How to create your addon for Star Wars Battlefront II:
0. This must be done before starting; you must have made and textured the model you want as addon, just by using cylinders for example!
1. Select ALL objects which make your object (like cylinders etc) and on the Model panel at the left go: Create>Poly.Mesh>Merge
2. A pop-up appears... Make Tolerance 0 and click both Merge buttons then Hide or Delete the input objects. After that close the popup. Now in the Explorer(hotkey 8 ) you should have a new polymsh
3. Then go: Get>Primitive>Null and name the null dummyroot, you should rotate it X=90, Y=0, Z=90 then go to an explorer view (hotkey 8 for floating explorer) and setup your hierarchy by dragging and dropping your polymsh onto dummyroot (note: read last line of this post)
4. It's important to position your mesh correctly, so it won't show up upside down on the model. After placing the dummyroot correctly, think of the dummyroot being the middlepoint of the part you're attaching the addon to... For example if you're creating a jetpack, think of the null being the middle of the ribcage!
-5.1. To export, BRANCH (middle click) select the dummyroot, and export to .msh
-5.2. To export, BRANCH (middle click) select the dummyroot, and if you don't have the full XSI version, use File>Crosswalk>Export. A pop-up will appear. Select XSI 5.0 text. Then send the exported file to someone who can export it to msh for you with the Pandemic Tools!
If you want a dynamically animated addon the you should look through my Set up Tentacles tutorial (link in XSI Tutorials thread)
For questions, please post... Enjoy! (don't blame me if something isn't described in detail or not said correctly, I posted this by heart!)
Example of ODF code for my Paladin Clone horns:
Code: Select all
AnimatedAddon = "HORNS" //this name can be whatever you want it to be
GeometryAddon = "rep_paladin_horns" //name of your addon msh (do not append ".msh")
AddonAttachJoint = "bone_head" //this is the bone the addon will attach to
The 3 lines of code above should go into your unit's ODF under [properties], if you copy the code above make sure you edit it to meet the needs of your particular addon.
* The rotation numbers given for the dummyroot are suitable when applying the mesh to bone_ribcage, bone_head and bone_neck. Other bones might need other rotation numbers (in human words: when following this tut for f.e. a claw, it might be that it isn't showing up correctly ingame (upside down for example) when this happens, try to rotate the dummyroot correct yourself, after checking ingame)
The tutorials in this topic work for SWBF1 and SWBF2
Notes:
In SWBF2 geometry addons disappear when jet jumping, there is no known fix!
Universal addon setup in XSI