Add new Ships

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rasiom
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Add new Ships

Post by rasiom »

Hello,

since a few days im playing arround with the ultimate editor.
I read a few forum posts but i dont know how to add new ship models.
If i use edit->graphics->Add/Remove Ship Models than i can only overwrite an existing slot.
I overwrite the not used slots but they are not so much.
How can i creat a new slot so i can import more ships?
I know that there is a limit if 127 ships but atm i got only like 100 ships.
What is scale? if i make scale 50% the ship got half size in battle?
What are Phasers?
The model in the ship pack got the same amount of Phasers and the same scale but i still overwrite the slot :(.

The secound Problem is that i would like to build Alien ships.
Alien ships dont have the "build picture" idk how to call it.
If u click on your system and build a ship than u see a little picture at the build order.
if i try to buidl the alien ship than the game crashes. If i build something else before the alien ship than it workes.
I can build the alien ship and fly arround and make battles with it.

I dont want to create a new building picture. I just want to add the building picture of any other ship to the Alien ship so the game doesnt crash when i build the alien ship.
Is it possible to do that with a tool somehow?
I dont know anything about graphics^^. I think a tga file include the 3d model, the 2d picture and the build picture. I hope its pissible to copy a build picture from any ship to the alien tga file.^^

Sorry for my bad english i hope u can understand what my problem is.^^

Rasiom
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thunderchero
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

Hi rasiom,
rasiom wrote:I read a few forum posts but i dont know how to add new ship models.
here a link to how to add ships

adding-new-models-using-ue

here is also UE basics link

ultimate-editor-basics
rasiom wrote:How can i creat a new slot so i can import more ships?
The trek.exe is limited to 73 slots the only way is to double/triple up on slots by renaming the slot (see tutorial)
rasiom wrote:The secound Problem is that i would like to build Alien ships.
you would need to create/rename a new image for the alien ship example if you are wanting to build borg cube (t01) you would want to extract the I_t01120.tga then rename it I_t01w.tga and add that file back into game.

good luck and have fun

thunderchero
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rasiom
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by rasiom »

thank u for the fast reply thunder.
I will read teh links and do my best to make it work.^^
And yes i wanted to build the burg cube XD.
If i got more questions i will post here again :-)

Rasiom
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Mr Sol
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by Mr Sol »

Bump!

Sorry for the rebump but the links are broken and Im having a hard time finding out how to increase the slots in the shiplist. I checked the post about it on the main list of how's to but its more like discussion about how to expand it and the many issues that were found in the process and not a proper explanation of what to do so it looks more like an open conversation that wasnt concluded, or ended not having a proper end.

I have been finding many broken links since most of the guiding posts have 4 or more years. Sorry for pesting about that... :P

Hugs.
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

sorry on last major forum update many links were broken, links have been corrected above but here they are again.

here a link to how to add ships

adding-new-models-using-ue

here is also UE basics link

ultimate-editor-basics

here is also a link to "How to page"

https://www.armadafleetcommand.com/cate ... ow-to-botf
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Mr Sol
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by Mr Sol »

Thanks, Thunder!

But I've already checked all those and none of them explain how to expand the shiplist. Maybe Im not expressing myself right, English isnt my language. What Im trying to say is that I know how to include models in the ship list, what I dont know is how to expand the number of slots to include more models, just like you were explaining in the first answer.

As in here:
thunderchero wrote:
The trek.exe is limited to 73 slots the only way is to double/triple up on slots by renaming the slot (see tutorial)
What tutorial you were talking about here?

I remember seeing in one of the posts explaining about how many ships the game supports that the limit would be a byte (255) but then the explanation dont go much forward. That is the post I was mentioning before and when you say this limit is of 73 slots I got confused.

