Adding buildings? Mod questions on buildings

[philthymcnasty]

Is it possible to add building designs into the game?


What does that entail? Where would one begin? How does placing a building work?

I have several ideas, but no idea how to start.

[grither2061]

I would like to know this as well.
I copied the small shack to modify and learn the basics.
My idea is a larger shack, henceforth referred to as the "Storm Shed."

-I have loaded up all of the meshes (except for the ruined ones) and stretched them out so the interior is about twice the size of the small shack.
-These are my modified files that I made by exporting from MAX 2011:
Storm_Shed_BASE.mesh
Storm_Shed_BLACK.mesh
Storm_Shed_BLACK_UPPER.mesh
Storm_Shed_Exterior_ROOF.mesh
Storm_Shed_WALLS.mesh
Storm_Shed_Extras_01.mesh
Storm_Shed_Extras_02.mesh
Storm_Shed_INTERIOR_FLOOR.mesh
Storm_Shed_INTERIOR_MASK.mesh
Storm_Shed_INTERIOR_ROOF.mesh
Storm_Shed_INTERIOR_WALLS.mesh
Storm_Shed_WALLS.mesh

- I replaced all of the references in small shack in my new building storm shed.
-When I went to drop it in the in game editor, the usual green silhouette was replaced with a roof of a small shack.
- When the building was placed it was just a floor, roof, and the door. the door worked but that was also one of the only original parts of the small shack that I kept.

I can see a bunch of .xml and .bin files in the game data, I'm pretty sure these are why my super-awsome storm shack isn't working properly.

I'm not looking for anyone to hold my hand, I would just like a nudge in the right direction. I'm guessing that a self-taught course in Ogre height mapped terrain is in my near future so any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[someone]

I should really make a proper tutorial for this as creating new buildings is really not simple.
If your replacement building parts matched the original ones for everything except the mesh file it should have worked.
The xml files are the collision data. Fairly essential but would not cause it to not appear.

[grither2061]

Ok, thank you for the quick reply.

If it should work than I'm thinking there may be problems with my exported meshes I'll re export them and see if that fixes it. I'll go over everything with a fine tooth comb and try and find out what I did wrong.

Edit: It turns out that in my stubborn refusal to use MAX as a modeling tool, I messed up on one of my file format transfers and improperly re-scaled it at some point and it became a tiny little house at exactly %1 of it's intended size.

I have a few more questions and if you helped me out with them I would be SO GRATEFUL that I will write a building making tutorial MYSELF! That would give you more time to work on the actual game on stuff like... I dunno, unlocking the SE quadrant of the game.

[grither2061]

So here is what I have so far:

Storm_Shed_01.jpg (104.38 KiB) Viewed 3236 times

Storm_Shed_02.jpg (167.61 KiB) Viewed 3236 times

The questions I have are:

1. On the Storm(Small) Shack there is a patina around the windows and the door frame as well as a darker base. When I apply the relevant texture to my building all I get is a nice, clean finish. Is there a second texture overlaid on the first one to get that shading? This is my first venture into UV mapping so assume I'm fairly ignorant on the subject. Mostly because I'm fairly fairly ignorant on the subject.

2. What do I use to make the collision files? As it stands, when the inside is triggered the interior is still Small Shack size with an invisible wall down the middle of it. I's it the OgreMax add-on? I'm not looking for a detailed lesson on how to do it, just point me the right direction so I can completely mangle it then come back with more questions.

3. What is the difference in functionalities between the BLACK and UPPER_BLACK files? I realize that they are used for masking the interior from outside the buildings but I can't wrap my head around why there is an upper and lower section to it. Here is the handy-dandy diagram I made that I will now show off.

Storm_Shack_Exploded.jpg (108.01 KiB) Viewed 3236 times

[someone]

You can add some shading to the model with vertex colour data. The alpha channel of the vertex colour is used to blend between two different textures defined in the part material in the FCS if the 'material type' is set to DUAL.

The collision files can be made in blender or max. You need an additional export plugin for max.
Download for 3ds Max 2010 and 3ds Max 2013. You export the collision as xml files.
I also made a handy program for viewing mesh and collision files: download here

The upper black is separate so it can disappear separately when the exterior is hidden. This is from the old system when all the buildings would be hidden when you went inside any of them.
In the current system it would probably work to just have one black part attached to the highest floor, although that may lead to a few frames of being able to see through the floor between the black part disappearing and the interior finishing loading.

[grither2061]

Awesome! Thanks for the info. I'll see what I can bang out in then next few days and see about getting a tutorial written for other people who want to make some buildings.

[seularts]

Heya, I know this post is kind of old, but would someone be so kind to guide me how should I compile the collision for an object in blender and then export it as xml right? Thank you!

[grither2061]

I got frustrated with trying to make the navmesh and put this project down. With the release of the last map piece I have stared playing and wish to pick this project back up once again.

I need to know what settings are required to build a navmesh XML files in 3DS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If I can get the settings and workflow to export a navmesh I can continue working on a tutorial for making a building to unleash on the unsuspecting modding community. I'm eager to see what kind of stuff we could come up with.

A Steam user named ONJOY has managed to create some beautiful Azuchi style buildings:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1370546102