Messages

1

Game Assets / Re: Model Lights

« on: July 09, 2016, 01:12:06 »

I think it's just the luminance map that gets disabled (or rather fades out). Anything painted white on that texture map normally glows on its own, even when that part of the model is in the shade. When the ship gets damaged, that effect fades out and the luminance map is essentially disabled - thus none of the painted lights glow anymore.

2

Modding Tools / Re: Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: January 24, 2016, 15:35:33 »

Ah, nice to see the old converter working again

Yeah, I've started to develop a new and shiny converter, but I fear "Elite: Dangerous" and work has slowed me down the last few weeks. Good to know that the old converter is working again, so people don't have to wait for me to start modding.

While we're at it: any feature requests for the new custom converter? The current plan is to support everything the old one did, make the UI more intuitive and add a few new features:
(1) direct support for normal maps, not just bump maps
(2) support for 3d file formats other than just Lightwave, e.g. 3DS Max, Maya, Blender, etc.
(3) support for more texture file formats, including .bmp, .png or .jpg

For (2) I'll need some files to test the converter against. So if anyone is able to provide me with a fully rigged sample model in any common 3d format other than Lightwave, I'd greatly appreciate it. The hard thing will be to support all the game parameters attached to the model such as #blink#, #boosters#, #slot n#, etc. Not sure how easy it is to replicate these parameters in other modeling applications and how best to extract that info in the converter.

3

Modding Tools / Re: Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: January 13, 2016, 12:26:28 »

Is anyone still running the old converter and could post a screenshot of it? I'd just like to have a look at the options that were available and how they were called and I can't do that right now on my current OS.

4

Modding Tools / Re: Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: December 14, 2015, 18:45:37 »

I'm not an artist, so wouldn't have much to contribute to a graphics overhaul.

But great news about that converter source code - I should be able to produce something usable based on that. Now I just need some more free time...

5

Modding Tools / Re: Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: December 13, 2015, 20:13:09 »

In principle, writing a custom converter wouldn't be that complicated: the stock model/texture converter isn't all that fancy, too, and - except for the issues with modern OS's - works pretty well, right?

The crux will be file formats: in order to make a useful converter, we need to completely understand the file formats Nexus uses for its textures and models. Actually just for the models - I already reverse-engineered the texture file format before and should have my docs about it somewhere on my HDD.

Yeah, but the models. I know enough about that format to extract a Nexus model, even including animations and stuff... but there are still large sections of the file format that I just don't understand yet. Writing a converter before fully understanding the target file format will be ... pretty hard, I guess.

Maybe someone knows the original programmers, who designed that file format for Mithis, and could persuade them to help us fill in the blanks, if they still remember the details? Or just someone with a talent for reverse-engineering 3d data?

6

Modding Tools / Re: Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: November 25, 2015, 09:25:56 »

Yeah, but what exactly is missing or different in Win10, that the converter just keeps crashing?

I mean, I could just run an older OS in a VM, but that seems like overkill just to get that one tool to run... and I'd need another OS license.

7

Scripting / Re: Speeding up the IP drive

« on: November 24, 2015, 20:38:32 »

Yeah, you can see my attempt at it in my Freespace mod's "universe\mod_missions\includes\_include_me.inc". Have a look at the MACHINE "WarpIn" code and see if any of it is useful to you. It can be invoked via an "MEvent(MakeShipWarpIn, E.ship := M.MyShip);" command and just plays a certain effect and then moves the ship a certain distance.

It's a bit of a hackjob and definitely inspired from the B5 mod, but worked fine for me.

8

Scripting / Re: IDEs and custom language

« on: November 16, 2015, 11:50:56 »

Drat. Some years ago (! time sure does fly) I've created a custom one... with collapsable rules and states... Now I'm too lazy to do it again.

You can use mine, if u wish (see attachment). I, too, am using Notepad++ for all of my scripting. Would be really great to have a powerful IDE like Visual Studio with IntelliSense and stop and resume debugging capabilities, but I fear N++ is as good as it gets for Nexus scripting.

Regarding the attached XML: you can import it in Notepad++ under "Languages"->"Define your language"->"Import..."

You might have to change the colors to better fit your default color scheme. I'm using Notepad++'s "Ruby Blue" style with white text on a dark blue background and the syntax highlighting colors for my Nexus Script XML have been adjusted to nicely fit into that color scheme. If you're using black text on white background per default, you will probably have to change those text colors.

I probably also missed some keywords or operators, but so far it works fine for my typical use case.

9

Modding Tools / Issue running Nexus' model / texture converter

« on: November 07, 2015, 14:55:05 »

A while ago I did a fresh Windows 10 install and since then I can't run Nexus' model / texture converter. As soon as I try to start it, it displays an application error dialog and tells me, that the application could not be started (also giving the error code 0xc0000142).

