Topic: Help please...

[TF_Chimaira]

Ok... so I'm making some models of mine from SFC2 compatible for SFC3. But I don't know how to make the .GF files... can someone please help this dummy?  

[atheorhaven]

Quote:
Ok... so I'm making some models of mine from SFC2 compatible for SFC3. But I don't know how to make the .GF files... can someone please help this dummy?  

You need two things to happen to make a glow file.. the creation of the .GF file, and adding material to it.  I've never found that the tools create one, so I always create one the old fashioned way.  I open a DOS prompt and type
rem > shipname.gf

That creates a blank file to add data to.  You can also open Notepad, hit space, delete it, then Save As, go to the directory and save it like Excelsior.gf (or what have you).

Then it's adding data to it.  The simplest tool that I've found for that is D'Deridex's tool (I still call it Util5 because I was one of the beta testers and that was its original name) SFC3HPPlacement Tool.

The best way to use this one is to create your SFC 3 ship pictures first.. so it'd be something like shipnameBS.bmp, shipnameVL.bmp and shipnameTI.bmp and these all need to be specific sizes.  Once those are done, open up D'Deridex's tool and it'll give you a graphical drag and drop way to place the HPs on the ship.  When you're done, click save, and then navigate to the directory your .gf file is in, select it, and save.  Then you're ready to use Taldren's Glowtools to add the ship glows.  (One tip with that.. find the scale option.. most people glow at 1.5 and it causes the glows to penetrate nacelles and other things in a weird way.  I usually glow between 0.7-1.3 for a deflector, no more than 1.1 for nacelles, and something like 0.8 for impulse engines.  You don't need much more.  The only one that is an exception for me is the Defiant I did from "The Tholian Web" which was glowing like the Flying Dutchman.. in that case, the whole ship was not only glowing, but surrounded in a glow.  

Here's the link I have to D'Deridex's tool.. the SFC3Glowtools I keep forgetting to put up. But they're easier to find..

http://www.the-tcs.net/_hosted/atheorhaven/html/userfiles/tools/sfc3_hpplacementeditor.exe