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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
+2

Dev.exe

December 8, 2013 4:30:57 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Hey, remember me, that guy who was asking around about making skins for ships? Probably not, anyways...I was loking around on this site on info on the Dev.exe because I forgot how to mess around on there. Found a thread stating that this thing no longer does live updates for mods. Was this a one-time only thing? (think this was before 1.80 or whatever came out) Was thinking of making some more new skins...

Also, another thing...is there an easier way to spawn all 3 Starbases? Seems like the only way is to cycle through 3 races and build the research structures and all that... :/

modding
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BellGoRiiing
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
+629
Reply #1 December 8, 2013 5:32:43 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Well that thread was totally wrong, the dev has always allowed live updates.

I'm afraid there really isn't a way for spawning all the different starbases under the control of one player.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #2 December 8, 2013 5:35:02 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

weird...guess I could look up the thread I was talking about, but if it hasn't changed at all, then yayz, lol.

EDIT: Looked up the thread again, turns out it was a bug....a really OLD bug...from last year, so...never mind then.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/422841/page/1/#3135157

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BellGoRiiing
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #3 December 8, 2013 6:09:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting BellGoRiiing,
reply 2
EDIT: Looked up the thread again, turns out it was a bug....a really OLD bug...from last year, so...never mind then.

Ah yeah, that was from the Rebellion BETA. No one was really modding it then.

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BellGoRiiing
WOEaintME
Join Date 05/2013
+18
Reply #4 December 8, 2013 6:16:28 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

You could give yourself all researches through the Dev.exe (can't recall the exact commands but it is in there). You could spawn the necessary starbase constructors (not sure how well that works with the full research but no labs built.

Unfortunately there is no spawn structure that I'm aware of though.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #5 December 8, 2013 6:18:25 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yeah, kinda wished there was a faster way to spawn structures. Seems like you do have to build the research structures to make the Starbase research active.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #6 December 9, 2013 3:33:51 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

...So is the auto update thing disabled or something? I was trying to work with it and its not doing everything after saving files. :/

Also, could someone refresh me on which channels are what in the .da files? 

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BellGoRiiing
WOEaintME
Join Date 05/2013
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Reply #7 December 9, 2013 3:47:50 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

-cl is team colours

-nm is normal map (bump map)

-da is data

  • (red = shininess)
  • (green = luminosity)
  • (blue = reflective)
  • (alpha = light emitting)

If I recall correctly that's how the textures work.

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BellGoRiiing
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #8 December 9, 2013 4:00:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting WOEaintME,
reply 7
-cl is team colours

CL is the base texture, but the alpha channel is indeed the team colors. 

Quoting BellGoRiiing,
reply 6
...So is the auto update thing disabled or something? I was trying to work with it and its not doing everything after saving files. :/

Make sure you settings file isn't set to read only. The dev needs to rewrite your settings for the auto update to work. Delete the file if necessary.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #9 December 9, 2013 4:24:20 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting GoaFan77,
reply 8


Quoting WOEaintME, reply 7-cl is team colours

CL is the base texture, but the alpha channel is indeed the team colors. 


Quoting BellGoRiiing, reply 6...So is the auto update thing disabled or something? I was trying to work with it and its not doing everything after saving files. :/

Make sure you settings file isn't set to read only. The dev needs to rewrite your settings for the auto update to work. Delete the file if necessary.
The files in the mods folder right? (where it shows mod folders for past versions, there's a Settings folder with 3 files)

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BellGoRiiing
WOEaintME
Join Date 05/2013
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Reply #10 December 9, 2013 6:05:33 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

That's it. You may want to make a copy of your default settings for non Dev.exe gameplay as the Dev.exe resets a few things (screen size among others).

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #11 December 9, 2013 6:43:47 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Oh, misread his post...thought he said to set it to Read-Only and it was, lol. Guess I'll uncheck that then and try again later tonight. lol

And the settings reset doesn't bother me too much, I'll end up forgetting to do that anyways.

But yeah thanks guys.

EDIT: *facepalms* Well that explains why the Dev.exe isn't live updating, copies of the original files have to be in the mod folder first.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #12 December 11, 2013 7:00:48 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Ugh, wished there was an easier way to deal with skin making...having Photoshop and Dev.exe opened at the same time is causing lag. And can't seem to make a skin correctly for the Vasari Loyalist titan anymore. (it turns blue, lol...makes no sense since I never had issues with it before. )

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BellGoRiiing
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #13 December 11, 2013 7:08:40 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting BellGoRiiing,
reply 12

Ugh, wished there was an easier way to deal with skin making...having Photoshop and Dev.exe opened at the same time is causing lag. And can't seem to make a skin correctly for the Vasari Loyalist titan anymore. (it turns blue, lol...makes no sense since I never had issues with it before. )

You messed up the alpha channel, assuming your team color is blue.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #14 December 11, 2013 7:16:30 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Weird, the file didn't have an alpha channel...maybe Photoshop is being weird. I'll mess with it another time I guess, probably screwed up somewhere in the program's settings.

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BellGoRiiing
GoaFan77
Join Date 10/2008
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Reply #15 December 11, 2013 7:19:42 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting BellGoRiiing,
reply 14

Weird, the file didn't have an alpha channel...maybe Photoshop is being weird. I'll mess with it another time I guess, probably screwed up somewhere in the program's settings.

If it doesn't have an alpha channel, then the image is fully opaque which translates into full team color.

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #16 December 11, 2013 7:25:29 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting GoaFan77,
reply 15


Quoting BellGoRiiing, reply 14
Weird, the file didn't have an alpha channel...maybe Photoshop is being weird. I'll mess with it another time I guess, probably screwed up somewhere in the program's settings.

If it doesn't have an alpha channel, then the image is fully opaque which translates into full team color.
So I guess I accidentally changed a setting in Photoshop that caused that channel to vanish for whatever reason. Anyways at least I know what the color change means.

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Makon86
Join Date 06/2010
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Reply #17 December 11, 2013 7:43:44 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

I would like to add that there are some things that Dev.exe has trouble auto-updating, some examples I have found.

-research window locations (prerequisite arrows will redraw depending on where you relocate the techs)

-build menu icon locations (i.e. if you move ships around in the build menu - done by moving ships around in the player.entity file)

-meshes (sometimes editing hardpoints works, but I have found that the game usually needs to be reloaded)

-adding / removing researches, ships, structures from a player.entity file (these won't be visually removed until you restart the game)

 

Most of the above requires a game restart to see how things look after changes are made, things like particles, strings, research prerequisites, textures, ship stats, etc.... do a good job of auto-updating when changes are made.

 

My apologies if you already knew this and I am telling you something you already know

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #18 December 11, 2013 8:06:49 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Yeah I never mess with that stuff, not yet anyways.

Back to my issue, though...not sure what the deal is, but its Photoshop. For whatever reason its not showing the Alpha channel at all, tried loading another ship texture and it shows...even tried the original VL titan texture and it won't show. Not sure what's going on here... :c

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BellGoRiiing
BellGoRiiing
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #19 December 12, 2013 11:53:36 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

...Anyone? :c

Not even re-installing Photoshop works...

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