Modifying Bullet models?

[The X-Plorer]

'Ello.

I just recently managed to create a weapon in TC similar to the Beta PBE in X3R. I was wondering if it's possible to modify what the bullets look like in the game.

If so, I was planning on changing the color of the shots of the 'Beta' PBE i created from yellow to a Cyan color or, if it's even doable, a black color (as you can see im still considering what color to change it to, and perhaps up the size of the shots slightly as well).

In the X3 Editor, to those of you that Have it, im thinking the 'Model File' is what determines the appearance of the shot. How do you get to it? And can you even edit the said file?

[Cavemonkey]

Opn up cat manager in x3 editor2, go to your main x3 directory. Then (not opening a cat file) go to a folder titled "objects". Then go to "weapons" (or something to that effect) and you should find some .bod files (they could have different extensions but I believe they are.bod). Each file should be titled the name of the weapon. Extract the files to a folder and use DBOX2 in 3ds Max to import, edit, and export it. If you don't know what DBOX2 is then google it. The keyword to look for in your search is Doubleshadow. Also, if you can't find the files under "objects", back out and look under "types". I can't give you every single detail right now because I'm not on the computer. It's from what I can remember.

[The X-Plorer]

Thanks. Guess that part is rather out of my reach at the moment.

Still appreciate the reply. I guess I'll have to stick with Turret modifications, Ship modifications and weapon creating for now.

[Roger L.S. Griffiths]

PBE uses a numbered bullet model which makes it a little more awkward.
But for named bullet models you can do the following:-

1. Identify a weapon with a named bullet model you like the shape of (e.g. IRE or PAC)
   
2. In XEditor2, examine TBullets.dat and find out the path to the bullet model
   
3. In XEditor2, find the referenced BOB file and extract it as a BOD file
   
4. Use the nVidia DDS <--> TGA conversion tools to convert the texture(s) referenced in the BOD file to TGA
   
5. Using a tool such as GIMP or Photoshop alter the colour of the texture(s) and save them as a different named TGA file
   
6. Use the nVidia DDS <--> TGA conversion tools to convert the edited textures to DDS
   
7. Using a text editor, edit the BOD file to reference your textures then save as a different name
   
8. Edit TBullets to make your new weapon point at the BOD file

The above is very rushed but should point you in the right direction, I think

[TrixX]

Paint.net can natively read and save as DDS, plus the nvidia tool has a plugin for GIMP to do the same thing.

Another issues is the PBE being a numbered bod is more than likely using a .jpg texture from the "<gameinstall>\tex\true" folder which is not good for ingame performance (especially with the 1100+ RPM of the PBE).

To fix that you'd need to alter the bod's material to read a DDS file from the "<gameinstall>\dds" directory and do a conversion of the jpg or create a replacement for the texture for that bod.

[The X-Plorer]

[Killjaeden]

well, it might be handy to know that X3 uses only (iirc) 2 texturefiles where all the textures of the bullets are stored. You can't just add a few pixels on the bottom of those textures. So either you replace a certain area, or you make a new texture with just the new bullet in it (to keep it as small as possible). You have to edit the texture-coordinates of the bullet then however, you need gmax or 3dsmax for that and knowledge how to use it/ change texturecoordinates ... not quite as easy as you imagined i guess.
A performance heavy solution would be to copy the hole texture-"catalog" of the bullets and tint the necessary area - not worth the fps imo.

A black bullet can't be seen btw... black=invisible.

[TrixX]

[Aydan]

A black bullet isn't impossible but a bit pointless.

First you need to understand how the shader works on bullets. Black is a color, and although it's used in its pure form for the alpha channel, it's still a value that will be calculated. Only if there's no color value at all, it's completely invisible. As long as there is a color value the shape can be seen if other shaders applied to models are interfering. For example those planet hazes. Their shader works differently, and if both are overlaying, i.e. you look at a planet and a bullet crosses your view, you will see all parts painted in pure black glowing. SO this looks very odd in fron of large planets, and in the worst case you really only see bullets like Minecraft blocks.

The alpha channel is not transparency every time, it depends on the shader used, and as soon as there's calculated glow, it matters if there's a color value given or not. Even if it's pure black.

Second, a black bullet must be completely black when using the same shader. As soon as there is color, it starts "emitting" light. That means it affects a spherical area around it for every pixel As the models are normally four planes crossed (in other words two X shapes crossed), the shape is more or less cylindrical. So if you add something black to the inner part, the glow from the outside will hide the view to the inside. If the black parts would be on the outside, it would look simply as it'd be subtracted from the shape. As soon as you add a color at all, it will start to glow, no matter what you do.

The key a pure black bullet would be to use a different shader like the teladi.fx. This shader doesn't emit light and adds reflection. Reflections can be used to get a glimpse of the outer shape of the bullet model in pure black, especially if you add a good bump texture. But you can't use the simple bullet models anymore, as it would look goofy to shoot with those simple crossed planes. You'd need to use a better model, which will decrease your overall fps dramatically as it will have multiple poly counts.

The other thing about a black bullet is that the background in space games is naturally always so dark, that there would be almost no distinction between starfield maps and the bullet model. You won't see the bullet streams obvious enough. There are two options to get a "black" bullet. You can rewrite the shader in a form that adds a fisheye effect around areas specified, so it will probably look like you'd imagine how a black hole would look like when moving. The shapes around the specified areas have to be bended. But that's a very tricky thing, and it must fir to the other shaders used in game, or you will get artifacts. In this case probably some white and pink pixels around the shape. Or you do a complete new custom model and apply a shader like ships are using. Still, it'd feel that you have been hit out of nowhere, and you can't backtrace visibly the attacker.

The last option is to fool the eye of the player. If you use clearly distinctive glowing lines in your shape, you can outline an arean which isn't emitting any light at all, suggesting that there's a solid shape inside. But that would include to use a very slow bullet with only a very slow rotation. Otherwise you won't even notice it. The faster the bullet are spinning, the more the shape is blurred due to the glowing effect. On fast bullets like PBEs it's in my opinion a waste, as you will never see them at all.

As the collision box in the models themselves is pretty critical, i'd advise to use a different bullet model provided with the game instead of making an own one. The HEPT and B HEPT models are a way to start. Model length is directly tied to the chance to hit, and both have a good ratio between length and width to use with the hitbox settings in TBullets. I'd not go above 400 m/s per shot for the beginning for testing purposes. Interestingly the Khaak bullet models are also well suited for a fast firing weapon like the PBE. There are alot of shots hidden in the game files, even those from X2, and you can reuse them. They're very fps friendly sometimes, but due to the rewritten shaders they may have a different shape. Just try some of the old objects Of yourse you should have all gamefiles unpacked. if not, you're screwed from the beginning

[The X-Plorer]