_______________________________________________________________________________
\-----------------Logo by Osrevad. Contact Information Below.-----------------/
_____   _____   ____   ____            _            ____   ____   _____
|.----' |.---.\ |.---' |.---' ||       /.\   |\  || /,---' |.---' |.---.\
||___   |'---'| ||__   ||__   ||      // \\  |.\ || ||     ||__   |'---'|
|.---'  |.--.(  |.--'  |.--'  ||     ||___|| ||\\|| ||     |.--'  |.--.(
||      ||   \\ ||___  ||___  ||___  |.---.| || \'| ||___  ||___  ||   \\
`'      `'   `' '----' '----' '----' `'   `' `'  `' `----' '----' `'   `'
_______________________________________________________________________________
\-------Contact him on AIM: Nahuwe or Email: omohasiosrevad@hotmail.com-------/
Freelancer In-Depth Editing FAQ
Written by bartsimpsondude2000
Version 1.54 - Last Revised: 2-20-04:p
This document is Copyright 2003-2004 by Landon Fowles aka
bartsimpsondude2000
Latest revisions of this guide can be found at the following URL(s):
http://www.gamefaqs.com
===============================================================================
Legal Disclaimer
This document is Copyright 2003-2004 bartsimpsondude2000.  It may not be
reproduced nor retransmitted in any form without prior consent from the
authors.  It may not be altered, published, sold, given as an incentive to
buy, etc. without advance permission from the authors.  All outside sources
which have contributed to the making of this guide in some form have been
cited in the last section of the guide.
No one may put my Faq on their site except:
www.GameFAQs.com
www.NeoSeeker.com
Banned Sites:
www.cheatcc.com (for stealing everyone elses faq's it deserved an autoban)
===============================================================================
Table of Contents
I.  Introduction and Revision History
II.  About the Author
III.  Tutorials
- Cargo Sizes by Owning_Joo
- Creating New Hardpoints by CW
- How to edit the .thn script files by BobTheDog
- How to create new weapon effects by BobTheDog
- Hardpoints V.2 by Jackel
- Transparent Cockpit by Jackel
- How to change factions so you can be good to all but 1 by Reynen
- Making Energy Missiles  by Rolo2020
- System Building from scratch by giskard
- Texturing by harrier
- How To Make A Black Hole By Dracon
- How To Change The Starting Ship In Multiplayer by Captain Tylor
IV.  The Testing Process
V.  Tools and Programs
VI.  Frequently Asked Questions
VII.  Random Tips, Hints and Information
VIII.  Reader Emails
IX.  Contact Information
X.  Revisions
XI.  Document Information
To find something quickly:
1.Highlight the whole section name including roman numerals.
2.Press Control and C or right click and select copy.
3.Press Control and F.
4.Press Control and V.
5.Press Enter.
===============================================================================
I.  About the Author
Hi my name on the forums is bartsimpsondude2000. I had the idea for this
FAQ when I saw my favorite game had only 1 FAQ! I started to think about a
subject to work on and then it came to me. I asked everyone on Lancer's Reactor
if I could borrow some editing tutorials and they "stuck" my post on the board.
From then on I started creating this FAQ.
Ok My email is:  projecteclipsor (at) msn.com (anti-spam reasons)
Please, no spam, flames, but criticism is accepted as long as it is
constructive.
===============================================================================
II.  Tutorials
Here we are at the tutorials. I might need to tell you that Freelancer is one
of the most editable modern games in existence. I mean they just spilled its
guts into .ini files. They are compressed however, so you will need BiniQDU
(check the Tools and Programs section).
DO NOT USE THESE FOR AN ONLINE GAME!!! (Seriously, some might crash your
game, and others WILL get you kicked or banned! They do have a new FL version
of Punkbuster (not punkbuster but software with same purpose) that WILL detect
your edited inis!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Cargo Sizes  by owning_joo
First you open up your shiparch.ini. It should be in freelancer folder like
C:\program files\microsoft games\data\ships\shiparch.ini
I recommend using something like BiniQDU because you can search for words in
the .ini file.
To edit the cargo size of what ship you have to find out who makes it and what
class ship it is and the name.
Here is the ship thing for the Sabre. You go down through the list and find the
hold size part I put it in "s but dont put that in folder.
When you find the hold size just change it to what you want. I dont know if
there is any limit but highest cargo space I've edited to is 1 million.
