WIP Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Flamethrower

[Botdra]

Yeah, me again. Yeah, another Bounty Hunter mod.

 

I've been using the Flame-Thrower Mod made by Dark_Maul for a while now, but decided to fix some issues I had with the mod. Firstly, you still had the effect of lightning around the character you're using the flamethrower on. Secondly, the force lightning icons were still there. And lastly all the text in the menu and HUD still referred to it as Lightning. I've set out to change that. First thing I did was make an icon - it's just base textures thrown together since I'm not skilled enough to do much more than that.

 

 

 

 

Few questions. First is how/where can I change the text for the Force Powers menu and the text under each Force Power in the HUD? Secondly, I tried emailing Dark_Maul for permission but apparently that email doesn't actually work anymore - can I still release it anyways as long as I give him credit? Lastly I still can't find the damn texture file for the force lightning effect on a player that's hit by force lightning. I think it may be several textures. Anyone able to help?

Thanks.

[Horatio Culver]

For the text, you need to go into both assets0.pk3/strings/English/MENUS.str and assets0.pk3/strings/English/sp_ingame.str to change everything related to lightning.

 

I think the force lightning uses the same effects/shaders as just about everything else electrical. This is probably why Dark_Maul didn't change them. Any map that will electrocute you (like cairn_dock1 in JKO, I can't think of a JKA example off the top of my head) will now use the flame effects. Unless I'm wrong, which is of course a possibility.

 

Finally, if you don't want to worry about using Dark_Maul's mod without his permission, then use the base fire effects. Boba Fett used a flamethrower in the base game, just use those effects.

[Botdra]

Yeah I found that, thanks.

 

Hmmm... well if that's the case that's cool, I can still use it for MP only since I don't know of any MP map where you get shocked. So what would I need to do to remedy that then? I was thinking just finding the images and either replacing them with base images of fire, or replacing them with blank images. Just don't know which images to replace and how the shader would come into it... I suppose I could leave the shader the same and just replace the images but keep the filenames the same, I don't need to do anything else right?

 

I believe his is the base fire effect? Could be wrong. Thanks!

[Horatio Culver]

I just realized that the DEMP probably also uses the same stun effects/shaders. However, I do like the idea of replacing the electrocution images with blank ones. It won't look that bad, even with the DEMP.

 

I would just replace the lightning effect with Boba Fett's flamethrower effect. Then you don't have to worry about Dark_Maul's mod at all.

[therfiles]

To get rid of the stun effect, replace the electric shaders with blank ones. Try these shaders (I think) in the effects.shader:

 

gfx/misc/electric
{
	qer_editorimage	gfx/misc/lightning3
	cull	twosided
	deformvertexes	bulge	0 2 0
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightning3
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen identity
        tcMod scroll 0.5 1
        tcMod scale 3 4.5
    }
}

gfx/misc/fullbodyelectric2
{
	cull	twosided
	deformvertexes	bulge	0 0.25 0
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightning3
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen identity
        tcMod scroll 0.5 1
        tcMod scale -2 -3.5
    }
}

gfx/misc/lightningFlash
{
	cull	twosided
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightningflash
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen vertex
    }
}

[Horatio Culver]

Yay! An expert!

[Botdra]

 

To get rid of the stun effect, replace the electric shaders with blank ones. Try these shaders (I think) in the effects.shader:

 

gfx/misc/electric
{
	qer_editorimage	gfx/misc/lightning3
	cull	twosided
	deformvertexes	bulge	0 2 0
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightning3
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen identity
        tcMod scroll 0.5 1
        tcMod scale 3 4.5
    }
}

gfx/misc/fullbodyelectric2
{
	cull	twosided
	deformvertexes	bulge	0 0.25 0
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightning3
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen identity
        tcMod scroll 0.5 1
        tcMod scale -2 -3.5
    }
}

gfx/misc/lightningFlash
{
	cull	twosided
    {
        map gfx/misc/lightningflash
        blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE
        rgbGen vertex
    }
}

 

Forgive my ignorance, but are you saying I need to find those in the shaders and delete them? Or are you saying I need to use those to replace some shaders? I honestly have no clue how shaders work, despite making a couple in the past and them only working out of luck.

