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Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

Answers from Modders, for Modders who "Ask a Question"

By Sinperium on April 13, 2011 12:05:46 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Sinperium

Join Date 02/2010
+207

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs43/i/2009/115/7/0/cosmonaut_by_himnotep.jpg

 

This is the place to ask and recieve specific modding (mod making) questions and answers. If you have a mod making question, post it here.

If your question involves long snippets of entity files and the like, please don't paste the entire file contents here but put them at the incredibly easy to use http://pastebin.com and then provide the link to your paste in your question posted here.

Please do limit  "just comments" here to brief posts please.  If you don't know the answer or can't point to help--don't post.  Please note that a random, uninformed guess isn't an actual answer.  

You can refer people to another source--IF it actually helps answer their question.  This could be in the form of links, outside sites, specific modding-useful programs, direction towards another post or poster, etc., etc.

Remember--specific questions, specific answers.  Only respond to the ones you can help solve.  Also, feel free to amplify, clarify, suggest alternatives to or correct answers seen here if such actions are merited and help provide a real solution. No flaming, insults or put downs here in the answers or other posts please.

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation.  The reason for the rigid rules here is those this thread becomes a usable resource in the future to new people looking for answers.

NOTE: If an answer resolves your issue, please share it here.  These answers will help others coming along later too.  Karma is a great way to respond to people providing help without clogging the thread or bombing their forum mailbox here. Thanks!

 

OTHER SINS HELPFUL MODDING LINKS*

*Links are updated regularly.





The Soase Idiot's Guide

Confused?  No idea where to even start?

Determined to work at it?

This is the place!

 


 

  
   

Sins Modding Wiki

Vanilla Syntax

Entrenchment Syntax 

Diplomacy Syntax

ZombieRus's Eclipse Wizardry

 
     

Modding Home

Modeling Home 

MyFist0's full modding site.

Emphasis on modeling  and

texturing.                            

 

 

 
                    

REBELLION MODDING TOPICS

Rebellion Modding Q & A

Mesh Editing

Changing Diplomacy Files to Rebellion

IT REALLY HURTS MY BRAIN--HOW TO START

An Idiot's Guide To Getting Started

MyFist0's Modding Megasite!

MOD DOWNLOADS

ZombieRus5's Mod Yard

Directory of Planet Mods

STEAM

STEAM Sins Forums

DEVELOPERS

Sins Developer Journals Forum 2007 to Present

REFERENCE FILES

Research Modifier List

MyFist0's Exported Models & Files

Modifier List

Harpo's Converted Sins Reference Files 2011

THIRD PARTY TOOLS

Eclipse Definitions Wiki

3dS Texturing Toool & Tips

Ship Fleet Calculator

SoaSE Eclipse Plugin Project

Mesh Resizing Tool--courtesy of the Reqiuem team.

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Filefactory

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Dropbox

The Sins Optimization Project (TSOP)

Sins Data Converter by BCXtreme

EXPLANATIONS & DISCUSSIONS

How to Add a Fourth Race

User-updatable Ship Reference Chart

Sins Modding Dictionary

Adding phase Effects to other weapon types

Culture, Explanation/Discussion

Weapons, Explanation/Discusion

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion-1

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion -2

Graphic Chart of Sin's Counters

Annotated Guide to the Developer.exe

In-Game Map Creator

Weapons Banks & DPS

Combat Mechanics

PARTICLE FORGE

Particle Forge Help Thread

GALAXY FORGE

Adding Artifacts

Working Template Examples

SemazRalan's Template Guide

Pirates Base Start Template

SOUND RESOURCES

[SFX] Black Sun SFX/Music Resource for Modders

MODELING & TEXTURING--SOFTIMAGE XSI, 3DS MAX

XSI Texturing, Tutorial

3dS Model Exporter

3DS Max Rigging, Texturing & Exporting, Guide

Modding/Modelling/Texturing/Converting, Tutorials

WIKI'S

Sins of a Solar Empire Official Wiki

MyFist0's Mega Modding Site

1811 Replies
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Reply #926
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+405
June 13, 2012 5:03:36 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting XATHOS,
reply 926

Enough to fuck up any hope of direct porting.

You had hope?

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Reply #927
XATHOS
Join Date 02/2002
+11
June 13, 2012 6:04:49 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting GoaFan77,
reply 926

You had hope?

Better question: when did I ever have porting done?

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Reply #928
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 13, 2012 9:18:46 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Stupid question, but how do you disable Rebellion's fancy faction selection screen?

Also, what are the minimum diplomacy techs required so the AI doesn't die? Besides envoy access of course.