Does that sound familiar to anyone? I remember having trouble starting the converter back on Windows 7 as well, but I don't remember the actual error message and how I eventually got it to run.

Without the converter, I cannot bring in new assets or make changes to old ones... kind of kills Nexus modding for me

10

Off-Topic / Re: Hello... Anyone here?

« on: October 20, 2015, 18:54:10 »

Yeah, I'm still visiting. As you say, most of the new stuff here is spam, though... gotta find a way to get rid of these new spambot registrations

11

Help / Technical Support / Re: [GUIDE] Widescreen support

« on: February 15, 2015, 18:33:26 »

Yes, you need to extract the "universe\engine\rendering.ini" file from nexus_00.dat. If you don't get datool to work, you might find DatXtract easier to use.

12

General Discussion / Re: Nexus Launcher beta - need feedback

« on: August 27, 2014, 10:12:00 »

I've been made aware of an incompatibility with the GoG release and attached a fixed version of the launcher to the original post. Or just click here (if you're logged into the forum). If you have the GoG version, you need to run the launcher as administrator to make it work.

For the technical minded:
The GoG version by default launches with administrator privileges. In Windows Vista and above this causes the game to store its settings in a different part of the Windows registry than it would otherwise. To be precise, the GoG version stores everything in (in a 64-bit Windows version):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Mithis\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident

... while the normal location if not run as administrator would be:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\Machine\Software\Wow6432Node\Mithis\Nexus - The Jupiter Incident

So basically, the launcher would look at the wrong key in the registry and thus not find the Nexus installation. I've made a few changes to how it discovers the correct registry key and it should now work with the GoG version out of the box. You need to run it as administrator, though, just like the actual game.

13

General Discussion / Re: Where's the NexusWiki??!!!

« on: August 13, 2014, 01:52:43 »

Probably. I've been trying out various ways to get rid of all the spam pages and was mass deleting a couple thousand orphaned pages (a page is orphaned, when no other page links to it - it's essentially unreachable unless you deliberaty search for it). About 99.99% of orphaned pages constitute spam, so I figured that might be the way to go. Seems I've accidentally also deleted your page, which I'm sorry for.

But really... the wiki has about 40'000 pages now and only a few hundred of them (at best!) are legitimate content. It's going to take a while to delete all the spam and some legit pages might get caught along the way, although I'm doing my best to try and avoid it.

Spam bots are already registering new accounts so I'll have to look into good methods to stop that from happening as well. At least they can't edit or create pages anymore, which is something at least.

... another idea would be to move to a professional Wiki hoster like wikia.com. Might also get more exposure over there.

14

Help / Technical Support / Re: esc key doesn't work ingame?

« on: August 11, 2014, 18:38:32 »

Haha, no problem, mate. Glad I could help you

15

General Discussion / Re: Where's the NexusWiki??!!!

« on: August 11, 2014, 18:36:03 »

Sorry, guys. Haven't been very active here for a while. For now I've restored the Wiki and updated its software to the most current version. The old crappy Nexus skin is gone for now, so it looks just like any other wiki... but at least the content is back.

I've also restricted page editing to a select few users, who I know not to be spammers: GeoModder, LordValarian, The Old Dragon and myself. If anyone else wants to edit stuff, please contact me here in this forum.

I'm still not sure how to deal with all the spam in the Wiki. The database is now 14 GB in size and needs some serious cleaning. I'll have to find out how to permanently delete all the bad content or how to transfer only the good stuff to a new fresh wiki database - if anyone has experience doing this kind of stuff with the mediawiki software, please get in touch with me

... as for the unanswered emails - not sure, what happened there. I'll have a look at my spam filters so I won't miss your mails next time.

16

General Discussion / Re: Modding tools not functioning

« on: February 03, 2014, 15:05:32 »

The texture format is simple enough, so writing a new texture converter would be possible. The trickiest parts would be to include DXT compression and normal map generation (from those provided bump maps), but that should be manageable.

Models are a problem though. I've reverse-engineered most of the model format so I'm able to extract most useful info from a model file - like geometry, material information and probably even animations (haven't yet tried to extract animations, but I know the format they're stored in). However, I don't know EVERYTHING stored in these model files and there's quite some data I can't yet put my finger on for what it's used in Nexus. Because of that, creating a model converter will be difficult or even impossible unless someone figures out the missing pieces.

-----------------

On a side note: does the model viewer still work? I ask because the model viewer converts models and textures on the fly and stores them in a /temp/ subfolder in Nexus. That could be used as a temporary workaround: open your .lwo/.lws model in the model viewer and then grab the model from the /temp/ folder and copy it to the correct location.

... cumbersome if you want to convert lots of models / textures, but at least it's something.



PS: What graphics card do you use, anyway? Just asking, because it works fine here for my even with the latest drivers (using AMD HD7870).