[AshuraDX]

@@Botdra deleting them wont do anything you'll have to edit them , I guess there are 2 possible ways to make the effect disapear :

a. replace textures with pure black textures

b.add thisl ine to each of those shader entries : alphaGen const 0.0

[Botdra]

So bit of an update, I got the Force Menu to change to say "Flamethrower" which is great. Problem is I can't get the text under the icon (the icon when you switch between force powers in-game) to change from Lightning. I replaced every reference to lightning in the MENU.str and sp_ingame.str files to Flamethrower, no dice. And surprisingly there is no reference to lightning in misc.str, mp_ingame.str, mp_svgame.str, or multiplayer.str files. Any ideas?

 

Also, eventually I'll change the description of the force powers and the different levels of the force lightning to something more appropriate, but I just came back from playing a rowdy house show and the creative part of my brain is fried.

 

@@AshuraDX Cool man thanks a lot. Does it have to be black textures though? Are you referring to the alpha channel maybe?

[AshuraDX]

@@Botdra if you're just gonna alter the texture paths for this , yes just pure black images

blendFunc GL_ONE GL_ONE converts the birghtness of oyur texture to alpha so a completely black image will be 100% transparent

[Horatio Culver]

Also, eventually I'll change the description of the force powers and the different levels of the force lightning to something more appropriate, but I just came back from playing a rowdy house show and the creative part of my brain is fried.

Use Wookieepedia. You don't need to be creative, you simply need to use a slightly modified version of their description. Or I could make one, if you want. I've replaced all the weapon descriptions using Wookieepedia articles.

[therfiles]

@@Botdra: Are your string files in your base folder, or your mod folder?

 

Plus, to 'blank out' textures, I just usually copy the clear shader's content to the shader I want to be 'clear'.

 

For example:

clear
{
    {
        map $whiteimage
        blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_ONE
    }
}

I copy this shader's contents to what I want to erase, like so:

 

gfx/misc/lightningFlash
{
    {
        map $whiteimage
        blendFunc GL_ZERO GL_ONE
    }
}

Make sense? May not be the best way, but for a shader noob like me, it works.

[AshuraDX]

that's actually not a bad way , I think

[Botdra]

I think I'll do the descriptions myself, but I'll use Wookiepedia for reference, thanks @@Horatio Culver. In game though, the lightning stages just have a larger effect and more damage every time you add a point/rank to it, yes? Just so I can get accurate descriptions that still fit the effect in the game.

 

@@therfiles: Excellent man, thank you very much. Gonna try this now and get back to everyone. Also not sure what you mean regarding strings. I edited the strings and then put them into a .pk3 in GameData/Botdra, a mod folder for testing my mods. The name of the .pk3 is Flamethrower.pk3, so it should load after the assets.

[Botdra]

Well, I definitely screwed up something. I did just as you suggested @@therfiles and for some reason it messed everything up. The small dust effect that happens when you walk on sand now just displays black squares (I never touched this?), the electricity effect is still there on the player, and now the Force Menu in MP has gone back to saying lightning instead of flamethrower.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, the black squares are not shader related... will figure that part out.

[therfiles]

Well, I definitely screwed up something. I did just as you suggested @@therfiles and for some reason it messed everything up. The small dust effect that happens when you walk on sand now just displays black squares (I never touched this?), the electricity effect is still there on the player, and now the Force Menu in MP has gone back to saying lightning instead of flamethrower.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, the black squares are not shader related... will figure that part out.

 

Check and see if you have any shader conflicts - shaders missing, overwritten, etc (black squares are shown when an image has no shader to remove the background). Did you only touch the electric shaders in the effects.shader? Are all the others still there? Try posting the entire file of what you edited if the problem keeps occuring.

 

Heres the thing with strings. I don't know how to explain this, but in order for strings to work, they need to be "loaded" first. When you put it in a mod folder, and launch the mod via bat or ingame, the regular strings (default) have already been loaded. So, your new strings either have to be in the base folder, or in a mod folder and loaded using a shortcut, with fs_Game set directly. No idea why bats won't work.