[Ship
ids_name = 237012
ids_info = 66515
ids_info1 = 66516
ids_info2 = 66608
ids_info3 = 66517
ship_class = 3
nickname = bw_elite2
LODranges = 0, 75, 125, 1000
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_shiparch_borhf
mission_property = can_use_berths
type = FIGHTER
DA_archetype = ships\border_world\bw_vheavy_fighter\bw_vheavy_fighter.cmp
material_library = ships\border_world\bw_ships.mat
material_library = fx\envmapbasic.mat
envmap_material = envmapbasic
cockpit = cockpits\corsair\bw_elite2.ini
pilot_mesh = generic_pilot
nanobot_limit = 63
shield_battery_limit = 63
mass = 75.000000
"hold_size = 70"
linear_drag = 1.000000
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship01, 0.000000, 2700
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship02, 0.000000, 1350
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship03, 0.000000, 900
max_bank_angle = 30
camera_offset = 9, 33
camera_angular_acceleration = 0.060000
camera_horizontal_turn_angle = 20
camera_vertical_turn_up_angle = 10
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Creating New Hardpoints by CW
!!!Warning!!! If you arent a rocket scientist skip this section! j/k  but its
confusing.
This tutorial focuses on the rotatable weapon hardpoints but fixed ones like
engines and thrusters aren't that much different, except that they are missing
a few nodes.
Recommended Utilities:
HCl's UTF Editor
Tyson Schoepflin's BiniQDU v1.1
Preparation
--------------
The feedback I got is that a lot of people don't understand the coordinate
frames, especially in the Orientation section. I must emphasise that it is VERY
IMPORTANT for you to draw diagrams as you read along, otherwise you will have a
hard time trying to understand what I'm talking about!
To make a new weapon hardpoint, first find your ship's CMP file in
..\DATA\SHIPS\(your ship's fraction)\(your ship)\ . For example my Dromedary
freighter uses a file called bw_freighter.cmp under C:\Program
Files\Freelancer\DATA\SHIPS\BORDER_WORLD\BW_FREIGHTER\. Open the file with UTF
Editor and selected "float array" under "interpret data as...".
Using the same example again, if you explore the tree structure of the file
you will notice that the first level 'tree trunks' are mainly consisted of body
parts such as "bw_freighter_lod1030109103849.3db" (fuselage),
"bw_port_eng_lod1030109103849.3db" (left wing) and
"bw_star_wing_lod1030109103849.3db" (right wing). Under these trunks there are
branches called "Hardpoints" and further under them are sub-branches labeled
"Fixed" , where all the non-moving hardpoints are stored (ie thruster, mine
launcher, shield, running lights etc.), and "Revolute" , where all the gun,
missile, torpedo/cruise disrupter and turret hardpoints are stored. You can add
hardpoints to any body parts, but I've heard that it is a really bad idea to
add hardpoints to the bay doors due to a game stability issue.
Find the right fuselage part tree trunk that you intend to mount your new
hardpoint on, select the "Revolute" sub-branch under it and click "Add node".
Rename the new node "HpWeaponXX" for gun/missile mounts; "HpTorpedoXX" for
torpedo/cruise disrupter; or "HpTurretXX" for turrets, where XX is the next
vacant mount number (if your ship has 4 guns originally, then the next gun slot
would be "HpWeapon05". Same goes for torpedo and turret hardpoints). Create 5
more nodes under this new node, and rename them "Axis" , "Max" , "Min" ,
"Orientation" , and "Position" .
Axis
-----
Select "Axis" and click Edit. I've done some experiments to find out what this
node does, but I was not able to alter the behaviour of a weapon with it and
strangely a hardpoint would work just fine with this node incomplete or even
missing. For all practical purposes this node does nothing but for the sake of
completeness just add it in and assign it the following values, which are
standard for all rotatable hardpoints:
0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
Max & Min
------------
These two nodes defines how much the weapon can rotate sideway ("sideway"
refers to the weapon, not the fuselage). If you look at an existing hardpoint,
you will notice that these two nodes have 2 elements each. The number at the
top defines the rotation limit in radians, while the number at the bottom seems
to be 0.000000 all the time. "Max" is used to define the limit to the left and
has a positive value; while "Min" is used to define the limit to the right and
takes a negative number. To make a weapon that doesn't have a rotation limit,
enter 6.283185 (=2*pi) in "Max" , and -6.283185 in "Min" , remember to put in
0.000000 for the second row.
A quick summary:
Max node = Left, Positive
Min node = Right, Negative
EXAMPLE 1: A gun with rotation limit of 30 degrees (0.523599 radians) to the
LEFT, and 40 degrees (0.698132 radians) to the RIGHT.
The Max node would be:
0.523599
0.000000
And the Min node would be:
-0.698132
0.000000
EXAMPLE 2: A turret that can rotate freely.
