Server Help :: View topic - Making server use custom ships

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General Questions - Making server use custom ships

Anonymous - Mon Aug 16, 2004 1:49 pm
Post subject: Making server use custom ships

ok me and a mate have decided to set up a continuum server.

i want to make the server auto download my shipset into the users compputers is this possible and if so how to please?

SuSE - Mon Aug 16, 2004 2:56 pm
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download and extract lvztoolkit.zip

you can add ships in the following two ways:
1) as Continuum\graphics\ships.bm2 with all 8 ships one after the other
pros: um...normalness
cons: if your ship sizes vary greatly, you'll end up with a lot of wasted space (larger download)
2) ships split up as ship1.bmp, ship2.bmp...ship8.bmp
pros: easier to make ship-specific changes - blah blah
cons: none that anybody but me possibly knows about

so, make some ship images, they must have 10 columns and 4 rows per ship (just follow ships.bm2) - if you're 3d modelling or something and want to do rolling images, just follow wbroll.bm2 (and mention if you are, some people have angles to render with and spiffy programs to help out)
um, if you just made a single image pointing up, you can use a rotating program to make the other proper parts of the image
each angle is 9 degrees from the last

save them as .bmp or .png

open up notepad or some other text editor

type in something like this:

Quote:

outfile=nameOfYourChoice.lvz

file=ships.bmp

...or this...

Quote:

outfile=nameOfYourChoice.lvz

file=ship1.bmp
file=ship2.bmp
file=ship3.bmp
file=ship4.bmp
file=ship5.bmp
file=ship6.bmp
file=ship7.bmp
file=ship8.bmp

save the text file as whatever.ini in same directory as your ship images

run BuildLevel.exe (from lvztoolkit.zip) - find and select whatever.ini, it should create a .lvz file (named from outfile= line) in same directory as .ini and images

move nameOfYourChoice.lvz into your main Continuum directory (eg. C:\Program Files\Continuum) [OR directly into your server directory if the server is on your computer]

go into your zone

type *putfile nameOfYourChoice.lvz to upload the .lvz to your server [skip if you just moved into your server dir]

make sure you're in the arena you want the ships to be used in (more specifically, you can hit ESC, then C and make sure you're about to alter the .cfg you want [it'll tell you the name with "file received: {name}"])

then type ?set misc:levelfiles=nameOfYourChoice.lvz

then re-enter your arena, you should download and be using your new ships (you may have to wait 30 or so seconds before it downloads - just wait or re-enter until it does)

CypherJF - Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:54 pm
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I swear SuSE has a saved file just ready for copy and pasteing now

SuSE - Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:18 pm
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no, but I really am tired of typing it so...

the time may indeed have come to write the uber tutorial

Katie - Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:53 pm
Post subject:

Quote:

um, if you just made a single image pointing up, you can use a rotating program to make the other proper parts of the image
each angle is 9 degrees from the last

Couldn't you just select a ship in MS Paint and use Image->Sketch/Skew--under skew use 9 horizontal and -9 vertical? That's how I use mine... and it's quite simple. If it's easier these other ways... I geuss do it that way. I did ship rotations A LOT this way so I geuss I'm a little bias.

Katrina

SuSE - Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:16 am
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of course you can do it however you like

Bak - Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:24 am
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Here's a good simple ship rotater in java:

http://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?t=3099

just provide it with one picture of a ship facing up and it's defaulted to ships in subspace so all you have to do is make one graphic and press save... then include it in your lvz