List of important modding threads, and a sort of FAQ. Options

[imtheheadhunter]

This is a list of some of the more important modding threads. If you know of other threads that should be added/removed, don't be afraid to help out, so post them!

This thread is NOT for asking modding questions in!

AI/bots
AiTemplates for dummies
Valid way-points showing red
BF2 Landing Zones
Bot accuracy?
Infantry maxSlope, inclines, and stairs, for bots (and humans)
A col3 question, How is it used exactly...
Aimesh, col3 and bots
Bot abilities/vulnerabilties
Kystrama's AI/Navmesh tutorial*link is dead, I'm leaving it incase it ever comes back to life*
A list of AI tutorials in .PDF (including kyst's dead navmeshing tut)
AI weapons accuracy/targeting/misc info

How do I keep bots from using a vehicle? - Answer, You'll need to edit the "objects/vehicles/(air,land,sea)/(name-of-vehicle)/objects.ai" file for the vehicle, and edit the line "aiTemplate.basicTemp #", and change the number to 0. Some times there's a spawn point that spawns the bot into the vehicle, you'll need to edit the map to get rid of those.

How would I get bots to man and stay on stationary weapons? - Answer, Try increasing the temperature for the weapon in the "aiTemplate.basicTemp #" line in the object.ai file.

How to stop Commander Spam? - Answer, One of the uncapable flags in the map was 2-way neighbored. The rule for neighboring uncapable flags is you 1 way neighbor the other flag to the uncap. It's useful to remember, "My neighbor comes to me" when neighboring SA.

How to stop Bot's grenade spam? - Answer, go into the "objects/weapons/handheld/(name of weapon)/AI/weapons.ai file", and change the line "weaponTemplate.setStrength Infantry #". Set the number to 0, and they wont spam grenades again.

How can I generate just the infantry, or vehicle navmesh? - Answer, In the /battlefield2/navmesh/navmeshControl.py file, Change the "modes = [ "Infantry", "Vehicle"]" line, and delete either the "infantry", or "vehicle" part, depending on which mesh you want gened.

How can I disable bots attacking with defibrillator? - Answer, To stop or decrease the Medic bots from attacking the enemy with the defibrillator versus using their knife during a melee you need to do the following: 1. Edit the weapons.ai file for both the knife and the defibrillator, 2. Reverse the weaponTemplate.setStrengths from the defibrillator to the knife. For example: weaponTemplate.setStrength Infantry 5.0 (Knife) weaponTemplate.setStrength Infantry 3.0 (Defibrillator).

The AI commander won't use the arty or supply drop - Answer, This is caused by a bug in the 1.5 patch for BF2. Only way to fix it is to go back to v1.41, there is nothing else you can do.

Mapping
Non 16-32-64 player sizes
Adding custom content into a map
Changing flags in bf2
Getting rid of the arty

I have added some stationary weapons to my map, I am able to enter them, but not exit them - Answer, You need to move the weapon higher up, it's probably too low.....the exit for the weapon is blocked by something.

How do I open an existing map in the editor? I get a "can't find init.con" error! - Answer, You Need to unzip the client.zip and server.zip for the map, into the map's folder. You should end up with a path like this, "..../levels/(map name)/init.con" NOT "..../levels/(map name)/server/init.con"

I see text in the water. - Answer, You need to disable the autoload of the singleplayer plugin and quit/restart the editor. Then re-do your envmaps.

How can I make a flag have multiple spawn locations? - Answer, in the editor, select a spawn point, then in the tweaker bar change the group number.

How do I add a custom sky to my map? - Answer, You need to put the sky texture, saved as a 2048x512 .dds file, into the client.zip, then in the sky.con, change the line "Skydome.skyTexture levels/(name-of-map)/(name-of-sky-texture)" to point to your new sky. Then go and change the other sky settings to match your new sky.

How to increase the view distance? - Answer, To change the view distance in a map, there are 2 main controls. The "GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance ###" in the init.con in the map's server.zip, and the "Renderer.fogStartEndAndBase #/#/#/#" line in the sky.con, which is also in the map's server.zip.

