B-Cad will not
allow you to save 3DS files but will give you good start
with 3D modeling so that you will understand how to
modify the boat files with the one of the popular
programs 3D studio or 3D studio Max.
Step Two:
Then extract the
boat source file into an empty directory of your choice,
inside it you will see the following files:
The "new_boat"
directory is where the files for the new boat will be
placed.
The "source"
directory is where the original 3DS files are found.
The "conv3ds.exe"
file is a standard converter made my Microsoft for
converting 3DS files into X files used in VS.
The "make.bat"
is a small batch file to convert the files in the source
directory and place them into the new_boat directory.
Step Three:
Run the make.bat
and let it convert the 3DS files into X files for the new
boat.
After the batch
has completed examine the contents of the new_boat
directory:
As you can see the
directory containes now the Boat.cfg file, the texture
files and the X files used for the boat, there are also
two sounds of the engine and waves that will be used for
the boat sounds instead of the default ones.
Step Four:
Copy the new_boat
directory into the Virtual Sailor\Boats directory, run
Virtual Sailor and select the new_boat.
As you can see the
boat was made very similar to the default sailboat , now
apply some engine and you will hear a different engine
sound, also note a different panel and a different wave
sound.
So far we have
seen how to use and convert the files in the sample, and
also how we can use a customized panel bitmaps and boat
sounds.
Step Five:
Now we will
examine the Boat.cfg file and it's relation to the X
files we have just created.
Open the Boat.cfg
of the boat you have made with Notepad or any other text
editor, and examine the parmeters of the helm location:
As you can see the
helm is located at Y = 8.0 and Z = -18.5
Now open the boat.3ds
file with your 3D program such as B-Cad mentioned above.
As we can see, the
location of Z = -18.5 and Y = 8.0 is the location of the
helm in the boat's model coordinates, so the helm.x file
is simply positioned where the helm of the boat should be
placed inside the boat model.
Now if we wanted
for example to move the helm to the unlikely position of
the cabin entry it would have the cooridinates of Z = -14.5
and Y = 8.5 as wee see in the model.
Now change these
values in the boat.cfg and save it into the new_boat of
Virtual Sailor.
Run Virtual Sailor
and select the new boat, now you can see that the helm
has indeed moved to the cabin entry.
In this step we
have seen how moving parts are positioned in the boat
according to the values in the boat.cfg file, now we will
show how orientations of these parts are being used in
the program.
Step Six:
Open the boat.cfg
file and examine the orientation parameters of the jib
sail : Sails_dx , Sails_dy, Sails_dz , Sails_ux, Sails_uy,
Sails_uz.
Here we have for
the jib sail :
sails_dx = 0.0
sails_dy = 0.405
sails_dz = 0.915
sails_ux = 0.0
sails_uy = 0.915
sails_uz = -0.405
These numbers
represent the vectors that define the direction axis and
the up axis of the jib sail, as we can see in the
following diagram a direction of ( 0, 0, 1) is pointing
in the Z axis direction , and an up axis of ( 0, 1, 0)
will point at the y axis.
So if we change
these values to:
sails_dx = 0.0
sails_dy = 0.0
sails_dz = 1.0
sails_ux = 0.0
sails_uy = 1.0
sails_uz = 0.0
Then then jib will
be oriented just like the main mast and will pivot around
a vertical axis.
Now change these
values in the boat.cfg file and save it into the new_boat
of the Virtual Sailor.
Run Virtual Sailor
and select the new boat, examine the chaneg that has
occured in the jib's orientation.
So far we have
seen how to position and how to orient the moving parts
in the boat, some parts are not moving but have special
functions, these are discussed in the next step.
Step Seven:
Open the lights.3ds
file with your 3D program such as B-Cad mentioned above.
You will see a
very simple object made of three spheres, a red sphere, a
green sphere and a white sphere.
These spheres are
placed in the exact position where you want the lights to
show on your boat, they will not be lit by the sunlight
or moonlight as the rest of the boat but will glow always
as if they were real lights.
This can be seen
when you examine the boat in Virtual Sailor:
If you want to
make the lights acoording to the International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea these
lights should be built according to the following diagram:
In the next step a
few tips will be given how to create the boat and all
parts for it.
Step Eight:
So by now you must
be asking "how do i create a whole boat ?", the
answer is simple: create the whole boat in a single file,
place each part in it's correct location and then take
each of the components of the boat and save it as an
individual file and remove it from the boat file.
The steps for
creating the whole boat should look somethign like that:
1) Assemble the
whole boat into a single file with all parts in place.
2) Seperate the
Helm, Rudder, Main sail , Jib and Spinnaker and place
each of them in a seperate file so that the center of
rotation will be at (0,0,0) .
3) Save all the
seperate files as described in the boat structure, and
save the boat without the moving parts in the boat file.
4) Now run the
Make.bat with the conv3ds.exe converter to convert these
files into x files.
5) Use an existing
copy of the boat.cfg as atemplate and fill in the values
of positions and orientations of the moving parts,
measure those locations in the file of the assembly of
the whole boat.
6) Place the
bridge position to the place you want the pilot to be,
usually in front of the helm.
7) Copy all the
files into an empty directory and put it inside the boats
directory of Virtual Sailor, test the new boat and adjust
positions as necessary.
8) Set the
physical parameters of the new boat and test the boat's
handling.
Conclusion:
Creating a new
boat is not difficult but a certain knowledge of 3D
modeling is required, and ofcourse a good 3D modeling
program.
Find a good 3D
program and learn how to use it, once you have gained
confidence try to start with the sample files attached
and modify them, set new positions and orientations and
even change the textures.
Once you feel
confident, start creating your new design or adapt one of
the exisiting ones found on the web.
If your boat looks
good, please contribute it to this site so other users
can enjoy it and boat selection will increase.
