SAAFOPS MODELING TUTORIAL
Adding your models to the Falcon4 database Part 1
So you have finally finished modelling, lodding and skinning your masterpiece Su-27 and you cant wait to see it fly in Falcon 4.0. There is no quick easy way to do this, but it is not as impossible a task as you might think. In this tutorial I want to basically show you how to insert/add a new model/record into the Falcon 4 Objects database.
This is really one of the steps required to achieve your goal, I will show you later how to add your new aircraft/ship/tank whatever to a unit/squadron and make it available in the campaign or as a flyable aircraft (ships can fly ???).
Enough yabba – lets get to the task ahead…
Tools Needed
- F4Browse – Falcon 4 database editor (written by Julian “Codec”).
- LODEditor – Falcon 4 LOD/database editor (written by Fred “BaldEagle”).
Part 1
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- Fire up LODEditor (LE), browse to your terrdata/objects folder for the KoreaObj.HDR file.
- File >> Open Model File…
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- Browse to your finished LOD model and open it
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- You will see this screen below next – pay special attention to the detail I highlighted in the red block (I always write this info down on a piece of paper or in a notepad file). This is basically telling you what the last known numbers in the database is – and makes it easier to locate your new entry later as you go along.
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- Click on the Edit LOD… button and you will see a screen similar to mine below.
- Under Utilities choose Model/Texture SetUp…
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- The next screen is exceptionally well laid out (ty Fred !!!). The steps are easy. So ..
- Choose Append/Select a Parent as our first step.
- In the Enter Data panel that pops up, just click ok (It defaults to -1 which means we want to add/append a new model to the DB)
- Click on OK
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- Do the same for Append/Select LOD… it will ask you to locate the LOD file of your model on your hard drive and after that some distance view information. Now I must admit, here I am a bit in the grey myself, so I type in 10000 and ok that.
- The distance data can be changed afterwards in anyway, so don’t worry too much about it for now.
- Click on Update Parent Record…
- Click on Add/Replace Texture(S)… and another browse screen pop ups which allows you to add whatever textures you have made for this model (CTRL click to select multiple textures)
- That is basically that – BUT BEFORE you click on Close – WRITE DOWN the new Parent ID and LOD Number assigned to you model. (I circled them in blue in the screen below)
That basically is it for the first part, you can close LE for now and fire up F4Browse whilst I go for a smoke break ….