Kevin Caccamo
Rear Admiral
Why not open up modding opportunities to people who don't use 3D Exploration? I think that COB files would be a good way to open up WC Secret Ops modding to people who don't have a registered copy of 3D Exploration.
I'm just going to outline my ideas for a COB2IFF converter below.
I'm thinking of setting gun hardpoints by gluing lights to the main mesh, then when it converts, take the position of the light and convert it to a gun hardpoint.
For attached component meshes, glue a light to them and make them "children" of the "parent" mesh, which is your ship's hull. Then take the position of the center of the child mesh and add it on as a gun hardpoint (that's how it works in SO.)
For turret meshes, glue a light to the barrel (for the firing point of the turret) and then glue that group to the body of the turret, then glue the entire thing as a child mesh of the hull. Then take the center of the body and add it in as a gun hardpoint. Take the center of the barrel and add it in as a gun hardpoint, and then take the position of the light, subtract the position of the center of the barrel and add it in as a hardpoint on the barrel mesh.
Then, convert all the child meshes separately. Name the bridge mesh something like "yourmeshbdg.iff" and if there is multiple bridge(s) or bridge meshes, name the mesh something like "yourmeshbdg1.iff." And then for damaged component meshes, just put a "d" at the end.
If you're doing a capship, glue a light to the parent mesh and call it "BSP," so the converter knows to make a BSP tree for the capship. (Or are BSP trees different from regular meshes? In that case, glue the mesh for the BSP tree as a child mesh called "BSP")
It's pretty sad that it's only an idea right now, but I think that a good programmer that knows the COB format will be able to bring this converter to life. Plus, it would make the process of mesh conversion a little bit shorter.
Oh, one last thing. The starting MAT number can be added in a parameter for the command line (e.g. cob2iff -m70000). If no parameter is set, then it should default to 22000.
I'm just going to outline my ideas for a COB2IFF converter below.
I'm thinking of setting gun hardpoints by gluing lights to the main mesh, then when it converts, take the position of the light and convert it to a gun hardpoint.
For attached component meshes, glue a light to them and make them "children" of the "parent" mesh, which is your ship's hull. Then take the position of the center of the child mesh and add it on as a gun hardpoint (that's how it works in SO.)
For turret meshes, glue a light to the barrel (for the firing point of the turret) and then glue that group to the body of the turret, then glue the entire thing as a child mesh of the hull. Then take the center of the body and add it in as a gun hardpoint. Take the center of the barrel and add it in as a gun hardpoint, and then take the position of the light, subtract the position of the center of the barrel and add it in as a hardpoint on the barrel mesh.
Then, convert all the child meshes separately. Name the bridge mesh something like "yourmeshbdg.iff" and if there is multiple bridge(s) or bridge meshes, name the mesh something like "yourmeshbdg1.iff." And then for damaged component meshes, just put a "d" at the end.
If you're doing a capship, glue a light to the parent mesh and call it "BSP," so the converter knows to make a BSP tree for the capship. (Or are BSP trees different from regular meshes? In that case, glue the mesh for the BSP tree as a child mesh called "BSP")
It's pretty sad that it's only an idea right now, but I think that a good programmer that knows the COB format will be able to bring this converter to life. Plus, it would make the process of mesh conversion a little bit shorter.
Oh, one last thing. The starting MAT number can be added in a parameter for the command line (e.g. cob2iff -m70000). If no parameter is set, then it should default to 22000.
