NEXUS Skirmisher rewrite

[Arparso]

1 - I'd love too, but I just don't have the time. The old Skirmisher still works (well, mostly) and a new version wouldn't really improve the functionality all that much, but still require a shitload of work to get developed. That's a lot to pay for a rather small payoff (considering the small Nexus community) and I simply can't afford it right now.

Of course, with the possibility of Nexus 2 on the horizon, there's also the problem of developing tools, that'll become obsolete next year (or whenever the game comes out, IF it gets released).

2 - The model is included with the game, but I don't think it ever gets used anywhere. When you extract nexus_00.dat, you can find it in meshes\aliens\feher_hajok\feher_destroyer.msh

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

1- well, you do make quite an arguement there... maybe a few years down the road perhaps?

2- Really? huh, guess theres more unfinished stuff in the game than i thought, does that ship have a name?

3- also, is this nexus_00.dat file located somewhere else? my copy has seemingly misplaced the _00.dat and _.01 dat files if that is not the case...

4- can you simply extract them in it's current state and get the files?

[Mularac]

you can't have misplaced those files, the quite literally have everything the game need to run!
They're located in the main nexus directory

[Arparso]

Yeah, nexus_00.dat should be in the base folder of your Nexus installation, right beside nexus.exe and "Nexus Skirmisher.exe", if you have installed the Skirmisher.

You can extract it using elFarto's datool (command-line utility) or by using my own DatXtract tool, which has a simple GUI to make life easier.

I'd suggest not to extract it into the Nexus base folder, but rather a separate directory... unless you want to mess with Nexus' campaign or anything.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

hah, thanks for the tip man!

you two truly are the jacks of your trade, you know about this game inside and out like if it was your own house. 

i tried downloading elFarto's datool, which fouled up, ill probably use your DatXtract tool. If you're Skirmisher is so reliable DESPITE all those bugs you were talking about im sure your DatXtract tool will come in quite handy.

Btw, just out of curiosity, is your avatar from 3:10 to yuma?

EDIT: Ok, i downloaded the sucker successfully, now what?

[Arparso]

Well, start DatXtract, open your nexus_00.dat and extract the files to some folder? Then you can use Nexus' model viewer (in the "mod_tools" subfolder of Nexus) to look at the extracted models (in the extracted "meshes" folder), for example. Or you can have a look at the campaign mission scripts, the sounds or music or whatever else you want to mess with.

And yeah, that avatar is from "3:10 to Yuma" - probably my favourite "modern" Western

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

Okie dokie.

and nice... i recognized the character almost right off the bat, that was a pretty good movie.

EDIT: Its telling me it cant find the right program to activate it, now what? ?

[Arparso]

What exactly does what program tell you?

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

Nevermind, i had internet explorer find an appropriate program to open it, but before i do anything...

should i use a program such as stuffit expander, WinAce or BitZipper on it to use it?

I want to be sure, when i first coded it was on a very old game. If you guys have ever heard of "Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon" that was the game i modified the coding for. I made a tiny error and i havent been able to fully uninstall it since... but i learned my lesson.

[Arparso]

You mean with the "DatXtract.rar" you downloaded? Yeah, that's an archive and you'll need to extract with any RAR-compatible compression tool. 7-zip can do that, supports a whole bunch of other archive formats and is completely free.

Included in the RAR is my actual tool as .exe-file, which will be able to open and extract "nexus_00.dat". You don't need to install or uninstall it at all - just run it from anywhere you like. The only requirement is Microsoft .Net Framework 4 (Client Profile).

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

WOAH! holy crap!

i was right... theres a BOATLOAD (get it? BOAT load? HAH!  ) of ships in here that you never see in the game, i wonder if these can be used in the skirmisher. i can see gun mounts on them!

DUDE! i just ran into an alternate version of the white cruiser!

Has anyone heard rumors or know of a mod that has these ship models im looking at finished? they look AWESOME (the carrier looks rather odd though. )

Im looking at the folder in the meshes section labeled "Feher_Hajok"

Its annoying that the game's .mission files, .mach files, and mesh names are almost entirely in Hungarian.

Overall i got a  question from this:

Is there a way to translate all this mess?

[crimsonsabre]

Hello all,
    I actually had a thought about the positioning of ships in the skirmish. I will try to mock up some UI later today or tomorrow, but the general idea is the same as the map screen in X3: Reunion and X3: Terran Conflict (I have not played X, or X2 so I do not know about those).
     Have representations of the ships on two plains, one the X-Z coordinate plain, and the other the X-Y coordinate plain. This way, even if dragging the ships around proves too difficult, the user should be able to change the literal coordinates and they should get some feedback as the coordinate plains re-draw themselves to reflect the new coordinates entered.

Again, UI mock ups to come sometime soon.

[crimsonsabre]

Ok here are some mock ups for a system that I think might work alright.

A couple things that might be relevant, I know absolutely nothing about the Nexus coordinate system now, so I used some arbitrary ones that have their origin in the middle of the map. Also I think I may have miscounted a by a line or two while adding the ship representation, so sorry.

The first two attachments show how a ship would appear in both views with the same three dimensional coordinates, and the third shows how the screen might redraw itself if the X coordinate was changed from -1200 to 0 and the user were looking at the X-Z plane.