder what would happen if the al khaida or anyone else loads a freighter with a few hundred tons of this stuff and ships it to NY...

Well i havent found out much yet, thats what they told me... ----------------- as most 3d games in the industry can hold all this data in it's own native file format and can deliver the goods at the end of the day, it is just the amount of hoops that the home user has to jump through becouse they don't have a c# dev team to build an exporter to these engines .... one of the up and comming file formats is DTS for the garage games torque engine as it is growing in popularity in student users wanting to delve into the game industry. but UT and Quake are the top of the game these native file formats can take all the bones and wieghts and actually animate in the engine saving import issues ... But as for the Silent Storm engine i have little knowledge of this rusian company Nival Interactive other than that they are commiting a lot of resources into facial animation plugin for the engine and their involvement in the Might and Magic series, They do have full editable levels and props but not shure what file import type is it's native and what export fomat support there is for 3d apps, but would be willing to do some tests to see how versatile these formats are, but would need to do the research on the bone count, morphs, poly max, bitmap sizes, colour depth, file size, animation length ect Soz not of much help Respects Drew ------------------- Asking for the best fileformat is like asking which religion is the best im afraid... I dont know what to recommend, as long as its readable by 3ds im happy