My First Modification

[Wolf4D]

I'm only a n00b there, but I tried to make simple modification. And here it is:
http://www.lab.psihiteam.org/2007/05/26/mod_dlja_ufo_alien_invasion__lighter_mod_v01.html

Sorry if I made something wrong. Please, comment this mod.
And one small question: how can I place my own MD2 model to the game? Every time I placed it and wrote some parameters for weapon's model, weapon's model in inventory becomed "empty". How I can fix this? If you need, I can send you this model.

[Mattn]

yes, please share the model - maybe there is something wrong

generally it should work if you replace the model lines in the weapon defintions and tweak the center and scale values.

[Mattn]

btw. feel free to write new particles and share them with us ;-)

would be cool to have some new particles

[Wolf4D]

So, there is my model (no skin-mapping, very simple, etc):
http://rapidshare.com/files/33366587/rend.rar.html
I'll try to work with particles (effects of shoot was "wrote on" standart particles).
Yes, I replaced centerand scales values, but, maybe, I "missed". How can I take right values?

[Mattn]

we don't support bmp images for skins - only jpg, tga and png

make sure, that the model path is set to ".skinbasename"

skinbasename is the base filename without extension - and don't miss the dot as first character

[Wolf4D]

So, I'll work about this model later.
And now I have finished some new particles:
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/6963/p1fw7.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2716/p2wt6.jpg
Are they good? It's my first experiment with particles.
I have no idea how to publish this modification now - one new texture must be in 0pics.pk3 for correct working whole mod... It's not possible to publish all file.
Maybe, I have another way?
And what about Q3-like mods supporting?

[Mattn]

the best would be to sign up at sourceforge.net - then you can open a pach tracker item at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=157793&atid=805244 and append your image and a textfile with the particle scripts

[Mattn]

q3-like mods supporting:

we did not remove mods support completly - there is still a chance, that it will work, but i've never tested it - and there is really a lot of the code in the client binary (the geoscape and basemanagement stuff, e.g.)

if someone would come up with a mod like syndicate (there were some attempt in the past) we could think about modifying the code and put the the geoscape stuff in a lib named cgame.dll (like q3 does)

but without a team that would like to create the code and the artwork for a new mod this work isn't currently on my todo list.

[Wolf4D]

So, I found an idea  :idea: -  use 7z console application (GNU, free to redistribute). So, using bat-files, I made a script which could embed my files to this archives.
And now new version is avalible on: http://www.lab.psihiteam.org/2007/05/28/lighter_mod_v02.html
and I signed up at sorceforge.

[XaverXN]

Hmm... I don't have big particle experience either. Those blue 'shots' look a bit... rectangular... or is that due to jpeg compression?

As for the 'mod publication':

1) Your 7z-way is fine... you could however add a possibility to just unzip (&overwrite) the files if theres no pk3 files in base, like it is for svn users (they have 'the pk3 files unzipped already', so just folders and no pk3).

2) You could just ask Mattn if your things can be integrated into the official build, then you wouldn't need to worry about it ;-)

[Wolf4D]

Hmm... I don't have big particle experience either. Those blue 'shots' look a bit... rectangular... or is that due to jpeg compression?

Yes, it's a bit rectangular at the screenshots. But in game they are not so rectangular - those particles are flying so fast, that you can't see "rectangular effects" like that.

2) You could just ask Mattn if your things can be integrated into the official build, then you wouldn't need to worry about it

Yes, it will be great!  

[Mattn]

ok, i will commit your particles to trunk later the day

[Mattn]

the particles are in trunk now - but they really need some new names

[Zenerka]

Wolf4D, i like your particles. Feel free to produce more - even if we won't use it in the game for now, they could be used later. Also I think that some of our weapons definitely needs new particles.