Solved Maltese Abbey

[Sinbad the Sailor]

I found the corpse that was supposed to have a gun and a book, but I can't find the gun, only the book!
edit: found it... but it's invisible, I think it should show up in the floor instead of me having to guess where it is...

 

[Grey Roger]

This is odd. I've tried using console to put different weapons there. Swords and pistols show up correctly. Rifles and muskets do not. @Jack Rackham: any ideas about this? Failing all else, perhaps put locator "randitem2" on the same place as the others, so that you can pick up the rifle along with the book and cross from the body instead of needing to find an invisible weapon nearby.

 

[Jack Rackham]

But hasn't this worked earlier???

I can see just a little of the rifle. Like only one of its textures.

My guess it has something to do with the texture file en3.tga.

1) When I imported the longrifles from VCO not all blades did go well with them. (metal shine)
So I know I had to change one of the files. Or rather it's name from en2 to en3.

2) Next I remember is there was a change by someone else concerning this. (much later)

So I've tried to exchange back the en3.tga but havn't found anything that works. Neither from VCO or POTC.


Maybe a box like when looting dead enemies and get all the things from there?

 

[Grey Roger]

I remember changing "en3.tga" to improve the appearance of rifles. That then broke some of your items in "Woodes Rogers", which were then modified to use a non-existent texture so that they weren't pure shiny metal.

But rifles appear fine elsewhere, just not when placed as objects on "randitem" locators. Besides, I tried using console to put a musket there, it didn't appear either, and it doesn't use "en3.tga" at all. (I don't even get the near-transparent rifle that your picture shows.)

Putting an itembox on the dead body, the same as dead enemies, could work, though you'd still never see the rifle; you'd just be collecting all the items from the body. Moving "randitem2" to the same place as the other "randitem" locators would achieve almost the same result and probably be easier.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But hasn't this worked earlier???

The thing I'm reminded of is that @DavyJack enabled alpha-maps for character models.
Could that have worked too well? So now what should be shiny on the guns has also turned alpha-mapped?

 

[Grey Roger]

The thing I'm reminded of is that @DavyJack enabled alpha-maps for character models.
Could that have worked too well? So now what should be shiny on the guns has also turned alpha-mapped?

That was @DeathDaisy, not @DavyJack. It did mess up one character model with built-in guns. But it doesn't seem to affect guns when they're being used as weapons.

Hmm... I wonder if the engine only uses the alpha map differently on weapons when they are being used as weapons. I'll need to see if the rifle appears if I make a new version without alpha maps. "LongRifle_C" is, I believe, only used for the Maltese Abbey. Napoleonic period, especially Hornblower, uses "LongRifle_H", while "Bartolomeu" and "Woodes Rogers" have their own specific rifles. So removing the shine from "LongRifle_C" shouldn't affect the rifles anywhere else.

 

[Jack Rackham]

I placed the musketoon there and it worked.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

Woo feels good having a post of mine with so much traffic
though I don't understand the discussion, I hope everythin will work out haha
I'll be here reading the posts in the shadows

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That was @DeathDaisy, not @DavyJack.

My bad.

But it doesn't seem to affect guns when they're being used as weapons.

If it were an issue for guns-as-weapons, we'd have noticed by now.
I was thinking of guns-as-random items...

 

[Grey Roger]

Confirmed - the engine does seem to use the alpha map to make models shiny metal or textured if they're being used as weapons, and visible or invisible if they're not. The rifle on the floor is an item, which means it's not a weapon, which means it's invisible. The problem isn't "en3.tga.tx", it's the main texture file "4000191.tga.tx". I used TX Convertor to convert it to .tga, then converted it straight back to .tga.tx with R5G6B5, i.e. no alpha channel. The revised texture file is attached, and this is what it does to the rifle:


Next problem: the rifle uses model "LongRifle_C_back" by default, which means it's standing at an angle with no visible means of support. That should be easy enough to fix, at least in theory - change locator "randitem2" to rotate it 90 degrees and move it so that the rifle appears to be propped up in the corner.

 

[Grey Roger]

That should be easy enough to fix, at least in theory - change locator "randitem2" to rotate it 90 degrees and move it so that the rifle appears to be propped up in the corner.

... like this.


Attached is a modified version of "RESOURCE\MODELS\Locations\Incas Temple\Labirint\lab2_l_ccc.gm". That plus the texture file from the previous post should put a visible rifle neatly into the corner.

 

[Grey Roger]

And now the curse of "en3.tga.tx" does indeed strike. The rifle looks fine on the ground, then turns super shiny when I pick it up and equip it. This is the same problem that the "Woodes Rogers" tools had, so I applied the same dirty hack to the rifle as I did to the tools - hex-edit it to use "enX.tga.tx", which doesn't exist, so there's a message in "system.log" about a missing texture file but the rifle looks fine. Messages about missing texture files are slightly annoying but seem to be harmless, and anyway the crypt already spawns some such messages.