I'd be modding the PBF skin I did to sexy it up a little Don't think that one's ingame atm.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hjbd0sjyke716xo/ships.xml?dl=0

In your Star Sonata folder, back up the ships.xml file in Content/Default/game_data (so you can put the original ships.xml file back in later when you are done.), and replace it with the one in the link above. Name your skin texture pbftexture and your skin glowmap pbfglowmap. Both files need to be .jpg files for it to work. Put both of these files in the Content/Default/Textures/Ships folder inside your Star Sonata folder. This should allow a glowmap to appear for the Paxian Battle Frigate.

I added an update to the blog post that this forum thread is about saying that people who design skins that are chosen to be in the game will get a free copy of their skin.

Tyvm, I'll give it a shot
A couple of thoughts I just had hopefully you might be able to help with also:

1. Could there be a way us non-devs can test skins for ships we don't currently own? Maybe make all ships available somewhere on test server for purchase? Problem being that I can't for instance test skin a UB made ship unless I start fiddling around with the ships.xml
2. Could you possibly poke the forum admin for a skins section? The stuff's a bit all over the place atm :3

And yeah, I think that free skin thingy was mentioned somewhere in bageese's competition thread but nice to know. I made a suggestion that I hope would get more people making more skins if accepted as well

the c1 zebu is just lovely, but as the other guys said i doubt people will buy it much cuz its only for a zebu. . . why not make it free as a unlimited time trial skin. . .

and that police zebra. . . wow just wow. . . so epic. . .

the EF police looks promising but i think that much cylinders flashing will be quite much for the gpu unless you include a toggle switch for it. . .

Samgrahak'ayuguru




Also there were some submissions in the original skin contest thread after the initial deadline had passed, those should be looked at also.

how do you do frame skins i.e. see through

You could do it with an opacity map technically, but it wouldn't look as good as a custom model and I don't think SS supports opacity maps currently for models anyways.

What's more likely is that egrosphere created new models entirely for those ships based on the old models. That's why the prawn has such a high poly count on the frame version.

It seems to be possible to control the transparency of a ship through the alpha channel in a texture file of a .png file type, but I had to make a new visage and specify the material type to be used in order for it to work. I tried to use the /debug testskin function to see if the ship would appear partially transparent, but it did not, meaning that I do not think that there is any simple way for players to test skins that involve transparency via the use of textures by only using the Star Sonata client. The frame skins use modifed versions of the original 3d models for the Hephaetus Machine and Prawn, and players can use this method of making and or modifiying 3d models to test see-through skins using just the Star Sonata client.

I think the next big iteration for the skin system should be a way for skin creators to have an easier time of testing skin changes easily in-game and for ships that they don't currently own.

My simple recommendation for the skin/model/client mod aspect would be a slash command that reloads the UI and any client mods so that skins, models, and UI mods can be updated from in-game.

As for testing ships you don't own, my recommendation would be something like a custom galaxy cluster on the test server that has all of the currently available player ships lined up like a show room. Although, it would probably be a lot easier to just add all ships to be purchasable from AI bases and a lot better for performance than galaxies full of hundreds of ships. If this isn't reasonable, I wonder if there are irrlicht applets that would allow you to simulate an in-game look through the use of a model viewer. Just throwing out ideas here.

These 2 changes would close the gap for people who don't want to mess with the ships.xml or aren't comfortable delving into syntax and file structure to figure it out. It would also make the testing phase for new skins/ship models/client mods you're working on much more streamlined. I have a SSD and I can't imagine how much time is wasted just relaunching the game to reload client assets for non SSD users.

As for the transparency thing, maybe see if someone can include support for opacity maps like you guys did with _NM, _SP for normal and specular overrides. There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do with them and a lot of tricks you can do for optimization in places where you need a lot fewer polys but need models to be see through for whatever reason..

