Ship Submission Terms & Conditions

[Igiss]

Discovery Ship Submission Terms & Conditions

1) Ship submission should consist at least of a CMP file with a properly centered model, with or without textures, and MAT file containing the texture. It's recommdended to include necessary hardpoints into the CMP. Also, the model creator might provide code for shiparch.ini, goods.ini, and infocard name & description* for the ship. It's also possible to include SUR file into the submission (the hitbox).

2) The creator of original model retains the rights for the model, texture, and sur file (if the latter was provided). Using the model and texture in any mods for Freelancer (except Discovery) and mods for other games is not allowed, unless the permission is granted by model owner.

3) Discovery lead designer (a.k.a Igiss) reserves a right to:
- Change name of the ship submitted;
- Change its description;
- Change/add hardpoints;
- Change sur file, if it does not match the model;
- Change code;
- Change selling location.
Model and texture will not be edited without direct permission of the owner.

4) The roleplay alignment, name, description, and selling location of the new ship is determined to suit the Discovery pre-existing design.

5) Any person who submits ships for inclusion into Discovery Freelancer mod is automatically considered to fully agree with the rules listed above.

* - XML templates for ship description and stats infocards can be provided by request.

[Igiss]

Necessary Hardpoints

In this post I will list all hardpoints that are commonly used for custom ships in Freelancer.

Hardpoints in italics are revolute (has rotation properties, like weapons, turrets, and torpedoes). All the rest are static. HpTorpedo can be either revolute or static, but revolute is preferable.

Direction of hardpoint is generally the Y axis. For example, the turret or mine will face in the direction of its Y axis, and if you place Y inside the ship, the equipment will be placed inside the ship instead of outside. Exception of this rule are all lights. Lights shine in the direction where Z axis points; manipulating other axis is useless. By default, Z is pointed to the front of the ship, and lights without Z customization shine directly forward (which is usually OK for all front lights). HpMount, HpPilot direction must remain default. HpThruster will display thrust effect in the direction opposite to Z axis, so Z should remain default (pointing to the front of the ship) for that. However, thruster equipment model will face Y axis, like any other equipment.

Case of each letter is important! Be attentive. If you place HpDockLight01 on the ship, and HpDocklight01 in the loadout, the game won't recognize the hardpoint, and server error messages will appear.

Hardpoints should not overlap and be placed in same locations.

Hardpoint Reference

Common errors are highlighted in red.

HpMount - Mounting point of the ship. For fighters placed under the center, for capships - under the nose. Must not contain a number (NO "HpMount01").

HpPilot - Placed inside cockpit for fighters, near cockpit for larger ships. For smaller ships should be tested to suit the cockpit space well. Must not contain a number.

HpShield01 - Placed inside the ship. This hardpoint is placed outside for vanilla ships, but for custom models it's usually inside.

HpRadar01 (optional) - Placed inside the ship. Better not to use it at all.

HpEngine01(02,03,04 etc, no more than 9 may work, so no more than 8 recommended).

HpThruster01 (not used for battleships) - Placed near engines, preferably in the center.

HpTractor_Source - Usually placed in front of the ship, near HpHeadLight01. Must not contain a number.

HpHeadLight01(02) - Usually 1, might be 2 depending on ship nose configuration. Note that "Headlight" is used for vanilla ships instead of "HeadLight", but it's already a custom for new models to use "HeadLight".

HpRunningLight01(02,03,04 etc) - Up to 10 for small ships, up to 25 for larger ships.

HpDocklight01(02,03,04) - Usually 2, sometimes 4, might be more if necessary.

HpContrail01(02,03,04) - Usually 2, sometimes 4, might be more if necessary.

HpBayDoor01 - Cargo jettison point, should be placed some way off the ship hull. The larger the ship, the more the distance. Up to 100-200 units away from hull for battleships.

HpBayDoor02 - 2nd cargo jettison point, should be placed some way off the ship, near 01. This hardpoint determines the direction in which cargo will flow. Note that cargo crate will NOT stop when it reaches this spot.

HpCM01 - Countermeausure hardpoint.

HpMine01 - Mine hardpoint.

HpTorpedo01(02) - Torpedo hardpoint, similar to a weapon. Torpedo hardpoints should be of the "revolute" type with minimal turning angles (less than 10-15). Angles determine how far the gun barrel will be able to rotate.

HpWeapon01(02,03,04 etc) - Gun hardpoint. May be used for turrets if it's necessary for some strange reason (and vice versa). Weapon hardpoints are of the "revolute" type with limited turning angles. Refer to vanilla models to see what angles their weapons use. Usually 15-45 is enough.

HpTurret01(02,03,04 etc) - Turret hardpoint. Turret hardpoints are of the "revolute" type with wide turning angles. Setting angle to 180 in both directions is possible when turret won't shoot through any large ship parts. If the turret, for example, is located on the ship side and faces right or left, angle should be limited to about 90 degrees in each direction.

[RingoW]

Thanks for making a list of HP. I just want to add some closer information.

1. The HpShield01 and so on can also be placed on the surface, a bit hidden between some parts, cause the shield generator is a visible equipment and can be destroyed to.

2. The direction, the cargo will be throwing away depends on the position of HpBayDoor01 and 02.
For example: You want the cargo be throwing downside, HpBayDoor01 must be above HpBayDoor02.
They can be placed inside the ship. Off course inside the cargobay, if your ship has one.

3. HpEngine01 and so on should be centered in the exhaust a good part away from the nozzle. Placed at the end of the exhaust might be the best.

The Orientation of the Equipment HP(Mine, CM, Thruster, Shield, Weapon and Turret) depends on the closest mesh.
For example: You want a turret facing straight downside, but the closest mesh has an angle, the HP in the cmp will generated with an angle to.

[Igiss]

In HardCMP, all angles must be specified manually.

HpShield01: placing it externally is possible, but should be avoided whenever possible. No vanilla ships or new Discovery ships have the shield placed outside of the hull. It's better to follow what's common for them mod.

HpBayDoor01 and 02: it's much better to place these externally. Even if HpBayDoor01 is placed 3-5 units outside the hull, the cargo that appears might "shake" the ship, since in the first seconds after cargo's dropped cargo containers somehow increase in size. It's difficult to explain, but I tested alot and came to the following conclusion:

For capital ships, it's better to place the HpBayDoor01 and 02 close to each other (~1-8 units), but far from the ship hull (~15-50 units). Also, there shouldn't be any parts of the ship hull behind the drop point (they can collide when moving, and we don't want that).

For smaller custom ships, HpBayDoor01 and 02 are placed ~1-2 unit from each other, and ~0,8-2 units from ship hull.

HpEngine01: no universal rule exists! different engine types will need different distance from the nozzle.

[Igiss]

If you are updating existing ships/make new versions of Discovery ships, you should check each hardpoint to match the old ship exactly (including letter cases).

This can be done by creating two merged screenshots of hardpoint list in HardCMP, like in this example:



and sending this screenshot with your ship (idea by Doom). Order of hardpoints can be different in two lists, but number of hardpoints and names must match exactly.

Mismatches will result in serverside errors that we'll be able to fix only by player wipe (or keeping old ship instead of renewed one). Check your work before submitting!

[Dusty Lens]

[color=#33FFFF]Ship Symmetry!
For everyone making the new ships.

There are many ship models being prepared for Discovery right now, and - before it's too late - I wanted to point out one slight difficutly that often arises when the ships are adapted into the mod.

Symmetry.

The CMPs that I receive as ship submissions are often not quite symmetrical against CMP coordinates (the coordinates by which hardpoints are aligned). This causes problems when I create new hardpoints, since I have to manually align them from both sides of the ship. I'm mainly talking about left/right symmetry right now; there were cases when the ship was not aligned at all against the CMP 0,0,0 point (the Battlestars, for example), but I never got such ships as user submissions.

Anyway, here's what I'm talking about. The Virage model by Legeonation. The issue is present in lots of models that I got as submissions, and many models from 3rd party ship packs, so don't consider this pic as evidence against this particular modeller.

Here's the thruster hardpoint. Note that it's aligned exactly in the middle of the ship, near the central axis visible on the wireframe. And note the X coordinate (X is side-to-side axis, Y upside-down, Z from the front to the back).


Here's second pic. What happens if the thruster has X=0.000000.

You can see that it's shifted to the left. This might be a slight change, but for off-center hardpoints the numbers are higher. This could potentially lead to incorrectly aligned hardpoints (cause I have to create 20+ hardpoints for each ship and can easily make a mistake) and will be very well visible for those who will use the ship.

Symmetry issues can also be found on the models themselves, regardless of coordinate axis. This is an example:

You can clearly see that two planes have different angle. This is a minor flaw that no one will probably notice in-game. However, it also makes assigning hardpoints more complicated. And if your ship has wings with different length, or assymetrical textures... this definitely won't look good, unless assymetry is intentional.

Another example. Blood Dragon Gunboat by Vaporlynx.

This isn't exactly about symmetry, cause no ships are symmetrical by Z axis (nose=/=engine). However, the 0, 0, 0 point of this ship is shifted far towards the engine. You can see where it is cause I placed a fake hardpoint there (red box).

What's the conclusion for modellers? When converting ships into CMP format, please try to achieve ideal symmetry from left side=/ to /=right side, and let the 0, 0, 0 point be somewhere in the middle of the ship. Also, check if the right side of your model is exactly identical to the other. I know that it's possible, cause many models (including those submitted by users) come with ideal symmetry that cannot be simple coincidence.

This topic should be stickied:

On the issue of developing ship models where modeling symmetry is concerned:

1: Always work on one half of the model. You can always mirror the model across the X, Y or Z axis to ensure that your ship model is symmetrical on both sides.

2: Check the pivot point of your ship. The central pivot point must be located at the origin or 0,0,0. You might have to zoom in all of the way and manually adjust where the central pivot point lies.

3: UV maps and texturing. UV maps are a project of a 3D model on a 2D plane in order to develop a texture. Sometimes you will have to tweak and or adjust these UV points in order to get your texture to work correctly. The best place I've found for UV mapping tips and tricks is www.3Dtotal.com under their tutorial sections. This website has some really good tutorials that will explain the process.