Firstly, I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere (I used the search feature extensively and found nothing)

Now then, I'm AgentSmith_#27 and I'm an embarrassment to learners everywhere.
I'm just starting with the modtools and am trying to make myself an arena map so I can accomplish a few goals and get my feet wet, I've learned some of the basics already (never, ever overestimate me though ) and followed the tutorials that came with the documentation, and used some here on gametoast, but I haven't accomplished a whole lot, here's my biggest problem:

One of my major goals for my first map was to change the yavin sky to the polis massa sky, I followed the tut included in the getting started document and All appeared well, it shows up as the massa sky in ZE etc etc. but when I munge I just get the default yavin sky

Also I've followed the tutorial for adding water that can be found here on GT, (I know it's for BF1 but comments said it can work with BF2) but when I try to click it into my map absolutely nothing happens <--- this isn't that important to me but it would be great if I could discover how to add water for any future maps I do, and finally...

Note: I would never ever post this in as of itself, but I figure it's the easiest way to answer my question as long as I already posted:

is it possible at all for one to say, go into a space map and take the middle ODF in a ship (the part that has the hanger and stuff) and edit it so that I can separate the hanger as a separate object, etc (I mean outside of making an entirely new model)
^I ask this for future reference

I'm guessing it can't be done in ZE, but you could bring the ODF into a separate modding program and do it that way?

Thank you for all the time to read my extremely noobish questions, please do not hate me

is it possible at all for one to say, go into a space map and take the middle ODF in a ship (the part that has the hanger and stuff) and edit it so that I can separate the hanger as a separate object, etc (I mean outside of making an entirely new model)

The hanger is a seperate model, the ODF is called 'hallway' instead of 'hanger' though, which might have caused the confusion.

Note, however, that it doesn't have external polies - you'd still need to put it in something to make it look good. And welcome to modding.

Well that's pretty good to know, Yeah I only opened a space map once in ZE so I don't really know anything at all about it I was just checking for future reference... so could you do stuff (in like XSI at least) take the asset objects and separate parts of them (perhaps if you wanted the death star hanger in a space map) without having to make your own models? I'm assuming you can but then again it took me an hour to figure out how to rotate objects.

tyvm for the prompt reply and welcome, amazing thing this modding..

First off, welcome to Gametoast, enjoy your stay
For your sky: Skies for some reason normally don't seem to get recognized so easily when munging. Did you try a manual clean? There's a topic explaining about it in this forum, it's one of the sticky threads (at the top). If this doesn't work then post back here.

For your water:
Hmmm.... I know it's not very useful to say that 'I followed the tutorials and everything' - but with water, what can you do ? Well, first off - make sure you changed the height (in the height box of the water tool) of the water in the map, that'd be a start. If that definitely is not your problem and it's me being stupid then could you post your ***.req (*** being whatever your world name is) and your ***.fx? Also make sure you've copied the entire effects folder from the world you are using water from, and also the water tga file that goes in your world1 folder.

Welcome, as a new modder myself, I think you'll have fun modding.
Check out Fierfek's Modding Tutorial, it really helped me and is very detailed, like a "... for Dummies" book. Find it on Filefront.
Also, the sky: Did you remeber to copy all of the textures to your world1 folder? I had a problem like that once. :atatpilot: :saber: :greeny:

sampip wrote:First off, welcome to Gametoast, enjoy your stay
For your sky: Skies for some reason normally don't seem to get recognized so easily when munging. Did you try a manual clean? There's a topic explaining about it in this forum, it's one of the sticky threads (at the top). If this doesn't work then post back here.

The way munging works is to look at a file's timestamp. If it's more recent than the last munge, it munges that. Because he copy-pasted the sky file, its timestamp will be a long time before the last munge, therefore visualmunge doesn't bother to munge it. A clean would solve this, but it's just as easy to go in and save the files.

I'm 90% sure that's the issue.

@ Sampip Actually I favorited the manual clean the very first time I registered, my friend's bf2 broke and when he asked me why his bf2 wasn't working I knew he had been trying modding, and that he was getting mad at it so I figured he stopped in the middle of a munge

I will definately try a manual clean, I wondered why it never mentioned a sky file in the munge log... as for the water, I didn't do that much with it so I will try changing the height I did copy the effects folder and tga I know.


@ CressAlbane I've had alot of fun just figuring out a little about odfs, the first time I tried to do a sky I couldn't figure out how to open my sky file so I tried to do ONLY the sky file and any polis massa files with the word sky in them I will give firefek's guide a looksie since I definately am a dummy (at least when it comes to modding)

@ Master_Ben that should explain the sky problem, and now I understand munging quite a bit better, I'm going to do a clean since I've munged it at least 5 times just trying to get the sky to work.

Thank you all for your welcomes and wisdom

You should probably add "SOLVED" to your thread's title now.

Yes! Sky changed! I will try out water a little later when I have time then If it works I will add solved

Edit: Woot! Water worked! Thank you all very much! I will add solved to the topic now

A few closing remarks:

AgentSmith_#27 wrote:so could you do stuff (in like XSI at least) take the asset objects and separate parts of them (perhaps if you wanted the death star hanger in a space map) without having to make your own models?

With XSI, most of what you're doing is making new models (or editing stock ones). If you wanted the DS hanger in a space map, you would have to edit either the hanger or, the easier option I believe, edit the capital ship mesh section that holds it. For editing shipped models, I find that the best was is to use a MSH-->VRML-->XSI conversion pipeline via first the MSH Viewer, then Vivaty. (And then of course MshEx or the Pandemic Tool to export it).

CressAlbane wrote:Check out Fierfek's Modding Tutorial, it really helped me and is very detailed, like a "... for Dummies" book.

Aye, Fierfek spent a lot of time typing up a tutorial that undoubtedly addresses many of the major points of modding, but last I heard (I've never proofread it myself) it's got some mistakes in it. I'm not sure if Fierfek has fixed these errors or not, but if he hasn't, don't be surprised if you follow his tutorial and something doesn't work. Always read the stock documentation first; it may be a little more difficult for someone starting off to understand, but read them anyway. A distressing amount of people skip over the stock documents and go straight to modder-made tutorials. Not a good idea at all.

Fiodis wrote:A few closing remarks:

AgentSmith_#27 wrote:so could you do stuff (in like XSI at least) take the asset objects and separate parts of them (perhaps if you wanted the death star hanger in a space map) without having to make your own models?

With XSI, most of what you're doing is making new models (or editing stock ones). If you wanted the DS hanger in a space map, you would have to edit either the hanger or, the easier option I believe, edit the capital ship mesh section that holds it. For editing shipped models, I find that the best was is to use a MSH-->VRML-->XSI conversion pipeline via first the MSH Viewer, then Vivaty. (And then of course MshEx or the Pandemic Tool to export it).

CressAlbane wrote:Check out Fierfek's Modding Tutorial, it really helped me and is very detailed, like a "... for Dummies" book.

Aye, Fierfek spent a lot of time typing up a tutorial that undoubtedly addresses many of the major points of modding, but last I heard (I've never proofread it myself) it's got some mistakes in it. I'm not sure if Fierfek has fixed these errors or not, but if he hasn't, don't be surprised if you follow his tutorial and something doesn't work. Always read the stock documentation first; it may be a little more difficult for someone starting off to understand, but read them anyway. A distressing amount of people skip over the stock documents and go straight to modder-made tutorials. Not a good idea at all.

For the first part, all of my questions have now been 100% answered, I am very grateful, as for the tuts, I'm trying to read the stock docs as I mess around with that part of modding

Well, I hope to see great mods from ya in the future.
Do NOT fail me, Commander. :vader2: