Adding your shape to Starsiege: Tribes for Dummies 101

Tutorial by Sty
Edited by Gangreen (da’ man wit da’ plan)

 Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any problems that this may cause on your system.

 I had spent quite sometime teaching myself the process of making shapes with WorldCraft and using them in Tribes. I have a tendency to learn better by hands on experience and going about it the long way, so I can understand each process fully. So I am going to show you the long way. I am assuming you have previous knowledge or have even played with the Mission Editor in Tribes.

 Things you need for adding a shape:

1. Worldcraft 2.1 (http://halflife.gamedesign.net/)
2. Tribes (duh)
3. Tribes Tool kit (http://www.tribesplayers.com/tribesplayers/downloads.html)
4. Tribes Worldcraft conversion kit (http://www.tribesplayers.com/tribesplayers/downloads.html)
5. Winvol.exe or Volumer.exe (http://www.planetstarsiege.com/files/#tools)
6. An assload of patience.

The ZED manual (in the Tribes toolkit) and the Worldcraft convert text are MUST READS! I cannot stress this enough. They tell you alot of what you need to know as well as tips on editing. Be aware also, that there is a syntax error in the WC Convertion text for processing your .map file.  Also they call a file glumpy.exe when it is really qlumpy.exe. One of the dev team must have made a typo that wasn't caught. Here is the problem:

 The command line: $bsp_exe $file.$exe %file.zvl

Should be: $bsp_exe $file.map $file.zvl

 The Worldcraft processing documents that Dynamix supplied in the Worldcraft conversion kit, outlines the compile and conversion of the .map files. It explains the setup and configuration of Worldcraft’s properties for Tribes use.

 Getting the ball rolling after editing is done: 

Be sure you have edited your autoexec.bat to state the path to your \bin subdirectory!

This is mine for example:

PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\WC_TOOLS\BIN

1. Once you have completed your shape design, export the file to .map and place the .map file in your \bin subdirectory of your converter tools.
2. Next you will want to bring up a DOS prompt (I placed one on my desktop) and change the directory to the \bin subdirectory.
3. Next you will type:

MAP2ZVL *.MAP *.ZVL  

(* is where you place the name of your file. For instance if my .map is named House, then I would type: MAP2ZVL HOUSE.MAP HOUSE.ZVL)

4. After this process is over, the map2zvl.exe will put out a .zvl file in your \bin subdirectory.
5. Next you will want to type:

ZEDSHAPE *.ZVL

(If you want the shape fully optimized for use in Tribes add the -H argument at the end of the command. For example: ZEDSHAPE *.ZVL -H . Adding the -H argument will increase the time it takes for this process to run and fully optimizes the lighting.)

 6. After this process is completed, the zedshape.exe will put out a .div file that has the four shape files inside it (.dis, .dil, .dig, .dml). These 4 files make up your shape.
7. Next you might want to clean out your \bin subdirectory, so delete the .zvl file and move your .map file back to where you want it stored. This prevents confusion and/or errors in the future when processing shapes.

Making a Test Map for your shape: 

Okay, now you can go about this two different ways. You can create a mission map from scratch and test your map in it. Or you can do like I do and take a already completed map that has the features you will eventually place in your final map (desert, night or grass, day, etc. etc.) and use that as a test. If you choose my route, just use the following narrative. This is what I do for a completely operational map in just a matter of minutes.

1. Find a map you like, let's say Raindance.
2. Take the 4 mission files titled Raindance(.dsc, .mis, .ted, .vol) and move them to another directory so you can perform surgery.
3. Rename the 4 mission files that you just moved to what you desire.
4. Open the .mis file in notepad or another text editor.
5. Scroll down to where you see this:

            };
            instant SimVolume "tedFile" {
                  fileName = "Raindance.ted";
            };
            instant SimVolume "MissionLighting" {
                  fileName = "Raindance.vol";

6. Change the Raindance.ted and Raindance.vol to whatever you named the 4 mission files in step #3.
7. Save the file.
8. Start up Tribes and run the map for safe measure and to make sure everything loads right.
9. Close out Tribes and you're ready. 

Dropping your shape into the Mission Editor: 

Okay, now you have a shape you are ready to put into the game. But there is one problem, for some reason the missionRegDis(); command line in the editor won't read the .div file and get at the necessary .dis inside (the .div file is much like a .vol file). So what you need next is the vmerge.exe that is in the Tribes toolkit pack, as well as a .vol file that you want the 4 files to end up in. If you have custom textures, it is a good idea to just use the .vol you will eventually make for those textures. If you don't have an empty .vol file, make one using the Make_Vol batch file using a blank subfolder in your \art subdirectory or Vmerge will do this automatically. 

