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Bridge Commander Modding Possibilities FAQ
Questions
 
1. First of all will we be able to mod Bridge Commander?
 
2. What model format is used?
 
3. What texture format is used on the models?
 
4. I am aware that the models are done in Max and are then processed using your max to nif utility. What are the chances you could release this converter?
 
5. Will the game data be stored in proprietary archive or just as plain files within the game directory?
 
6. What format are the games sound and movie files stored in?
 
7. Will we be able to make new mission scripts?
 
8. What are the model limitations?
 
9. How does hull damage work?
 
10. How long on average does it take for your art department to complete a ship model and its textures?
 
11. As its usually up to the developers to push the management into letting out any kind of tools that would make mod making possible, What are the chances of us getting the max to nif converter? If we can’t do it the easy way we’ll hack it :) but would much rather save time by going the easy way.
 
12. Will be be able to create the high detail Bridge areas for any possible mod ships?
 
13. What resources will be available for mission scripting?
 
14. How does the lighting work?
 
15. How do the hard points work?
 
16. How do the damaged models work?
 
17.Are the weapons moddable?
 
18. Does the engine support model animation?
 
19. How many LOD's (Levels of Detail) are used?
 
20. Will there be a modders SDK (Software Development Kit)

Answers

Many thanks to David Litwin for answering these questions.

1. First of all will we be able to mod Bridge Commander?

Well the signs are that yes we will be able to create mods for Bridge Commander. Here's a bit more assurance from David Litwin...

Yes, our game will be nicely moddable. I don't know that we can release our max->.nif format converter, but the X-Wing model format was much more complicated and people were able to figure that out and make mods for it.

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2. What model format is used?

3D Studio Max is used to create the models before they are converted to the nif format used by the NetImmerse game engine. (See question 4 for info on what the nif format is)

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3. What texture format is used on the models?

We use .tga, although NetImmerse supports more than that as far as I recall. .tga is fairly simple, and supports both 24 and 32 bit formats we want to use (true color and true color with alpha)

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4. I am aware that the models are done in Max and are then processed using your max to nif utility. What are the chances you could release this converter?

I really don't know yet. But if we aren't able to, it isn't to terribly complicated as a format and someone will make a tool (like we've seen for pretty much every other space sim).

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5. Will the game data be stored in proprietary archive or just as plain files within the game directory?

We ran out of time to do archives (it isn't a super high priority compared to actually game features), so everything is just laid out on disk. If for whatever reason we find time or run out of space and need to do an archiver, I'm guessing we'd have a better chance of making it public as it would probably be our own tool and format (unlike our model format where we don't really own it).

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6. What format are the games sound and movie files stored in?

Sound files are .wav and .mp3. We just did some tests and found out we could use .mp3 for our voices without getting a significant drop in performance (which we expected). This means for about 75% the size of a 11k 16 bit .wav file we get four times the quality (essentially equivalent to the 44k 16 bit master). Movie files are Bink format (.bik). In game cut scenes are created from script, so they are just Python code inside our missions.

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7. Will we be able to make new mission scripts?

It's very possible as they are created in python which is not proprietary to Activision.

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8. What are the model limitations?

As David Litwin says below, the maximum point count is 65k but please note the models in Bridge Commander average at 10k points.

With regard to model limitations, the only one I know of is that individual meshes that comprise a model need to be less than 65k points (the point indices are unsigned shorts). But most complex models aren't build of all one shape so this isn't really much of a limitation.

We use static levels of detail, and generally three levels for a standard ship (sometimes only two for smaller ships like shuttles, escape pods, etc.)

High level: 3000 - 4500 polygons 256k - 2meg texture (1-8 256x256 maps with alpha)

Mid level: 1000 - 1500 polygons Generally uses the high level textures

Low level: 150 - 300 polygons 256k (1 256x256 map with alpha)

We were looking into doing auto-generated boxes for an even lower level, but I'm not sure it is worth it at this point

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9. How does hull damage work?

David Litwin explains...