Hugs!
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by Mr Sol »

Ok,

I experimented a bit and found out that if I rename one ship slot with alphanumeric chars one slot is created, if I use a number 2 slots are created. I suppose the rules for phasers and scale apply to those? And what more can be done and what are the limits?
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

This is not easy to explain,

the slot list in the trek.exe has limited space and expanding the trek.exe is not currently possible.

but here is an example on how to use current available slots.

the Keldon uses "CH3" slot. If you rename that slot to "C" now that slot can be shared with ship prefix of
ship 1 - c
ship 2 - c_
ship 3 - c__

The disadvantage to this is all 3 ships must use the same scale and phasers hard points totals must match. (8 phaser hard points is new standard) older models varied hard points depending on creator.

since you stated you have some programing skills, here is qoute from sct on relocating table
Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote:Increasing number of trek.exe ship slots:

Code: Select all

004A28AE                 mov     ecx, offset 5919FC // asm base address (not for TMP!)
004A28CA                 cmp     ebx, 49h // number of read slots (without TMP)
The whole data block can be moved to any location. Bytes needed = 0x30 * number of read slots(without TMP) -> vanilla 0xDB0 (0x30*0x49)
next you can also take advantage of TMP slot, but only if phasers and scale matches on all ships (unlimited)
Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote:Optimizing usage of TMP slot:

The TMP slot is used for all ships missing on the list (it's unused in vanilla, maybe it was just a safeguard for testing purposes).

An example how to make use of it:

Say a mod uses 100 different ship designs (HOBs) with 50 of them being standard models with 8 phasers, norm scale & no special slots like damage spots.

Add only the 50 non-standard HOBs to the slot list (more shared slots = shorter list, means a faster code, but should be insignificant). Now just adjust number of read slots and edit the TMP slot for 8 phasers & standard scale and you're done.
I am sure this might bring up more questions :grin:
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

this page has many useful links to editing, if you have not found it yet. :wink:

Structured Modding Index
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

Mr Sol wrote:what are the limits
I forgot to mention the shiplist.sst has a limit of 256 ships, we have not been able to increase max of this list due to available code space. :cry:

edit; also the monsters can not be increased "10" also prefixed t01, t02 ect should not be changed due too many hard coded locations. models can be changed but if model is changed the behavior will be unchanged.
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Mr Sol
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by Mr Sol »

thunderchero wrote:This is not easy to explain,
Oh well... There we go... :grin:
thunderchero wrote: the slot list in the trek.exe has limited space and expanding the trek.exe is not currently possible.
Then I have to ask this: I know that the file begins with a value that tells the processor the length of it, and obviously Im not an asm programmer, but then why one cant move chunks of the file over the memory and assing pointers to each chunk, just like a fragmented file, thus opening space to be used, or just emulate what a virus do to infect a file, making it a little bigger?
thunderchero wrote: but here is an example on how to use current available slots.

the Keldon uses "CH3" slot. If you rename that slot to "C" now that slot can be shared with ship prefix of
ship 1 - c
ship 2 - c_
ship 3 - c__

The disadvantage to this is all 3 ships must use the same scale and phasers hard points totals must match. (8 phaser hard points is new standard) older models varied hard points depending on creator.
Cool there is a standard. Ive seen this when I checked the shiplist of the mods but those packages being distributed by the site dont follow this tho.
thunderchero wrote: since you stated you have some programing skills, here is qoute from sct on relocating table
I said that? Crap, I talk too much... lol Im a retired C programmer that become a lawyer and today live in the country selling food to groceries to be resold. I have become very excited checking all the asm coding you peeps do and Im having ideas of studying this asm book I have right here... It stares me sometimes as if were saying -Sooo? :grin:
thunderchero wrote:
Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote:Increasing number of trek.exe ship slots:

Code: Select all

004A28AE                 mov     ecx, offset 5919FC // asm base address (not for TMP!)
004A28CA                 cmp     ebx, 49h // number of read slots (without TMP)
The whole data block can be moved to any location. Bytes needed = 0x30 * number of read slots(without TMP) -> vanilla 0xDB0 (0x30*0x49)
From the few asm I know its moving the value of the offset into the ecx register and then comparing the value of the register with that byte but then what?
thunderchero wrote: next you can also take advantage of TMP slot, but only if phasers and scale matches on all ships (unlimited)
Spocks-cuddly-tribble wrote:Optimizing usage of TMP slot:

The TMP slot is used for all ships missing on the list (it's unused in vanilla, maybe it was just a safeguard for testing purposes).

