Changing weapon colors

[Saberdark]

How could I change the colors of Ion Beams? What files do I need and how do I edit them?

[acebris_mk5]

Well...I used what is already there...it would seem like there are three colors used in the game blue, red/orange, and gold. a combination of kpr_, hgn_, and vgr_ weapon files will get you those colors...

Other than that....I dunno...

[Saberdark]

the vaygr don't have a red Ion Beam, they only have a red lance beam

[bokboren]

You would have to change the weapons effect (.wf if I recall correctly) file somehow.

How, and with what, I don't know. I'd like to find out the answer to this question myself, since brightly colored energy beams are half of what I like about this game!

[Grafkendo]

there is an Fx tool that is part of the Rdn toolz i think thats what u use to edit things of that sort. im a lowly n00b so dont listen to me. im going to try it today though we will see.

[bokboren]

Yes. You have to use the FX Tool, which I finally got to work. Now I have a .lua file that apparently displays this new color beam.

Now my question is, how to edit a .wf file to refer to this effect?

For example, I wanted to create basically a green laser. Opening the laser.wf I find this:

hitfx = "dmg_pulsar_laser_hit"
bulletfx = "pulsar_laser_combo"
nopenetratefx = "dmg_pulsar_laser_hit"
deathtype = "deathBeam"
scartype = "Plasma_Bomb/Plasma_Bomb"
hit_sfx = "WEAPON/CORVETTE/IMPACT/HWEAPON_CORVETTE_PULASAR_CANNON_BEAM_HIT"
nopenetrate_sfx = "WEAPON/CORVETTE/IMPACT/HWEAPON_CORVETTE_PULASAR_CANNON_BEAM_HIT"
hit_clamp = 
    { 1, 1, }

Should I change the bulletfx, hitfx, or hit_sfx? And how?

Could not find any weaponsfire editing documentation at the Karos Graveyard, help!

[Thorax]

Topicnecro... Sry guys but i wanna know to. Someone conjure of a fantastic answer easy for everyone to understand pls

[Sastrei]

Ehf, I'm sure Loc's gonna have a hissy over your necro, but since I can help, and I once had this very question...

To first change the color of the effect, you need to track down all the cascade files and the images they reference (Data>art>fx). From there you can decide if you want to rename them or just go after the image files. Use the .rot viewer, open the files and it'll automatically create a .dds (or .tga) file. Make sure you have the .dds plugins for Photoshop installed, and open it in there. Then you can set about tweaking it. You can use .tga, .dds, or .rot images for fx. I always just use 32-bit .tga.

To use your new set of colorized effects, you open that .wf file and set the fx you want to change to the appropriate "top-level cascade" file. They're usually tagged as "combo_" and only have the names of other files in them, none of the other properties you see in the usual files. Most fx will work this way, but I think it's perfectly possible to reference, say, a bullet effect directly, without a combo file. Usually though, you'll want to use combos to get cooler effects. As for which file is referenced in which line...that's rather flagrantly self-explanatory. Bulletfx - bullet effect; hitfx - physical hit; nopenetratefx - shield hit (dff impact?); scartype - scar decal; now deathtype I'm not sure, back in HW1 this was the muzzle effect, though here it might mean the effect run at the end of the weapon's lifetime. Sfx ones are the sound effects for that weapon. I believe you can also add a "firefx" line into this file (I would add it by the hit and bullet lines), instead of setting the muzzle in the ship's .events file, and may be able to override it with the muzzle call in the .events file.

Well, hope that helps.

-Stefan-

[Thorax]

I got this far:
1. Make .dds
2. Edit .dds
3. Save as .tga

Then when we got to the .wf you lost me completly...
How does the .wf connect to the .tga file? I couldnt locate that peice of text string. Becuase when i get the hang of it ill make many diffrent colours. BCs with purple... Uber BCs with orange maybe...

[Sastrei]

Data>scripts>weaponfire

Also,

Data>weapon

Every .wepn file points to a .wf file, which in turn points to all the .lua files for the effects.

Yes, it is damn annoying.

-Stefan-

[Thorax]

Im no Photoshop Brightlight. How do i save the Mip maps with a Targa file?

[Sastrei]

You don't. It autogenerates them. Never open the image with the mipmaps, unless you want to study the mips.

-Stefan-

[Thorax]

Haha kk. Just finished my BC. Thx alot man