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Reply #929
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+405
June 13, 2012 9:34:25 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Lavo_2,
reply 928
Stupid question, but how do you disable Rebellion's fancy faction selection screen?

I think its in the PlayerSetup.window file. Last line.

useRaceSelectDialog TRUE

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Reply #930
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 13, 2012 9:56:38 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks!

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Reply #931
loki771
Join Date 07/2008
+2
June 14, 2012 2:58:25 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting harpo99999,
reply 920
loki I have just posted a link to the 1.01 refs for rebellion, so get them to start modding.

harpo

 

thanks! downloaded and karma given 

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Reply #932
DirtySanchezz
Join Date 03/2008
+90
June 14, 2012 3:10:02 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Does anyone know what I need to do to make older maps compatible with the final release of Rebellion?

I didn't have any problem using my maps during the Betas, but now when I go to the Galaxy Forge-made maps selection menu, the game instantly crashes.  I don't know if the problem is with the game itself or with something in the maps.

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Reply #933
DirtySanchezz
Join Date 03/2008
+90
June 14, 2012 3:18:58 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Is there any way to turn off the intro movie so that when the game loads it goes directly to the main menu?

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Reply #934
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+405
June 14, 2012 4:03:21 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DirtySanchezz,
reply 933
Does anyone know what I need to do to make older maps compatible with the final release of Rebellion?

I think Harpo just updated his map converter. You could try that.

Quoting DirtySanchezz,
reply 934
Is there any way to turn off the intro movie so that when the game loads it goes directly to the main menu?

At the very least you could replace the video with a empty video file. Did they remove the show opening cinematic options from the options? The option might still be in the RebellionUser.settings file even if its not.

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Reply #935
harpo99999
Join Date 02/2008
+374
June 14, 2012 4:51:41 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

sorry goafan & dirtysanchezz, but I am working on a update for the map updater for rebellion 1.02, as ic/sd seem to have removed the mapversion3 compatability from rebellion(and even worse left the map loading no matter what version it is), and there is one issue at present not solved in the mapupdater rebel version to do with maps with wormholes getting an extra line that will cause a ctd, and the map format in rebellion is even touchier than sins/trinity was.

harpo

 

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Reply #936
DirtySanchezz
Join Date 03/2008
+90
June 14, 2012 5:05:51 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

You da man, Harpo!

In the meantime, the Devs still haven't enabled auto-download for custom maps.

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Reply #937
loki771
Join Date 07/2008
+2
June 14, 2012 8:55:11 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DirtySanchezz,
reply 934
Is there any way to turn off the intro movie so that when the game loads it goes directly to the main menu?

 you can get those files from Axledude's Modular Mod CORE v0.91b  http://axeldude3.wordpress.com/downloads/

copy the Movie file out and put it in your desired mod. + the stuff in that mods is WELL worth keeping. the only Mesh files I couldn't get to work in Reb v1.0, was the Orbital extractors. but i haven't tested the gameinfo files

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Reply #938
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 14, 2012 11:32:21 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DirtySanchezz,
reply 933
Does anyone know what I need to do to make older maps compatible with the final release of Rebellion?

I didn't have any problem using my maps during the Betas, but now when I go to the Galaxy Forge-made maps selection menu, the game instantly crashes.  I don't know if the problem is with the game itself or with something in the maps.

Unfortunately the devs decided to kill support for map version 3. Other than the wormhole bit, which I'm unfamiliar with personally, it forces people to define the moveAreaRadius and hyperspaceExitRadius for each planet/star in a premade map, and the star(s) in a random map. There is no way to allow for the game to load these values from the planet/star's entity file if one so desires. An extremely disappointing step backwards by IC/SD imo.

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Reply #939
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
+207
June 14, 2012 12:21:52 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

^Agreed on that.  I like the idea of the option being there but not the unfortunate byproduct you have pointed out.

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Reply #940
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 14, 2012 12:39:40 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

I asked to IC/SD to put in a wildcard/option to leave the two blank to allow loading from the entities themselves, or to flat out put back map version 3 support. Hopefully they do one of the two; though personally I'd prefer seeing the former.

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Reply #941
harpo99999
Join Date 02/2008
+374
June 14, 2012 6:01:46 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

I also would prefer the mapversion 3 loading, but am trying to update my map updater to convert mapversion 3 to mapversion 4, but have one last irritating bug to fix before getting to beta state.

harpo

 

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Reply #942
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 14, 2012 11:56:08 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

So I'm getting some odd error messages as soon as I load up a new game, was wondering if anyone has an idea what they are/what to look for (other than having to do with some .brushes files), as I'm clueless and feel like an idiot. Also get a ton of the third one, for whatever reason.

