Topic: Changing the size of the shield bars

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Sometimes, the six colored shield bars around each ship in OP overlap with the ship models. For example, some of the stock ISC light cruisers are about as wide as their shields graphics, so it can be nearly impossible to see how strong their shields (since the ship overlaps and covers the shield graphics).

Instead of shrinking every model in the game, is it possible to increase the size and distance of the six shield graphics? Kind of like how starbases in the game have very large shields. This would make it easier and more clear to quickly see shields without having to go in with the chase camera on full zoom... in the middle of an intense battle!

[Vaaktor]

Not sure if it adjusts the shield size or the model itself, but try changing a value in the mod.siz for like the isc ship that overlaps the shields  see if it corrects the overlapping.

ps in case you didn't know the mod.siz is in the models folder just right click it and open with notepad or what ever you use.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, I could not see any change in the model or shield sizes, and I tried both the model.siz file in the original model directory and the file in the OPplus directory. Strange

[Magnum357]

For this situtation, i usually adjust the size of the ship model insead of worring about the sheilds.  In order to make the sheilds appear "bigger", I adjust the size of the models by 3/4 or 2/3 with milkshape.  The ships in SFC are suppose to be moving at hundereds to thousands of kiliometers per second anyway so smaller models would make them appear going faster on the map (or "normal" speed).

Unfortunetly, this won't help for the .brk models, as milkshape doesn't allow you to edit or make .brk models.   

[marstone]

I would say that there is probably a way to move the shields out, but I haven't looked into that part yet.  It might take some hardcoding to do it tho.  I know it is a pain when the shields get overlapped.

[Centurus]

I would imagine your best bet is to ask Dizzy, Diehard, or Pesty, since they know more about SFC2/OP modding, and would probably know how to solve your problem.

[DeathKricket]

If you want i can tell you how to get rid of your shield bars such as this.

[atheorhaven]

Try checking the FX0.BMP and FX1.BMP files... you'll find a lot of good stuff to play with in there..

[JohanobesusII]

I don't think you can change the distance of the shields from the model.  You might be able to do something by editing the graphic files, but the easiest thing to do would be to edit the models.  The M6 editor would be perfect for this.  There is some element of the model it can't edit, so the game engine doesn't know the ship is smaller.  For example, if you took a K'vort model and tried to resize it into a B'rel, the shields would be huge with a tiny little ship. 

What you might do is make the model bigger in Milkshape, which should cause the shields to scale up with it, then shrink it back down to the original size in M6, which will only make it look smaller while leaving some invisible element still enlarged so the shields don't overlap the ship.

[DeathKricket]

All you have to do is copy and paste the FX0.BMP and FX1.BMP from SFC 3 (which can be downloaded in almost any retexture pack) into your folder for SFC 2 and OP and wala no shield bars, much eaiser then resizeing evey ship. how ever if you cant download or find it for some crazy reson you can always edit the original SFC 2 file as noted below, however note that if you edit the "stock" FX.BMP file and color the shield circles to black that are at the top of the page they will still faintly show in the game, not much but still enough to annoy you. SFC 3 uses a different shield pattern so once you turn the shield circles black they do not show up in the game any more. If you relly want your shield bars, but want them smaller you can try editing the solid color circles by makeing them smaller, that will make your shield lines thin and give you a little more distance between your ship and the bars.

[intermech]

I thought that there was a change you could make to the .ini file that when you started the game, it would go through every model and adjust the .siz file for each model. It would make the game look like it froze on the title screen, but after about 15 minutes (with my old computer) it would complete it. I will have to look for the forum entry that covers this.

[DeathKricket]

although i dont know the exact purpose of it but in your model folder there is only one file called model.siz
that might have something to do with it, and also when you adjust your model size to smaller does it reset the camra perspective or is your ship relly tiny on the screen?

[FoaS_XC]

Model.siz assures that everyone is using the same sized models for multiplayer games - this was created because of a loophole that was discovered where if you had a really big model for one ship but your opponent had a really small model for the same ship, your ranges to each other would be different (thus giving you an edge because range would be closer for you than for them).

I seem to remember there being a HEX value you can change in the MOD file, but I cannot, for the life of me remember what it is.