[help] Where can I learn about materials?

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Hey, where can I find information about how materials work in BF2? Say, if I want to make X place of X vehicle invincible to X projectile, where can I tweak that, where can I learn it?

Thanks.

[Rhino]

Isn't much documentation per se.

About defining mats on a col mesh and assigning material id to those defined areas there is a bit, best one is possibly this tut, although its for statics, it all still applies to vehicles etc:
Read: Step 5: Collision Meshes (COLs) & Step 7: Coding - Materials:
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... cture.html

About making new or modifying Material IDs, ie, how much a bullet damages this material, or what sound/effect it plays when this bullet hits this material etc, there isn't much documentation but isn't too hard to work it out if you look into it.

[Pvt.LHeureux]

I wish BF2 modding was easier.. Like, click on the part of your vehicle that you want to assign a new material to with a 3D model display > assign it > press [enter] to go in soldier mode > select X weapon and shoot > then you see if it works.

Nope, instead it's all .txt file changes instead of user friendly programms with interfaces.

[Mineral]

Isnt there a material editor in bf2editor? And assiging new materials is also very easy to do in the editor. Dont think you need to work on many textfiles when doing work on materials. Never really done a lot of it myself tho.

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Yeah I'm looking at it right now, it looks quite easy. I can create a new projectile easily and a new armor rating

[Rhino]

I wish BF2 modding was easier.. Like, click on the part of your vehicle that you want to assign a new material to with a 3D model display > assign it > press [enter] to go in soldier mode > select X weapon and shoot > then you see if it works.

Well, it is kinda that easy, if you have the orignal export of the vehicle and you know excatly what your doing

Isnt there a material editor in bf2editor?

There is but never used it, don't know anyone who dose use it and wouldn't recommend using it either.

However inside of \pr\common\Material\ there two .exes:
MaterialEditor.exe - good program for changing properties of existing materials with a simple UI, but you need to know what your doing.
BF2_MatManTool.exe - good tool for making a new material by cloning and existing material, but doesn't do much more than that.

And assiging new materials is also very easy to do in the editor. Dont think you need to work on many textfiles when doing work on materials. Never really done a lot of it myself tho.

Wouldn't use the editor for changing the material on any vehicles etc, as saving changes with the editor will most likely delete a load of code you need for the vehicle to work correctly ingame. However can merge the changes with the editor or better yet, just changing the material IDs manually using the editor as a ref. Most statics are ok but the editor dose have the tendency to remove some of the lod switching distance code and possibly other things so would also edit them manually too.

[Pvt.LHeureux]

I used those programs Rhino, it seems to work, but now, how can I locate the material's locations? I mean, where does our PR_ww2_repo will take the new materials from?

I can't seem to locate where the materials are stored, their folder.

I guess I'll have to try and fail untill I get it lol.

[Mineral]

Ow yeah, I can see. cheers Can you become a professor at my faculty rhino? You explain things 10x better then most of my professors lol.

[Rhino]

I used those programs Rhino, it seems to work, but now, how can I locate the material's locations? I mean, where does our PR_ww2_repo will take the new materials from?

I can't seem to locate where the materials are stored, their folder.

I guess I'll have to try and fail untill I get it lol.

\common\Material\ materialManagerDefine.con and materialManagerSettings.con

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Ok got it working, thanks Rhino. I'm using BF2_MatManTool.exe to copy a material's properties to a new one. Then using MaterialEditor.exe I can assign what my new material does to X material

Both can be found in /mods/PR (or PR_edit)/Common_server.zip/material/

I use the BF2 Editor object editor as a ref like you said.

[Rhino]

BTW if there is any confusion, I take it you mean "I use the BF2 Editor object (not material) editor as a ref like you said." since the BF2 Editor's, Material Editor is something different from the Object Editor where you define the materials the object uses.

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Oh yeah, that's what I meant, edited.