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Window/BrushSystem.cpp(240)

brushSet->onlyLoadOnDemand

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Window/BrushSystem.cpp(89)

brushes.Size() == 0

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\Engine/Window/Brush.cpp(817)

m_pTexture == NULL

Edit: Figured out that all of these are appearing due to the modified LoadScreen.brushes file and fixed them.

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Reply #943
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 17, 2012 1:18:34 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\GS/Render/EntityMeshRenderer.cpp(76)

!mesh->GetData().HasAnyTextures()

Got this error when testing a model in Rebellion. The model does have all it's textures present; so I'm somewhat confused by this.

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\GS/Render/Particle/ParticleSimulationDefinition.cpp(185)

m_HasInfiniteLifeTime || m_TotalLifeTime > 0.f

...So this is basically the engine going on about a duration conflict right?

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Reply #944
DracoRedux
Join Date 12/2009
+1
June 17, 2012 2:33:57 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Greetings all,

I noticed that loading the whole game folder as a mod takes quite a while. I only use a handful of files in my mods at any given time. However, the mods don;t work if I only include those files. I assume this is due to an invalid checksum. So, I'd like to know which file is responsible for the checksum or if something else may be causing the issue if I'm wrong.

 

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Reply #945
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+405
June 17, 2012 4:12:37 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DracoRedux,
reply 945
I noticed that loading the whole game folder as a mod takes quite a while. I only use a handful of files in my mods at any given time. However, the mods don;t work if I only include those files. I assume this is due to an invalid checksum. So, I'd like to know which file is responsible for the checksum or if something else may be causing the issue if I'm wrong.

First of all, what version of Sins are you modding? Including all the game files is needed only for Vanilla Sins, with any of the expansions you just need the files you changed. There is no such thing as an "invalid" checksum, the checksum is used just to make sure two different computers have the same changes made, so its basically used to double check instillation and for multiplayer.

I don't know why having all the files in there would help, the only thing I can think of is you removed a changed/added file on accident. Or you simply did something wrong. Turn on error logging in your settings file or use the developer.exe and see if you get anything.

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Reply #946
DracoRedux
Join Date 12/2009
+1
June 17, 2012 6:03:27 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting GoaFan77,
reply 946

First of all, what version of Sins are you modding? Including all the game files is needed only for Vanilla Sins, with any of the expansions you just need the files you changed. There is no such thing as an "invalid" checksum, the checksum is used just to make sure two different computers have the same changes made, so its basically used to double check instillation and for multiplayer.

I don't know why having all the files in there would help, the only thing I can think of is you removed a changed/added file on accident. Or you simply did something wrong. Turn on error logging in your settings file or use the developer.exe and see if you get anything.

 

I'm attempting to mod Rebellion. The mod works when I have the entire .txt reference 1.02 folder in the mod folder. However, taking only the files I modded and putting them in their own mod folder breaks it. It just doesn't load the mod.

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Reply #947
Lavo_2
Join Date 05/2010
+75
June 17, 2012 11:58:21 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DracoRedux,
reply 947
I'm attempting to mod Rebellion. The mod works when I have the entire .txt reference 1.02 folder in the mod folder. However, taking only the files I modded and putting them in their own mod folder breaks it. It just doesn't load the mod.

If you made new entity files, have you made an updated version of entity.manifest to include these files?

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Reply #948
Sinperium
Join Date 02/2010
+207
June 17, 2012 2:52:01 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

@DirtySanchez...

Lavo gave a workaround here if you are interested and he includes the two maps for contrast.

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Reply #949
DJ-Lethal
Join Date 06/2012
0
June 17, 2012 7:21:14 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hello everyone. 

I have a question regarding modding Capital ships and Titans:

Can you edit the number of ability points they receive at level up in any way? Or the number of ability points they start out with. Like make the Titan earn only 1 skill point on level up instead of 2. Or have him gain 1 skill point for the first 5 levels and then 2 for the last 4. 

 

I've been looking all over this forum for an answer to this, but I haven't been able to find anything. So it might just be that it's one of the hardcoded features. I just want a confirmation on that.

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Reply #950
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+405
June 18, 2012 12:22:27 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting DJ-Lethal,
reply 950
Can you edit the number of ability points they receive at level up in any way? Or the number of ability points they start out with. Like make the Titan earn only 1 skill point on level up instead of 2. Or have him gain 1 skill point for the first 5 levels and then 2 for the last 4.

Nope, thats hardcoded. If you want to make the Caps seem to level up more slowly, you might want to reduce the passive stat gains per level, or make each upgrade count for less. Likewise, if you want to make a high level cap much more dangerous than an early one, just make each level increase its effect greater than linearly.

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