HUD/camera
Create a custom hand weapon selection icon

How do I change where the 3rd person camera is? - Answer, you need to change the settings in the lines, "ObjectTemplate.chaseDistance #", "ObjectTemplate.chaseAngle #", and "ObjectTemplate.chaseOffset #/#/#" in the camera's template in the vehicle's .tweak file.

I moved a weapon/vehicle from one mod to another, and the HUD files won't work?! - Answer, You need to save the HUD pics as .DDS files, the game will not read .tga files. Also, see below....

What are the proper file format settings for HUD pics? - Answer, You need to save the HUD pics as an "ARGB 8.8.8.8 with no mipmaps".DDS file. You could also rename the file from .tga to .DDS, however this can cause problems.

How do I change which camera views are available in a vehicle? - Answer, In the camera's template in the vehicle's .tweak file, you can use the lines, "ObjectTemplate.CVMNose #, ObjectTemplate.CVMChase #, ObjectTemplate.CVMFrontChase #, ObjectTemplate.CVMFlyBy #" to turn on/off the different camera views. 1 = on, 0 = off.

Skins/Textures/Sounds
Soldier re-skinning (Image heavy), A method for retaining better details
How to use custom skins
Having different skins for cloned objects
Shaderwrapper, a handy tool for changing texture paths for an object
Editing Texture OS files with Gimp
Remove Commander/SL Radio Spam

How do I convert music/sounds to BF2's .ogg file format? / my .ogg files wont work! - Answer, you need to download the BF2 Sound Tools. Then save your sound as a .wav file, and drag/drop your sound file onto the "oggenc.exe". That will create a .ogg file that BF2 can use.

Weapon sound not playing or looping correctly? - Answer you need to set region markers in the sound file and make sure the sound template is setup correctly

How do I increase the distance that a gunshot can be heard? - Answer, you will find the 2 lines in the 3p firing sound area of the weapon's .tweak file. "ObjectTemplate.minDistance #" and "ObjectTemplate.halfVolumeDistance #" Change those numbers to what you want, like, min 15, max 30.

I edited a skin, and now it's very shiny - Answer, You lost the alpha channel for the texture. The alpha channel controls how shiny a texture is, white = shiny, black = dull. You'll have to put the original alpha back into the texture, or make a new one, and resave the texture as "DTX5, ARGB, 8 bpp, | interpolated alpha", with mipmaps set to "all".

What are the proper file format settings for ground textures? - Answer, For colormap textures, you need to create a "512x512, 8.8.8.8 ARGB with no MIP-maps".DDS texture. For detail texture, you need to create a "512x512, DXT1 RGB no alpha, with MIP-maps set to "all".DDS texture.(I'm not sure about the detail texture settings. If I'm wrong, correct me!)

Weapons/vehicles/kits
Hand Weapon/Kit modding for beginners
Using SF weapons in your BF2 kits
Weapon/Kit Cheat Sheet, weapon indices
Cloning, renaming weapons, Easing restrictions for weapons and Item Index numbers.
Tracers, what does what?
How to change the "ROF" of your firing sound
Making weapons animations play faster
Weapons accuracy, explained
"Borrowing" weapons from other mods
How do I install a new Handweapon?
How to clone a weapon
Changing aircraft speed
Vehcile engine settings explained
Changing Vehicle spawns in maps/Editing kits.
Adding rockets, bombs and missiles to vehicles in the editor
Adding rockets,bombs and missiles without the editor
Adding music to vehicles in AIX.
PCOs only for AI
How do I make vehicles mobile spawn points?
How to create custom Pickup Kits
How to create your own item select icon

I edited a weapon/vehicle, and now there are no projectiles/it won't fire - Answer, You need to make sure the weapon is properly setup to use a projectile that exists.

How do you edit the rate of fire of a weapon? - Answer, In the weapon's template in the .tweak file for the weapon or vehicle, this line "ObjectTemplate.fire.roundsPerMinute #" controls the ROF. *note* the RPM MUST be divisible by 1800(the frames per min the physics engine runs at). If it's not, the game will automatically round the number up. Example, if you try to use 550 RPM, the game will use 600 instead.

How can I make it take longer to make a weapon overheat? - Answer, the 2 lines, "ObjectTemplate.heatAddWhenFire #" and "ObjectTemplate.coolDownPerSec #" control the overheating.

