Adding a new cruiser to the game

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Modding
1

I’m in the process of modding in a new race - the Collective, with hulls of my own design. Right now I’m in the process of adding a new Paradigm Cruiser hull, which looks like this:

I’ve successfully gotten it to show up in the game and it is fully useable. However, the game does not seem to use the highest resolution version (512x512) when zoomed in or in the ship designer, so it ends up looking very pixelated at those resolutions. I created the dds file using the GIMP dds plugin, by opening the Alligator Cruiser dds, saving it as a new file, then copy-pasting the Paradigm Cruiser images over it at the various resolutions (and saving). Does anyone here know what I need to do to make the game use all the dds resolutions?

In case it’s useful, here’s the current text file for the hull (I haven’t bothered with things like matching hardpoints to turrets yet):

[code][config]
classname = cruiser
name = Collective Pardigm Cruiser hull
guiname = Collective Paradigm Cruiser hull
sprite = Collective Paradigm Cruiser.dds
damagetexture = Collective Paradigm Cruiser_damaged.dds
hulktexture = Collective Paradigm Cruiser_hulk.dds
width = 170
height = 170
powerproduced = 8
cost = 120
racename = coll

[bonuses]
0 = ARMOURBOOST,0.12
1 = INTEGRITYBOOST,0.08

[runninglights]
0 = 116.00,39.00,100.00,5.00,1
1 = 140.00,39.00,100.00,5.00,0
2 = 2.00,110.00,100.00,5.00,1
3 = 254.00,110.00,100.00,5.00,0
4 = 28.00,191.00,100.00,5.00,1
5 = 228.00,191.00,100.00,5.00,0

[engineglows]
0 = 87.00,218.00,32.00,50.00,allianceengineglow.dds,alliance_engine_debris,0,0.50
1 = 169.00,218.00,32.00,50.00,allianceengineglow.dds,alliance_engine_debris,0,0.50

[targets]
0 = 180.75,97.50,0,1,173.00,87.00,188.50,108.00,
1 = 103.50,122.50,1,1,89.00,104.00,118.00,141.00,SHIP_EMMITER_LARGE,(damage_sprite_sparks-103.50-122.50),(damage_sprite_sparks-105.00-116.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-99.00-119.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-102.00-123.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-100.00-129.00),(damage_sprite_smoke-103.00-122.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-110.00-116.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-112.00-110.00),
2 = 166.25,98.25,0,1,160.50,93.00,172.00,103.50,
3 = 202.75,149.75,0,1,193.00,132.00,212.50,167.50,(damage_sprite_smoke-202.00-150.00),
4 = 230.00,154.50,0,1,225.00,148.50,235.00,160.50,
5 = 218.50,153.50,0,1,214.50,148.00,222.50,159.00,
6 = 72.50,99.00,1,1,62.00,89.00,83.00,109.00,SHIP_EMMITER_THIN,(damage_sprite_sparks-72.50-99.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-74.00-98.00),
7 = 91.75,95.50,0,1,87.50,91.50,96.00,99.50,
8 = 137.50,129.00,0,1,129.00,112.00,158.00,146.50,(damage_sprite_sparks-150.00-118.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-132.00-131.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-148.00-116.00),
9 = 39.00,152.50,0,1,35.50,148.50,42.50,156.50,
10 = 77.00,136.75,0,1,71.50,130.00,82.50,143.50,
11 = 53.00,145.75,0,1,44.00,130.50,62.00,161.00,

[slots]
0 = 128.00,91.00,TURRET,(113.00-91.00),(143.00-91.00),
1 = 69.00,112.00,TURRET,
2 = 187.00,112.00,TURRET,
3 = 45.00,131.00,TURRET,
4 = 211.00,131.00,TURRET,
5 = 88.00,182.00,STANDARD,
6 = 168.00,182.00,STANDARD,
7 = 108.00,159.00,STANDARD,
8 = 148.00,159.00,STANDARD,
9 = 79.00,144.00,STANDARD,
10 = 177.00,143.50,STANDARD,
11 = 110.50,115.50,STANDARD,
12 = 145.00,115.50,STANDARD,
13 = 128.00,140.00,STANDARD,

[explosions]
0 = 0.00,143.50,97.00,EXP_FRIGATE
1 = 100.00,123.00,150.00,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
2 = 120.00,147.00,144.00,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
3 = 140.00,46.00,143.50,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
4 = 170.00,74.00,122.00,EXP_BLASTGLARESMALL
5 = 200.00,128.00,152.00,EXP_FRIGATEBREAKUP
6 = 202.00,128.50,127.00,EXP_PLUMES
7 = 204.00,128.50,126.00,EXP_CRUISER_PLUMECENTER
8 = 210.00,0.00,0.00,EXP_STARTBREAKUP
9 = 270.00,128.00,128.00,EXP_CRUISERDEBRIS
10 = 300.00,211.50,144.00,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
11 = 305.00,172.00,114.00,EXP_BLASTGLARESMALL
12 = 310.00,112.50,97.50,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
13 = 340.00,101.00,111.00,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
14 = 366.00,105.50,136.50,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
15 = 400.00,128.00,128.00,EXP_FRIGATEBREAKUP
16 = 400.00,128.00,128.00,EXP_BLASTGLARE
17 = 400.00,128.00,128.00,EXP_ANGLED_DEBRIS

[hulks]
0 = 1,158,214,440,(emit-101-304-hulk_emmiter),(emit-109-281-hulk_emmiter),(emit-146-198-hulk_emmiter),(emit-111-301-hulk_smoke_emmiter),
1 = 222,119,510,440,(emit-276-258-hulk_emmiter),(emit-360-196-hulk_emmiter),(emit-403-284-hulk_emmiter),(emit-409-305-hulk_emmiter),(emit-296-270-hulk_emmiter),(emit-270-268-hulk_smoke_emmiter),(emit-363-243-hulk_smoke_emmiter),(emit-411-292-hulk_smoke_emmiter),

[/code]

2

A stray neuron fired off in my head when i read this post
I think it might have something to do with your DDS plugin or maybe generating mip maps ?

If you want, send me the ship and i will save it in my program to see if that resolves the issue

3

Now that I’ve got around a crash that seems to have resulted from having invalidated saved ship designs, I’ve gotten back to working on this and seem to have fixed it by simply pasting the max res image onto the max res dds layer (using a file copied from the Alligator cruiser) and saving. Not sure what it was I did differently from earlier.

One thing that mystifies me though, is that the lower-res dds layers don’t ever seem to be substituted for the high-res surface - in fact, now that I take a look, it seems like GSB has removed all the dds layers except the high-res one. What’s up with that?