[Help] Creating a SOD File from YesterYears MS3D File Pack

[Admiral*Alex]

Pretty much the title says it all. I was attempting to create a SOD file for the Ulysses from the first Federation YesterYears file pack. After I created a ODF, I them attempted to convert the MS3D file into a SOD file, but ran into the following error: "Couldn't Match a Mesh Node to a Mesh".

I managed to file an old forum post here on MSFC talking about that exact same error ;however, it doesn't seem to be helpful as from my (VERY CRUDE) understanding of the model hierarchy it should be working. I was wondering if someone who created a SOD from the pack could give a tip on what the problem is as everything looks okay (OR if someone from the original team could tell him if the hierarchy was corrupted/bugged on upload or was never working in the first place)

I'm assuming it's a really simple error to fix, but it's all so overwhelming due to health issues I'm probably not seeing it/not reading things correctly.

P.S. My browser crashed right before I was able to post so if I missed something or repeated myself, sorry.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
To check the problem, take a look at the group names in the "Groups" Tab, and then go to the "Joints" tab and compare the names. You will recognize them as they start with a "m_", you must check they all have the same name and you have the same ammount of groups and joints that start with "m_"

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Finally got a chance to work on this project (and not my car...) this weekend.

I renamed the Group name to m_ship (as that's what one of the joints were labeled - it wasn't before). I was also able to link all the hardpoints to their root point and link every thing to h_Scene_root. My problem is now, I can't seem to link m_ship to the h_scene_root point. Once I link those two together, it should be working, I think....

Got any tips?

 

[CptBenSisko]

So.. the most important thing to do when hardpointing ships... you HAVE to click the root hardpoint first before placing a new child hardpoint..
Examples.. first of all, always make sure you are putting your root hardpoint, mesh hardpoints, and h_hardpoints (for your weapons emplacemnts) at the center of the model's axis (center of x,y and z axis).. so h_root or h_scene_root (i use h_root as its less confusing) goes in the center. Name it as such.

Now your mesh hardpoints... must be named m_nameofyourmeshobject. Before you place these, you must click/double click on h_root first. This will tell MS3D to make your new hardpoint a child of the parent hardpoint (h_root). So if you have two mesh objects, mainhull and seconhull, your mesh hardpoints must be named as such, m_mainhull and m_seconhull. Once you have that part figured out, your model pieces will start appearing once you export.

Then you can move onto your ACTUAL hardpoints for weapons and targeting. To place your weapons.. first create h_hardpoints as a child of h_root. Again.. right smack-dab in the center of the model/axis. Once you have these three simple things done, save your model as an ms3d. Always keep a back up in case you screw something up. Because you will. Trust me. Now.. to begin placing your hardpoints for your weapons, you mush select h_hardpoints as the parent hardpoint.. and place your first weapon. You must select h_hardpoints, EACH time. Otherwise the next hardpoint you create, will be a child hardpoint of the previous. This is critical. once you have a couple of hardpoints added.. name them as such "h_hp01", "h_hp02", "h_hp03", etc., going as high as you need to for however many weapons you want.

Once you have added your weapons.. you are ready to export your model.. be sure to always export your model to the sod folder, or if you are working on a side project, export to the folder you are keeping your ships textures in. I would save your .ms3d in this folder as well. If you are exporting to Armada 2, be sure to select the Armada 2 sod as your file type.. otherwise, your model will be invisible except for its lights if the textures have alpha maps.

I hope this little tutorial helps you out in getting started in hardpointing. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any other questions.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

So.. the most important thing to do when hardpointing ships... you HAVE to click the root hardpoint first before placing a new child hardpoint..
Examples.. first of all, always make sure you are putting your root hardpoint, mesh hardpoints, and h_hardpoints (for your weapons emplacemnts) at the center of the model's axis (center of x,y and z axis).. so h_root or h_scene_root (i use h_root as its less confusing) goes in the center. Name it as such.

Now your mesh hardpoints... must be named m_nameofyourmeshobject. Before you place these, you must click/double click on h_root first. This will tell MS3D to make your new hardpoint a child of the parent hardpoint (h_root). So if you have two mesh objects, mainhull and seconhull, your mesh hardpoints must be named as such, m_mainhull and m_seconhull. Once you have that part figured out, your model pieces will start appearing once you export.

Then you can move onto your ACTUAL hardpoints for weapons and targeting. To place your weapons.. first create h_hardpoints as a child of h_root. Again.. right smack-dab in the center of the model/axis. Once you have these three simple things done, save your model as an ms3d. Always keep a back up in case you screw something up. Because you will. Trust me. Now.. to begin placing your hardpoints for your weapons, you mush select h_hardpoints as the parent hardpoint.. and place your first weapon. You must select h_hardpoints, EACH time. Otherwise the next hardpoint you create, will be a child hardpoint of the previous. This is critical. once you have a couple of hardpoints added.. name them as such "h_hp01", "h_hp02", "h_hp03", etc., going as high as you need to for however many weapons you want.

Once you have added your weapons.. you are ready to export your model.. be sure to always export your model to the sod folder, or if you are working on a side project, export to the folder you are keeping your ships textures in. I would save your .ms3d in this folder as well. If you are exporting to Armada 2, be sure to select the Armada 2 sod as your file type.. otherwise, your model will be invisible except for its lights if the textures have alpha maps.

I hope this little tutorial helps you out in getting started in hardpointing. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any other questions.

That was very much appreciated. While I was able to brute force that the other night (I did this years ago, so I knew vaguely what needed to go where, just not the steps/clicks on how to do it), having this written down for later when I attempt hardpointing a ship from scratch is going to be very helpful.

I was able to have pair all the weapon hardpoints to their root hardpoint and link everything back to h_scene_root

 

[Hath]

Hey Admiral if you are looking for some practice how about hardpoint Aad Moerman's Balmung Class Starship.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Hey Admiral if you are looking for some practice how about hardpoint Aad Moerman's Balmung Class Starship.

That's actually on the list, but I didn't know he made a model of one. IIRC there is a Bridge Commander model that I have saved for the future

 

[Hath]

Aad's Balmung Class is available for download here on MSFC. It includes the ms3d and 3 textures files. If you do put together a sod for the Balmung please post a download and make a racoons day. Thanks.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Aad's Balmung Class is available for download here on MSFC. It includes the ms3d and 3 textures files. If you do put together a sod for the Balmung please post a download and make a racoons day. Thanks.

Funny story...I have that saved on my computer in my future projects folder lol. I swore that was a Bridge Commander file. Guess I know what I'm doing next.

 

[Majestic]

Here is a hp map I made that can be merged into any model and edited. Hope this helps.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Here is a hp map I made that can be merged into any model and edited. Hope this helps.

HOLY COW BATMAN! Thanks for the help Majestic. This will come in handy in the future.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Something odd happened when I attempted to merge Majestic's HP map on the model I'm working on.

I deleted the original joints so I could merge/recreate the joints and hierarchy from basically scratch...when the mesh joint was deleted too. All I did was delete the h_scene_root joint then was going to delete the mesh point (as they shouldn't be connected) and they were deleted too. After opening up the model again, I deleted the hardpoints (as the mesh joint was buried), it turns out the mesh joint was connected to h_scene_root (and h_root too but that shouldn't matter).

So now...I have no idea why MS3D is telling me that it couldn't match a mesh node with a mesh when their connected. Or have I been barking up the wrong tree the whole time?

I'll post the model as is in case I'm doing aa terrible job explaining what the problem/you guys an see it with your own eyes

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Something odd happened when I attempted to merge Majestic's HP map on the model I'm working on.

I deleted the original joints so I could merge/recreate the joints and hierarchy from basically scratch...when the mesh joint was deleted too. All I did was delete the h_scene_root joint then was going to delete the mesh point (as they shouldn't be connected) and they were deleted too. After opening up the model again, I deleted the hardpoints (as the mesh joint was buried), it turns out the mesh joint was connected to h_scene_root (and h_root too but that shouldn't matter).

So now...I have no idea why MS3D is telling me that it couldn't match a mesh node with a mesh when their connected. Or have I been barking up the wrong tree the whole time?

I'll post the model as is in case I'm doing aa terrible job explaining what the problem/you guys an see it with your own eyes

"I've been a fool. A fully justified, prudent fool" Leela, Futuruma.

Turns out, I was too specific. I named the Group name "M_ship". Turns out I just need "Ship". Took me a little to figure out the textures

I present - the Ulysses Class Dreadnought from SFC/YesterYears

 

[Majestic]

Glad you got it working and nice to see someone using her.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Nice! That's a cool design as well, is it meant to be a TMP version of STO's Odyssey? Both the neck and the name kind of hint at it...

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Glad you got it working and nice to see someone using her.

She's going to get a lot of mileage soon.

 

[Admiral*Alex]

Nice! That's a cool design as well, is it meant to be a TMP version of STO's Odyssey? Both the neck and the name kind of hint at it...

Not quite...this Odyssey was from the old PC video game "Starfleet Command I and II". IIRC it came in the late 80's/early 90's. That said, it's one of the more popular designs from the game as it was an original design only barely loosely based on the Constitution, Miranda, Oberth, and Excelsior classes from TMP. It fits right in, and still holds up to this day.

My headcanon, the designer of STO's Odyssey could have played SFC I/II back in the day based on his age, so it's possible....unlikely as it's a niche game, but still possible nevertheless.

 

[Majestic]

Nice! That's a cool design as well, is it meant to be a TMP version of STO's Odyssey? Both the neck and the name kind of hint at it...

Ulysses predates the Odyssey by several decades, I believe it first appeared in the late 1980's or early 1990's.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Thanks for the explanation, folks. That is pretty cool, and makes me like the design even more.

My headcanon, the designer of STO's Odyssey could have played SFC I/II back in the day based on his age, so it's possible....unlikely as it's a niche game, but still possible nenevertheless.

See, if it had just been the general design that's similar I might have written it off as a coincidence... but the name Ulysses (which of course is simply another name for Odysseus) makes me wonder. It's a nice headcanon, in any case.