Sins Forums
im new to modding a lot of good mods out there is there a way to open a ship file and add guns or make a new ship all together if so what do i need ,,,,and is there a free ver of it to test it out ,and how hard is it to do
i got two 3d mod making software but they cant open any files with ship dda files or any thing that is an the sins folder what files do i look for and what mod 3d ship making program works with sins
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/369108
Questions are already answered here. 4 post below this one.
You cant open the sins mesh format with a standard modeling program. However there is an import script for 3dsmax that will open some of the ships meshes. I know the search function is non existant here, but check around some of the tutorial threads may link to it. Or someone else be kind and post the link.
You need XSI version 6.0 minimum. Mod Tool is free, and it works. It uses XSI 7.5 as its foundation i belive. It doesnt matter what modeling program you make your models with. I use 3dsmax. As long as the modeler can export to a format XSI can import. You will need XSI to finish your model, and get it ready for import to sins mesh format. The Forge tools doc's cover this.
Refer to the tutorials that are scattered all over the boards, or check the 7 deadly sins wiki. Also first, and foremost read up on the Forge Tools mod documentation. It doesnt cover everything but it does go over the important subjects. Regardless you should start with the forge tool doc's.
Photoshop should be the tool of choice to edit textures, but people looking for free stuff use Gimp. The saying goes you get what you pay for. I personally dont like the program, but if you cant afford photoshop i guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
You will need to convert the sins gamedata files from binary to text format. Then all you need to edit them is wordpad. Use ether harpos mod tools, or Dekhranics tool to convert. I prefer Harpos's tools, but chose the tool that works better for you. The devs no longer release reference files in text, because we have the tools to convert them ourselves.
I know its a pain, but look around the boards, and study up. Sins is not hard to mod at all, but the learning curve to get to where you can mod sins is challenging to newcomers.
I started from scratch three weeks ago and i am now able to create new ships and import them in-game, using softimage xsi and Gimp. It took me between twenty and thirty hours of work with XSI, trying and watching tutorials before being able to understand how it work.
Now, it takes me around 6 hours to model a new frigate, 12 hours for a capital ship and about the same amount of time to uv map it and make a very basic texturing. After, there is still work to do with the gameinfo files and so on : it takes time but it is easier. i am a newcomer so i am still quite slow but i am improving my speed.
Just to say that creating new ships is possible if you don't know anything about modeling but it will take you a fair amount of time. Don't be too ambitious for a start and when you will become more and more confident, you will make ships more and more intricate 
In fact, with time and experience, you will become slower... but the quality will grow... recently, 3 people have work together ( Koobalt for modeling, Steiner for CL, Tobi for special map and UV ) in the B5 mod on the Omega ship... almost one month of work with 3 people for a WIP ( yes, it is not yet finish )... but the quality of the WIP are huge...
So, i have only one advice... don't care of speed, care about quality... better one top quality spaceship that a bunch of crap...
Exactly.
Even if you decide not to mod sins the knowlege you gain will be priceless. Ive been modeling for over 10 years. All self taught. I never went to any school except the school of hard knocks, and i STILL dont know everything there is to know about modeling (like animation). Otherwise i would be doing this for a living. I started then like all of you are starting now.
You are right. You do slow down with experience. It takes me roughly between 2 weeks to a month from start to finish modeling, and texturing a 4000 tri model from scratch. Depending on how "into it" i am. This includes creating the textures themselves. It takes longer when i start nit picking myself to death. That is ok though since this is YOUR project. It doesnt matter how long it takes you as long as YOU are satisfied with the results. Dont let anyone else pressure you into hurrying up. Shoddy work is usually the end result.
Modeling is not something that we can "tell" you how to do. You have to just do it, and find your own pace, and method, and style. However we can tell you based from our experience what not to do, and perhaps offer advise if u get stuck. If you do decide to take up classes you will have a head start over others that didnt study modeling at all.
thank you guys for yor respones ill try it out ....,the modding tutorials ver 1.1 says its fix the link but i still cant download it from file site but i have been looking all around the forms site for help with this and links for tools too i have 3 modding apps and harpos mod tools, and forge tools but they dont have that mush about how to use them or making new ships just editing the text ship files and converted them i dont know if this is right but when i converted from text to bin or bin to text i do the whole mod file game info and everthing else that is in the mod it seems to work but that might not be right some files need other files names right and in case any one is looking for 3dmax heres the link http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=13567410&siteID=123112 and forge tools is http://sins.stardock.com/downloads.aspx have not found the XSI version 6.0 or import script for 3dsmax yet but thanks again Major Stress you where a big help
i know this would be a hard ship to make the sub on austen powers dr es sub would be a cool ship
ok so how do you add guns to a ship make them fire and attach them to a ship and where can i learn about this any replys are welcome
i have the 3dsmax 2010 with serv pack 1 but when i try to import a ship mesh file it says improber moudel and file i have down loaded sinstools and put it in the scrip file but still dont work what do i need to import a mesh file into 3dsmax
It may be a plaintext mesh, it may be that it doesn't work with 3DS 2010. I use Max 9 so I don't know.
thankx carborn016 i try to download 3dsmax 9 but it is not on the site
You can download softimage Xsi mod tool here : http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?id=13571257&siteID=123112
It is quite good but the issue is that it cannot import mesh files to modify them. You have to build your ships from scratch with only your imagination.
About speed, i think texturing is the worst. I finished the texturing yesterday for my capital ship and i was half disappointed. The shape was good, i am satisfied with my modeling but it it takes a lot of time to make a texture that is not a boring unicolor but looks as good as the dev's ships. I am not a graphic artist and i UV mapped my map like a pig but well, i think i have still a lot of progress to make.
All of that to say good luck to you, redneck800 !
This will answer pretty much everything you need to know except for the 3d modeling part. there are plenty of others that have posted stuff about that. This covers the gameplay aspect of the new ship.
3ds 9 has been replaced by Autodesk 3ds 2010 or Maya 2010 which is the latest version you can either get an education version if your school has an agreement with them (which mine does Yay) or you could just torrent it (not that I am condonning illegal downloading)
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