sigget Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 The purpose of this forum is for us to have a place where we can gather our combined knowledge of what works and what doesnt when modding this game. Information such as format descriptions, tips and tricks, and so on. If everything works as they're supposed to you should be able to edit all the posts made here. And please do! Try to keep the number of posts _very_ low and instead alter the posts already made. By creating threads we can introduce the concept of chapters. So lets create THE ufo:am documentation together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 And before everyone start posting, we have to decide the structure of this forum. I will add some thoughts on the matter soon, and please do the same everyone! I will pin this topic as our "brainstorming" spot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aralez Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Maybe we could do a thread for every txt file, e.g. listofpeople.txt, listofcreature.txt, and in this threads we post the tips, explanations etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Structure:I suggest we split it into categories, and that each new post in each category get a number. Say that category one is VFS. Every new post to this category should be named:1.00: VFS - Virtual File System1.01: How to create VFS1.02: How to unpack VFS 2.00: Gamedata.vfs - The main data file2.01: Main categories of Gamedata2.02: Armor reference And under each subject/post there should be a index in the first post, and under categories. I will make one post to show you what I mean. Categories:1: VFS - This category should include VFS information of all kinds2: Gamedata.vfs information3: Localizationpack.vfs information4: Savegame information5: Configuration information6: VFS tool information/guides7: Alpine information/guides8: Modding guides These are just some of the things I can think of. Please supply your own thoughts on the matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aralez Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Will siggets reference files be here as well? They could be used as headers to the threads.... (Maybe write-protected) and the tips and tricks would be under it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 9, 2003 Author Share Posted December 9, 2003 This is the a structure Fnurg and i put together for the ufo spec site, we've spent some time discussing what a good structure would look like and this is what we've come up with so far. I strongly believe that even though it was the key to start modding the vfs file spec and so on should be put in an appendix as its not very likely modders will ever need to see it. This structure was made for a web page and has a small amount of large chapters, i think it would be a good idea if we could go with a larger set of short chapters. Introduction News Tools Authors Contributions Contact Global Fonts Music and Sound Light configs Difficulty Events & Progress Strategic Biomass Bases Dogfights Research & Development UFOs Tactical Battleground Special scenes Generator Kulisy Tilesets Ublocks Items - Weapons, Ammo, Armor Monsters AI Squad Members Level Attributes Skills Training Inventory structure Experience Particles Interface Global Strategic Tactical Rendering Vertex programs Geosphere . . Localization . . Savegames file1 file2 . . Modding Refs Quick Mod Guide Weapons/Items R&D AI . . Technical Refs Vfs Reference File Formats . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Well, then I leave you and Fnurg in charge of setting up the structure sigget. I don't really know the structure of things, and a more detailed version of what you just posted seems like a good thing. So, are you two good to go on taking the responsibility of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 9, 2003 Author Share Posted December 9, 2003 Havent heard from Fnurg for a while, but im sure he'is up to it. Are you Fnurg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnurg Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Hiya chaps,Sorry i havent been around for a while. No access to a computer for a few days. Been suffering VDU withdraw symtoms Yea. I'm certainly still up for working on this documentation. perhaps we should follow Slaughters method of posting. A topic for each section such as "Gamedata : Weapons" and "Localization : Languageindex" or something like that. We could use the structure that we created as a guideline for what topics should be posted and yup, extend it to include smaller "chapters". the "Items - Weapons, Ammo, Armor" under tactical would be huge! Alternativly, mabey the file-by-file reference that Aralez suggested would be best? We also need to work out what the posts should contain. I think the opening post should have an overview of the file contents and structure. For example - What the file does (short description) - The structure of the entries (much like the c-style structs you have with file format reference docs) with meanings, ranges, data types and such. - Links to other files referenced/needed (links to other topics) - List of ammendments to this post And of course siggets suggestion of keeping posts down to a bare minimum is essential. who wants to wade through 4 pages of posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 Im not into the idea of a file by file reference, the context will get lost with that model. It could still be useful as an appendix with file by file comments and links into sections related to the file. Suggested Structure. We will have to edit this as we go along, no matter how much we plan it will never be perfected until we get some real hands on experience. Whats important now is that we get a good enough structure so that we can start writing. When we're satisfied this structure should be copied into an index topic and have each row replaced with a link to the right post. So that we can get a full view somewhere. 