The Max node would be:
6.283185
0.000000
And the Min node would be:
-6.283185
0.000000
There is a way to alter the weapons' firing cones without making them
rotatable, or allow them to shoot over a wider arch than they can point their
muzzles to. This may be useful for those of you who are planning to build your
new ship around some fixed mammoth killer cannon. You can alter the following
setting in Constants.ini , which is located directly under Freelancer's Data
directory:
MUZZLE_CONE_ANGLE = 10
Note that the number is in degrees, also this setting will affect every weapon
on everybody's ships in the game. The guns in Freelancer won't shoot unless
your cursor is within their firing cone, so if you set the number too small
your weapons may sometimes seemingly refuse to fire when you maneuver too much,
especially for your fixed killer cannon.
Position
----------
Each part of the fuselage has its own coordinate frame with the same
orientation. The orientation is as follow (DRAW A DIAGRAM NOW):
Positive X: to the right
Positive Y: up
Positive Z: to the rear
Depending on which fuselage part you assign a weapon to, the Position entry is
referenced to that fuselage part's own coordinate frame. Look at the existing
hardpoints and guess some values for now, we will come back to it at the end.
Orientation - The Direct Approach
-----------------------------------------
This is the hard part that needs some vector mathematics. Each mountable
weapon has its own coordinate frame and if they are to align with the Fuselage
Coordinate Frame, ie, having their X,Y,Z axes facing the same directions, then
the gun barrel has to be pointing FORWARD with the mounting point facing DOWN.
DRAW A SEPERATED DIAGRAM OF THE WEAPON AND ITS COORDINATE FRAME NOW.
And here is the complication, the 9 elements in "Orientation" map the
Fuselage's Coordinate Frame to the Weapon's Coordinate Frame (ie, describe
where each of the Fuselage Coordinate Frame's axes are pointing on the Weapon's
Coordinate Frame). The first 3 numbers form the 3D vector for the Fuselage
Coordinate Frame's X axis, the second 3 for Y, and the last 3 for Z.
EXAMPLE 1: A gun mounted on the TOP of the fuselage facing FORWARD.
* The fuselage's X axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's X axis,
so the first 3 elements are 1,0,0.
* The fuselage's Y axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's Y axis,
so the next 3 elements are 0,1,0.
* The fuselage's Z axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's Z axis,
so the last 3 elements are 0,0,1.
Sum it all up, the entry for the gun's orientation would be:
1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
* This is the "aligned" orientation - the three axes of the Fuselage's
Coordinate Frame are aligned with the Weapon's Coordinate Frame's three
corresponding axes.
EXAMPLE 2: A gun mounted on the RIGHT side of the fuselage facing FORWARD.
* The fuselage's X axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's Y axis,
so the first 3 elements are 0,1,0.
* The fuselage's Y axis is pointing to the exact opposite direction as the
gun's X axis, so the next 3 elements are -1,0,0.
* The fuselage's Z axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's Z axis,
so the last 3 elements are 0,0,1
Sum it all up, the entry for the gun's Orientation would be:
0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
EXAMPLE 3: A turret mounted UNDER the fuselage facing to the REAR.
* The fuselage's X axis is pointing to the same direction as the turret's X
axis, so the first 3 elements are 1,0,0.
* The fuselage's Y axis is pointing to the exact opposite direction as the
turret's Y axis, so the next 3 elements are 0,-1,0.
* The fuselage's Z axis is pointing to the exact opposite direction as the
turret's Z axis, so the last 3 elements are 0,0,-1
Sum it all up, the entry for the turret's Orientation would be:
1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
EXAMPLE 4: A gun mounted on a 45 degrees slope (the slope faces the morning
sun) on the RIGHT side of the fuselage facing FORWARD. I will stick to the unit
vector principle (keeping the hypotenuse = 1) for less confusion.
* The fuselage's X axis can be described as y=x on the gun's coordinate frame,
so the first 3 elements are 0.707107,0.707107,0. (Remembering 0.707107^2 +
0.707107^2=1^2 from trigonometry; alternatively you can forget about the unit
vector principle and use 1,1,0 instead, but it might get confusing if you have
any angles other than 45 degrees.)
* The fuselage's Y axis can be described as y=-x on the gun's coordinate
frame, so the next 3 elements are -0.707107,0.707107,0.
* The fuselage's Z axis is pointing to the same direction as the gun's Z axis,
so the last 3 elements are 0,0,1.
Sum it all up, the entry for the gun's Orientation would be:
0.707107
0.707107
0.000000
-0.707107
0.707107
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000
If you screw up the orientation matrix, the weapon you mount on the new
hardpoint will appear somewhat transparent in the ship dealer, and will
malfunction in flight.
And if you really want it here you go:
Orientation - The Smart Aerospace Engineer's Approach
--------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are trying to mount your hardpoints on some odd-facing surfaces, it
will kill a lot of your brain cells trying to come up with the orientation
matrix directly.  In this case we need to use a little bit more maths to save
us the trouble. Make sure you know how to do matrix multiplication, else look
up here for a quick (5 minutes) but sufficient primer.
