[MOD] X3 TC / AP : A Glowing Universe Mod

qwizzie · Post by **qwizzie** » Sun, 13. May 12, 00:55

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Pictures can be found on my skydrive folder ''A Glowing Universe Mod Pics'':

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=fae3da27 ... F440%21105
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Warning : both mod versions are most likely not savegame compatable, pls make a backup of yr saves before trying this out.

Mod consists of two mod versions which can be used seperately depending on preference.

Version 1 : Glowing Gate

You can give the gate different glowing colors (Blue, Red, Green, Purple, Turquase, Grey, Yellow). Each color has three versions : light, medium, dark. This is done so you can expirement with the colors.

All these different glowing colors can be found in the folder ''Gate'' inside yr dds folder which will be created during installation. If you want to change the gate color from standard glowing blue to red just go to the Gate folder, look inside subfolder Red and pick a light, medium or dark version of the glowing red color. Copy and paste the dds file into the dds folder and you will have a red glowing gate.

In my experience the darker colors work best for the glowing gate colors
but you can try them all.

Download : https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=fae3da27 ... F440%21105

Folder : A Glowing Universe Mod
Subfolder : Version 1 Glowing Gate

Installation : extract with winrar the file ''Glowing Gate'' into your
X3 Terran Conflict installation directory. It will install a dds folder
and an objects folder there. The download itself is very small.

Note : X3 AP users will only need to install in the X3 TC installation directory !

Version 2 : Glowing Gate + Glowing Ships + Glowing Stations

Pls be informed about the following :

- not all ships / stations will glow in this mod version 2, it all depends if a certain element ''x'' is present in the materials of the bod file of that ship or station. If its not there then it will not glow ingame with the current method i use.

- not all ships / stations i manage to give a glow will glow equally, with some ships / stations the whole model will glow, with others just certain elements of the model

- dont take this Version 2 of the mod too seriously, in fact pls consider it still in Alpha testing fase which i am not sure it will get out of or not.

Version 2 consists of the Glowing Gates + Glowing ships + Glowing factories.

You can give the gate different glowing colors (Blue, Red, Green, Purple, Turquase, Grey, Yellow). Each color has three versions : light, medium, dark. This is done so you can expirement with what works best for you in
the game. You can find the different colors inside the folder Gate which is located inside your dds folder.

The ships and stations i managed to glow in this version 2 will glow according race

Blue :Argon
Green : Boron
Yellow : Teladi
Grey : Yaki
Red : Pirates
Turquase : Split
Purple : Paranid

(i did not meddle with Xenon, USC, Terran or Goners ships or stations)

All the optional extra colors for ships & stations can be found in the folder ''Ships'' inside yr dds folder after download and installation.

If you want to change the Argon ship / station colors from standard glowing blue to a different glowing blue just go to the Ships folder, look inside subfolder Blue and pick a light, medium or dark version of the glowing blue color. Copy and paste the dds file into the dds folder and you will hopefully see a difference in blue glowing ships / stations.

Download : https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=fae3da27 ... F440%21105

Folder : A Glowing Universe Mod
Subfolder : Version 2 Glowing Gate_Ships_Stations

Installation : extract with winrar the file ''Glowing Gate_Ships_Stations'' into your X3 Terran Conflict installation directory. It will install a dds folder, an objects folder and cat & dat 14 there. The winrar file is split in 5 parts and is in total some 480 mb. If you already have a cat & dat 14 then rename to highest cat & dat +01

Note : X3 AP users will only need to install in the X3 TC installation directory ! The new X3 AP ships / stations will not be effected by this
mod since i was primarely focussing on X3 TC.