For example: if you have your.dis file and you want it in a .vol file, just run the Vmerge.exe *.vol (if you don’t have a .vol called this, it’ll create it) *.dis.  

I will cover textures more in depth in the Adding Textures tutorial. vmerge.exe should be in your \bin subdirectory.  

1. Go into your DOS prompt and type:

VMERGE *.VOL *.DIV

(What this does is merge files from vol two into vol one, or in this case *.DIV into *.VOL)

 2. Now you have two choices, you can either register the volume by going into a text editor, opening your test map's .mis file and creating a Simgroup with the volume in it. 

Example: 

//--- export object begin ---//
instant SimGroup "MissionGroup" {
      instant SimGroup "Volumes" {
            instant SimVolume "InterfaceVol" {
                  fileName = "Interface.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "entities" {
                  fileName = "Entities.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "World" {
                  fileName = "lushWorld.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "worldTerrain" {
                  fileName = "lushTerrain.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "lushDML" {
                  fileName = "lushDML.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "savanaDML" {
                  fileName = "savanaDML.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "human1DML" {
                  fileName = "human1DML.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "house" {
                  fileName = "house.vol";
            };
            instant SimVolume "tedFile" {
                  fileName = "BogusMap.ted";
            };
            instant SimVolume "MissionLighting" {
                  fileName = "BogusMap.vol";
            };

Or you can use Winvol.exe or Volumer.exe and extract the 4 shape files to drop into your Tribes\base subdirectory.  

If you have custom textures, there is a guideline, but I will talk about this later in the tutorial. 

3. Now start up Tribes and go into the Mission Editor.
4. Once inside the Mission Editor type into the console:

MissionRegDis(testshape, *);

(in this case with the house.map as an example, * is where you'd put house)

5. Now hit F3 and scroll down, there should be a testshape directory at the bottom. Click on it and you will see your shape listed on the right hand directory. Now just click on your shape name and it will pop into view in the Mission Editor. Now place it where you want and so you can check it out.  

If you have a final product (ready for game use and distribution), you want it to be in a .vol file and listed in the .mis file. I wouldn't save your map unless this is a final product and those previous mentions are done. If this is a final product (and assuming you have the terrain the way you want it), then just relight and save your map. You have now successfully created a shape and added it to Starsiege: Tribes. Congratulations! Now go outside and blow some stink off. :) Heh

 Using textures, custom textures and adding custom textures to Starsiege: Tribes:

 Things you need:

1. qlumpy.exe and makels.exe (http://halflife.gamedesign.net/ and http://www2.50megs.com/tribesart/files/)
2. A decent graphics program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Wally, etc.)
3. Tribes Worldcraft conversion kit (which you should already have)
4. Even more patience 

Dynamix provided some of the game art used in the Human1.wad file. If you used those textures, you are home-free to add your shape without needing to add textures to your volume file.

 If you used custom textures then this next sequence will guide you through the process.

 1. Now you should have acquired the qlumpy.exe and the makels.exe programs. Take them and place them in your \bin subdirectory.
2.Make sure your custom textures are 24-bit bitmaps and the size of the texture is a multiple of 16.
3. Gather all the custom textures to be used and place them into a subfolder in your \art subdirectory and name the subfolder what ever you want the .wad and/or .vol to be named.
4. Open a DOS prompt and change the directory to the \art subdirectory.
5. To make a .wad file for use with Worldcraft, type:

MAKE_WAD *

(* is the name of your art subfolder housing all your custom textures.)

6. You will now have a .wad file in your \art subdirectory for use in Worldcraft and will be able to add the .wad in the tools/options/textures/add wad menu in Worldcraft.
7. To make a .vol file for use in Tribes, type:

MAKE_VOL *

(* is the name of your art subfolder housing all your custom textures.)

8. You will now have a .vol file in your \art subdirectory for use in Tribes.

Now once you have your shape completed and your textures into a .vol file. You will want to use the vmerge.exe to merge the shape files into the texture .vol. Refer back to the Dropping your shape into the Mission Editor section on how to do this. If you do not do this, you will have severe problems when trying to load the shape into the Tribes Mission Editor. Once you merge the textures and shape into the .vol file, you are ready to rock and roll. Good luck and have fun! :)

-Sty

If you have any questions let me know I will do my best to help.

eyesorestudios@home.net