What we are going to do here is taking a different approach by breaking the
problem down into 3 easier to manage questions:
1) Starting from the "Aligned Orientation", how much in radians do I want to
rotate the weapon around its X-axis?
2) How much in radians do I want to rotate the weapon around its Y-axis?
3) How much in radians do I want to rotate the weapon around its Z-axis?
("Aligned orientation": Recalling that if the Weapon's Coordinate Frame is to
be aligned with the Fuselage's Coordinate Frame, then the gun barrel has to be
pointing FORWARD with the mounting point facing DOWN.)
We are going to use this ugly looking formula 3 times, each for the X,Y and Z
axes respectively:
Where,
* {u1;v1;w1} is the Fuselage's Coordinate Frame axis you are trying to
transform. The Freelancer game engine wants the transformation of all three
axes (hence 9 elements), so in this case use the formula 3 times, once for
{1;0;0} (ie. the X-axis), once for {0;1;0} (ie. the Y-axis), and once for
{0;0;1} (ie. the Z-axis).
* {u;v;w} is the resulting transformed axis that forms the elements in the
orientation matrix.
* Phi (that circle with a stroke through it) stands for the rotation you want
around the X-axis (ie. pitch).
* Theta stands for the rotation you want around the Y-axis (ie. yaw).
* Psi (that trident-like symbol) is the rotation you want around the Z-axis
(ie. roll).
Whether the rotation is positive or negative is defined by the "Right Hand
Rule". Hold up your right fist and stick up your thumb, if your thumb points
towards the positive direction of the axis, then your other fingers signifies
the positive direction of rotation around it.
To get your orientation matrix, follow these steps:
1) Figure out what Phi, Theta, Psi values you want, plug them into the formula.
2) Replace {u1; v1; w1} with {1, 0, 0}.
3) Solve the equation to get {u; v ;w}, that's the first 3 elements in the
orientation matrix.
4) Replace {u1; v1; w1} with {0, 1, 0}.
5) Solve again, that's the middle 3 elements in the orientation matrix.
4) Replace {u1; v1; w1} with {0, 0, 1}.
5) Solve once more, that's the last 3 elements in the orientation matrix.
6) Put your orientation matrix into UTF editor and try it out in the game, if
you don't like the result, go back to step 1.
It is definitely much less tedious if you get some computational maths package
to do the calculations for you.
Activating The Hardpoint
-------------------------------
That's it for orientation and the new hardpoint is now fully defined. The next
step is to enable it in shiparch.ini which is located in ..\DATA\SHIPS\ . But
before you do that, look up here for the unique ID number of your ship. Once
you have the ID number, open shiparch.ini with BiniQDU and find your ship. If
you created a gun hardpoint, find the lines starting with "hp_type =
hp_gun_special_X, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, ..." and add your new hardpoint to
the end of each line. Notice that X stands for the class of guns, so if you
want your new hardpoint to take every gun in the game, add it to the back of
all 10 lines. Unless you are modding the Eagle, Titan or Sabre, which take
class 10 guns and missiles by default, you will need to add the missing lines
for the higher classes. Just follow the pattern. Same goes for torpedos/cruise
disrupters and turrets, under the lines "hp_type = hp_torpedo_special_X, ..."
(there are 2 classes of torpedos/cruise disrupters) and "hp_type =
hp_turret_special_X, ..." (10 classes) respectively.
Remember to save your work. The last step would be to run the game, put a
weapon on your new hardpoint and see where it goes, then come back to refine
the hardpoint's position.
That's it for adding hardpoints! Enjoy your overloaded super gunship!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
How to edit the .thn script files by BobTheDog
Part 1
Ok, so ya want to edit a script, right? well, today we're gonna focus on the
main menu background, the one with the station in front of a planet with the
ships and transports flying across.
First off, you need the .thn uncompiler, BiniQDU, and the UTF Editor
Both of which can be found in the Tools and Programs Section
Now, once you have those, go into DATA\SCRIPTS\INTRO and copy gasminer3.thn to
wherever you unzipped the .thn decompiler to. decompile it and open it up with
notepad.
Now, you are probably going "What's this? this isn't Freelancer coding!" and
you'd be right. It's scripted in LUA code. But it's fairly straightforward,
especially if ya know C++ or something like it.
I'm not entirely sure what time unit is used in these, so just leave them
alone for now.
Part 2
Ok, now every FL script (to my knowledge) begins with a duration declaration,
and then a scene entity, and ya can just copy those if ya make a new script.
here's how things work in FL scripts:
Everything has to be declared. You can only use things from solararch.ini,
shiparch.ini, effects.ini, and the starspheres and nebulaspheres.
so, here's how to declare a ship:
{
entity_name="Ships_li_dreadnought",