Newbish Question about Geog SDK

Hi,
I've been screwing around with the Geographic SDK and I've hit a few problems. I've managed to code a simple star system and convert it into a MAP file. but I have no idea what the INI and LWS accompanying other systems are for. Can anyone shed some light on this please?

Greb

Hi Greb.

The LWS (lightwave scene) files place the positions of the suns in the system. Suns are just big lightwave point lights.

Which ini files are you speaking of?

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

Hi Greb,

Glad as always to see new star systems under construction!


The LWS files place lights and stars, but most importantly, they place the background nebula.

You can find a line like this inside the lws file. This points to the /models/south/epic.pso file.



AddNullObject <node class=icNebulaAvatar url=model||models|south|epic>


If I remember right, the epic.pso is just a renamed version of the hoffers wake nebula pso file. That's why the nebula are all named "hoffers_wake_nebula_0.iff" and the like. You can then add your own nebula.

A few other items. INI files a created for use by the Epic engine. They have no use in standard EoC. The TEXT directory contains all the names needed for translating the cluster.

To make a new cluster work, you need some code that will tell the engine to start in your new star system. And the code will want to place the player in a ship at a specific location (or you begin inside the main star, which tends to be...explosive) I have some code to do that if you would like. I could post it.

-Gtrout

Code isn't actually necessary if you link your system's lpoints to a system in the game's standard geography. Remember that you have to edit the lpoint information of the system you wish to link to as well as your own system.

Also, remember that in order to get your system in the star map, you need to edit <game dir>/geog/clusters.ini. The format of this file is pretty obvious, but feel free to post if you need any help.

If the LWS file defines my star (in this case Wolf Alpha), why do i have to declear it in the map file then?

Trout - I'd love to see that code, though, is it a very complex process to edit it and compile it? I'm pretty useless at that sort of this.

Greb

Just an afterthought on the LWS files. Apart from the first few lines, the rest seems to be setting up huge lights to correspond with other stars in other systems in the 'gap. So can i just leave 'em be for now?

Also, What does the "icStarfieldAvatar" command do?

Greb