CFHodEd Basics Video Tutorial

[Siber]

At the behest of someone who has been having trouble getting a handle on the basics of this key program, a rundown of the basics of this key program.

Volume is probably low for you, turn up your speakers if so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSo1jEOXmM

[MatthCoFreak]

Just had a quick glance at it.

I feel like to add :

It's much quicker to import the ship.st shader (that you can grab from the homeworld2.big once you decompile it with any big decompiler) rather than setting the shader settings manually.

Having several LODs being nothing but the copy of LOD1 is a bad idea, first because it is just so simple to go into the .ship file and delete all the lines containing the word "LOD" in it to avoid the "ship disappearing when you zoom out" issue, and second because it just makes the hod larger for nothing.

And something important to have a really working ship : you must set up a Collision Mesh (CM), or the enemy fire will just pass through your ship without hitting it. For that, just go in the CM tab, press Add, select the blank CM created, assign it to the Root hardpoint, press Replace and import here your ship mesh.


Still, an excellent tutorial, and I'd say, a must-see for beginners. CFHodEd is a simple and powerful tool, and you can do a lot of things with it even if you don't know how to model.

[Siber]

Oh, is that what the import button does? I never realized that, that's a bit handy.

Of course in a real ship you'd have actually distinct lods or do ship file editing, I just wanted to show setting up different LODs without actually having to make different meshs.

CMs I honestly forgot until put the ship in the game and hyperspaced it >.<. Definitely something to put in a part two if I make such a thing, as it is rather important. Still, the buttons are much the same as other parts, so a decent grounding in the rest of the program is probably still a help there.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Griffen]

it doesnt include how to make dock paths which would be a big help if it was included

[NunoDRKS]

One thing I wanted to know, to import the ship mesh to the LOD... you have to export in obj file from wings, right. One problem I have is when I import my obj to HODed v4, nothing appears in the preview, and no HOD there, saddly... Any Ideas why this occurs?

[ajlsunrise]

Griffen, I believe that this was a basics video. docking paths are a more advanced topic.

NunoDRKS: Have you brought that up in the CFHodEd 4 thread? If you have, and haven't gotten a good answer, zip and upload the .wings file, the .obj, and the hod and PM it to me. I'd be willing to take a look at it for you.

[Siber]

It was a basics video, yeah. I was planning on doing a video about turrets and perhaps one about dock paths. The HodEd 4 happened unexpectedly, and I wanted to wait for it to settle down feature wise before I started over with a basics video for it. And then I moved across the country. Once life settles down a bit here, I'll do my best to get started again. My upload bandwidth here is crap, so youtubing is going to be a sheer joy! But for the most part the processes in 3 are still present in 4, just moved around a little bit. And at worst, you can go back to 3, do the things in it that you can't figure out in 4, and then go back. You can use both to edit hods interchangably.

[NunoDRKS]

@ajlsunrise: I appreciate the atention, and ill upload it to you when I can... Im just waiting for Carl's answer to my problem (as I already uploaded it on mediafire [only the .wings file] and im waiting for the response as to what I have to do when exporting, i'm guessing the error is there...)

[4E534B]

The HodEd 4 happened unexpectedly

Hahaha.

BTW I don't intend to make any large changes now.

If you have even the slightest doubt about any feature (like "what's this for?") feel free to ask.

[Siber]

I figured it was pretty stable now, I just haven't had a decent opportunity to record lately.

[Siber]

Since people keep getting pointed to these videos, I feel I should probably point out that I did do a set on V4, that you can find in this thread. Being more up to date with the current software, they may be considerably more useful.