An example how to make use of it:

Say a mod uses 100 different ship designs (HOBs) with 50 of them being standard models with 8 phasers, norm scale & no special slots like damage spots.

Add only the 50 non-standard HOBs to the slot list (more shared slots = shorter list, means a faster code, but should be insignificant). Now just adjust number of read slots and edit the TMP slot for 8 phasers & standard scale and you're done.
Ill pretend I understood this one...
thunderchero wrote: I am sure this might bring up more questions :grin:
LOL You bet...
thunderchero wrote:
I forgot to mention the shiplist.sst has a limit of 256 ships, we have not been able to increase max of this list due to available code space. :cry:

edit; also the monsters can not be increased "10" also prefixed t01, t02 ect should not be changed due too many hard coded locations. models can be changed but if model is changed the behavior will be unchanged.
But you said the shiplist have a limit of 73 slots back there, now theyre 256? Ships or slots or these should be understood as synonimous? If the limit is 73 and I can use the 3 linked slots trick It wont reach 256 slots anyway. I didnt try it with the tmp slot yet and I certainly wont mess with the monsters's slots after that post I checked were peeps are talking about the complicated consequences of tinkering with them... :razz:

Ill check the links! Thanks a lot, Thunder! If there isnt a proper post in the big list of how's to about this subject we are discussing here I would like to suggest we make one and post it there, to help lost people like me in the future to not feel so lost lol.
thunderchero wrote: this page has many useful links to editing, if you have not found it yet. :wink:

Structured Modding Index
I was talking exactly about that. I bookmarked this one, for sure! This post need a topic dealing with this shiplist subject we are developing here. :wink:

Thanks a lot, Thunder! Hugs!
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Re: Add new Ships

Post by thunderchero »

Mr Sol wrote:Then I have to ask this: I know that the file begins with a value that tells the processor the length of it, and obviously Im not an asm programmer, but then why one cant move chunks of the file over the memory and assing pointers to each chunk, just like a fragmented file, thus opening space to be used, or just emulate what a virus do to infect a file, making it a little bigger?
I am the wrong person to ask about programming, I know just enough to get me in trouble.
Mr Sol wrote:
thunderchero wrote: but here is an example on how to use current available slots.

the Keldon uses "CH3" slot. If you rename that slot to "C" now that slot can be shared with ship prefix of
ship 1 - c
ship 2 - c_
ship 3 - c__

The disadvantage to this is all 3 ships must use the same scale and phasers hard points totals must match. (8 phaser hard points is new standard) older models varied hard points depending on creator.


Cool there is a standard. Ive seen this when I checked the shiplist of the mods but those packages being distributed by the site dont follow this tho.
most of the model creators recently used the 8 phaser standard but scale has been all over the place. but all models in UDM does follow the 1.0 scale or most of the models I created. (scale was set during conversion to hob)
Mr Sol wrote:From the few asm I know its moving the value of the offset into the ecx register and then comparing the value of the register with that byte but then what?


when I tested this code change I used the relocation table of the trek.exe for the new table location. this is already being used for the energy screen project. starting at 5960F4 of trek.exe (this is a very large table)
Mr Sol wrote:Ill pretend I understood this one...
example. since all models in UDM use same scale and phaser I could edit the normal phaser slot 1-62 slots so they no longer matched the models and as long as the tmp slot is setup with the standard value all models would use tmp slot and free up 1-62 slots for other models (BTW I have never released UDM with this change, but have tested it successfully) reason why is UE does not recognize this change.
Mr Sol wrote:But you said the shiplist have a limit of 73 slots back there, now theyre 256? Ships or slots or these should be understood as synonimous? If the limit is 73 and I can use the 3 linked slots trick It wont reach 256 slots anyway. I didnt try it with the tmp slot yet and I certainly wont mess with the monsters's slots after that post I checked were peeps are talking about the complicated consequences of tinkering with them...
these are 2 separate limits
phaser slots table part of trek.exe = current limit 73 slots (above options to expand)
shiplist.sst file in stbof.res = max 256 entries (FF) this includes minors, monster and any upgrades
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