17

General Discussion / Re: Where's the NexusWiki??!!!

« on: January 13, 2014, 23:21:45 »

Had to disable it because of excessive spamming. The wiki database has actually grown to about 15 GB in size, which would soon fill up all my available webspace.

I want to migrate its (good) contents to a new wiki and set much stricter rules about who is allowed to edit pages and who isn't - I just haven't come around to actually do it yet.

I'll see if I can get it online in read-only mode in the meantime, so at least the content is available again for your viewing pleasure.

18

General Discussion / Re: Cinema Mode Camera Control

« on: December 19, 2013, 23:44:37 »

Not without enabling the ingame GUI again. As far as I know there is no way to disable the GUI and still be in control of the camera. Well, except for writing your own camera scripts into the mission file, of course.

I've attached a .zip file containing a new mission type which uses the cinema mode's AI while enabling the GUI and camera controls. Just extract the compressed files to your Nexus directory in

<path-to-nexus-folder>\mods\NEXUS Skirmisher\_templates

Then select "ai_mode" as mission type when creating your skirmish mission. Also make sure to not use "race_player" as one of the fleet races to make it a true AI-vs-AI battle.

19

General Discussion / Re: WHERE"S THE GOLD?

« on: November 29, 2013, 00:57:07 »

Ok, scratch that... just had to activate a security question again after about two dozen new spammers registered today and started posting spam on the forum. Yeah, sorry for any inconvenience caused by that but I can't patrol the forum every few minutes to remove spam posts and delete accounts.

20

General Discussion / Re: WHERE"S THE GOLD?

« on: November 28, 2013, 14:43:45 »

@iDisOrder:
I feel your pain, mate, but these security measures have been put in place to combat the numerous spam posts appearing almost every day here on this forum before.

I have now deactivated the poor security question, but captcha entry and email verification will remain in place for anyone wanting to register an account here. It only needs to be done once and is normal procedure for most communities out there.

Regarding your password length: I'd advise you to read up on password security (e.g. here). In summary:

• never use the same password for multiple sites / accounts
• the longer your password, the better (at least 8 or more letters)
• don't use actual words or names for your passwords, but rather "random" combinations of letters, digits and symbols (and please not your birthdate!)
• for bonus points, change your passwords on a regular basis

I know it's inconvenient, but you shouldn't skimp on security.

21

Scripting / Re: Target Bearings

« on: August 05, 2013, 02:30:14 »

From the top of my head, this should be:

Code: [Select]

// Calculate a vector from your ship's position to your target:
targetVector := VSub(Target.Position, Ship.Position);

// now calculate the heading and pitch from that
// result will be:
//          targetRotation.X => heading
//          targetRotation.Y => pitch
//          targetRoation.Z => bank (always 0 after V2Rot)
targetRotation := V2Rot(targetVector);

// make the ship point in the given direction:
ForceOrient(Ship, targetRotation.X, targetRotation.Y, whateverBankYouWant);

Didn't test it and didn't write any Nexus script in a while, so syntax or functions might be a bit off.

22

Help / Technical Support / Re: Unable to Use Skirmisher

« on: July 29, 2013, 23:50:15 »

Yeah, that sounds like a side effect of installing the game into your "Program Files (x86)" folder. Newer versions of Windows (Vista and newer) protect these folders from unauthorized write access. Usually the program trying to write something into a "Program Files" subfolder would either trigger an admin authorization dialog by Windows or just fail. However there's a backwards compatibility mode for older apps such as Nexus and the Skirmisher. Any attempt to write files there would instead redirect the process to this alternative directory in %LOCALAPPDATA%/VirtualStore. That may very well mess things up and lead to files not being found or saved incorrectly.

The most easy solution would be to reinstall Nexus outside of the "Program Files" folder, e.g. in:

"C:\Games\Nexus" (or similar)

Thankfully Steam supports installing apps outside the default Steam folder, so this should make things work for you.

23

General Discussion / Re: Modding tools not functioning

« on: March 03, 2013, 13:39:30 »

Hm... tried creating a new blank mod folder, selecting that in the mod tools and starting the converter then? And made sure that it has proper read/write access to the mod folders, if Nexus might be installed in C:\Program Files\?

I'd also try reinstalling DirectX, preferably the version that came with Nexus, if there was DirectX included in the install. Maybe some old D3DX library now missing after your reformat, if you also reinstalled Windows?

Other than that, I don't have a clue.

24

Off-Topic / Re: Back in the Nexus

« on: January 04, 2013, 16:36:26 »

Welcome back

25

General Gaming / Re: Humble THQ Bundle

« on: December 10, 2012, 23:55:14 »

That's nice, although I already own that one, too

... well, now I have it on Steam as well ... not going to complain about that.