1. Introduction 1.1 Philosophy 1.2 Tools 1.3 Contribute! 2. Gameplay 2.1Introduction 2.2 Phases 2.3 Research 3. Items 3.1 Weapons 3.2 Ammo 3.3 Armour 4. Soldiers 4.1 Level 4.2 Experience 4.3 Attributes 4.4 Skills 4.5 Training 4.6 People (Soldier templates) 5. Enemies 5.1 Equipsets 5.2 AI 6. Tactical Battleground 6.1 Vegetation & Land Areas 6.2 Tilesets 6.3 Ublocks 6.4 Kulisy (stageprops) Appendix A - File by File Reference A.1 share A.2 strategic A.3 tactical Appendix B - VFS specification This structure and the whole documentation will require ALOT of editing so dont be afraid to change it and add to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnurg Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Apart from this structure will have a topic for discussions, this topic, and a topic for a TODO list, detailing whats left to do and what is currently begin researched, so that its easy to see where one can start contributing without redoing something thats already been done. Proposed Structure 1. Introduction 1.1 Philosophy 1.2 Tools 1.3 Contribute! 2. Gameplay 2.1 Introduction 2.2 General Configuration 2.3 Difficulty Settings 2.4 Phases 2.5 Events 2.6 Research 2.7 UFO Missions 2.8 Bases 3. Items 3.1 Weapons 3.2 Magazines 3.3 Ammo 3.4 Armour 4. Soldiers 4.1 Level 4.2 Experience 4.3 Attributes 4.4 Skills 4.5 Training 4.6 People (Soldier templates) 5. Enemies 5.1 Internal name list 5.2 AI 5.3 Equipsets 5.4 General Creature Settings 6. Tactical Battleground 6.1 Vegetation & Land Areas 6.2 Tilesets 6.3 Ublocks 6.4 Kulisy (stageprops) 7. Graphics 7.1 Models 7.2 Effects & Particles 7.3 Interface Windows 7.4 Slideshow Animations 8. Ingame Text 8.1 Localization 8.2 UFOpedia (Glossary) Appendix A - File by File Reference A.1 share A.2 strategic A.3 tactical Appendix B - VFS specification Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 That looks like a good structure. I have setup this forum to show all threads regardless of how many there is, and it is sorted ascending. This can be changed of course. I think I will add a forum section for mods soon, and move stuff into it. One forum for released mods threads, one for this reference, one for general mod discussions and so on. I will also have a mods section for the site, with one section for Alpine, one for other mods, one for tools and so on. Sounds good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 Yepp, sounds great! Have you seen how our avatars and signatures are cluttering this thing? We'll probably have to stop using them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnurg Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 nOOO! How could you censor a squirrel drinking guinness? :o Anyway, yea Slaughter. Nice idea with the forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Good, then I will go for it. And yeah, the signatures are kind of messing things up. Even though the squirrel is cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 10, 2003 Author Share Posted December 10, 2003 Now that i see what that squirrel is doing i want it everywhere! ;P used to think it was a hamster chewing on a nut or something.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnurg Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 hehe. Yea, its not very clear is it A lot of people think it was a squirrel smoking crack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulby Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Good, then I will go for it. And yeah, the signatures are kind of messing things up. Even though the squirrel is cool! I note there's a little "Enable signature" check box at the bottom of the post message box, does that work on a post by post basis or does it change the user's global profile? If it's post-by-post, you could try overriding it for this forum. Or occasionally run an SQL query on the forum database which turns off that flag on all posts in the Modding Reference forum. Fulby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Good idea Fulby, I'll take a look... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 11, 2003 Author Share Posted December 11, 2003 I added a section 9 today, not too sure its the right way to go, and then i saw that there was also a subsection called bases under gameplay, so now we have two subsections called bases, which one should we keep? Im going out of town for the weekend, see you on monday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnurg Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 errm. We should probably split it up. Is it possible to move posts from one topic to another? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 I did not find a option for removing the signatures. And yes, I think it may be possible to move posts. If not you can just copy the content and make a new post... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 14, 2003 Author Share Posted December 14, 2003 But the question remains, which one should we use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigget Posted December 19, 2003 Author Share Posted December 19, 2003 Have a look at this monster! Ive manged to traverse through the ublocks, i dont know what everything means but ive been able to figure out how the sizes of all the datablocks are determined. The problem is... where do i put all this info? An appendix on file formats perhaps? /////////////////////////////// // // UFOBLOCK // UFOBLOCK VERSION <int> ..geom info array ..height info array COVER_INFO_ARRAY <int[width*height]> // width and height of geom info array COVER_ARRAY_END ENTRY_POINTS <int> <float> <float> END_OF_ENTRY_POINTS ENTRY_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS <int> <int> END_OF_ENTRY_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS LEAVING_POINTS <int> <float> <float> END_OF_LEAVING_POINTS LEAVING_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS <int> <int> END_OF_LEAVING_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS TARGET_POINTS <int> <float> <float> END_OF_TARGET_POINTS TARGET_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS <int> <int> END_OF_TARGET_POINTS_SPECIAL_FLAGS ..light config COMPILED_BLOCK EXPORT_VERSION <int> ..material list MESH_COUNT <int> SECTOR_COUNT <int> SECTOR <int> ..mesh END_OF_SECTOR TRANSPARENCE <int> <floats> ..varmesh ..lightmap END_OF_COMPILED_BLOCK ..particle list UFO_BLOCK_END /////////////////////////////// // // KULISA KULISA <string> ..geom info array ..geom height array HITPOINTS <int> MODEL_LIST <int> MODEL_DESC int FILENAME <string> TRANSF_MATRIX <float[4,4]> SIGNATURE <string> MODEL_DESC_END ... PARTICLE_DESC <int> FILENAME <string> TRANSF_MATRIX <float[4,4]> SIGNATURE <string> PARTICLE_DESC_END ... MODEL_LIST_END /////////////////////////////// // // GEOM INFO ARRAY GEOM_INFO_ARRAY <int width> <int height> CELL_GEOM_INFO <28 bytes> ... GINFO_ARRAY_END /////////////////////////////// // // HEIGHTS INFO ARRAY HEIGHTS_INFO_ARRAY <int width> <int height> <float[width*height]> HEIGHTS_ARRAY_END /////////////////////////////// // // LIGHT CFG LIGHT_CFG_START LIGHT_PROFILE_BEGIN <string> SCENE_AMBIENT <float[4]> LIGHT <int> LPOSITION <float[4]> DIRECTION <float[3]> CUTOFF <int> CUTOFF_EX <int> COLOR <float[4]> FULL_RADIUS <float> END_RADIUS <float> LPREVIEW <bool> LENABLED <bool> LSHADOWS <bool> LNEG <bool> LTYPE <int> LIGHT_END ... LIGHT_PROFILE_END ... LIGHT_CFG_END /////////////////////////////// // // MATERIAL LIST MATERIAL_LIST MATERIAL DIFFUSE_COLOR TEXTURE <int> FILE_NAME <string> RAW_IMAGE U_WRAP V_WRAP U_CLAMP V_CLAMP ALPHA_MODE <int> MIPMAP_OFF MIPMAP_ON MUTABLE IMMUTABLE TEX_GEN_S <buffer> TEX_GEN_R <buffer> TEX_GEN_T <buffer> TEX_GEN_R_KOEF <float> TEX_GEN_S_KOEF <float> TEX_GEN_T_KOEF <float> CUBE_MAP MODE <string> END_OF_TEXTURE ... END_OF_MATERIAL ... END_OF_MATERIAL_LIST /////////////////////////////// // // MESH MESH <string> MATERIAL_REF <int> DEFAULT_COLOR <float[3]> VERTS <int num> <float[num*2]> PRIMITIVE_GEOMETRY_GROUPS <int> GROUP <int> <string> COUNT <int num> <int[num]> END_OF_GROUP <int> GROUP_NEIGHBORS <int num> <int[num]> END_OF_MESH /////////////////////////////// // // VARMESH VARMESH TYPE <int> VX <int> VY <int> VWIDTH <int> VHEIGHT <int> HITPOINTS <int> ..variants ..effects DIRECTION <int> END_OF_VARMESH /////////////////////////////// // // VARIANT VARIANT MESH_ID <int> HEIGHTS_INFO float[(vwidth*2+1)*(vheight*2+1)] ZOFFSET <float> PASSABLE_INFO <int[vwidth*vheight]> PARTICLE_ID <int> END_OF_VARIANT /////////////////////////////// // // EFFECT EFFECT PARTICLE <string> TRANSFORMATION <float[4,4]> END_OF_EFFECT /////////////////////////////// // // LIGHTMAP (weird internal lightmap) LIGHTMAP VERSION <int> MESH_COUNT <int> MESH TEX_ID <int> VERTS <int num> <float[num*2]> END_OF_MESH NTEX_ID <int numtex> PROFILE <string> TEX_ID <int[numtex]> END_OF_PROFILE USIZE <int> VSIZE <int> COLORED <int> NOISE_SEED <int/float?> NOISE_AMPLITUDE <float> NOISE_LOFREQ <float> NOISE_HIFREQ <float> TEX_COUNT <int> TEXTURE <int> <char[width*height*2]> TEXTURE_HEIGHT <int> // this value overrides the height for the next TEXTURE only END_OF_LIGHTMAP LIGHTMAP UFO VERSION <int> WIDTH_C <int> HEIGHT_C <int> PROFILE_UFO <string> LIT_CELLS <char[width*height*16]> PRECOMPF <int> PRECOMPF_MESH <int a> <float[a]> VAR_PRECOMPF <int num> VAR_PRECOMPF_INDEX <int> VAR_PRECOMPF_VARIANT <int a> <int b> <char[8*b]> ..lightmap END_OF_PROFILE_UFO END_OF_LIGHTMAP_UFO /////////////////////////////// // // PARTICLE LIST PARTICLE_LIST PARTICLE_DESC PARTFILENAME <string> TRANSF_MATRIX <float[4,4]> PARTICLE_DESC_END ... PARTICLE_LIST_END Formats still missing: extkulisa particle cfg particle grp scene model anim package .video .anim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aralez Posted December 19, 2003 Share Posted December 19, 2003 Eek! I think nobody will try to edit this by hand! Maybe it's enough if you post the info and wait for the official tools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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