Contents |
Things to know before you start
Tools needed
Before you mod this part of the game you will need the following tools (depending what you want to mod in it some of the utilities will not be necessary):
- Ressource Hacker
- A 2d graphics program
- A 3d graphics program
- a microphone and sound editing software
DLLs
The dlls you shall be working on are the following:
- Tactical.dll
- Voicefxa.dll
- Voicefxe.dll
The Z-buffer Issue
This is a theory developed by several of the Reloaded team modellers, in an attempt to further understand Rebellion and its limitations. The Z-Buffer Issue explains why certain models have in-game glitches, where areas of the model dis-appear and re-appear while rotating around the 3d model.
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What is the Z-Buffer?
The z-buffer is a buffer (A pocket of memory, either physical or virtual, used to store data for a period of time) used to store co-ordinates for a 3d engine regarding the depth of 3d objects and faces/polygons in a scene or environment. This information is then used by the engine to determine what faces need to be rendered. As 3d engines are designed to be efficient, they usually only render faces that can be seen by the user - faces that cannot be seen are disregarded in that render, the Z-Buffer is used to determine some of the faces that cannot be seen.
For more information regaurding what a Z-Buffer is, look here: Wikipedia Z-buffer
The Effect
A side effect of the Z-Buffer is Z-Fighting, or Z-Buffer Fighting. Z-Fighting is caused by a lack of accuracy within the Z-Buffer when determining what faces or sections of the face to render. The result is very visual, where sections of the model become distorted as over lapping faces "fight" to be rendered.
For Rebellion, the effect is a little different. Instead of the engine trying to decide what pixels to render per face, the engine decides which faces to render as a whole when confronted with z-fighting. This is why some of the original models, and a lot of the newer models, can have faces missing every now and again.
This appears to be the result of a very small z-buffer as well as other aspects of Rebellions 3d engine.
- Examples
- Screen captures to come soon. . . I just need to re-instal Rebellion*
The Fix
Unfortunately, the Z-Buffer Issue is due to the game engine used in Rebellion. As such, it is hard coded and cannot be fixed. That being said, modellers have been refining their techniques in order to avoid the symptoms created by the small Z-Buffer. The main thing that modellers need to avoid and pay attention to is the distance between model faces to one another as well as avoid over lapping faces. This limits the detail that can be put in the model as well as the poly count. It is also advised for the modeller to make the model from a single object, by extruding faces or via other methods, in order to avoid the overlapping problems.
Older models suffering from Rebellion's z-fighting can under go modifications to try and eliminate troublesome. The repairs vary depending on model design and how it was made, though the general idea is to eliminate internal and unseen faces (which occur a lot when models are made of several object aligned with one another). This can be done by using boolean operators, or subdividing the troublesome face, and deleting the un-needed faces.
Editing
Changing the GUI
To modify this you shall be working on the Tactical dll. The best way to start is to extract what you want to change so as to have a reference to work (for dimmensions and all that). To do this:
1. Open Tactical.dll using Ressource Hacker.
2. Expand the Bitmap folder.
3. Here you shall find a lot of files most of them with names formed of numbers(1000, 1501,...). To get the bitmap simply expand these folders, click the ressource then click Action>Save Bitmap[xxxx : 1033].
4. Select the folder where you which to save the bitmap and how you wish to call it and click save.
Now that you have reference you can start modifying in your 2d graphics program. Respect dimensions and color palette! Once you have done the modifications you surely will want to put it in the game. To do this is rather simple.
1. Go back in the Tactical.dll and expand the resource you wish to change.
2. Right click on the resource and select "Replace resource".
3. In the new window, click "Open file with new bitmap" and select your bitmap.
4. Click replace.
Now save your changes and open Rebellion to see how they look.
Changing the ship models
Background info
The format Rebellion uses for its models, is the one that comes with Microsoft's DirectX engine, .x respectively. The game stores these and the textures in the tactical.dll.
To open and modify the dll, you need to download Resource Hacker and extract it in a new folder in your game directory. The entries inside the file are sorted by cathegories, mostly based on their filetype. The exception here is, that the models are stored in the 301 folder, while the textures rest in the 303 one.
If you open the 301 folder now, you can see, that each major entry (for example (2010) always has two subentries. That is, because Rebellion uses 3 level of details (LOD) for each ship. Usually the major entry, like 2010 is the most detailed model and shown, if if you zoom in close to the ship in the game. 2011 would be used for the medium range, while 2012 is selected for the far view and usually not that detailed at all. This way of showing the models requires less memory and processing power from your computer and allows for smoother battles, even with large fleets.
If you want to replace the models you have to select one of the original slots and replace its three LOD models with the new ones. Adding new models is not possible, btw.
Below is a list of the starting entries of each ship, originally in the game:
Alliance
- 2010 Mon Calamari cruiser - 2020 Bulk cruiser - 2030 Assault Frigate - 2040 Nebulon B frigate - 2050 Rebel Escort carrier - 2060 Corellian Corvette - 2070 Gallofree Medium Transport - 2080 CEC Action VI Bulk Transport - 2090 Corellian Gunship - 2100 Alliance Dreadnaught - 2110 CC-7700 frigate - 2120 CC-9600 frigate - 2130 Bulwark battlecruiser - 2140 Liberator cruiser - 2150 Dauntless cruiser
Empire
- 2510 Strike cruiser - 2520 Lancer frigate - 2530 Interdictor cruiser - 2540 Carrack cruiser - 2550 Victory Star Destroyer - 2560 Imperial Star Destroyer - 2570 Super Star Destroyer - 2580 Assault transport - 2590 Galleon - 2600 Victory 2 Star Destroyer - 2610 Imperial 2 Star Destroyer - 2620 Star Galleon - 2630 Imperial Escort carrier - 2640 Imperial Dreadnaught
Replacing models
There are two ways to do this. One is easier and lot faster, but the author of this entry only came up with it, after going through the older routine one too many times :)
1) Simply download the Rebellion model importer, read the instructions in the enclosed readme file about how to set it up and the whole process will take about 30 seconds.
2) While it is firmly suggested, that you use the above method, since it is an automated version of the following, you can of course also do this the hard way.
Assuming you already have your 3 finished .x models, open the tactical.dll with Resource Hacker, go to the 301 folder and select the entry you want to replace. Clicking in the View menu and there on Expand Tree makes it easier to find it. Now right-click on the entry's 1033 item and select replace resource in this new menu. A new window will open and you'll be able to select your .x model with the open file with the new resource... button. After you did this, enter the following in the text boxes, that will now show below the filename:
Resource Type: the cathegory/folder the model will be in -> 301 for models Resource Name: the number of the entry being replaced -> 2010 for the close LOD Mc80 cruiser, for example Resource Name: always 1033
Click on the replace button and you're set.
Now, complete this process for the medium and far LOD models and you have the ship fully replaced. After you've done this a few times, you'll see, why the first way was suggested to you from the start ;)
Don't forget to save your tactical.dll afterwards, or the changes will not be permanent !
Sometimes, RebEd will not show the model in the preview window and crash. That often happens, if the model was saved with Lith Unwrap, for example, but that's nothing to worry about. Just fire up the game and look at it there.