Also a skins section in the forum would be nice

There is a model viewer in the Irrlicht SDK 1.8.1, available here: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/irrlicht/irrlicht-1.8.1.zip
After extracting the .zip file, the model viewer can be bound inside the extracted folder of the . zip file by following this path:

irrlicht-1.8.1/bin/Win32-VisualStudio/09.MeshViewer.exe

After opening 09.MeshViewer.exe, a driver needs to be selected, which can be done by using a keyboard by typing the corresponding letter of the driver you want to use and then pressing enter. After clicking ok on the window that then comes up, click file and then click "Open Model File & Texture". The corresponding model file can then be opened, with the small image of a folder with two small dots to the right of it being the button to go into the folder that the folder you are currently in is. The model can then be selected by clicking on the model file, and then clicking ok. After this is done, go to the "Open Model File & Texture" and open the skin file that you want to test on the model using similar steps to open the model file. It seems that the model and texture can be changed at any time by using the "Open Model File & Texture" dialog box, it appears that the model viewer will detect whether it is a model or texture file being opened and will either then change the model and texture.

The model viewer can also open animated .x model files, and the speed and direction of animation can be controlled by the slider under the word "Framerate" in the window with the title "Toolset" that is there when you open the model viewer.

Two different methods for looking around your model can be used, which can be selected from the Camera menu near the top of the mesh viewer window. In the mode called "Maya Style" You can pan around the model by right clicking and dragging, and rotate around the model by left clicking and dragging. In the mode called "First Person", you can look around by moving the mouse and by using the arrow keys or numpad keys (with num lock off). In order to exit the "First Person" mode press the Esc key.

Many of the model files for ships (located inside the Star Sonata folder in Content/Default/Models/Ships) have names that are similar or the same as the ship that they are used for (for example, Zebucart.obj for the Zebucart and Prawn.obj for the Prawn). Some other model files that may not be similar to the name of the ship they are used for are listed down here :

CapitalShip01.obj: Earthforce Frigate.

CapitalShip02.obj: Earthforce Destroyer.

CapitalShip03.obj: Earthforce Cruiser.

CapitalShip04.obj: Earthforce Battlecruiser.

CapitalShip05.obj: Earthforce Battleship.

CapitalShip06.obj: Earthforce Dreadnought.

OlympusShip2.obj: Hephaestus Machine, Poseidon Wave, Zeus Throne, Ares War Chariot, Argeiphontes Hermes.

Hepheastus.obj: Hephaestus Machine+.

Zeus.obj: Zeus Throne+.

Poseidon: Poseidon Wave+.

Ares.obj: Ares War Chariot+.

Hermes.obj: Argeiphontes Hermes+.

Nutshell.obj: Equanimizer, Equanimizer+, Rotting Equanimizer, Equaminizer, Zauron's Floating Eyezer.

RP Dread Fin.obj: Red Photon Warship.

RP Carrier.obj: Red Photon Carrier.

RP Shmonk Freight fin.obj: Red Photon Support Cruiser.

RP DM Freight fin.obj: Red Photon Logistics Cruiser.

Delquad.obj: Delquadrikamdon.

CS1.obj: Vaziayu.

CS2.obj: Antuayu.

If there is a ship not listed above that you want to know the corresponding model file for, post in this thread and I will try to tell you what it is.

Not all ships can be viewed in the model viewer described above because they are made of many models joined together via a visage file (for example the Wattage).

The Subhatt'ayu and Isvas'ayu are composite models so they cannot be viewed in full with the model viewer, but their parts can be individually viewed.

Models for Subhatt'ayu: HF1_Main.obj, HF1_Front_C.obj, HF1_Rear_C.obj
Models for Isvas'ayu: HF2_Main.obj, HF2_Front_B1.obj, HF2_Front_B2.obj, HF2_Rear_B.obj

Is it possible for people to get their hands on the original layers used by designers?
I know some people like to start from scratch but a lot of the skins I think work well are themes on the original design, especially true if you're keeping the bump maps.
Creating (or re-creating) the layers took probably 2/3+ of the time I've spent on skinning.