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|                      SL Tool  -  Version 1.4                        |
|                       By Mario "HCl" Brito                          |
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 --> Info on the new features

- Mouse mode

In previous versions of SLTool dragging the mouse in any view mode
except FreeView would move the currently selected attachment.
For this version, two more modes have been added: you can move
the currently selected component (type-1) or focus the view into
another part of the ship.



- Scaling

The new features under Scaling are "type-1 only" and "flames". If the
first is checked, clicking on "Larger" or "Smaller" will only scale the
selected component (type-1). The later will scale engine flames as 
well, may be useful for enlarging flames for capship use.



- Attachments

The "Copy" button simply creates a new attachment, equal to the one
that was selected. "Copy-Invert X" does the same as "Copy", except
it inverts the X coordinate, making it a nice mirror function (if
the ship is simmetrical, it'll be very useful). 

The "Nearest Position" button automatically places the attachment 
on top of the nearest polygon. If the "Rotate" checkbox is
checked, it will also be rotated, this will be useful for capship
turrets, missile hardpoints. Depending on if you're placing a 
gun or a gun object, you may or may not want to use this feature,
use common sense when deciding this.

The "Back" checkbox further rotates the object 180 degrees around
the Y axis. Useful, for example, to have a gun/gun obj/missile
mounting point facing back. For reverse thrust, depending on where
you're placing the reverse engine flames, most likely you'll NOT
want to have this checked.



- Components (type-1 objects)

The "Create Box" button creates a bounding box around the selected
component. This box will be used for capship collisions by the
game. "Clear Box(es)" will eliminate all the boxes associated
to the currently selected component.

The "Animation" button defines the animations for the selected
component. Each animation has a duration and at least one
animation frame. The angles and positions of each frame will
be interpolated through the time values, so you can create
any animation from a simple rotation to complex sequences of
translations and rotations. You can give any name to the
animation "Trigger". While the mission editor isn't out,
you'll want the animation to be already active, so name
the trigger "startup".

The "Delete" button deletes the currently selected attachment.

The "Merge SHP" button loads another SHP file into the already
loaded one. You can even load the same SHP file that's already
loaded to duplicate it's components.

The "Dummy Triangle" checkbox allows you to fix crashes when
entering the briefing room if the ship uses certain "glass"
effects, please refer to the MilkShape SHP Export plugin
for more information.

About the "Block13" and "Block14" checkboxes: capships typically
have one main body and numerous other components. If the capship
can die, these checkboxes must be checked on the capship main 
body.

Double clicking on the component also brings up a menu. There
you can change the name of the component, and set up several
other values, the most important of which probably are the
"Type" and "Damage points".



 --> Capship guidelines

You should pay careful attention to this, as i estimate this will be
the source of 99% of the head aches considering capship collisions.
A capship component MUST NOT have any intersecting polygons and MUST
be a closed object. In other words, capship components must be convex
or the StarLancer collision scheme will fail.

I have tested the Wing Commander TCS Midway and TCS Cerberus and these
ships work. Replacing original SL bounding boxes with my own also 
works, so if you find yourself flying through a capship check for 
intersecting polygons within the same component.

Unfortunately this means that most capships from the contest won't be
working unless they are converted to SHP format again, with a few
modifications (exporting with the MilkShape plugin and checking for
intersecting polys on each mesh)




Mario "HCl" Brito
mbrito@student.dei.uc.pt
mario_brito@clix.pt