Hi folks, new poster, modeler (3DS), and I'm looking to mod the space flight in BF2. I'd like to mod the starships space flight dynamics so that there isn't a fixed 'cruise' velocity, but rather have acceleration/deceleration set a ship's 'cruise' speed, as it would in actual space. Is this possible?

I've dl'ed the mod tools and went through the documentation. It looks like there's some ODF parameters I could use, but there's little detail about them. Is there a better resource on ODF parameters than the guide in the Mod Tools?

Thanks!

so instead of a constant speed you'd like a variable? which means that if you press forward it accelerates in the eternal so to say?

Qdin wrote:so instead of a constant speed you'd like a variable? which means that if you press forward it accelerates in the eternal so to say?

Yes! I realize that with a fixed map size this means I'd have to have some way to keep ships within the boundaries, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it (maybe a region that forces ship's to immelmann?).

I'm a fan of the free space sim Orbiter, and originally wanted to mod that software with star wars ships, as it uses real physics, but the work involved to make a full SW vessel sim mod would be fairly huge, even modeling aside. Plus, there's no collision detection, multi-player, or weapon sim capability in Orbiter (yet! there's a multi-play in alpha, along with 3D planet/moon meshes and collision detection).

So, I basically want to know how far I could mod BF2's space flight. I'm not afraid of writing dlls (even if it's possible for BF2), but I'm a programming noob and it would take me a while.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Sorry man, something like that isn't possible. Flyers by their very nature in the SWBF series have a min/normal/max speed (SWBF2 also has a boost speed) and that's it.

And writing dll's would be against the EULA.

Tean, It is possible and I have done it!

Heres how

MinSpeed = 10 //slowest speed
MidSpeed = 50 //normal speed
MaxSpeed = 200 //fastest speed
Acceleraton = 5 //how much speed is gained, lower = slower. so from mid speed to max speed it slowly will go up by the ecceleration

BoostAcceleration = 20.0 ((dito
BoostSpeed = 500.0 ((dito

lol Tean - Why do you think I didn't crush the kiddo's dreams in my post before? I thought you had figured it out like me and Penguin

What exactly does .DLL* files do..?

Oh, I thought he meant that you could just have an unlimited top speed.

Penguin wrote:Tean, It is possible and I have done it!

Heres how

MinSpeed = 10 //slowest speed
MidSpeed = 50 //normal speed
MaxSpeed = 200 //fastest speed
Acceleraton = 5 //how much speed is gained, lower = slower. so from mid speed to max speed it slowly will go up by the ecceleration

BoostAcceleration = 20.0 ((dito
BoostSpeed = 500.0 ((dito

Gotcha, that makes sense to me. Not quite ideal, but workable. I assume that the Acceleration parameter also determines the 'brake'/deceleration speed, or is that another parameter? (Cannot recall if I saw that in the odf guide or not, don't have it here ..)

Qdin wrote: lol Tean - Why do you think I didn't crush the kiddo's dreams in my post before? Wink I thought you had figured it out like me and Penguin Very Happy

What exactly does .DLL* files do..? Laughing

Heh ...

Seriously though, you can't write you're own code for this game and use it in a mod? Bummer..

Thanks for the replies everyone! Now that I got you here, it's time for my stupid question: I can't find the source ODF files within the BF2 or ModTools install folders, on hdd or CDs. Where do I find them? All I see is one Tur folder under /Sides beneath the mod tools installation root.

Thanks!

Mod tools > assets> sides should have them all. If you go into the data folder that's a template used by the mod tools for new maps made, and Tur would be all you find.

Kyross wrote:Mod tools > assets> sides should have them all. If you go into the data folder that's a template used by the mod tools for new maps made, and Tur would be all you find.

Gotcha, thanks. I did a search for all odf files on my system and didn't find them, I'll check again once I'm back in front of the system.


EDIT

Jovin wrote: Gotcha, thanks. I did a search for all odf files on my system and didn't find them, I'll check again once I'm back in front of the system.

Doh. There they are! My file search didn't find them .. thank you so much Microsoft ..

Cheers!


EDIT2

psych0fred wrote:I don't see how your solution accomplishes what you were trying to do since there's a fixed midspeed. What he described was the midspeed as a range I thought. The acceleration and deceleration are just the rates to reach those speeds. So to set the current speed to be fixed at the last acceleration, as Tea said, would require a code change. Yes you can set a high ceiling and lower the acceleration to a crawl, but that's not really the same thing. All that does is slow down the time it takes to reach the next speed threshold.

I understand this. I got the answer I needed, even if it didn't provide a solution I desired, that's all. I can still configure the droid ships (for example) to not be able to flip around on a dime.

In order to do what I'd like to do, I'll need to work on an Orbiter mod .. for some time ...

EDIT3:
Ok, wait. You're an official developer for BF2? Is it possible (techically and/or legally) to code an add-on module for the game, such as one to handle physics processing?

But if I'm not mistaken we just gotta wait 70 years after LucasArts and Pandemic goes down and it won't be illegal anymore!

I still don't know what a .DLL* can be used for... In theory

And what do you mean with 'Add-on' modules? I think there are a trainer or two somewhere to some stuffs, but aren't they kinda Add-On Modules?

Qdin wrote:But if I'm not mistaken we just gotta wait 70 years after LucasArts and Pandemic goes down and it won't be illegal anymore!

I still don't know what a .DLL* can be used for... In theory

And what do you mean with 'Add-on' modules? I think there are a trainer or two somewhere to some stuffs, but aren't they kinda Add-On Modules?

I'm thinking of add-on module in terms of what a program like Orbiter offers: an API that you can write dlls to hook into and change the way the program works. For example, you could write code for Orbiter that would detail the motions of planetary bodies or vessels, and even effectively change the physics by performing calculations in your add-on dll that would determine how the program ran the simulation. I was hoping that BF2 would have similar functionality, alas...

So what I'm going to do is code an add-on module for Orbiter that manipulates a vessels trajectory, to reflect the "Etheric Rudders" (aka gravity based 'thrusters' which allow vessels to fly like airplanes in space) implied in the SW setting.

After poking around the Orbit Hanger mods web site (largest add-on repository for Orbiter) and Orbiter forums (http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html, then click forums) it seems like folks have been discussing, at various times, stuff like a 'Star Wars physics' mod, multi-player support, collision detection, vessel damage simulations, and 3D planetary meshes. I'll just soak in it for a while and see what I can do. There's already some SW models ported to Orbiter, but I'm going to take some stuff from scifi3d.theforce.net and optimize/touch up the models as I can and see what I can do here.

You can already fly a Millenium Falcon (with a 1st person cockpit view) past a scaled Death Star and Star Destroyer (or multiples of these), but it uses Newtonian physics, there's no space flight with it like in the movies (you can twirl the radar dish and turrets though .. lol).

Anyway ... yoinks! and awaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!