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Shape editing question
http://jkpeterson.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1674		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  MiGSlayer [ Tue Dec 12, 2006 05:07 am ]
Post subject:  Shape editing question
This is mainly directed at CAG, but anyone else feel free to chime in. I have been experimenting with editing shapes with a hex editor and have had some success with simple shapes like the mule and fuel tank. However, I started working on the T80 shape and when I went to view it, the game CTD. Not a big surprise since I am still experimenting with shape editing and probably screwed up the shape. So I go back to the original shape and change the first coordinate (the 5th byte, ie I moved the vertex up) by one thinking that such a minute change wouldn't crash the game. Nope, crashed again. Still no surprise. But then, just out of curiosity, I put the original (unedited) shape into the TK and built my 0.lib. Guess what? It still crashed! With the original shape! This was the only item in the lib. I also tried it with my other two edited shapes in the lib and I was able to view them just fine, however the T80 shape still crashed the game. Any ideas as to why?

PS, yeah, I'm running XP.
Author:  CAG Hotshot [ Tue Dec 12, 2006 14:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
Try simply loading the shape file itself into the game folder instead of building a lib...

If this doesnt work then you de-stabilized the shape and you should start again with a new file...
Author:  SPIAPL [ Tue Dec 12, 2006 15:51 pm ]
Post subject: 
I would like to learn about shape editing myself. I have a hex editor, but every time I pull up a shape file in it, I end up giving up, because I have no earthly idea what I am looking at. Those numbers all look the same to me, I can't tell a vertex coordinate from a file name. The only time I ever edited a shape, Airbrush refused to even pull it up.
Author:  MiGSlayer [ Tue Dec 12, 2006 22:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
You have to have ALOT of patience and be prepared to do ALOT of trial-and-error type work. There are a couple of docs on the FARC (link at top of this page) that give some good basic info on the shape file, but they are incomplete so you must try to fill in the blanks. I have a degree in software engineering (its only an associates degree from '93 mind you) and the shape file format confuses me most of the time. Simple shapes like the mule are pretty straight forward, but once you get into aircraft shapes with multiple LOD models and animated textures and polys (like flaps and airbrakes) things get much more complex! CAG has done the most with shape editing in FA so he is the man to ask if you have questions. 8)
Author:  CAG Hotshot [ Wed Dec 13, 2006 20:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
Please dont ask me to teach you, I dont have the time...

Shape editing on the aircraft models is much more difficult then can be imagined and the docs on the FARC archive are mostly wrong...

Visibility angles of the polygon alteration is one of the most difficult issues.

Trying to make your new shape visibile from all the proper angles is a migrain in the making!

Also reskining the shape and alterating the skin coordinates isnt simple, especially if you are compressing skins like I do to increase detail...

If you try to expand the skin file and do it incorrectly it will never work...

Believe me, if you dont already know how to work with hexadecimal coding, then dont even try...


CAG out...
Author:  CAG Hotshot [ Wed Dec 13, 2006 22:48 pm ]
Post subject: 
See this post for the working I am currently doing to build the F/A-18 E/F...

http://vnfawing.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... highlight=


Also dont forget, if you make a new aircraft shape you have to make a matching aircraft shadow shape as well as matching destroyed shapes! :wink:


CAG out...
Author:  MiGSlayer [ Wed Dec 13, 2006 22:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sorry CAG, I wasn't trying to imply that you could teach someone shape editing, just that if anyone would know the answer to a shape editing question, it would be you.
Author:  CAG Hotshot [ Wed Dec 13, 2006 23:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
No sweat... :)

I just wanted to get that out in the open, that training is not an option, unfortunately...


CAG out...
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