Have fun..

qwizzie

IAMROBERTTREE · Post by **IAMROBERTTREE** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 14:13

I love this concept but i'm a bit of a dumbass when it comes to installing these things.
The gates have started glowing but ships or stations aren't working. (i have not installed version 1 glowing gate) The dds folder, objects folder and cat and dat 14 are all in my x3tc directory, as are the 5 zip files.

please help

DJ_D · Post by **DJ_D** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 14:22

I like the concept in general, but aside from the gates, which look good, I think the glowing ships is a bit too overkill. So I´ll only try out the gates.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 14:49

This thing is intense!

vukica · Post by **vukica** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 15:33

space weed, here i come!

qwizzie · Post by **qwizzie** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 15:41

to DJ_D & Litcube & Vukica: thnks for the replies, was a bit surprised to see this post resurface

to IAMROBERTTREE : in a couple of hours i will be home and will look into yr problems with getting version 2 to work. Can you tell me if you are playing X3 TC or X3 AP ?

qwizzie

dertien · Post by **dertien** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 15:58

Hello Quizzie,

This looks great, will try it out later.

I have read this forum post:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... =videolist

It talks about experimenting with animated textures.

It would be awesome if it were possible to have the glow effect show up on a ship if the shields of the ship were hit by lasers and stop to show the effect if the shields would be gone. This would give you a visual reference during boarding and would be a cool effect too.

The same would apply for stations.

Ziet er goed uit !

D3rt13n

IAMROBERTTREE · Post by **IAMROBERTTREE** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 16:41

What have I done???? seriously!
i'm playing x3tc. It was reinstalled from scratch.

qwizzie · Post by **qwizzie** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 20:22

to dertien : hiya fellow dutchman

i took a look at the link you provided and there is some interesting info there. Problem is that i'm not that experiended with Materials or effects (i messed around with it a lil bit when adding a ship to my modified tships but thats about it). Maybe someone else can help you with that... sorry.

IAMROBERTTREE wrote:What have I done???? seriously!
i'm playing x3tc. It was reinstalled from scratch.

you mentioned the following : The dds folder, objects folder and cat and dat 14 are all in my x3tc directory, as are the 5 zip files.

- make sure you extract everything from the 5 winrar files into yr installation directory, this means you should see 01-14 cat & dat files +
following folders :

dds
directx9c
Documents
loadscr
mov
objects
scripts
soundtrack
t
uninst
VCRedist

- no need to keep the 5 winrar files in the installation directory, you can move those 5 files to a seperate folder once you extracted above.

- start a new game as Argon Patriot, take a look at the Equipment Dock to your left, it should be glowing blue.

- remember also the following :

''not all ships / stations will glow in this mod version 2, it all depends if a certain element ''x'' is present in the materials of the bod file of that ship or station. If its not there then it will not glow ingame with the current method i use.''

Hope this helps out.

qwizzie

IAMROBERTTREE · Post by **IAMROBERTTREE** » Thu, 16. Aug 12, 22:05

My folder has all of these files with the exception of directx9c (no direct x folder) and VCRedist.

The cat and data files go 1 to 5, then 13 and 14.

qwizzie · Post by **qwizzie** » Fri, 17. Aug 12, 06:48

looks like you also bought X3 Albion Prelude and put my mod in the addon folder which forms X3 Albion Prelude.

Pls make sure you extract and install everything to the X3 Terran Conflict installation directory. (1 level up from the addon folder).

Also be aware if you have cat / dat 1-5 and 13+14, the last two will not be
processed by the X3 AP engine .. it will only see and process cat / dat 1-5.

The X3 TC directory has cat / dat files 01-13, with my mod that will change
to 01-14 + the two extra folders.

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EDIT : if you only have X3 TC installed then check if you have all updates installed, in the start menu it should say 3.2b !! With Steam it will get updated automatically, but if you have a hardcopy (disc) you need to update X3 TC to version 3.2b manually.

Link : http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=223296

For download of patches / updates go to Home - Downloads - X3 Terran Conflict - pick yr patch / update

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dertien · Post by **dertien** » Sat, 18. Aug 12, 00:38

Hey Quizzie,

Is there a way I can download your glow mod without a Microsoft Account ? Yes I am a Google user.

The site you are using is superb to load images up at, but why not use something like Box.net for uploads ? No reg required and no spam in the box, specially not from M$oft, puahleaaase.

qwizzie · Post by **qwizzie** » Sat, 18. Aug 12, 12:42

i'm afraid not dertien, i have 25 gb free upload space there and its real easy in use. I also was not aware you need to have a windows account
to download from that Skydrive public link... do you get warnings when you try to download it ?