The dummy projectiles on my vehicle don't reappear after the weapon reloads - Answer, You need to give the weapon 2 or more mags for the dummy projectiles to reappear.

How do I get the ejected shells to stay longer? - Answer, the empty shell effects are in "objects_server.zip/effects/weapons/shellejections/geometry/" folder. Open one of them, and change the line "ObjectTemplate.timeToLive CRD_UNIFORM/#/#/#" to change how long it lives.

Other/misc
Porting mod items to other mods., Why make your life a whole lot harder?
Bullet Penetration
Bugs/Fixes/and other findings (cool code edits) for BF2
How do I change a team name (for adding a new army)?

How do I make dead bodies/vehicle wrecks stay longer? - Answer, Edit the "TimeStayAsWreck #" in the .tweak file for what ever it is. -1 will make it stay forever.

How do I remove the "Need Players to start" message? - Answer, Edit the "My Documents/Battlefield2/Profiles/(profile)/ServerSettings.con". Edit the line "sv.numPlayersNeededToStart #" line to have a 1. It might be a good idea to mark the file as "read only" when your done.

How do I make soldiers walk/run faster? - Answer, edit the file, "Objects\soldiers\Common\Common.con". The "phy-soldier-speed-factor #" line controls the walk/run speed. You can change jump height, and several other things in this file. There are other movement related settings in the "objects/soldiers/(team-name)/(soldier-name).con"

I've added more than 9 weapons/items to a kit, and now I get random CTD? - Answer, There is no known fix.



...want more threads linked to? Then post them!

[GroovyDawg]

Converting music to BF2's ogg. For use with loading music, and in-game vehicle music.
Download the BF2 Sound Tools. http://files.filefront.com/BF2+Sound+Tools...;/fileinfo.html

The instructions inside are complicated, but here's a breakdown.

1. Convert your soundfile to a .wav.
2. Move it into the BF2 Sound Tools folder.
3. Rename your .wav file to us_win.wav
4. Run Compile_ogg_for_BF2.bat
5. Boom you have your .ogg made for BF2.

Adding music to vehicles.

How to make your own selection icons. [This thread includes the already rendered AIX selection icons for downloading]

[red.murder1]

Adding rockets, bombs and missiles to vehicles in the editor
Adding rockets,bombs and missiles without the editor

[imtheheadhunter]

1. Convert your soundfile to a .wav.
2. Move it into the BF2 Sound Tools folder.
3. Rename your .wav file to us_win.wav
4. Run Compile_ogg_for_BF2.bat
5. Boom you have your .ogg made for BF2.

Actually, all you really need to do is save the sound as .wav, then drag/drop it onto the oggenc.exe... it's much simpler/faster that way.

[Cold Fussion]

You have a lot of work ahead of you because all of the really good information is from before 2007 when powerpoker and outsider were contributing to solving the ai mysteries and questions we all had.

[imtheheadhunter]

You have a lot of work ahead of you

Correction, WE, We have a lot of work ahead of us. I shouldn't do it alone.... The list of threads will be much better if it wasn't only 1 persons opinion on what is/isn't worth listing. Like I said, "If you know of other threads that should be added/removed from the list, don't be afraid to help out, so post them!".

[imtheheadhunter]

After who knows how many hours, I'm finally done!

So once again I ask, any more threads that should be added/removed? Or should the list be organized differently?

[red.murder1]

You may want to have something in there about porting SF content to BF2

[ShellShocked]

Thank you for putting together this resource. Much appreciated.

[Outlawz]

Adding rockets, bombs and missiles to vehicles in the editor
Adding rockets,bombs and missiles without the editor

Bumpy, the links are broken.

[Death_EnForcer]

red.murder1 links don't work, but the sticky links work.

Adding weapons with the Editor.

Adding weapons without the editor.

[izr]

nice job sir !!! it's really helpful

[MasterChiefRulZ]

Changing the ROF (Rate Of Fire) for your weapons. Sure it's simple but some people just need to know, m'kay?

Clicky.

[imtheheadhunter]

Added, and sorted the thread links into categories so they are easier to look though also.

[MasterChiefRulZ]

You misspelled 'maping'.

Spelled like that it looks like it sounds like Mapeing.