Cannot create xml files for ships scenes

[|K.O.S.H.]

1. the rant: why does egosoft hate modders so much? Cretaing mod tools, but without a proper documentation?
Why do make people waste their time, supporting YOUR product?


2. the problem:
I try to convert a 3d model of somebody else, who did not update his mods, to stop my game from crashing.
BTW. thx for making the game crash, instead of worse performance.

What I did:
- unpack the game files
- unpack the mod
- install blender
- install egosoft tools in blender
- use old XRConvertersMain.exe to convert the ship to dae.
- import dae to blender

I have to following problems and I wasted the WHOLE sunday trying to fix them:

1. What is supposed to set in be "Data path" in Blender/edit/preferences/add-ons/EGosoft VHACD Tool? The p1[assets]
why is this not documented?

2. When i try to export(xml) ist get the info "EGOTOOL : export done!" But also "EGOTOOL ERROR: Not in correct asset folder?"
Waht is supposed to be the right path? Why do I get a success message and a (hidden) Error?
What i9s this error messsage? There a people out there, who can not go to the next office and ask the guy who made it, what he meant with this message.
Why is tehre no example, what path is expexted and which was read instead?

My path: E:\X4_mod\src for p1[assets]
and E:\X4_mod\build fpr p1[data] (if I understood correctly, because the documentation is zero)

3. P1 converter LOCAL runs, but seems not to detect files changes. (I expect it should detect them, it detect 2 deletions, but not reliable)
Paths should be fine: "INFO: beginning to monitor [e:\x4_mod\src] Destinations are [e:\x4_mod\build]"
However SOMETIMES I get the warning: "INFO - Detected project 'XR (are you sure??)'"
How can I set this to X4?



Why is there no simple tutorial for this basic stuff?

I somehow made it to create mesh data, but dae-file or xml-file (scene)


At laest it would be helpful to have an example of the folder structure.
There is different information on that in the internetz.

Some say p1[assets]\myship-blend, some say p1[assets]/assets/units/size_l/myshi/pmyship.blend

I tried both and it failed.

Or should the path be p1[assets]/extensions/myship/assets/units/size_l/myship/pmyship.blend ?

That also failed.



Sorry, I dont know. I'm really fed up with this sh*t.
Making the game crash after 8 years and dont give people the information needed to fix it...

I'm a software developer myself, I use 3rd-Party stuff every day, but I have never seen such a mess/missing documentation
The game heavily relies on modding, why do you make it so hard for us?


This is the tutorial:
https://wiki.egosoft.com/X4%20Foundatio ... m%20ships/

There not even said, what p1[assets means].
Its a bit explained before you install the mod tools, but the readme is compiled into the installer and you cannot access the readme again.



So what is the correct way?
- Run P1 Converter LOCAL as admin -< SHould listen to file changes
- save blend file in p1[data]
- export xml file in blender

what am I missing.
Again my problems:
- dont know what to set as "Data path" for VHACD Tool in blender
- When i try to export(xml) i get "EGOTOOL ERROR: Not in correct asset folder?"
- P1 Converter LOCAL warns: INFO - Detected project 'XR (are you sure??)'
- P1 Converter LOCAL does not reliably detect file changes

Please help. I will publish the fixes (for abandoned mods), so that others dont have to...

[sprIder]

Hi,

when you start the installation of the EgosoftBlenderModTools the first window shows an info-text which includes:

Code: Select all

expand the Object: V-HACD settings. You need to set the VHACD Path to point to
"C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Egosoft\Tools\VHACD.exe"

After installing this readme file also pops up.

My setup:
In D:\Games\X4\ there is a folder "unpacked", which contains a full unpacked X4, with all folders like "assets", "libraries", "md" etc.
( D:\Games\X4\unpacked\assets ...)
There is also a folder I named "_Import_Export". And this one contains the folders "p1[assets]" and "p1data".

So when I install the mod tools, my paths are:
source folder: D:\Games\X4\unpacked\_Import_Export\p1[assets]
Destination folder: D:\Games\X4\unpacked\_Import_Export\p1data

For modding the blender file goes to the p1[assets] folder or in one of it's sub-folders. It does not matter. The path for the tool is always the same.
--> e.g.: D:\Games\X4\unpacked\_Import_Export\p1[assets]\NewShipMod\newship.blend

When exporting and converting, the converter will create a corresponding folder in p1data
--> D:\Games\X4\unpacked\_Import_Export\p1data\NewShipMod\newship.xml

Does this help?

[|K.O.S.H.]

Thank you very much for that answer! I really really appreciate that!

I still dont get it fully. Sorry for that.
1.
"p1[assets]" and "p1data" are actual folder names? Not their identifiers (used to talk about them)? I need folders of that names?

I think the last part of your post is pretty clear about 1., but its really uncommon and irritating, special one folder uses brackets (what the heck) and one doesn't.

I never, never, never assumed, that anyone, specially a SOFTWARE company, would use brackets in folder names.
If somebody wonders, ask google for "use brackets in folder names".


2.
All my mod data needs to be in the game directory?

I used to seperate the game from the mods, so the game itself is somwhere on d: and the mods are on e: (that works for non-blender related mods).
Reason: one is clean game data and one is (potential messy) working area.
I also dont want the game accidently load unwanted mod data.
I also want to copy and backup my modding-source-data easiely.

[sprIder]

@1
Yes, those are actual folder names.

@2
Ahh, sorry. That was unclear.
D:\Games\X4\ is just the place, where my unpacked X4 lies.
the normal game installation is in C:\steam\games\X4 Foundations (or whatever, can't look it up right now. But at a different place and disk)
My mod folder for testing etc. is also in D:\Games\X4\ :
D:\Games\X4\mods

Just like you so, keep separating it.