Hull damage looks cool :)  Basically we're doing work to generate internal geometry based on where the hits to a ship fall.  We scorch the hull and have transparent textures around the internal geometry to look like girders and exposed hull.  Torps and phasers will pass through damaged sections, so you can blow a hole through the model and subsequent torps will keep going...

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10. How long on average does it take for your art department to complete a ship model and its textures?

Maybe three weeks.  Doing a first pass is quick, but when you factor in three levels of detail and the inevitable tweaks it all adds up.

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11. As its usually up to the developers to push the management into letting out any kind of tools that would make mod making possible, What are the chances of us getting the max to nif converter? If we can’t do it the easy way we’ll hack it :) but would much rather save time by going the easy way.

David Litwin explains...

I really don't know.  We can't give away someone else's tools or code, but they might be amenable to allowing the converter out.  Then again, if they don't you have to be reasonable and realize that creating that engine and those tools is how they make a living and they can't give them away for free.  I'll certainly be discussing it with them in the future, and we'll know more by the time we release.

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12. Will be be able to create the high detail Bridge areas for any possible mod ships?

David Litwin explains...

The bridge models are a pain in the butt to make (even for us), and will be the hardest to mod. We had to go through a huge process to make them, involving a Max original model, then a Lightscape version for radiosity lighting, a special Lightscape .nif exporter we wrote ourselves, and then some hand merging of this with a .nif generated from the original .max model (Lightscape flattens the object hierarchy, and we need to merge the Lightscape data with the non-Lightscape hierarchy). Add to this special naming of objects so the code can manipulate them for things like red alert lighting changes and view screen issues.

This is the most info I have time to give right now, hopefully we'll have time to talk about it more after we ship. Bridges are around 4000 polygons and about 2meg of texture (generally lots of small maps).

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13. What resources will be available for mission scripting?

Well all I know at this time is that we will have full source code to all the missions included with Bridge Commander. Just to mention again in case any of you don't know, Bridge Commander makes use of Python.

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14. How does the lighting work?

David Litwin sheds light on the subject :)

Lighting is done in a few ways:  There are ambient lights (lights with no direction, and apply to every surface of the model), directional lights (shine in a particular direction only), point lights (emanate from a point but only for a short distance, used for thing like photons etc.) and specular lighting (metallic shine style of lighting).  The missions set up the ambient and directional lights, the game uses point lights for dynamic effects (photons, phasers, explosions) and a model has a specular factor which determines how shiny it is.

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15. How do the hard points work?

David Litwin explains...

The hard points are fairly flexible, and are used to set the locations as well as as data of a model.  They are used to describe phaser arcs, torpedo location and type, ship subsystems and points, etc.

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16. How do the damaged models work?

David Litwin explains...

Damage volumes are added when a photon or phaser hits your ship.  If you have visible damage on, we have a voxelized version of the ship and the damage volumes are intersected with that to determine where the damage has been done to your ship.  Your ship has differing thresholds of when it scorches, when it has skin damage and when it has internal damage.  Based on these values some damage may blacken your hull, may cut a hole in and and girders of the skin of your ship will extend over that damage to varying degrees. 

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17. Are the weapons moddable?

David Litwin explains...

Many things can be done to modify the game, but any changes would have to be made on all other machines that want to play multiplayer.  The Multiplayer code will check the versions when you connect as well as every second while you play to discourage any attempts at cheating. 

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18. Does the engine support model animation?

David Litwin explains...

For our characters, yes.  Characters are skinned and boned models that have animations for all of their movements.  The ships don't support animation given the damage model we have that relies on statically generated voxel representations that would be invalid if a model animated. 

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19. How many LOD's (Levels of Detail) are used?

David Litwin explains...

Most ships have three levels of detail, but some minor ones only have two.

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20. Will there be a modders SDK (Software Development Kit)?

David Litwin explains...

We're already working on a Modders SDK (Software Development Kit) that has all the source Python files, tools and some basic docs on how things work. It's a really big complicated system, so the docs won't be perfect out the door, and we'll probably want to make them maintained on a site where fans can update them as they learn more, and we can drop in and work on them (and correct them, as needed) from time to time.

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