 

Make sense? :wacko:

[Botdra]

Check and see if you have any shader conflicts - shaders missing, overwritten, etc (black squares are shown when an image has no shader to remove the background). Did you only touch the electric shaders in the effects.shader? Are all the others still there? Try posting the entire file of what you edited if the problem keeps occuring.

 

Heres the thing with strings. I don't know how to explain this, but in order for strings to work, they need to be "loaded" first. When you put it in a mod folder, and launch the mod via bat or ingame, the regular strings (default) have already been loaded. So, your new strings either have to be in the base folder, or in a mod folder and loaded using a shortcut, with fs_Game set directly. No idea why bats won't work.

 

Make sense? :wacko:

 

Interesting... So in order for me to load these strings without any conflict, how do I launch it via a mod folder properly then? Also, this may be a stupid question, but does the game only load stuff in your base folder if it's in .pk3 form? Or would having a folder with the correct file paths also be loaded? For example, if you had a folder in your base folder called gfx with a bunch of gfx for JA in it, would those be loaded too? That may be my issue.

 

Another update in the description of the effect. I changed from this:

 

 

Effect: Allows Jedi to hurl a devastating electrical attack against enemies

Rank 1 - Jedi launches a single bolt that fires forward, doing instant damage

Rank 2 - Jedi can maintain the Force Lightning for a sustained forward attack.

Rank 3 - Jedi emanate a sustained fan of electricity in a large forward arc, damaging anything in front of them.

 

To this:

 

 

Effect: Allows user to project a stream of burning gas towards their enemies.

Rank 1 - User launches a short burst of flames that fires forward, doing instant damage.

Rank 2 - User can sustain the Flamethrower for a longer forward attack.

Rank 3 - User fires a sustained stream of flames in a large spread, damaging anything in front of them.

 

Thoughts?

[therfiles]

I personally have never used folders to load files over .pk3s, but theoretically if they have the proper folder names (gfx/shaders) it should be fine...no harm and packaging up though to see if thats causing a problem for any reason. I usually like to make sure folders like shaders and gfx that GTKRadient and other modding tools auto generate are deleted so they don't muddle with my stuff. Back to your problem, so is your modded effects.shader in the shaders directory? And in that .shader, you have a crapload of shader entries, along with your edits? I have no idea what would be causing it...is the game giving you a console error message?

 

Your rank descriptions sound great. Good work.

[Botdra]

I personally have never used folders to load files over .pk3s, but theoretically if they have the proper folder names (gfx/shaders) it should be fine...no harm and packaging up though to see if thats causing a problem for any reason. I usually like to make sure folders like shaders and gfx that GTKRadient and other modding tools auto generate are deleted so they don't muddle with my stuff. Back to your problem, so is your modded effects.shader in the shaders directory? And in that .shader, you have a crapload of shader entries, along with your edits? I have no idea what would be causing it...is the game giving you a console error message?

 

Your rank descriptions sound great. Good work.

 

Thanks, glad you like them.

 

Okay just in case I have moved them to a folder named "ASSETSSTUFFZ" just so the game wouldn't load them (I'm assuming). That might have caused some conflicts there.

 

I modified the shader by opening the effects.shader, saving it into the directory that I use to edit all my mods (on the desktop, nowhere near my JA game folders), then replacing the 3 parts you told me to replace with the code you gave, then saved it and put it in my .pk3 for the flamethrower mod under shaders/effects.shader.

 

EDIT: The black sqaures is coming from another mod, not mine. Phew! Still having issues with the strings though, now the force menu doesn't show any words for lightning/flamethrower, and the in-game icon for it displays, but still says Lightning under it.

[therfiles]

Rename your pk3 to zzz_whateveryouwanthere. This MAY work...

[Botdra]

No dice.

[therfiles]

To see if your shaders work, put the .pk3 in base, just to try it out. They should work.

[Botdra]

To see if your shaders work, put the .pk3 in base, just to try it out. They should work.

 

I did, like I said, no dice. ):

[therfiles]

I did, like I said, no dice. ):

 

Sorry, I meant strings, not shaders.

[Botdra]

Sorry, I meant strings, not shaders.

 

Again, I did.